The Best Director

Chapter 398: Chapter 398: Actually, She’s Not That Cool (Seeking Monthly Pass)

“Guys, places… ACTION!”

On the streets of San Francisco, under the bright summer sunshine, the film information “(500)-Days-of-Summer, FLAMES, DATE: 2005-8-12, DIRECTOR: YOUNG-WANG, CAMERAMAN: HARRY-GEORGE” and the scene information “SCENE: 1, CUT: 1; TAKE: 1, ROLL: 1-1” glittered on the electronic clapperboard, glowing with the detailed timecode. With the clap of the clapperboard and the director’s loud shout, “500 Days of Summer” officially started filming!

The week of August 5th to 11th had passed, and the new movie “Vanguard of Justice” ended its first week continuing the weekend’s downward trend, with only $29.76 million box office from 3,785 theaters, far below expectations. But now, Warner Brothers was in a mood of jubilation. With the magical Wang Yang, both “The Moment of Warfare” and “Vanguard of Justice” would turn into “Firefly,” and whether it’s box office poison Jessica Bell or Jessica Simpson, they would all become Jessica Alba! It should be noted that since 1999, the latter’s six films had an average global box office of over 500 million US dollars.

This week there was a good example of the “magical halo effect,” with the box office poisons John Woo and Halle Berry making a splendid comeback! After winning the weekend box office, “Assassin’s Creed” smoothly claimed the weekly crown, averaging $17,745 USD per theater in 3,105 theaters, accumulating a total of $55.1 million in North America, earning Flame another summer crown.

Flame Films released three films this summer, all bearing the title of North American weekly champion, with “Firefly” even achieving four!

Thanks to the injured charm of Wang Yang, the space cowboys of “Firefly” continued their miraculous performance into the eighth week, with the box office taking advantage of the situation with a -17% drop, $4,962 USD average per theater in 2,650 theaters, sweeping away another 13.15 million US dollars! The total North American box office rose to 628.97 million. After adjusting for inflation, its ranking in North American box office history climbed another place, overtaking “Benure” (1959) by a slim thousand-dollar margin to reach 13th place, closely approaching 12th place holder “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), with a gap of only over a million current value US dollars.

As for the international market, excluding Japan’s box office, it couldn’t maintain the momentum driven by “Wang Yang is on his deathbed,” with the box office trend returning to a normal 65.3% decrease, with only $10.6698 million taken in; however, the powerhouse of Japan continued its explosion, with “Firefly” taking in another $35.69 million (4.016 billion yen) this week. The box office trend saw a slight decrease of -27.69%, with the total Japanese box office rising to $85.05 million (95.69 billion yen)! And the total international box office reached 1.02766 billion.

1.65663 billion worldwide box office! That was the glorious result of “Firefly” after 56 days of battling on Earth! In the coming weeks and months, it will continue to expand this box office figure.

This summer was soon to pass, and this week, the North American film market witnessed the addition of four new films joining the final wave of releases, including “Four Brothers,” “The Skeleton Key,” “The Stepford Husbands 2,” and “The Big Raid.”

“ACTION!” Another SUMMER had just begun, and the clapperboard numbers climbed from 1 to 2 to 3 and then all the way to 36. Filming on the first day of production was progressing smoothly that morning. Despite Wang Yang’s injuring himself on the battlefield and the super-fast operations, it seemed to have no effect, of course, there were NGs along the way. It was nearly lunchtime now, and the record for takes was up to 7. If it had been bad-boy Wang Yang hosting the set, someone would’ve already been verbally shredded to pieces, suffering both physically and mentally.

“Hmm! Hmm! Harry, you fatty—where the hell did you die? Remember to zoom in for the next shot. You need to capture the feeling that Tom’s entire world revolves around Summer, got it?” “Shallow depth of field, push, push, I want an extreme close-up!” “CUT! NG, Natalie!” “Yang, don’t yell so loud, watch your head…”

But the current atmosphere on set was fast-paced and joyful, reminiscent of when the main characters of “The Big Bang Theory” all come together. Present were Jessica, a visiting pregnant woman who spread cheer like sprinkles, and Juno Amanda Natalie, who repeatedly made the director lose face, along with the good-natured Joseph Gordon Levitt, responsible for humor. Not to be left out was the lunatic director with an arm in a sling, headband, and cap, a chubby cinematographer with his belly hanging over the ball, and a production assistant who had to sprint across the set or else face glaring stares…

Thankfully, they weren’t shooting Tom’s post-breakup scene that morning, as it certainly wouldn’t have been an appropriate work environment. Holding a stack of documents and a pen and paper, Nancy Reno stood beside Wang Yang waiting for instructions. This time, she wasn’t leading any other shooting teams as a deputy director but served as the first assistant director. For her, a recent bachelor’s graduate, this was a fantastic opportunity and a boost to her credentials. Looking at Wang Yang with the director’s viewfinder raised in his left hand, she felt a surge of drive within her.

“I’ve always said the street scenes in San Francisco are so beautiful…”

Through the viewfinder, Wang Yang’s vision was filled with cinematic beauty. In the distance, an antique tram glided slowly by. It suddenly reminded him that he hadn’t ridden a tram in a long time. During those days with “Summer,” they often hopped on and off trams, the older and more decrepit, the better. Even though the seats weren’t that comfortable and the environment wasn’t that fresh, he and “Summer” liked it… Maybe she liked romance too, even if she professed it was “boring, do something serious for a change.” Yes, at least some kind of romance, perhaps.

When shooting the scene of Tom and Summer riding the tram, would he find that same feeling again? Putting away the viewfinder, Wang Yang looked at Nancy, the girl in the fisherman’s hat acting as the first AD, who passed him the pencil in silent accord. Stopping with a piece of drawing paper in front of him, Wang Yang held the pencil in his left fist and jotted down his composition ideas while smiling and asking, “Nancy, how does it feel? Any different from school?”

“It feels good.” Nancy looked around at the crew walking about, the actors rehearsing in the performance area, and the photography team setting up their equipment. She joked, “The biggest difference is that the viewfinder isn’t in my hands.” In truth, it wasn’t her first time on a film set. She had been an assistant director on “Juno” five years earlier and subsequently worked on films like “Saw.” While in school, she often led small-scale student film projects for coursework and even made a graduation film, so she had no trouble getting her hands dirty.

“Here you go.” Wang Yang propped the pencil over his left ear and handed her the viewfinder that hung around his neck. Nancy laughed out loud, grabbing it and aiming it at the view before her, admiring the beautiful scene while laughing, “Not much different, just everything’s more and tenser. There are more changes and variations; the need for adaptability and control is huge. Incredible! You were a producer and director at 18, and by 20, you were shooting ‘Juno’.”

“It’s a journey that even I find astonishing at times, thanks to everyone,” Wang Yang said, inadvertently recalling the day “High School Musical” began shooting. He was so excited and nervous. The directing itself wasn’t much different from a school assignment, but dealing with the myriad production issues, departmental disputes, and personnel problems was a headache. He gave Nancy’s shoulder a pat, “Take it slow. You’ve got to perform well this time; next time you’ll be leading the shoot.”

Nancy’s major was in directing, and she couldn’t be an assistant for too long, because one of the most important tasks of the first assistant director is to coordinate and design the shooting schedule and specific arrangements. As for visual expression and composition, those were just to assist. If she busied herself with these arrangements for too long, her spiritual energy would gradually diminish, and she would not make progress in storyboard composition or montage rhythm. It would be better for her to seek opportunities to direct music videos or commercials than to become a gold-medal AD. However, without familiarity with the actual pace of a film set and having no idea how to calculate the time to shoot scenes and shots, that was no good either.

“Thank you,” Nancy smiled, knowing he intended to cultivate her and feeling grateful. She handed back the viewfinder to him, and seeing no one else around, she unabashedly asked, “Best Director Yang, why are you so good to me?”

“I have high hopes for you,” Wang Yang shrugged without hesitation, looking at her spirited face. Maybe it was also because he really liked one of her personality traits, the stubbornness that she shared with “Summer” and Annie. The image of the girl lugging the film projector in Park City had truly moved him, and besides, she was so hardworking. He laughed, “I have high hopes for you! Just imagine, in the future, the first or one of the female Best Directors at the Oscars will cry and say ‘Thank you, Wang Yang, thank you, Wang Yang.’ Haha, cool!”

“Best Director Yang, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. If I get an Oscar, why would I cry?” Nancy said with a smirk. But she wouldn’t forget the memory of herself crying while nibbling on a baguette in a tent at the Sundance Film Festival that year. Things were different now; she sincerely said “thank you,” “I really want to say thank you. I’ll work hard and then make ‘The Story of Argen and Banana’ and win an Oscar!”

Hearing about Argen and Banana, Wang Yang immediately burst into laughter. They had indeed left behind some kind of “school motto” at the University of Southern California, hadn’t they? He laughed, “Just call it ‘Forrest-Gun.’ Shorter titles have a better chance of winning. Haha, yes! ‘500 Days of Summer’ has no chance now.” They both laughed for a moment, and Wang Yang said seriously, “I don’t have anything else here. Go check in with Harry, that chubby guy is now an expert. You need to develop your own sense of photography, and there are many techniques and experiences that you won’t learn in school, you know? Diligence, even more diligence! You will learn a lot.”

Initially, he used to run around and learn every day, and luckily, people like Valery-Frist had good temperaments and were willing to teach him. What was more important was the recognition of his status as a director and a producer, and that’s how he had grown so quickly.

“Alright!” Nancy nodded and walked off, while Wang Yang continued to check the viewfinder from different positions, when suddenly he heard a tender voice from behind, “HEY darling, want some water?” He turned around to see Jessica smiling brightly, holding a bottle of mineral water. Her eyes had a unique maternal glow of pregnancy, mixed with love, a look that could kill with a gaze.

“Well, thank you… wife,” Wang Yang took the water bottle and drank, the refreshing liquid quenching his thirst. He recalled on the set of ‘High School Musical’ when he still called her his girlfriend, and now they were about to welcome their first child. After giving him the water, Jessica looked around curiously, her eyes scanning like radar, then with a sudden ‘oh,’ she glared in one direction and walked off, “Joshua is slacking off again!”

Wang Yang murmured to himself with a laugh, “WHAT-A-PRETTY-GIRL”. Jessica was stubborn too, but she wasn’t at all like “Summer”; she was a completely different type, down-to-earth and very lovable… a type that felt safe. He had no distance from her, no cautiousness, and no strife. She was cool, yet not cool at all. The fact is, men need a sense of security too, but often they don’t understand women’s need for security, especially in their green years.

“Actually, she’s not that cool, not that distinctive, you know?”

When they arrived at the performance area of the set, Wang Yang once again discussed their roles and characters’ mindsets with the two leads. Focused on the script, Natalie and Joseph Gordon Levitt both nodded in agreement, “She is not actually that cool,” “Actually, she is not the kind of cool you think she is,” “Actually, you don’t understand her heart.” These represented the essential mindsets of Tom and Summer and were the key elements the actors needed to grasp. It was not just about holding onto their characters but also maintaing the state of their romance, and bridging the emotional distance between their two hearts.

The entire script was filled with mental states and their changes, which inevitably defined the essence of “500 Days of Summer.” From the moment Tom and Summer met, got to know each other, fell in love, deeply in love, dramatically changed, broke up, had a serendipitous meeting, shattered illusions, experienced pain, regained strength, had a heartfelt reunion, let go, and started anew—each phase came with its own mindset and behavior for both of them. In terms of the plot, there were dialogues and events that led to these psychological changes, which could be summarized as the influencing factors.

“Yeah, she isn’t really cool…” Natalie looked up at Wang Yang for a moment, then continued listening to his emotive, pleasant voice. He must already be very clear about “Summer.”

Strictly speaking, the relationship between Tom and Summer couldn’t be considered a boyfriend-girlfriend situation because Summer had always been clear from the start, saying, “I don’t want us to be that serious; I don’t want to define any sort of romantic relationship.” Her attitude seemed to be, “I just want to have fun, don’t pressure me, and if I happen to fall in love with you, great!” Tom, who believed in fate, took her words to heart and carefully, secretly cherished what they had, thinking the day would soon come when Summer would say, “I want to be your girlfriend”…n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In fact, Summer had been willing for a long time since she shared secrets with Tom that she had never told anyone else. In this relationship, Summer was no less invested than Tom—in fact, she was even more nervous and cared about it more deeply. After a fight, in the middle of the night, without waiting for a call, Summer took the initiative to go to Tom’s place to make up. If she was really that cool, that dismissive of their relationship, would she have done so? For a woman with personality, isn’t actively seeking to “apologize” with a heart full of disappointment serious enough? She was afraid of losing Tom.

Summer was always waiting for Tom to say, “Will you be my girlfriend?” Waiting for the day he would suddenly pull out a ring and say, “Will you marry me?”

But she couldn’t wait anymore. When they were watching “The Graduate” in the cinema, Summer cried, touched by the film, yet Tom just said it was just a movie. How could he not understand that what she wanted was courage—the courage of a Benjamin who dared to disrupt a wedding, running off with the bride! If Tom had suddenly proposed during their “relationship,” would Summer have refused? No, she would have accepted. Maybe she wouldn’t appear overly excited, but she would be incredibly happy.

Summer was a woman who appeared tough on the outside but was poetic at heart. She was both a cool girl and a sentimental one; she was supposedly a girl who didn’t believe in fate or in romantic marriage, yet she was also the kind of girl who might elope or get pregnant on a whim.

“Do you understand? She’s just a girl,” said Wang Yang. As he looked at the entranced Natalie, a slight melancholy for the beautiful past surfaced in his heart. In his ears faintly echoed Summer’s voice, “I was never as cool as you thought, not ever! Do you understand? Back when you went to the University of Southern California, I was angry, I was hurt, but I waited for you, an hour, a day, a week, a month, waiting for your call. What did you give me? I cried for months! Goodbye, Yang.” (