Chapter 25: Start Shooting Again
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
‘Memento’ was Adrian’s latest work. Moving on from Guy Ritchie, he proceeded to copy the work of a director who was the 21st century’s best storyteller—Christopher Nolan!
1
The film that was originally produced by Nolan in 2000 burnt the brain cells of numerous movie fans. In actual fact, the whole story was neither too complicated nor too spectacular, but he edited it into a film that was very enjoyable in retrospect.
The film had two different sequences, one was a series in a reverse order shown in color; one was a chronological series shown in black-and-white. Both shots alternated every 5 minutes, which met at the end, showing that the beginning was the end and the start. The interspersed scenes were a feast to the eyes, and every shot contained many details—for example when Nolan described an insurance client who was also an anterograde amnesiac, a plump middle-aged man on a wheelchair was shown in the shot, but the instant a nurse walked past him which caused a cut scene, the person on the wheelchair changed to Leonard himself!
Adrian did not notice it when he first watched the film because the cut happened too quickly and there were too many sequences for him to analyze it in time. At last, he noticed it after watching the film two to three times, which was why he had a deep impression of this film.
All in all, people praised it greatly. Though the film with complicated sequences resulted in a box office sales of roughly 40 million dollars—it was still a huge gain as compared to the 5 million dollars cost—it earned a good reputation, and Nolan established a spot in Hollywood. Adrian heard of an appraisal during his past life that said if Spielberg was the director who was best at storytelling in the 20th century, Nolan was unquestionably the best in the 21st century! As mentioned before, a film’s plot was important, but the method used to deliver the story was equally important.
Therefore, Adrian chose this film to be his second project without any hesitation. He could only apologize to Nolan. Nevertheless, similar to when he first started to copy scripts, he did not feel uneasy after making the decision, because he experienced too much that he could not be bothered anymore. Adrian knew very well that 99% of the people who were to undergo what he was going through—having a film store in the brain, having control over certain shooting and production techniques, knowing the future, and had an initial capital—would do the same.
2
Soon enough, Halloween in 1990 passed. ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ that attracted a lot of attention in the film market stopped screening and ended up with box office sales of a little more than 40 million dollars. It stopped showing in England 3 days later, yielding roughly 30 million pounds, which almost broke the record of England’s box office sales. By adding the sales from a few more countries in Europe, it grossed nearly a hundred million worldwide!
It was still the early phase of the ’90s in the 20th century, where the American dollar was more valuable than it would be 20 years later. Although Hollywood had plenty of low-cost films with high box office sales, there were very few that had a return of 1 to 90. It was a result that shocked many, including Adrian himself. Since he chose it to be his debut film, he naturally remembered information relating to the original film. It originally grossed more than 20 million pounds in England, but only a few million dollars in America. In comparison, the new box office sales in Northern America was almost a hundred times more than its cost, which was unbelievable.
Adrian was relieved when he thought about it carefully. There was an interesting trait in America, whereby films that did not originate from North America would not result in high sales, because Americans seemed to be uninterested in films from other countries. It was not strange at all, because toward the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the North American film market was occupied by European films. Americans supported films from France and Italy. In the end, America’s government was forced to implement a decree that banned cinemas from showing European films so as to support local films, and Hollywood finally rose. In the recent hundred years, as America’s national power and Hollywood’s film industry grew, Americans naturally became proud and looked down on films from other countries.
This was Adrian’s biggest advantage as compared to Guy Ritchie. He was an American, he had his own film company as well as an outstanding general manager, and he won the Best First Work award at the Venice Film Festival. Most importantly, it was 1990! The informative multi-narrative film that was not complicated had a larger attraction than it would have 9 years later. Besides, it was a great story that was acceptable regardless of the time of the environment. Due to all these factors, it was normal that the film resulted in high box office sales.
After breaking down the full expenses—the cost, the distribution fee, the share for theatre chains, taxes, and so on, Adrian could at least receive roughly 20 million dollars. It would simply increase his property, which was why Claude mentioned that it was a sudden huge profit. This was why the film company executives who were slowly forgetting about Adrian after the Venice Film Festival paid attention to him again, and many people in the industry became interested in the young director.
However, they had not been able to get in touch with him, because he led his team to a small town in Los Angeles’ suburb to shoot a new film before ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ even stopped showing.
“I need you to have a held-back emotion, do you understand, Dan?” At the entrance of a motel, Adrian was explaining to Dennis about the content that they were going to shoot, “You think you know who killed your wife, and you only want to kill him now. Of course, when he calls out to you, you should remain calm and friendly. It’ll be great if you can show a glimpse of a gloomy look when he looks at you.”
Subsequently, he turned to look at a shorter man beside him. “Joe, as for you, I need you to show a hint of anxiousness. You notice that something is off, but you can’t be sure of how terrible things will develop into since you hope that you can continue tricking Leonard.”
“In simpler terms, this character is currently hesitant and trying to take his chances, right?” Joe Pantoliano rubbed his chin as he replied.
“Yes.” Adrian nodded. “If there isn’t any problem, let’s begin—oh, right, Bowen?”
The cameraman walked over quickly. “I’m here, Mr. Director.”
“Later, I need you to turn from here, to here…” Adrian explained to the cameraman by showing a frame with his hands, “… Then zoom out to get their full-body shots, do you get it?”
After the cameraman, Adrian clapped his hand and looked around him. “Everyone, pay attention, let’s get moving. As for the ladies and gentlemen who are watching, can you please give us some space?”
The onlookers in front of the motel laughed before they dispersed.
“‘Memento’, act 24, scene 112,” Once the log keeper announced, the film began rolling.
***********************************
“Have I told you about my condition…” Leonard gestured as he asked the administrative officer behind the window.
“Every day.” The officer shrugged and looked at him funnily.
Leonard was obviously used to it already. He showed him a photograph. “Is he here already?”
“He just arrived,” The officer looked at his hands as he replied like he was responding to Leonard. A friendly voice was suddenly heard from the entrance. “Hey, Lenny.”
Leonard turned around to find a short man with glasses smiling at him.
“It’s Leonard,” he corrected him with a straight face, then approached him. “I think I told you about my condition.”
“Only every time I see you.” The short man smiled.
***********************************
“Cut!” Adrian, who was standing behind the camera, shouted.
“Dan, you’re still lacking the expression,” He yelled at Dennis. “Leonard isn’t just being expressionless, he’s just hiding his emotions. Start again!”
Less than 3 minutes later, he shouted again, “Cut! Tolerance! Where’s your tolerance? Again!”
“Cut! Your emotion was held-back enough, but your eyes look too gloomy, which is too straightforward. Again!”
“Cut! You have to suspect, do you get it? You’re suspecting everything around you because of your memory, again!”
“Cut! Again!”
“Cut!”
In the beginning, Adrian tried to explain to Dennis as much as he could, but he stopped after countless NG shots, such that he only shouted “Action” and “Cut”. At last, even Joe who played the supporting role felt that he was going overboard, yet Dennis remained calm and did not have other expressions apart from what was needed for the shot.
Finally, after 76 continuous NG scenes, Adrian announced that the shot passed. However, before everyone was able to relax, he took over the camera from Bowen. “Let’s do it again, I’ll shoot the scene this time.”
Everyone almost passed out upon hearing him, but when they saw Dennis and Joe getting into their positions quickly, the other workers could only gather their energy to work.
Fortunately, Dennis was still on form, so the shot was passed effortlessly. Besides, they could tell from Adrian’s smile that it was a good shot.
“We’ll rest for 30 minutes.” The instant the wonderful announcement was made, everyone sighed a long breath of relief, and even Dennis who remained calm throughout the shooting showed his tiredness. After all, nobody would be able to stand shooting the same scene for almost a hundred times.
“Why is Eddy much stricter than he was the past few days? Was he like that during his previous film?” Joe Pantoliano handed Dennis a bottle of water. He made a small investigation after he agreed to act for Adrian’s film, and had a good relationship with everyone in the crew. Being an actor who had been in the industry for over 10 years and played a number of supporting roles, he was much better than Dennis although he was slightly exhausted too.
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