Chapter 6: Debut Film’s Choice
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the slight vibrations slowly disappeared, the plane began flying steadily after entering the stratosphere. Adrian looked away from the window, then looked at Dennis Knight who was beside him. “Why? Are you having airsickness?”
“I’m fine, but this is my third time on a plane, so I can’t help but feel… Unadapted.” Dennis who looked a little unwell took a deep breath, then unfastened his belt to rush to the lavatory.
‘What an interesting fella.’ Adrian shook his head and smiled. He looked to another side of the cabin where the executive producer, the assistant director, and the director’s assistant recommended by Laverne were seated. Adrian had also contacted someone from England who would provide him help in his shooting once he was there.
This was the benefit of purchasing a film company, he had a complete operating team and connections. Although Bosworth Film Company, which he selected after referring to the information given by Claude, was small-scaled, it had a broad network since it was established long ago, so much so that it had connections with a few vice presidents from America’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
It was not that Americans did not lack sensibilities, but that their sensibilities rarely appeared in rules. Taking Adrian’s scripts as an example, had it not been for his parents, who prevented him from wasting his days in a chaotic life for two years, a new screenwriter like him, who did not even have an agent, could not have been visited by representatives from a few big companies.
It was already 2 o’clock in the morning when they landed at London Heathrow Airport. After getting rid of their jet lag by staying a night at the airport’s hostel, Adrian led a few of them, as well as the cast and workers from England, to Edwin, a small town in the northeast of London. They quickly began shooting.
Adrian picked Guy Ritchie’s ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ as his “debut film,” which was a film with multiple lines of narration, and had compact plots that were linked to one another. The British-styled dark humor was very engaging, hence even when the investments kept reducing during the shooting, such that only 80,000 pounds [Note 1] were left, it received great reviews when it was screened.
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The only problem was that it was a British film, but there was really no other film with a cost as low as this—even ‘Saw’ cost of around 1 million dollars, and in terms of gaining maximum profit, it was best to produce ‘Saw’ after ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. In any case, Adrian’s grandfather was British, which was why he and his mother had British nationalities. Though he found through his memories that he did not stay in England for long, his British accent was quite on-point, so it was reasonable that his “debut film” was a British film.
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“Gentlemen, I believe that I’ve made things clear for you. Please don’t cause anymore NG takes because of minor issues!” Adrian yelled from the back of the camera, then waved his hands to express his frustration.
After shooting for three days, he quickly had a grasp of how things should work. While he may not have used a video camera many times before he was reborn, he had practical experience and had done many film analyses before, so it was not too difficult for him. This was also why Adrian made a solemn promise to Laverne that he would complete the shooting and the editing in 2 months, then he would send it to Venice’s exhibition.
However, a good film could not solely depend on the director. Other than Dennis, the actor who was playing “Hatchet” Harry, and a few cast members who were the gangsters, many of them were not in good form. Nonetheless, it was not surprising because Adrian could not hire famous actors if he wanted to save money, while there were outstanding third or fourth-line actors, it was by luck if he managed to hire those.
“If you’re looking to add more lighting technicians, you might overspend, Mr. Adrian,” The finance assistant reported with a stack of reports.
“Overspend? That won’t do, we only have a budget of 200,000 dollars.” Adrian furrowed his brows. ‘I’ve done careful calculations, and the budget set is double of what I estimated. Why are we overspending?’
His head ached as he flipped through the pages. ‘The reports are definitely correct since every expense is recorded, so why exactly is this happening? Additional investment isn’t the issue, but we must be sure of why the additional investment is needed, or how are those classic films going to be replicated in the future? Damn it, how did Guy Ritchie pull it off?!’
Seeing as the sky had turned dark, Adrian thought for a while before he dismissed everyone from work.
The sounds of water streams stopped. Adrian sighed a long breath of relief as he pulled the shower curtain, then wrapped himself with a towel. He wiped the fog on the mirror, then touched his face when he saw himself in the mirror.
It had been almost half a year. Although he adapted to his current situation very well from the beginning, for instance, his demeanor and temperament when he convinced Claude and the editorial assistants, there was still a part of him that was still unused to this. At times, he felt like he was Adrian, but other times he felt like he was still Zhang Haoxuan. Luckily, he set a goal for himself from the start and began working hard without any hesitation, thus he had completely merged with the previous owner.
“My previous life’s consciousness should be the dominant one now, right?” Adrian mumbled as he looked at himself, but quickly smiled and shook his head. ‘So what? Even if I’m neither Zhang Haoxuan from my previous life nor Adrian the previous owner, I’m still me. It’ll be fine if I’m clear about what I want to do, and how I’m going to execute it.’
“Alright, I should stop thinking.” Adrian slapped his face, then left the bathroom. Though he was still bothered, life had to go on, and there were some things that he already knew the answer to. He knew that he could not integrate the Cowell Family’s resources in just two or three days, and he knew that he was not going to see his other self in China because that would not conform to the laws of the universe.
“I should just focus on the damn film.” Adrian changed into his pajamas, then walked over to the desk to turn on the table lamp. “Can’t this be brighter? Can’t this hostel even afford a lightbulb?”
He was staying in a classic British-styled hostel, where the yellowish walls and outdated patterns of the dados showed that the hostel had a long history. In addition, the dim lights made one feel like one was in London during the 18th or 19th century. On a daily basis, Adrian needed to direct his film, write notes, script outlines, and… Novels! The table lamp shone brightly in the beginning, but it eventually broke down, and the hostel workers did not fix it, thus he could not rush his work even if he wanted to. At that moment, he wished that every minute was equivalent to two minutes.
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Adrian turned his table lamp on and off, on and off. He would have stayed in a hotel if he had not held back for various reasons. ‘Forget it, I’ll ask my assistant to buy a new one tomorrow. Clearly, this small hostel can’t be trusted for their efficiency, and for all I know, the light might even be dimmer after they change it. It’ll be the same as… Wait, dim!’
He widened his eyes when he was struck with an idea. After staring into the blank for some time, he clapped his hands together. ‘I see! I get it now! Guy Ritchie is a f*cking genius!’
“You’re saying that… We’ll be using orange filter plates for the rest of our shooting?” The sleepy lighting technician was slightly mad when he looked at Adrian because he had just been woken up from his sleep.
“No, no, no. Add a layer of yellowish-orange filter paper inside,” Adrian corrected him, then added, “This will reduce the usage of other filter papers, and you can basically continue using it by making slight adjustments. The scenes can be processed in a later phase, and they won’t look any different from normal films—do you understand?”
“This…” The lighting technician rubbed his forehead. “I’ll have to think about this, Mr. Adrian.”
“Alright, we’ll talk again when we’re on set tomorrow.” Adrian realized that it was too sudden and impolite for him to disturb the lighting technician at this hour, so he quickly left.
Guy Ritchie’s method of reducing cost was not complicated. To put it simply, the entire film had a darker tone because he added a layer of yellowish-orange filter paper in the filter plates, then did slight color adjustments in the end. The shooting method would not affect the viewing effect at all—the scenes just needed to be processed after. [Note 2]
Adrian recalled this because he watched remade high-definition films in the past. Though they were not different from other films, the remake of a high-definition DVD had a coating of a layer of rust on all the scenes. While normal people would not understand, a person who was familiar with film production would get it easily.
The next day, Adrian’s idea was proven right. He spent time with the lighting technician and the cameraman on set—a rented small office—and finally decided on employing the method.
“I must say that this method will save us a lot of trouble,” the lighting technician and a few main members of the crew complimented, “You’re such a genius, Mr. Adrian.”
“Is it feasible? Then we’ll have to work faster from now on,” Adrian commented.
Though the method seemed like it would save them a lot of money, the accumulated expense could not be ignored at the end of the shooting. Most importantly, Adrian managed to remember many details of the cost-saving method used by Guy Ritchie during shoots, such as moving props then shooting from a different angle to change from one scene to another, and so on.
‘You a f*cking genius, Guy Ritchie!’ Adrian praised again. ‘Leave everything to me, I’ll do well!’
[Note 1: The cost of a film stated on Baidu Baike is 80,000 pounds, but foreign websites state that it’s 900,000 dollars. The latter was only found after a long time, and since it’s not easy to amend the plot, the mistake is left as it is. The explanation for this will be that 80 thousand pounds are the cost from the beginning of shooting until it’s wrapped up, which excludes the promoting cost, issuance, remuneration, and other expenses.]
[Note 2: The said shooting technique was made up, don’t take it seriously.]
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