Chapter 404
We need to reconsider
Chapter 404 We need to reconsider
"When you asked me for editing rights, you were all so confident and made all the promises, but this is the kind of thing you've produced?"
The lights in the screening room had just come on when Brother Fang started making his face.
The production assistant wiped his sweat and muttered, "Isn't this...isn't this fine?"
Fang Xinghe ignored him and turned to the jury: "What do you think? What score would you give this movie?"
"Forehead……"
The screening committee members from various departments of Sony Pictures looked at each other, none of them daring to step forward.
"It's...it's pretty good, isn't it?"
"Score!" Fang Xinghe said impatiently.
"8 points! That's the bare minimum!"
The head of the marketing department gritted his teeth and gave it an extremely high score.
Hollywood movies follow an industrialized model, with each of the six major studios having three major internal review mechanisms: pre-production, pre-release, and post-release.
The pre-release internal review system mainly assesses the commercial potential of the edited film to determine the investment in promotion.
Generally, it's a five-point or ten-point system. A group of people watch the film in advance and then rate it.
This time, the company's edited version received a very high score.
"Your movements are absolutely unique!"
"But your editing is so bad it's like you're making a stupid mistake!"
"what?"
They didn't understand, but Director Fang had a valid reason.
"Where is the rhythm I want?"
Does imitating the style of "The Bourne Identity" and editing with flashy cuts, making each frame 0.5 seconds long, constitute rhythm?
Didn't I tell you that my actions only needed setup, not breakdown?!
No one said a word.
"Matt Damon has no action background, so the more fragmented the editing, the sharper it appears. I left ample room for emotion in every action I filmed. You cut out all the important parts and filled the runtime with early everyday scenes?!"
The editor couldn't help but retort: "But you personally asked us to combine fast and slow tempos..."
"What I want is a combination of slowness before striking and speed during the kill, all within the same space! Not your garbage Hollywood three-part structure!"
Fang Xinghe knew they would mess things up, but he didn't expect the company's edited version to be this bad.
Of course, Sony doesn't think it's garbage.
The game is set up for 30 minutes, then the confrontation escalates, culminating in a climax, followed by a 5-minute happy ending. It's a classic with both fast and slow tempos!
All classic Hollywood action movies follow this pattern. We even imitated the sharp editing of "The Bourne Identity." What more could you want?
Fang Xinghe wanted them to hurry up and leave.
In fact, from the perspective of today's times, this version of "Taken" really has the potential to be a box office hit.
The formula, which avoids making mistakes, combined with Fang Xinghe's handsome looks and unique action performance, makes it seem more marketable than "Mission: Impossible" without trying to copy it.
However, the problem is this: what Director Fang needed was a blockbuster with a subversive quality, but they edited it into an assembly-line industrial product.
Without giving them any more words, Director Fang pointed domineeringly towards the door.
"Get out of my editing room! I'll do it myself!"
The 106-minute Sony crap version has been drastically reduced to 92 minutes.
Regardless of the beginning and end, the most important change is the re-editing of the action scenes.
The overall style remains "instant and to the point, no fluff," but the details are handled quite differently.
Both the Sony cut and the original version overemphasize the sharpness of the editing.
Perhaps because the Bourne series was so popular, they discovered the secret to success in low-budget action films, so they pay great attention to the tension and excitement of their cinematic language.
As two of the top contenders in the "ultimate pragmatism" category, Bourne shares the same underlying tone as the original Hurricane, with very Hollywood-style editing.
However, Fang Xinghe didn't want Hollywood; what he wanted was "only Fang Xinghe".
Unique, top-notch, difficult to imitate, and requires no editing.
Therefore, he slowed down the editing pace, enhanced the stability of the footage, and relied on physical skills and performance to dominate the emotions.
The action scenes are almost entirely shot from fixed positions, with no handheld or shaky camera work, precisely focusing on the details of the action, and using still images to simulate the calm and ruthless gaze of Zeus as a top assassin.
The composition of the foreground of each action scene is very restrained.
Fang Xinghe is very good at using light and shadow. For example, the neon lights of Paris at night illuminate Zeus's face, with half of his face in the light, signifying his brother's identity, and the other half in the shadow, concealing his killer instincts.
The visuals are also quite simple. If you don't understand this description, you can compare it to the style of Jackie Chan's kung fu comedies, which are very complex visuals designed to complement his unique fighting style.
Fang Xinghe's fighting style is minimalist.
The image consistently highlights the main subject – Zeus, as a pursuer and hunter. Despite the pressure of time and anxiety, he remains remarkably calm at crucial moments.
Precise chokeholds, arm breaks, and headshots, without any delay, without the aid of any environment or props; the impact comes from professionalism.
The way this "super killer-level professionalism" is displayed is not through editing, but through the extraordinary strength of Martial Saint Fang himself.
That's the biggest difference.
A few days later, in the same Sony internal screening room, all the top executives gathered to watch the director's cut of "Taken".
For the first 20 minutes, there was little difference, so everyone had the leisure to whisper and comment.
"Hmm, this cut works too, the rhythm is much smoother."
The chairman praised with a smile, though it was hard to tell how much of it was genuine and how much was insincere. However, some people offered a few dissenting remarks, subtly barbed.
"Without that crucial action sequence, the audience won't be able to feel Zeus's power, and their anticipation might be a bit lower, right?"
"Those action scenes that were meant to showcase our skills were filmed very well. I originally thought they would be important footage, but I didn't expect Director Fang to discard them all."
"I'm curious, if it's not needed, then why film it?"
Fang Xinghe glanced at the group of white-skinned green tea bitches and ignored them.
A bunch of noobs, giving them visuals is completely unnecessary.
Does every scene I film have to be included in the final cut? What kind of logic is that!
Source material is source material; every film is woven from a large amount of source material through editing and subtraction to achieve the best effect.
Often, it's because directors are reluctant to discard good footage and struggle to edit objectively that the final product suffers from various problems.
Therefore, in Hollywood, filming and editing are two distinct rights. However, there are times when the editor fails to keep up with the director's vision, causing the work to lose its natural, unforced quality.
Therefore, art films are usually edited by the director himself, or at least he provides the main editing opinions; while commercial blockbusters are led by the editor, and the director is only responsible for shooting.
This decentralization of power is an extremely rational business logic—allowing emotionless editors to process the footage with a business mindset, while directors with overly strong emotions are only responsible for shooting that footage.
It's like how farmers know how to grow the best vegetables, while chefs don't know how to grow vegetables but are good at processing them into expensive dishes.
However, this model also has a drawback—when Fang Xinghe planned to create a new action style, the chef, who had never processed this kind of material before, was still using the old experience to deal with the new ingredients.
Perhaps customers still feel good after eating it, because they have become accustomed to the old flavors and have never tasted anything better.
Now, Fang Xinghe is going to tell them that they're out of touch.
Twenty minutes later, the film's pace gradually became "both slow and fast," and the theater suddenly fell silent.
At the overall level, what's fast is Zeus's chain of actions: going abroad, investigating, testing corrupt police officers, interrogating, hunting down...
Within his predetermined 24-hour time limit, he did not stop for a moment, pushing the schedule forward at breakneck speed.
The slow things are Zeus's preparations for action.
All actions are broken down into separate parts. In each "mini-game," Zeus is fully prepared, demonstrating a strong mental attitude and extreme control, and miraculously slows down.
For example, in the scene where Zeus tests the corrupt cop, the frozen shot makes time feel slower, and Zeus even finishes his dinner calmly, so that you don't feel any anxiety at all.
"Wonderful..."
Chairman Suo praised softly, fully appreciating the atmosphere of the newly edited video.
"It was really good; I felt both nervous and calm. Nice!"
The tension comes from the pressure of time passing relentlessly. The camera repeatedly pans across the clock on the wall, and each turn of the hour and minute hands urges the audience to feel anxious.
With the groundwork laid in the early stages, the audience has already adopted Zeus's perspective, and every time they see an element related to time, they spontaneously recall the time limit for the rescue.
Zeus's composure, demeanor, and attitude are all captivating. Under immense pressure, this man maintains an extreme level of calm, like a hunter, firmly holding the audience's attention.
The interplay between objective anxiety and subjective composure creates a truly peculiar atmosphere.
Fang Xinghe's handling of this scene is even more brilliant than the original, with immense tension that constantly controls the audience's emotions.
When it came to the fight scenes, Fang Xinghe's edited version showed an even stronger charm.
Yes, only the word "charm" can describe that unprecedented coolness.
There must be a panoramic view before the fight to emphasize the sense of space.
The main purpose is to explain the characters' locations, the external environment, and the overall pressure.
The logic in the fight scenes is clear; here, logic refers to the logic of offense and defense, which is the most important but often blurred element in action films.
Take the classic action movie "The Bourne Identity" as an example. The action climax is usually an impromptu kill using environmental props (such as a ballpoint pen, a towel, or a magazine).
The impact of this style of play mainly comes from its creativity.
The fight scenes are often filmed very close to the face, with the background completely blurred. Viewers can only see Bourne's rapid breathing, the enemy's distorted expression, and the splattered blood. This extreme sense of oppression makes it almost impossible to breathe.
This is innovation, but it's also a shortcut.
What impression do movie fans ultimately form?
—Bourne is a super-skilled agent with extremely fast reflexes, exceptional adaptability, and keen awareness of his environment; killing is like an instinct for him.
Ultimately, however, he was just a highly skilled agent, not a mind-blowing killing machine.
Matt Damon's movements lacked expressiveness and failed to convey that inhuman quality.
Therefore, this movie only has the general framework of offensive and defensive logic, but lacks details.
It doesn't aim to make the audience see the beginning, development, transition, and conclusion of every action; instead, it deliberately omits the connecting parts in the middle, asking the audience to fill in the gaps in their imagination.
The camera often cuts directly from Bourne throwing a punch to his opponent falling to the ground, cutting out the process of the force being transferred in between.
Fang Xinghe's version of "Taken" is quite the opposite.
Its offensive and defensive logic is extremely detailed.
Zeus's actions are always comprehensive, using a calm and slow standoff to build up emotions and raise expectations;
Then, a panoramic view is used to compare the two sides: on one side is Zeus's abnormal reaction speed and explosive power, and on the other side is the opponent who seems to be on a completely different level.
Then he closed in, snapped the arm, locked the throat, and fired. His movements were so fast that they left afterimages, and his strength was so great that he could crush the spine of an enemy by grabbing their neck with one hand.
One scene in particular caused all the senior executives to gasp in surprise.
In the midst of the melee, Zeus leaped onto the second floor, pressed himself against the wall, and avoided the line of fire from below.
He casually raised his right hand, pointed the gun at the door on the right, and pulled the trigger as if he had anticipated it. There was no enemy in the frame when he released the gun. 0.5 seconds later, the enemy rushed out of the door into the corridor like a headless fly. The gun shot hit the gangster in the temple and head.
At the same time, without turning his head, he suddenly stretched out his left hand, grabbed the gangster by the back of the neck as he reached out, and pulled the unlucky guy back to block the sniper shot from the opposite corridor.
What's really impressive about this scene is that Zeus, with his arms outstretched against the wall, completely predicted the situation 0.5 seconds in advance, and controlled the battlefield with complete composure.
Of course, the most impressive thing is what happened next.
He crouched low, moving along the wall, his left hand still gripping the corpse's neck with pure finger strength, effortlessly executing a tactical maneuver as if dragging a 5-kilogram bag of Japanese rice.
In the close-up shot, the corpse's neck was completely shattered, and its head slumped limply down, like a tattered burlap sack.
At this point, attentive viewers will recall the crisp cracking sound in the sound effects when Zeus seized the enemy, and then belatedly realize that the unfortunate fellow was already a corpse the moment he captured him.
This kind of expressiveness is a kind of "inhumanity" that is completely absent in other action movies. It's like a strong adult beating up kindergarten children, and they have to be toddlers in the youngest class.
Throughout the entire film's action scenes, there wasn't a single instance of cheap prop-like impacts that made a wall shatter with a single punch.
For example, characters like Jet Li, Tony Jaa, and Dan Hazel often smash brick walls and wooden pillars, but their enemies remain vigorous no matter how much they are beaten. This is the most common way to showcase attack power in Eastern action films.
Given Fang Xinghe's physical limits, if he punched a brick wall, he would only break his own hand.
However, given his physical abilities, which are at the limit of human potential, he can indeed lift a 30-kilogram prop mannequin with one hand and use it as a doll.
The result of this kind of filming is that, while the expressiveness seems to have weakened, it actually makes the reality seem inhuman.
The 30-kilogram prop dummy is both high-quality and heavy. It can be swung up and thrown down the stairs, knocking down a bunch of people. Then, someone can finish it off with two shots, and it's all done in style.
After witnessing Fang Xinghe's masterful control over every frame of the shot amidst the rousing background music, gasps of astonishment began to emanate frequently from the conference room.
hiss...ha...
This seemingly unsharp editing style is surprisingly engaging when you actually watch the movie!
The sudden impact of the tension between the slowness of the standoff and the speed of the final moment is something that no other film seems to have ever achieved.
"Well, esteemed Fang, perhaps we really do need to reconsider..."
***********
What terrible luck! I only went back and forth a few times during the Spring Festival, and I never expected it to be this bad. I need to get an IV drip again tomorrow.
(End of this chapter)