To put it bluntly, actors still need to constantly experience life, constantly analyze and understand the character's heart, simulate every word and action, and finally strive to get closer to the character.
After chatting for more than an hour, it was about the same time. When everyone came out, another protagonist, Guo Tianwang, happened to arrive, and Duan Yihong took him to say hello.
Maybe it was because he had never seen "White Night Chase" and "The Truth of Silence". Guo Tianwang obviously didn't know Su Ze. He thought he was just an ordinary friend visiting the class, and the shooting started with simple greetings.
Su Ze didn't take it seriously. After all, he was from Hong Kong Island and it was normal for him to have never watched domestic online dramas. It was good to meet Duan Yihong this time. If we got to know him well in advance, we might have the opportunity to collaborate in the future.
Standing near the monitor and watching everyone perform on the spot is the main purpose.
It just so happens that today is the last scene between Duan Yihong and Guo Tianwang before finalizing. It may be because they have invested in invisible guests. The secret visitor situation is very similar. The scene is basically concentrated in a villa, relying entirely on dramatic conflicts to attract the audience.
But the investment cost is too high for invisible guests. After all, King Guo is not cheap!
Speaking of family-related themes, the most outstanding ones that Su Ze can think of are Food, Drink, Man, Woman and Blood Guanyin. Especially Blood Guanyin, it can be called a classic, and the silent place is full of thunder.
Study Duan Yihong's performance carefully. Due to the requirements of the role and temperament, many emotions need to be expressed in detail. Does it feel like you are under pressure to perform?
That's right, not keeping it.
But press!
Su Ze frowned, obviously feeling that his condition was not accurate. He could control it by adjusting it, but he always felt like he couldn't use it when he pressed it.
What Su Ze didn't understand the most about this script was why Mr. Wang wanted to form such a non-blood family?
Breaking away from script creation and returning to director Chen Zhengdao's personal preferences, Su Ze gradually understood that the reason why Mr. Wang formed this family was to imprison him in the woods and force him to repent and avenge his dead son.
In fact, what he did was not only for revenge, but also to satisfy his own extremely perverted psychological desires.
Because he is a man who has been suppressed by patriarchy for many years and has an extremely twisted heart.
Because of his father's objection, he was forced to break up with Roy. After that, he searched for a lover for many years without success, so he chose to marry Zhang Xiaoxue in secret and gave birth to Roy's son Wang Chuqi through borrowed money.
Fortunately, Wang Chuqi, like Roy, also has a pair of gray pupils that are sensitive to light. Therefore, for Mr. Wang, it not only means the rebirth of his lover, but also the continuation of his photography dream.
But a school bus accident accidentally took away Wang Chucui's life. You can imagine how painful Mr. Wang was at this time. He had nowhere to appeal, so he had to vent his anger on the acquitted school bus driver Yu Kunqiao.
The method of revenge he adopted was not physical destruction, but mental torture. He wanted the so-called murderer to suffer the same pain and lose the most important thing in his life.
Yu Kunqiao is an orphan, so he designed and built this home so that he could first feel the warmth of "home" before being severely deprived of it.
Because in Mr. Wang's opinion, this is a crueler punishment than death!
Watching the two actors having a fierce conflict on the set, Su Ze finally understood what the core idea the director wanted to express in this work.
Expose the lasting harm caused by patriarchal will to individuals?
The most extreme thing is that Mr. Wang, a victim of patriarchal will, actually turned black step by step in the process of thinking that he was resisting patriarchy, and finally became patriarchy itself?
In order to regenerate homosexuals, he coaxed a woman who loved him deeply into becoming a surrogate tool; to vent his personal anger, he imprisoned an innocent low-level person; he even made up a false family and became the nominal father...
The dragon slayer eventually becomes a dragon,
In the blink of an eye, the victim has become the next perpetrator.
Thinking of this, Su Ze couldn't help but shake his head secretly. To be fair, this work was a bit of a waste of the acting skills of several talented actors, including the seemingly dominant Guo Tianwang!
As for Chen Zhengdao’s constant statement that he hopes the audience will get closer to each character and feel the fear in their hearts?
Come on, this is not the way movies portray characters!
At least a commercial film with a limited running time does not have such space.
Movies are always divided into protagonists, supporting roles and tool characters. The only one the audience can really "get closer" to and "observe carefully" is the protagonist.
There are a family of five secret visitors, can you determine who is the protagonist and who is the supporting role?
The weight of the roles of the five leading actors is almost equal, and the complex and entangled inner activities are equally hidden. Unless those so-called viewers with superior memory and understanding, it is almost impossible to get close to each character and observe them carefully.
Based on Su Ze's experience in shooting suspense films, Secret Visitor adopts a nested structure of "guessing puzzles - solving puzzles". The first eighty minutes are all about mysteries and foreshadowing, and only serve the purpose of solving the puzzles and the truth in the last thirty minutes.
And these character mysteries and plot mysteries are not solved one by one step by step, but are solved centrally at the end?
If the film adopts this structure, then the different backgrounds, experiences, and mentality of each of the previous characters must be consistent. In other words, the characters must stand up!
It all relies on vaguely expressed lines and details, and a false shot on the character to remind the audience to pay attention without being able to explain the so-called metaphor clearly...
Not enough to watch at all!
For example, Su Ze can think of a scene: Zhang Zifeng handed the ice cream to Mrs. Wang, but her hand loosened and the spoon fell to the ground.
Only when the audience watches the entire film and recalls it carefully can they understand what this scene means.
Oh, it turns out that the pregnant Mrs. Wang has long wanted to escape. Zhang Zifeng used the dropped spoon as a metaphor for her?
Let it go when it’s time to let it go!
Doesn’t it sound clever?
But the problem is that when this scene happened, the audience didn’t know that Mrs. Wang’s child was not Mr. Wang’s at all!
The result of this information asymmetry is that in the eyes of the audience, the family atmosphere is weird, the family members seem to be inseparable, and they know nothing about the true identity and tacit understanding between Zhang Zifeng and Mrs. Wang.
What are you doing!
As an audience, I also don’t know what it means when brother Rong Zishan tries to play the trumpet for sister Zhang Zifeng several times but refuses to listen.
It’s also unclear why Zhang Zifeng had to run into the basement again and again to open up to the murderer Duan Yihong, even wearing makeup and underwear?
A whole eighty minutes consists of such riddles, symbols and metaphors?
Su Ze understood that Chen Zhengdao designed everything to reveal the final answer, but...
This fuse is a bit too long!
From the audience's perspective, I know that there is much to this family's story, but I just can't figure it out, or even see its direction.
I also know that every actor works very hard to convey very subtle and complex emotions, but they just can't see the purpose of these emotions.
And the director’s final request to the audience is: You must remember all the incomprehensible and inexplicable details in the first eighty minutes!
In this way, when I unravel the mystery and the truth comes to light, I will recall the previous foreshadowing metaphors and carefully appreciate the actors' exquisite acting skills. I will definitely be amazed and have endless aftertaste!
Brother Chen,
Do you have any misunderstandings about the audience?