The Best Director

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Cut! Rachel, I need your expression to be crazier, more hideous! And…” Wang Yang held the DV camera, looking seriously at Rachel, and said, “Psychotic, insanely obsessed, convulsive, anything! Imagine you’re possessed by an evil spirit, mocking and laughing at you in the mirror, saying ‘Oh, foolish humans,’ something like that.”

In the apartment’s restroom, Rachel stood in front of the sink mirror in a blue checkered pajama; Wang Yang stood at the doorway with Zachary Levi standing behind him.

Yes, they were in the midst of shooting “Paranormal Activity,” and it was already the third day of shooting. The film’s shoot had also nearly approached the halfway point.

When shooting a movie, they do not film in the order of the script from beginning to end but take a scene-by-scene approach, finishing all the shots for one scene before moving to the next. This saves time, money, and effort. Filming in the order of the script would require flying back and forth between Los Angeles and New York, which wouldn’t be practical. Once scenes are filmed, the task of connecting the shots is left for post-production editing.

Of course, with the help of a script, actors also know what they are playing and understand the causes and consequences of the plot.

However, all the scenes in Wang Yang’s film were set in this apartment — his own home, so there were no “different scenes” to speak of. To get Rachel and Zachary Levi to perform with more emotion, Wang Yang simply decided to shoot in the order of the script’s sequence.

This method of filming was already unconventional, but there were even more unorthodox measures to save costs: neither of the two leads had costumes provided. Both Rachel and Zachary Levi wore their ordinary clothes, like the blue checkered pajama Rachel was wearing, which was her own.

The scene they were currently filming involved Rachel’s character “Mel” suddenly getting up in the middle of the night, standing in front of the bathroom mirror. After more than an hour, “Kevin,” played by Zachary Levi, woke up, realized his girlfriend Mel was not in bed, grabbed the DV camera, and came to the restroom. As he entered the restroom, the DV captured the moment Mel was making a hideous face at the mirror.

Rachel had tried every acting technique for “Mel’s hideous face,” from exaggerated expressions, like that of a mental patient, to subtle eye movements, none of which satisfied Wang Yang.

“The performance I’m thinking of is… uh, maybe I should demonstrate it myself?” After speaking at length, Wang Yang suddenly felt the urge to take center stage himself. Rachel nodded and said, “All right, maybe I will understand what you mean after watching your performance.” Wang Yang then handed the DV camera to Zachary Levi at his side and walked to the mirror. He coughed, closed his eyes, and collected his emotions.

I’m now possessed by a demon, and I have to go crazy… Wang Yang tried to convince himself in his mind, slowly opened his eyes, and began contorting his face as if attempting to mash it into a different form. It looked just like a Gene Kelly performance. When he saw his reflection in the mirror, he couldn’t help but curse, his face returning to normal as he shook his head and said, “Not like this, not like this.” He shrugged his shoulders with resignation and added, “Okay, I can’t do it. I’m better off holding the DV camera.”

Rachel and Zachary couldn’t help but laugh a few times. Rachel joked with a smile, “Of course, you were born to be a director.”

Wang Yang also started to laugh and then had a revelation, “Although my acting sucks, I think I just understood something.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sized up Rachel, who was in pajamas. He wasn’t admiring Rachel’s figure but realized he’d been thinking about it all wrong. He frowned and said, “Rachel, just try performing this shot any way you want.”

“All right,” Rachel replied. Suddenly, her face transformed, grinning like a madman and rolling her eyes like those of an imbecile.

“I’ve got it!” Wang Yang’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he snapped his fingers, saying, “We’ve all been focusing too much on surface-level acting. That’s not the right approach!” Rachel stopped her performance and listened, puzzled. “What do you mean?” Wang Yang organized his thoughts and explained, “In this shot, Mel may need to be hideous and crazy, but at the end of the day, what we need is a creepy sense of terror! So what we should focus on is how to make it feel eerie, right?”

Wang Yang clapped his hands and instructed Rachel with a new direction, “From now on, no hideousness, no craziness, they are not the focus. We want eerie! Think, what kind of performance would be eerie?”

Rachel nodded, half-understanding, and said earnestly, “Hmm, let me think.”

This was the kind of impediment they faced during filming. Although Rachel was a drama student in college and Zachary had been performing on stage since childhood, they were both still green and lacked experience. Their unripe performances often resulted in wasted effort; and more often, the problem was with Wang Yang himself.

After all, it was also his first film shoot. Just as inexperienced and immature; fortunately, it was a DV-style mockumentary, which had low requirements for cinematography. Camera placement, transitions, and even amateur, shaky footage that could make your head spin were acceptable because the male lead’s filming ability was supposed to be that of an ordinary person. Thus, Wang Yang encountered no problems concerning cinematography.

The problem was that the storyboards he had designed before the actual shooting had many elements he hadn’t initially considered. A lot of things were taken for granted, which now required creative solutions. Another issue was sudden inspiration; sometimes, inspired by Rachel’s performance, Wang Yang tirelessly modified the storyboard, reshooting scenes, which also slowed down the process.

Just like the current situation, Wang Yang initially assumed that the female protagonist, Mel, should look ferocious, but after half a day of shooting, he was never satisfied; now, he abruptly shifted to a more eerie approach.

“I think I’m starting to understand,” Rachel pondered for a moment before saying to Wang Yang, “Let’s give it a try.”

“Okay, everyone to your positions!” Wang Yang took the DV camera back from Zachary’s hands, retreated to the doorway to adjust the lens, and then counted down, “3, 2, 1, action.” As soon as he finished speaking, he pressed the record button on the DV camera.

The moment Wang Yang said action, Zachary, who stood behind him, cried out in fright, “Oh, baby! What are you doing standing here in the middle of the night?” The film’s audio was entirely recorded using the DV camera’s built-in microphone to maintain the authenticity of a mockumentary and to save costs.

As soon as Zachary called out, Rachel, facing the mirror, began her performance. Her mouth corners slowly curled up, revealing a dimple on one side. It was a sweet expression, but her eyes were staring ahead, her pupils rolling upward, gradually hiding her light blue irises.

“Cut!” Wang Yang yelled cut, frowning as he said, “It seems okay but also not quite right; I always feel like something is lacking, and I can’t quite grasp what it is…” He scratched his head, “Forget it, let’s take a break.”

Rachel and Zachary Levi both nodded. Sometimes, when faced with a tough problem, it didn’t pay to just push through; taking a break and coming back to it later could offer a new perspective.

Leaving the restroom, Zachary Levi went to the balcony to catch a breeze, while Wang Yang sat down on the red sofa, DV in hand, frowning as he watched the footage they had just shot, pondering what was missing.

“Here you go.” Wrapped in a coat, Rachel took two bottles of Coke out of the fridge and handed one to Wang Yang. She consoled him, “Yang, don’t push yourself too hard. If you can’t figure it out, just stop thinking about it for now. We’ve only been shooting for three days and we have more than a week left, right?” She teased, “Don’t let me earn my four thousand dollars too easily.”

Wang Yang glanced at her and laughed, “Don’t worry, your four thousand dollars will definitely not be easy money; I am a ruthless director, after all.”

“Director, take a break,” Rachel suddenly reached out to take the DV camera from Wang Yang’s hands and turned it off, placing it on the coffee table. She then suggested with a smile, “How about I tell you a joke to lighten the mood?”

“Wow, yes please!” Wang Yang opened his Coke and took a sip, laughing, “I have a really low threshold for humor, so make sure your joke isn’t too funny; I might die laughing.”

Rachel rolled her eyes in amusement and said, “Don’t worry, mine are all cold jokes. So, listen…”

Just as she was about to start, Wang Yang’s phone suddenly rang, breaking the pleasant atmosphere. Wang Yang quickly said, “Excuse me”, and took out his phone. The caller ID showed Jessica Alba, and he answered with a smile, “Hello, Jessica?”

The day before yesterday morning, during the first shot of the movie, Jessica had come by, but she only stayed for a very short time before leaving; she hadn’t come by yesterday, and now it was nearing 5 p.m. today.

“Hey, Yang! How’s the shooting going today? I hope I’m not interrupting,” Jessica’s pleasant voice carried from the phone. Wang Yang took a look at Rachel beside him and smiled, “You’re not interrupting, we’re just taking a break, and the shooting is going fine.”

Then he heard Jessica laugh, “Yang, I’m on my way over to you. I made a pizza, you guys haven’t ordered takeout yet, have you?” Wang Yang exclaimed, “Pizza? Perfect, we haven’t ordered takeout.”

“Then wait a bit longer, I’m about half an hour away,” Jessica said cheerfully and hung up.

Shaking his phone, Wang Yang told Rachel, “It’s Jessica; she made a pizza. She’s on her way and will be here in half an hour.” He licked his lips, seemingly very hungry, “Wow, pizza, just in time for our dinner.”

Rachel also exclaimed with a laugh.