The Best Director

“The Smith family is on the move!”

Beforehand, neither the media nor the fans could have foreseen this situation. They all thought the cast of “The Pursuit of Happyness” was set, unless Wang Yang convinced Tom Hanks from “Cast Away” to play a certain role, they wouldn’t have been expecting any more surprises. But they were wrong when they saw the latest information released by Flame Film: “Christopher Gardner” would be played by Terry Smith, and Chris’s wife “Linda” would be played by Jada Smith!

“It looks like Will Smith is very confident in this new film. Clearly, he doesn’t think there will be a ‘bad film featuring the whole family’. Will he regret it a year later? But one thing is for certain, that young director is very happy now; it’s his promotional tactic, and it has succeeded.”

Without a doubt, this news gave the fans and Will Smith’s followers a huge thrill. A father-son team, a husband-wife pair… maybe even Jaden Smith would make a cameo. The whole family coming together – that’s really interesting! Even many people who were initially not interested in “The Pursuit of Happyness” had their interest piqued and were now looking forward to it. What kind of performance would the Smith family provide?

Wang Yang was indeed very pleased. For one thing, he had found the perfect leads. Acting requires investing emotions, and the method acting style demands becoming the character one hundred percent. And now, the father- son relationship between Will and Terry was real. What performance could be more ideal than that derived from genuine feelings? Secondly, as the media said, this was very beneficial for promotion; it would be one of the highlights of the film.

After confirming the cast for the Gardner family, Wang Yang also smoothly found several other significant non-extra roles, such as Mr. Twistle, the man who gave Chris an interview opportunity, and the madman who thought the scanner was a “time machine”. These roles weren’t difficult to act, but they were quite distinctive, so the expectations for appearance and temperament were even higher.

Meanwhile, the crew’s assembly was also underway. The cinematography team was primarily from “High School Musical”, with Valery Fiest as the cinematographer. Wang Yang and he had worked together happily on “High School Musical” and developed a good rapport, and both were eager to collaborate again; now Harry George, who was Valery Fiest’s assistant, became the film’s photography assistant, having the chance to operate the camera first-hand, although the main focus of his work was still running errands.

Regarding the filming style and color tone of “The Pursuit of Happyness”, after multiple discussions, Wang Yang and Valery Fiest decided to use an unadorned cinematography style and bright colors, with the colors changing appropriately with the story content. In the beginning, Chris’s life had not yet changed, with medium brightness in colors, and when filming street scenes, they wanted the picture to have a slightly yellowish historical feel. As Chris struggled, the colors could be dimmer. As he persevered and finally succeeded, the colors would become increasingly sunny and warm. If “High School Musical” was a bright summer sun, then “The Pursuit of Happyness” would be the warm morning light of autumn.

In addition to the cinematography team, Wang Yang also put a lot of thought into selecting the set designer and costume designer, which was different from “High School Musical”. That was all about school sets and costumes set in the present, not too difficult; “The Pursuit of Happyness,” on the other hand, was set in 1981. The 1980s seemed to be only a decade or so ago, but this world changes rapidly, and both cities and people are constantly changing. To better restore the environment and clothes of that era was a meticulous job.

In fact, the original “The Pursuit of Happyness” had quite a few “goofs”; for example, in 1981, the San Francisco subway seats were brown, not blue; there was a passerby in the subway station eating UTZ brand chips, which wouldn’t have been found on the West Coast… While these details are trivial and typically unnoticed by the audience or fans, Wang Yang just wanted to do better. Maybe he was being nitpicky, but he thought the fewer goofs, the better, and that required a talented set designer.

Of course, some goofs were intentional because they were product placements, like the UTZ chips. “The Pursuit of Happyness” had many such advertisements. However, Wang Yang did not want to do that. Those little ads could bring in three to four million dollars in sponsorship, thereby reducing the film’s production costs, but his principle was to spend more money if necessary to achieve the best effect in the movie. Intentionally placing ads in the shots? No, that could easily affect the audience’s engagement and make them exclaim, “Please!”

Through Robert Zemeckis’s introduction, Wang Yang tried to invite Nancy Haigh to take the position of set designer for the film crew. This fifty-something-year-old white woman was the set designer for films like “Forrest Gump” and “The Truman Show” and had been nominated for the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration three times, winning once. She was one of Hollywood’s top set designers.

But she refused Wang Yang, even though she had just finished working on the Coen Brothers’ new film “Three Days of the Condor” and had no new film offers; despite Wang Yang’s sincere approach and an offer nearly twice the market rate, she still refused without giving a reason. The truth was the same; she was not optimistic about Wang Yang’s “Baby Director” biopic. Besides, his qualifications were not sufficient. She was currently working with top directors such as the Coen Brothers, Tim Burton, and Robert Zemeckis. Genius Yang? He was just a kid.

After being refused multiple times, Wang Yang did not continue to be a nuisance. With Will Smith’s connection, he finally invited Gordon Chin to join the team. In his forties, this fellow was not too shabby; he was the set designer for the yet-to-be-released “The Hurricane” and would later have representative works like “Chicago” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 4”, and he even won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for “Chicago”. Of course, his reputation at the time was only as a “fairly good” set designer.

Set designer, prop master, costume designer… The work of assembling the crew was being completed one by one. When everything was ready, the entire cast and crew of “The Pursuit of Happyness” headed to San Francisco, and the time had come to the beginning of October.

San Francisco’s weather in October remained as pleasant as ever, and as another hub of the film industry, every month saw movie crews working in this city. Now, it welcomed a new crew and the familiar Wang Yang. For the next two months, Wang Yang would be filming in this “territory,” and today, they were officially starting to shoot the first set of scenes.

“The Pursuit of Happyness” had several key indoor scenes, like Chris Gardner’s home, the brokerage firm, and the subway station; and there were many outdoor scenes, including streets and parks. As a kid who grew up in the Bay Area, selecting locations was a piece of cake for Wang Yang. He used to wander all over the Bay Area and had even done a “walk across San Francisco” tour during a summer break with that girl. He could think of a bunch of places for the street scenes he wanted.

For the first scene to be shot, Wang Yang chose “Chinatown Childcare Center.” It might be an exaggeration to say he could navigate Chinatown with his eyes closed, but it didn’t take Wang Yang much effort to find a very suitable small street, complete with a small childcare center whose windows allowed a view inside, and a graffiti wall decorated with whimsical murals. Of course, without “Happyness” and “Fuck.”

The street in front of the childcare center was crowded with people. The photography team was busy setting up and adjusting equipment, and Harry George carefully loaded a roll of film into the camera; Will Smith, dressed in a black suit and wearing a coffee-colored tie, was discussing the script with Terry Smith, while Jada and her personal assistant were entertaining Jaden, who was sitting in a baby carriage; Wang Yang and Walre Fister were discussing shooting angles, nodding from time to time. In the distance, some extras prepared to play pedestrians awaited the start.

“Director Yang!” Gordon Chin, standing by the graffiti wall, called out. Holding a can of black spray paint, he shouted at Wang Yang, who was in the distance, “I’m about to start spraying!”

“Oh!” Wang Yang patted Walre Fister on the shoulder and quickly walked over to the graffiti wall. Pointing to a spot, he smiled and said, “Spray ‘Happiness’ here, remember it’s not I, it’s Y.” Gordon Chin chuckled, pressed the spray paint can, and as a “zhi zhi” sound ensued, the word “Happyness” in light black started to appear on the wall. Gordon said with a laugh, “Alright, once it dries up a bit more, I’ll do some finishing touches.” Wang Yang nodded and then pointed to a spot a little higher up. “Spray ‘Damn’ here, and make it bigger.” Gordon switched to a darker paint can and began to spray.

Wang Yang did not choose “Fuck,” as its use would have intensified the deplorable conditions of the childcare center, further underscoring Chris Gardner’s poverty and desperation. He loved his son so much, yet helplessly had to place him in such an environment. The effect of “Damn” was similar, and since it was not a curse word, Wang Yang wanted to secure a G rating for the release as much as possible. The inclusion of “Fuck” would surely lead to a PG-13 rating.

Similarly, several scenes depicting daily life were modified so that Chris’s wife, “Linda,” would wear an extra nightgown and not appear on screen wearing just a bra.

One more change to the childcare center storyline was that the sharp-tongued Mrs. Zhu was actually a good person, which could be accomplished with a few additional lines and shots. Chris Gardner was so poor he couldn’t even pay the childcare fees after a long delay, but Mrs. Zhu didn’t throw Christopher out. Instead, on a day when Chris was late picking up his son, Mrs. Zhu cooked noodles for Christopher. Despite her sharp tongue and running a less-than- stellar childcare center, she had a good heart.

Was the sharp-tongued Mrs. Zhu a real character? No, that wasn’t the case. In reality, Chris Gardner was in New York at the time, and Christopher never attended a childcare center. Why make this change? Wang Yang was a part of Chinatown. While he acknowledged that there were lower-level childcare centers here, he was uncomfortable with the film’s only named Chinese character, Mrs. Zhu, being portrayed as a bad person. This was San Francisco! This was Chinatown! He felt a responsibility to do his community proud.

The two letters dried quickly, and Gordon Chin gave them another touch-up, making them look as if they had been sprayed on a long time ago. Once the scene was all set, the extras took their places, and Will Smith stood at the entrance to the childcare center, with an actor playing a Chinese uncle who couldn’t speak English sweeping fallen leaves and trash with a broom.

Wang Yang stood behind the camera, looking around at the crew members, Walre Fister, Harry George, and many familiar faces from the “High School Musical” crew. Were they ready? His second film on actual film! He grinned, peering through the viewfinder, and shouted, “Let’s begin!” Following his cue, Walre Fister started the camera, the assistant director called the take number, and the clapper board clapped down with a “clack.”

“Action!” Wang Yang excitedly raised his fist; this part of his life was called making movies!