The Best Director

Chinatown’s “Madame Chu’s Daycare” was bustling with pedestrians and a white-haired old man pulling at an erhu outside a shop, all extras hired by the film crew; the production team was stationed across from the daycare windows, with Valery Faust hoisting the camera towards the left end of the street, and the lighting technician and sound recordist ready for action. Wang Yang looked towards the street corner and called out through the white megaphone in his hand, “Action!”

At his command, people began to move and a figure darted from around the corner— none other than Will Smith in a suit, running past Wang Yang and the others, and with a loud bang, he opened the daycare door: “Christopher, come here!” The camera lens shot through the window capturing the scene inside, where Will Smith hugged Terry tightly, closing his eyes with a face filled with hard-earned excitement and satisfaction, tears silently streaming down.

No music was necessary to evoke emotion, as Will Smith delivered a powerful performance. He had successfully delved into the character of Chris Gardner, resonating with the world in the script, and his acting improved as a result. Towards the end of filming, he hardly ever had any NG (no good) takes.

“CUT!” Wang Yang exclaimed excitedly, the final shot was complete! He couldn’t help but grin broadly and punch the air, jubilantly exclaiming, “A perfect shot! That’s it! It’s over, shooting is finished!”

Instantly, everyone in the crew cheered happily. Valery Faust turned off the camera and, smiling, set it down from his shoulder, handing it over to Harry George, and joined everyone in applause; Will Smith and Terry walked out of the daycare too, Will continuously clapping while Terry, looking at the lively crowd before him, felt inexplicably joyful and murmured, “Amazing! Filming movies is so much fun…”

It was the third time, the third wrap up. Wang Yang closed his eyes tight. With “Paranormal Activity,” there was a pure excitement, he hugged Zachary, hugged Rachel, he had actually made a movie, became a director, though it was only for a week, it was so crazy, so unbelievable; with “High School Musical,” the first film shot on celluloid, his excitement had an added weight of responsibility, as behind him was the company, and the trust of Jessica and others… Now, that responsibility continued, but he believed everything would turn out fine.

“Great job, it’s been a pleasure working with you!” After setting down the megaphone, Wang Yang opened his arms and embraced Valery Faust, who patted his shoulder with a laugh and said, “A pleasant collaboration for the second time.” Wang Yang replied with a smile, “And there will be a third time, Valery. I’m booking your ‘summer vacation’ for next year.” With that, he let go of Valery and then went on to hug Harry George, Gordon Chin…

“Will!” Wang Yang looked at Will Smith, noting his bloodshot eyes, and said with a smile, “Your performance was truly magnificent!” Will Smith, shoulder to shoulder, gave him a brief hug and said cheerfully, “Hey, man, I feel great too!” Wang Yang patted his back and with a smile remarked, “Will, I think you could totally win the Oscar for Best Actor!” Will laughed and said, “Right now, I’m just hoping not to end up with next year’s Golden Raspberry.” Wang Yang released him, giving his shoulder another pat, and smiled, “That won’t matter, Will. You’ll be at the Dolby Theatre, you will.” Turning to Terry beside him, he picked up the little guy and smiled, “Little handsome, you will too!”

After a good while of laughter and celebration, the crew began packing away the filming equipment, the finance department started settling payments with the extras, and the street blockade was lifted. Watching the orderly fashion of the crew, Wang Yang stood to one side with a content smile on his face. The shooting process had been very smooth; aside from performance issues, there had been no significant trouble during the two and a half months, and now that it was ending, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Young Master Yang, is the film done? When can we see it?” asked the uncle who owned the store at the street corner, who had approached without notice, hands behind his back, curiously eyeing the busy crew. Wang Yang glanced at him and replied in Mandarin, “Soon! I think you’ll be able to see it in theatres around June of next year.” The uncle threw another casual question, “What’s the story about?” Wang Yang answered solemnly, “It’s an inspirational biopic, roughly about Chris Gardner…”

The uncle listened for a bit then seemed to get impatient, waving his hand and saying, “Alright, I’ll wait to see it in the cinema.” He added with earnest, “Keep it up, Young Master Yang, Chinatown is counting on you!” Wang Yang nodded firmly and smiled, “Uncle, I will!”

With the end of the filming stage, “The Pursuit of Happyness” crew was disbanded. However, Wang Yang had already made arrangements with many people, including Valery Faust and Gordon Chin, hoping to work with them again on “Juno” next year. After having a farewell meal with his parents, Wang Yang left the familiar San Francisco and returned to the place where dreams take flight, Los Angeles.

In the conference room of the Flame Film Company, Wang Yang sat at the head of the table, examining a financial report laid out before him – the budget breakdown for “The Pursuit of Happyness.” As the film’s producer, he had always been aware of the costs since he had personally hired the actors and crew, and knew exactly how much money had been spent; however, he hadn’t meddled much with the logistics management, which was handled by department heads.

Will Smith’s salary was 15 million, Terry Smith’s was 200,000, Jada Smith’s was 1 million… Wang Yang scanned the payroll section, starting with the actors’ salaries, then the salaries for staff like Valery Faust. Due to the outstanding cinematography and color in “High School Musical,” Valery Faust’s value had soared, and with the addition of well-known figures like Gordon Chin, the staff salaries had inevitably seen a significant increase compared to “High School Musical.”

Fortunately, the combined expenditure for the producer, director, and screenwriter positions was only 1 million. Although this 1 million went from one hand to the other, Wang Yang’s personal account was different from the company account, and the books had to be clear and explicit. He didn’t want to touch the company’s funds lightly, but he needed money for living expenses and to pay the salary of his private life team. However, as far as bodyguards were concerned, his contract with Ethan Lachter had ended, and he would hire on a temporary basis whenever needed. At a daily salary of ten thousand for a bodyguard, he could afford it, but there was no real necessity.

Film stock expenses, food and accommodations, road closure fees… Wang Yang quickly reached the last page, where after the shooting phase, the total cost neared 30 million! Adding post-production editing, sound recording, and scoring, it was expected to reach around 32 million.

“OK, no problem,” Wang Yang closed the document in his hands and set it aside, smiling happily, “I didn’t expect the cost to be lower than the initial budget.” The initial budget was 40 million, and after acquiring Blue Sky Studios for 100 million US Dollars, the cash in the company account was not abundant, barely enough to cover the promotional budget for ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and ‘High School Musical’. Now saving 8 million was good news.

On the other side, Mark Strong shrugged his shoulders, twirling a pen in his hand, and said, “I didn’t expect it either. So my boss, when do you want to release it?” He asked with a smile, “You can choose anytime, ever since we announced this film project, theater companies have been contacting us. If you want to release it a week from now, you could probably get about three thousand theaters to open the film.” Everyone in the meeting room laughed, and Mark Strong continued with a smile, “But I wouldn’t recommend that. We should give it another week for promotion.”

Wang Yang rolled his eyes and spread his hands, saying with a laugh, “Alright, let’s release it two weeks from now, just in time for the Christmas season!” Everyone laughed again before Wang Yang seriously said, “According to the original plan, let’s release it at the beginning of next year’s summer blockbuster season.”

“That’s going to be exciting,” Mark Strong opened a document and looked at the release plans of other companies inside, explaining, “On May 19th, Buena Vista’s ‘Dinosaur’ will be released, wow, with a budget of 127 million, but it’s an animated film, so it doesn’t have a high market conflict with ours; on May 24th, Paramount’s ‘Mission: Impossible 2’ releases, oh, with a budget of 125 million, directed by John Woo, starring Tom Cruise; on the 26th, Buena Vista has another movie ‘Shanghai Noon’, starring Jackie Chan; on June 2nd, Fox is releasing ‘Big Momma’s House’, I’ve seen its stills, absolutely low-brow humor, but there has always been a good number of people who like that…”

Following those were Nicolas Cage’s ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’, Jim Carrey’s ‘Me, Myself & Irene’, and later on, ‘X-Men’ and so on… The summer blockbuster season is never short of blockbusters or the presence of A-list stars, this period is a head-on collision, of course, the law of the market is always that good movies stand out and bad movies fail miserably, no matter the season.

“The good news is!” Mark Strong paused for a moment before laughingly saying, “The only biographical movie is ‘Gladiator’ releasing on May 5th, but that’s set in Roman times, and it’s all fighting and killing; then look at ‘Mission: Impossible 2’, ‘Shanghai Noon’… they are all action movies! So, we are the only ones playing the card of warmth and sentiment.”

Wang Yang silently nodded, this indeed was happy news; the market needed intense excitement, and naturally, there was also a need for warmth and touching stories, and it was surprising that no one else was competing in this area. However, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ had Will Smith and his family, and him. With proper promotion, there was no fear of those blockbusters. He looked at Mark and asked, “So, when do you think would be good to release it?”

Mark Strong glanced at the file, then passed it to Wang Yang, saying, “I suggest releasing it on the 20th, avoiding ‘Dinosaur’ in front and ‘Mission: Impossible’ behind. We need a quiet period to prove the quality of the film.”

Taking the file, Wang Yang seriously reviewed the detailed market and release schedule analysis report, and after a while, he looked up and smiled, “OK, then let’s have the premiere on May 20th!”