The Best Director

“Heh, da—”

“Heath, make your steps a bit more solid, now walk straight over, grab his shoulder with your left hand, and give his face a few punches with your right hand, then pull him in.”

At Firefly Films’ spacious and enormous motion capture studio, the crew was busily engaged in days of martial arts training, while the action choreography team was designing and testing shots simultaneously. Team members and the almost tripled number of stunt doubles were either leisurely designing movements or fluidly practicing fast-paced scenes. In fact, this work had already begun a long time before the start of training.

There would be many action scenes in “Firefly”, massive, indoors, involving gunfights, spaceship battles, and close-quarters combat; martial arts scenes. Major actors like little Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Wu, Heath Ledger, Gina Torres, Jessica Alba, and others involved in martial arts scenes, all had to undergo specialized Kung Fu training, which varied in content and intensity depending on their actual role and personal combat background.

The script contained continuous fight scenes, such as Captain Mal, Jayne, and Zoe VS River; Blue Gloves VS Civilians, Blue Gloves VS Alliance Officers, Blue Gloves VS Reavers, and Blue Gloves VS Mal; River VS Civilians, River VS Blue Gloves, River VS Reavers, and so on…

When it came to combat ability, River was the strongest, followed by the Blue Gloves. Due to their design, the “Blue Gloves” equipment possessed enormous strength and dissolving capabilities, making Heath Ledger’s battles against the “monster horde” relatively easy and carefree. It was only when he had no gloves or other equipment, and fought Mal and River, that the action got serious, so comparatively, Heath Ledger’s specialized training was not overly burdensome.

If “The Matrix” was Keanu Reeves, and “Underworld” was Kate Beckinsale, then “Firefly” would be Jessica Alba. She wasn’t the focus of the gunfights in the film, but she was River in the martial arts scenes. Consequently, even with her first-rate dance skills and decent foundation in martial arts for a non-action actor, Jessica still had the most exhausting training regimen, at least seven hours a day, so tired that she’d fall straight asleep at night, bringing an abrupt end to her newlywed life.

Jessica was also nearby, training her punching speed, drenched in sweat, occasionally yelling out to vent; not long ago, she had been practicing wire work in midair. Flying on wires may look simple, but to maintain balance in the air and control one’s limbs to execute kicking and punching movements is extremely challenging, requiring significant strength and balance.

“It’s getting scarier…” Watching her fierce determination, Joshua, who was observing and assisting nearby, bit his lip. Her rapidly increasing combat skills were not necessarily good news for him.

Little Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Wu, and others were also deeply engrossed in their training under the guidance of martial arts assistants. Heath Ledger was practicing some shots in collaboration with director Wang Yang and action director Donnie Yen.

Donnie Yen was ultimately chosen to be the action director for “Firefly”. The 40-year-old had been learning various martial arts since childhood and was discovered in the 1980s by Yuan Heping in Hong Kong, landing a series of action roles and becoming a disciple of Yuan. However, this important member of the Yuan clan soon started his own team and, in addition to acting, directed movies like “Legend of the Wolf” and “Big Brother of Tangshan”. He served as a martial arts director for “Blade II” in 2002, “Shanghai Noon 2” in 2003, and gradually made a name for himself worldwide.

Wang Yang didn’t seek out the renowned Yuan Heping who had enjoyable collaborations with Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and the Wachowskis, nor the equally famous Ching Siu-Tung, but instead went for Donnie Yen. It wasn’t an attempt at being needlessly novel. It was because Ching’s grace and beauty didn’t fit his vision, and Yuan’s forcefulness wasn’t his desired style. Moreover, he wasn’t a director unfamiliar with action. Yuan’s approach would have too much influence on his initial foray into martial arts and the future; he needed more control, a better fit in feeling and style.

Yet he didn’t want the type of coldness in “Blade II”, nor something like “Underworld”, “Resident Evil”, or “Kill Bill”…

“I want the fight to be extremely explosive, unrelated to the scenery, props, or special effects—it’s just inherently intense and fierce, savage, with that boom, boom, boom and bang, bang, bang burst feeling! It has to be full of weight, speed, and strength, but sometimes it can be a soft move, full of finesse. River should be like Tai Chi, powerful with a hint of ethereal grace, but not too much, while also having the heavy impact of Bajiquan; the blue gloves should be cleaner and more decisive, aiming for the vital points, immensely powerful with the gloves on, and as fast and fierce as Muay Thai when off; Mal is more dangerous, and Jayne puts more emphasis on power, on the wild expression…”

Of course, this was not “Ip Man” or “Wing Chun.” Designing action shots, they wouldn’t care if it was Tai Chi, Bajiquan, or Muay Thai—it was all a kind of blended “Kung Fu,” or say free combat, just like real fighting, with no fixed sets of moves, they used whatever was effective and whatever looked good.

In a real fight, if you cling to fixed routines, you will definitely die miserably. You fight with whatever comes to hand. Maybe the same move, different schools have different methods of disengagement, different names for the moves, but in the end, they often end up being quite similar. Although integrating knowledge is the true path, schools still have different styles, especially on the silver screen. How to achieve this integration, to make the style smooth and unified, is the problem for the director and the action choreographer to solve.

Wang Yang had lots of ideas for fight scenes since he was young, often designing action shots without any plot; and in the many discussions, Donnie Yen understood his intentions well. The sharp style also suited the tone, so Nick-Zhen took the title of action director of “Firefly.”

“Hmm.” Hearing the director’s command, Heath Ledger, standing on a large swath of blue mats, responded and walked deliberately towards the stuntman a few steps in front. The stuntman lunged at him with open arms, but Ledger stepped aside to dodge, grabbing the stuntman’s shoulder with his left hand wearing the blue glove and smashing a few rapid, effortless punches to his face, then suddenly pulled him in as if to embrace him, and gently said, “Thank you.”

This was an important line for the character with the blue gloves in the script. His speech style was concise and direct, often just a few words, nearly always colloquial. His actions required no explanation, no nonsense, except in a few scenes; and after every kill, the man with the blue gloves would always say “Thank you,” no matter who the deceased was—a looter, an innocent civilian, a star alliance official, a gangster, anyone.

Heath Ledger was still pondering what tone and intonation to use for the “Thank you.” The man with the blue gloves killed countless times throughout the script. Was there any difference between each “Thank you”?

“Very good!” Wang Yang clapped his hands in praise. The outcome felt right. If following the storyboards and the script, then the looter would next explode, dissolving into a puddle of water, the power of “blue gloves.”

“Hah.” Ledger continued rehearsing. In these days of working together, he found that this young director seemed to especially like saying “Very good,” encouraging and praising everything. In comparison to the set of “Brokeback Mountain,” this place was simply “The New World.” At the “Brokeback Mountain” set and others, to hear a “Well done” or “Very good” was so rare that one perked up immediately upon hearing it, but now… he was becoming almost numb to it.

But the feeling was truly great! He hoped that this director wouldn’t turn sour once the shooting started like Ang Lee did. As these thoughts flickered through Heath Ledger’s mind, he also found it amusing how he always desired praise, sweet treats, to make him happy, but he admitted it.

“I’ll go check over there,” Wang Yang patted Donnie Yen’s shoulder, instructing him to continue overseeing Ledger’s fight choreography, then headed towards the other leading actors. “Robert, you have muscles but lack power and speed. You’re unable to throw quick punches. Practice your power delivery!” A sweaty Robert Downey Jr. yelled back, “I have no power? Arm wrestle me!” Wang Yang turned away with a scoff, “Why should I arm wrestle a loser? Ridiculous. Hey, Susan! What’s up?”

“This is a challenge!” Downey Jr.’s roar halted midway as he saw the brown-haired woman ahead, one of the long list of producers of “Firefly,” Susan Levin. His face instantly shifted to a cheery greeting, “Hey, Susan!” Susan responded with a smile, “Hi.”

As Wang Yang and Susan Levin walked away discussing something about the management of stunt performers until their voices couldn’t be heard anymore, Downey Jr. snapped back and continued training. Were his days of singlehood coming to an end?

“Daniel, make your punch heavier, smash it down like a hammer! Then your foot like this!” “Keep it up, good job!” “Jessica, glide over like doing the splits, you don’t really need to do them, then turn and hit the raider on the left with some quick punches—chest, neck, face!”…

Wang Yang paced back and forth in the motion capture studio, running all over the place, demonstrating moves to the lead actors and discussing shot designs with Donnie Yen. Watching everyone throw punches and kick, sweat pouring like rain, he got itchier and itchier to join in the fray! Lately, he’d had no energy for nighttime entertainment, plummeting from a peak to a valley, and it was driving him crazy! Not wanting to interrupt the actors’ training, he stroked his chin, glancing at Donnie Yen beside him, feeling not quite satisfied…

“I want to fight ten guys!” On the blue padded stage, Wang Yang struck a pose with a few of his team members. The members of the stunt team were astonished, but he bowed and said, “Come here! I need to personally test some shots.”

“Huff, whoa…”

A morning passed in the Flame studio, following the past few days’ routine. In the afternoon, Wang Yang arrived at the headquarters of Image Engine on West 5th Avenue in West Vancouver. What does a VFX company with funding, talent, and technology equal? Image Engine has become one of the top-tier VFX companies in the industry, second only to the leader Industrial Light & Magic, yet on par with The Lord of the Rings 3’s Weta Workshop in areas like animal motion capture and explosions, and even starting to lead in some technologies.

Besides providing effects for Flame Group’s films like Furious Cars, Image Engine wasn’t idling. It participated in the special effects production of several blockbusters and had just taken a portion of the CG work for Sin City. Every animator and member at Image Engine knew that with a 200 million investment, Serenity would carry them towards the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Being from the same company, Firefly naturally inherited the VFX team from District 9, with visual effects supervisors Sean Walsh and Richard Kidd; Sean Walsh also took on the roles of head of the computer production and special effects team leader; Steve Nicholas was the animation supervisor, Brian Mack the modeler, among others… This team of hundreds, including CG experts and VFX talents from around the world, could turn any director’s wildest imagination into reality.

“Yang, are you alright? Any problems?” In the office, the round table was covered with drawings, and rotating 3D models of the Firefly spaceship were displayed on the computer screens. Sean Walsh looked at Wang Yang, puzzled, as the young director was grinning from ear to ear. Could it be he wasn’t satisfied?

Having worked together for a while, Sean knew that Wang Yang’s ideas were always fresh and stunning, his demands exacting and perfection-seeking; he even asked if the more than 4000-pixel shrimp-alien could be “even more realistic?” Now, these spaceships and sci-fi cities were on another level compared to the aliens. But thankfully, the technology was the same and evolving—clay modeling, 3D scanning, rigging… the prototype Serenity was “very smooth and soft”, and the imaginative Yang wanted “texture”.

Of course, Serenity wasn’t finished with the official texture mapping yet, which was Image Engine’s forte. Like with the shrimp-aliens, by adding materials and pushing pixels up to 4000, 5000, they could be brought to life realistically, warranting that even Star Wars: Episode III wouldn’t match the detailed textures. But creating those materials for texturing would take a lot of effort; various parameters would also need to be tuned gradually… Special effects production was always a tedious task requiring patience.

“No, I’m good,” Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders and rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand a few times, enjoying the relief. He had enjoyed the brawl, but he’d also taken quite a beating, and he’d need to rub some medicinal wine on it when he got back to his apartment. He surveyed the room, looking at Sean Walsh, Valerie Fiest, the art director Kevin Cavanaugh, and others, and continued, “I hope that our effects can be reflected more in details of certain scenes. In other words, to create a feel of a sci-fi world.”

Wang Yang picked up a drawing from the table. On it was a bustling city street. He went on, “This is the remote fringe of the galaxy, like the Wild West. It’s not the clean style of sci-fi you get in the heart of the galaxy, but it still has details that are definitely different from 2004. What about the traffic lights of the future? And on another note, about the effects and shooting for the action sequences, we know we’ll definitely need high-speed cameras for some slow-motion shots, because I love slow-motion.”

“Ha ha!” Everyone chuckled lightly. Slow motion was indeed one of Yang’s favorites—it seemed like every one of his films had quite a few of those scenes.

“Ever since ‘The Matrix’ introduced bullet time, it seems like high-speed cameras went from PRADA to CASUAL-CORNER, from Cannes to Hollywood overnight, and everyone’s using them! But so what? I believe there’s still much, much more charm in high-speed cameras, not just bullet time. We can discover other novel and suitable effects. In fact, I’ve tried it—I filmed a cheek getting punched, and it was beautiful! Those facial muscles and the whole head ripple and twist like waves…”

“Ah… oh… ah…”

Under the night sky of Vancouver, in the spacious living room, Danny listened to these sounds that were a mix of pain and pleasure, agitatedly wagging his tail, anxiously circling the sofa. On the couch, Jessica was frowning tightly, her teeth gritted, her slender left leg resting on Wang Yang’s knee. He had just applied some medicinal liquor to his hands and was vigorously massaging the area around her left ankle, asking, “How does it feel?” Jessica sighed contentedly, “Oh GOOD…”

Wang Yang smiled and continued to knead and massage, looking at her delicate foot and enchanting calf, he couldn’t help murmuring, “But I’m not GOOD!” She hadn’t sprained her ankle; applying medicinal liquor was just to relieve the fatigue accumulated in the joints. However, the intensive training of the past few days had indeed made her suffer quite a bit, and it would only get worse after the film shooting began. Looking up at her, he asked, “Is it very tough?”

It was only a little over a week now, but could her body withstand this intensity of martial arts training? He was truly concerned; people who stay tired for a long time tend to get sick, especially someone like her with inherently weak resistance and immunity… Could it be that she was neither suited for arts nor martial arts?

“It’s tough, but I’m fine! I really enjoy it.” Jessica giggled, going back to work wasn’t as joyful as a honeymoon, but this week had been incredibly fulfilling. She knew that the more sweat she shed, the better ‘Firefly’ would be. “Come on!” Seeing the worry on his face, how could she not know what he was thinking? It was infuriating! Jessica got somewhat angry: “Sometimes I really want to beat you up. Don’t act like I’m just a vase—that’s pretty but breaks at the slightest touch.” Wang Yang immediately said, “What are you talking about? I didn’t think that.”

She kicked him with her left foot, insisting, “I know you didn’t, but you’re too protective of me. I know martial arts, I know yoga, I can street dance… No matter how difficult it is, as long as it’s not nude or kissing, I can do it!” She yelled, “Jessica— you can do it! I can do it!”

“Of course!” Hearing her loud shout and the echoes in the room, Wang Yang nodded his head, casting aside his worries. Just as she believed in him, he chose to believe in her and support her unconditionally, seriously saying, “You can do it!!”

“Yes! Let’s continue.” Jessica leaned against the sofa, silently making a resolution. She had to train hard, give her utmost effort and perform River’s role to the best of her ability! “Super Yang Stars”, “Barbie Dolls” … to hell with all that! As she thought this, she couldn’t help but cry out again, “Oh… oh GOOD…”

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PS: Some readers have reported issues with duplicate content and missing chapters; I’m innocent here. The problem lies with the website. Everything is fine on WORD and the backend upload. I’m powerless against the technical issues at the website and can only wait for them to fix it. Sorry for the inconvenience! (