Chapter 88 Filming in Progress

  "Little Aoi, your expression is not right. At this time, you need to show confusion in pain, but you're showing too much pain. After falling down, you should be puzzled about why you fell down just now, rather than just showing your pain. Also, the direction of your fall just now didn't quite take care of the camera...". Nagata Koto was instructing Miyazaki Aoi on acting, and the young girl's acting skills had been interrupted for several years. Although her talent was still there, she wasn't used to many things. Zhou Xiao was also very focused on learning from Nagata Koto, even occasionally jotting down notes with a look of being a diligent student.

  "What's up? What did you learn?" Nagata Kotono sat back on the stool after finishing her lines with Miyazaki Aoi, and turned to ask Zhou Xiao beside her.

  "I didn't know even such trivial things need preparation..." Zhou Xiao said with a sense of wonder.

  Things on paper are always just on paper, Zhou Xiao's script is already very detailed, after all, he has two original works to refer to, but even so, many things still need to be weighed by the actors and director on the spot, but just the difference between the overall setting and Zhou Xiao's memory may require the actors to make appropriate changes.

  Zhou Xiao had never studied directing, and in his past life, he was at most a half-media person. Although he had been to the scene, it was only because of other work that he went there. Most of the knowledge about directing in his previous life came from the internet and media entertainment circle friends. In the process of chatting with those friends, Zhou Xiao got most of his movie knowledge.

  After that, Zhou Xiao began to intensively study film and television production knowledge after determining his goal. He not only borrowed many related books from the library but also invited Nagata Kotono to teach him every day. Nagata Kotono seemed to understand Zhou Xiao's intention of inviting her as a director, so she was very dedicated to teaching him. During this period, what Zhou Xiao learned about film was no less than what he had learned about music from those music teachers every day when he was in Being. With the clear movie scenes in his mind, Zhou Xiao felt that he absolutely had the opportunity to recreate those classic memories.

  No, what he has just learned is not only the artistic grasp of acting skills, but also the position of the camera and the understanding of the lens.

  In addition, during the filming of this movie, Zhou Xiao was very satisfied with Nagata Kotaro. Although Nagata Kotaro had been an apprentice to Iwai Shunji for some time, she did not adopt his unique film philosophy. She has her own strengths and although she may not have Iwai Shunji's extraordinary talent, at least as a commercial director or a relatively ordinary director, these things are already more than enough.

  This is actually what Zhou Xiao hopes to see, Zhou Xiao doesn't need too many people with extremely strong personal styles to be his director. In his opinion, such directors are great at making movies, but not suitable as teachers. Because the things he wants to shoot are inherently someone else's, so he can't have any color on him. Those famous and highly acclaimed films in history were all shot by different people, with the same script handed over to a director with their own style, the final product would still be that director's work, not the original director's. That's why Zhou Xiao needs to learn only technique without bringing any directorial color to himself, because only then can he shoot something with someone else's color.

  In the new script created by Zhou Xiao and Nagata Kotaro, the overall storyline of the story has not changed much, and it still continues the plot set by Zhou Xiao in the movie and TV versions of "A Liter of Tears". The plot of Zhou Xiao's version is actually nothing special, and at first glance, it even looks a bit like a third-rate Korean drama. However, compared to Zhou Xiao's previous film version of "A Liter of Tears", this version has a more excellent plot and sentimental scenes.

  The previous version of Zhou Xiao, can be described as having no plot, the entire film can be summarized as Ah Ya getting sick, Ah Ya suffering, and Ah Ya dying. The director used this approach to highlight Ah Ya's own suffering rather than other messy plotlines, and relatively speaking, that version also followed the original work more closely.

  But isn't the point of movies to tell stories and make money, to be visually appealing? Zhou Xiao doesn't plan on being some avant-garde filmmaker or doing anything too experimental. He's only making this movie for two simple reasons: to learn something and to earn money and fame. As for other aspects, like artistic value? Unless it can bring him some benefit he wants, then artistic value isn't going to put food on the table, is it? He's really getting a bit worried about being poor.

  In addition to Miyu, it was Mika Ninagawa who quickly showed off her remarkable talent as a young and inexperienced girl. Apart from lacking experience, she has already done an excellent job playing the role of Aya. Compared to the other two actresses in this film, the movie version's lead actress Mao Inoue is relatively ordinary in terms of acting skills and image among Japanese actresses. Unless someone helps her out, it's unlikely that she'll become a top-notch actress. As for Erika Sawajiri, she's also an outstanding young actress, but the key to her character is that she has a somewhat arrogant personality, whereas Aya is relatively more gentle and soft-spoken. Although her acting skills are already enough to cover up her true nature, it still can't compare to Mika Ninagawa's performance.

  Kyoko Maki's personality is actually not bad, there were rumors that she had a bad personality, but if her personality was so bad, after marriage, there would be rumors of domestic violence? Moreover, Kyoko Maki's husband, Takashi Koga, is not a good person either. Compared to having a bad personality, the rumors about Takashi's infidelity and domestic violence are more believable, because he even scolded Korean Wave on his blog two years ago. Putting aside what Korean Wave is like, but this kind of temperament doesn't seem to be very good. A more direct proof is that Takashi can only be considered a third-rate artist, while Kyoko Maki has been winning awards since her debut and is the number one new-generation actress in Japan. In front of such a huge gap, the combination of Yumi Yamaguchi and Tomoaki Miura looks like a perfect match!

  Kiyohiko Azuma has already fully immersed herself in her role over the past two days, making her appear even more delicate and weak than usual. She looks just like a sickly beautiful girl. However, Zhou Xiao also feels somewhat regretful. Although "A Liter of Tears" focuses on Aya's story, this film, from the director to the investors, has a strong commercial flavor and tendency. With such a team, it's likely that the movie will lack artistic value. Zhou Xiao wonders if the girl he brought into the entertainment industry can still become the Kiyohiko Azuma who won many European film festival awards.

  While following the crew to shoot, Zhou Xiao also worked as a miscellaneous worker for the crew. Originally, he wanted to be a drama officer because he heard that drama officers were basically the highest-level miscellaneous workers in the crew, but unexpectedly, most of the work in the entire crew, whether it was drama or props, had a certain level of professionalism, and ordinary people might not necessarily be able to get started right away. After being busy for half a day, Zhou Xiao honestly returned to his original position as a miscellaneous worker. However, as an investor, even though Zhou Xiao was very kind, there were really not many people in the entire crew who dared to order him around, and perhaps only two people, Yakushi Maru Hiroko and Director Nagata Kotono, dared to do so.

  As for Miyazaki Aoi, the little girl's most common way is to order him through Yakushi Mariko: "Mommy, I want that, Mommy I want this..."

  Then with Yakushi Maru Hiroko's finger, Zhou Xiao hears the wind and moves...

  Of course, the atmosphere is good, after all, Miyazaki Aoi is a newcomer who has just started acting for the first time and hasn't developed the habit of professional actors who would die to act well and then pretend not to know each other after filming.

  As for Yakushi Mariko? She's just having a maternal outburst.

  (I'm going out tonight and tomorrow during the day, so I'm going to bed early...)