Global Film Emperor

Chapter 388 Eighteen Scenes in a Row

"Excuse me, sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to register the deceased so that you can pay the management fees and find information about him. May I ask you now?"

This was a short, stout middle-aged man with a receding hairline, a shiny bald head, and a large belly. He was holding a pen and a register. Although he was not in good shape, his white shirt was wrinkle-free and his tie was neat. He stood behind Parker.

The willows beside the cemetery swayed in the wind, but the wind did not stir Parker's neatly combed hair. He turned around with a cigarette in his mouth, put the cigarette into the portable ashtray, looked at the man who was a head shorter than him, expressionless, turned his head to look elsewhere, took a deep breath through his nose, loud enough for the cemetery caretaker to hear, his throat bobbed, and he murmured.

"May I ask your name?"

“Parker, Parker Lee.”

"Parker Lee... OK, what was your relationship with the deceased?"

"My son."

The writing stopped, the register pad he was holding was put down, and the administrator then looked Parker up and down, and then looked at the tombstone. A photo of a young man was pasted on it, confirming that the deceased was not very old. He raised his hand and rubbed his nose. After hesitating for a moment, the administrator asked a question.

"Sir, are you very rich?"

"No, is there a problem?"

"It's nothing. This is the second person to commit suicide this year. The last one was an adult. He was brought here just last week. No relatives came to see him off, just like the relatives of previous suicide victims. It seems you really love your child. What's his name?"

“Jason Lee, seventeen years old, he… is going through puberty, very rebellious, rarely communicates with us, and he's also encountered a lot of bad things outside, just like us, so…”

The only button on his suit jacket was undone, his left hand reached through his coat and pinched his waist, which was covered by his shirt. Parker turned to look at the photo of his son on the tombstone, his right hand rubbing his stubble.

"Yes, adolescence is a dangerous time for children. After all, this is a period of recklessness, and if they don't communicate much with their parents, it's indeed very easy for them to..."

Gently waving the register and slapping his thigh, the administrator nodded repeatedly, his double chin showing again and again, echoing Parker's words, because everyone knew that parents who lost their children were "very pitiful."

Suddenly, the atmosphere fell silent. The caretaker looked at Parker but didn't disturb him. He simply waited quietly, allowing the father to look at his child's gravestone a few more times. The leaves rustled gently, creating a soothing sound. A cricket, seemingly in heat, was chirping incessantly in broad daylight. Parker lowered his head and let out a long sigh.

"But he's a good boy."

“I think…yes, Jason, did you bring your identification documents? I need to register your identification numbers.”

Parker took his ID card out of his wallet and handed it to the administrator. Looking into the distance, he saw his wife and other relatives slowly walking towards him. Seeing the administrator return the ID card, he asked one more question.

"Is there anything else needed? Like my wife's identification documents or something."

"No, that's no longer necessary. All we need is identification from a direct relative with the same surname as the deceased. All other information is stored in the database. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Parker. I'll be leaving now. Also, I'd like to say that Jason may not be a good kid, but you are definitely a good father."

……

At this moment, the administrator leaves the frame, and Camilla and the other actors enter the frame. Lucas slowly pulls up the low-angle shot to create parallax and widen the distance between the main and supporting characters, as if the characters are slowly rising from below the horizon. This merges the isolated space of the main character with the space of the female lead and the others until everyone is in position and the two spaces become one. There is no panning shot or a gradual upward pull from a low angle. The second camera directly uses a super close-up shot of Lu Ze's upper body to highlight his dominant role and go straight into the protagonist's inner emotions.

Using this kind of camera language requires actors to have exceptional acting skills and a very good grasp of the rhythm of the plot. The release and release of emotions need to follow the camera, and the time difference needs to be shortened to less than one second. Otherwise, if the actor adjusts his emotions too early or too late when the camera starts, it will have a significant impact on the expression of his inner feelings, and the scene will be ruined.

This shot is very difficult to complete in one take. Even top actors sometimes fall short, but Lu Ze is an exception.

An actor who can lead other actors into his rhythm, and is considered a rhythm master in the industry, can guarantee a success rate of over 90% in terms of plot development if he goes through the scene twice during the audition. Lu Ze may have made mistakes in his early films, but now that his acting system has fully matured, it's hard for him to make a mistake.

In the half-second the camera focused on his face, Lu Ze looked at the tombstone, his facial expression and the emotions in his eyes rapidly switching from pain to anger, then to sorrow, followed by a sense of loss. Finally, he suppressed all his emotions, became expressionless again, turned to face the crowd, and gently nodded to the visitors.

This was a classic expression shift that left the other actors watching from the sidelines in awe, almost exclaiming in surprise. This emotional restraint was unlike any other actor's, and the progression of the emotion was distinctly different from that of other actors.

The script won't go into the details of emotional portrayal; no one could write a script like that. The director won't care how the actors' emotional progression is arranged, as long as the effect satisfies him.

Generally speaking, an emotional transition goes from a low point, up to a peak, then down, and finally all the emotions are put away. For example, in a crying scene, the actor must first prepare tears before they can be expressed.

Lu Ze, on the other hand, completely defied convention, bringing his emotions to a peak instantly before gradually diminishing them in a clear, step-like manner. This method, however, is not suitable for crying scenes. After all, when an actor is preparing tears, they are also helping the audience prepare tears. If an actor starts crying directly, firstly, their own emotions may not be able to be expressed, and secondly, the audience will feel very uncomfortable.

But in scenes that express inner emotions, there's an unusual sense of exhilaration, as if this is how the emotions in the scene were supposed to be arranged. Don't think it's just a matter of the emotions being switched; after all, being able to evoke such high levels of emotion in such a short time is a feat that has stumped a lot of people, including most well-known actors. You have to admire them all.

With just a few simple glances, so subtle they defy description, Lu Ze delivered a textbook performance. It's likely that next year's acting textbooks will include another case study.

The director and cinematographer were not focused on Lu Ze's emotional control, but rather on Lu Ze's incredibly fast reaction speed when the camera was focused on his face. Seeing that Lu Ze remained as steady as a rock, they breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Still so fast, frighteningly fast."

Kesha leaned in and whispered something in Mickey's ear, marveling at Lu Ze's incredible control of rhythm. Since you can't look at the camera while filming, Lu Ze relied entirely on his sense of rhythm. Although the speed of Kamiya and the others' steps was already factored in, his 0.5-second reaction time was still monstrous. Not only Kesha, but even Mickey had never seen such an unbelievable performance.

"So many scenes, haven't you gotten used to it yet? It must be six consecutive close-ups, right? Damn, that number is terrifying. He's a monster. No wonder Camilla wanted to take leave. If it were me, I would have run away long ago. You said two consecutive scenes, Lucas said he couldn't even do one. I said four consecutive scenes, and now it's six. Remember to give me the thousand pounds right away."

This was a small bet, which Lu Ze was unaware of. The bet was that Lu Ze could get several close-up shots without any problems and complete them in one take. Obviously, the Mendeleev brothers had never seen Lu Ze act and had little confidence in him. Mickey, who had seen Lu Ze act, was also very conservative and never expected Lu Ze to be so amazing.

Including other scenes, Lu Ze has already filmed seventeen scenes without any problems. Originally, these seventeen scenes were expected to be filmed in a week, but Mickey only set the date after taking into account Lu Ze's acting ability.

Now, Lu Ze only took three short days... This is the result of having to queue for changing filming locations. Otherwise, Lu Ze could have done it even faster. To put it dramatically, the actors' actual filming time is less than three hours a day. Even they themselves complain that staying in the hotel all day is too boring. They can't go to bars because of their physique. Every day, besides reading the script, they rehearse. It's really not as good as spending a day on the film set.

But the more free time they had, the more fearful they became of Lu Ze. Filming with such a formidable opponent was like a winning team losing a game; whoever made a mistake had to take the blame. Under such high pressure, it was no wonder these people were exhausted.

But later, as Lu Ze led them to break the original record time and time again, they felt a sense of excitement and participation. They gradually realized that creating a record for all the actors was an incredibly honorable thing, and they hoped that they would also be a part of that honor. Moreover, after adapting to Lu Ze's pace, every scene was a good opportunity for them to hone their acting skills, and they slowly learned to cherish it. So, everyone has a masochistic side; after all, people are inherently masochistic.

Back to the scene, the moment Lu Ze turned around seemed to be slowed down many times in Mickey's eyes. He started shaking his leg excitedly, perhaps also feeling nervous, but he would never admit it. Until Lu Ze was completely steady, he suddenly stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs that the movie he was most satisfied with in his life was finally over.

"Cut! 'Rebirth' has wrapped filming!!!"

Unlike previous film crews, there was no enthusiastic cheering at first. Instead, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Right now, they were witnessing just how terrifying a monster who hadn't made a mistake in eighteen consecutive scenes was. This was an unprecedented record that would likely never be repeated. It made all the onlookers afraid to even breathe, lest they be blamed and Mickey would strangle them.

Many people regretted that if they had known he could film eighteen consecutive matches without breaking the record, they should have had a Guinness World Records official stake out the place. Maybe Lu Ze could have become a world record holder.

Afterwards, all the actors who entered the painting, except for Lu Ze, sat on the ground for a long time to recover. Even Kamiya lost her graceful demeanor and was panting heavily. Although they didn't have any lines and only took a few steps, their precise footwork was still quite impressive, and their legs were still weak.

After a full half-minute break, someone slowly stood up and rushed towards Lu Ze, who, after the call to action, returned to his chair as if nothing had happened, unscrewed his thermos, and took a sip of tea.

"Eighteen scenes! Eighteen scenes! That's fucking insane! The craziest thing is that I filmed eleven scenes with you! Dude! You should be excited! Don't worry, I'll promote it! I guarantee every actor in Britain will know about this tomorrow! God! I'm having a heart attack, Carl! Call an ambulance!"

More and more people rushed over, as if they had lost their minds, surrounding Lu Ze, opening the champagne they had prepared, and spraying it all over Lu Ze's head. Although it was not appropriate to do this in a cemetery, people no longer cared whether ghosts would come looking for them at night, and the atmosphere was extremely lively.

"Lu Ze, congratulations. Although filming with you was exhausting, and I don't even want to work with you again, I have indeed learned a lot from you these past few months. Thank you. It seems... I should add annotations to the script again, since you've already done it."

"Thank you."

After shaking hands with Camilla, Lu Ze smiled and nodded. After everyone put aside the eighteen consecutive scenes that they could talk about for a year and went to celebrate the completion of filming "Rebirth", Lu Ze took a towel from the staff, dried his hair, drank a sip of tea mixed with champagne, spat it out, and calmly sat back in his chair to open his phone.

Eighteen consecutive shots would be an insurmountable mountain for others, but for Lu Ze... it was no big deal. In the system's training, he had never made a single mistake from the start of filming to the end. Compared to him, the system's crew was truly stable, having never made a single error in tens of thousands of scenes.

Lu Ze originally opened his phone to post a Weibo announcement that filming for "Rebirth" had wrapped up, but when he unlocked the screen, there were six missed calls, all from a number ending in 1265, calling every ten minutes. However, Lu Ze had silenced his phone and didn't see any of them. After confirming that they weren't scam calls, Lu Ze clicked to call back, and the call was answered after two rings.

"Hello, this is Lu Ze."

"Brother Lu... I'm at Liverpool Airport... Where are you?"

Planes soared into the azure sky, and travelers around her were constantly reuniting with or parting with their loved ones. At the airport entrance, foreigners kept asking if she needed luggage handling, but she shook her head and refused them all. She leaned against a pillar, sat on her blue suitcase, and swung her delicate size 35 feet, which barely touched the ground. Of course, she was wearing GS-sized children's shoes. She looked at the crowd and smacked her thin lips, which were covered with bright red lip gloss.

"Stay where you are, I'll come get you. Once we get there, we'll share your location."

"..."

(End of this chapter)