章 40: Chapter 40: Authentic Performance
Anything, when done practically, reveals its difficulties.
After rearranging the lighting and rehearsing the actors' movements, with the crew ready, Murphy, the director-cum-cinematographer, began test shooting. As before, when Kerry Mulligan turned her head, he called for a halt again.
Everyone on set looked at Murphy, unsure of his intentions. Kerry, an emotionally expressive person, was visibly frustrated, having prepared herself emotionally for a long time only to be stopped after one action.
James Franco simply found a chair and sat down, realizing that this was a gathering of unreliable people led by an unreliable director.
Fortunately, his purpose wasn't about the characters or the film; otherwise, working with such novices would drive him insane.
Looking into Murphy's eyes, James couldn't help but feel a hint of disdain. This so-called director talked big, but in practice, he was full of problems.
But it was probably for the best, to prevent Kerry from idolizing him too much.
Compared to the quirky James Franco, Jessica Chastain, with her formal training, was more professional. After Murphy called for a halt again, she immediately took the camera, asking, "What's the problem?"
Without hesitation, Murphy blurted out, "Kerry's eyes aren't bright enough, not lively enough, which could diminish the charm of the female lead."
"What?" Kerry obviously heard Murphy's words, pointing to her own eyes, about to retort, but Murphy interrupted, "Kerry, it's not about you; it's the lighting issue."
The camera lens and the human eye are different. Even the brightest and most lively eyes to a regular person would appear dull on camera.
"Eye light!" Murphy slapped his forehead in frustration. "How could I forget about eye light?"
He sighed; these were troubles brought about by lack of experience.
It was the first close-up shot of the female lead, Haley. If her eyes lacked brightness, the charm of the character would be greatly diminished. Eye light was essential.
Douglas, the lighting technician, followed Murphy's instructions and added a Fresnel spotlight below the main light specifically to create eye light for Kerry.
After a busy half-day, they finally achieved the desired lighting effect. Murphy, amidst his headache, also breathed a sigh of relief. The scenes to be shot at the café were relatively simple, but lighting was the major issue.
After adjusting the lighting, Murphy specifically had Kerry face him and casually took a close-up shot. In the frame, Kerry's eyes were bright and innocent, seemingly able to penetrate into one's soul.
Only a girl who looked innocent, beautiful, and lovely like this could captivate the mind of a criminal, right?
But fixing the lighting didn't mean the crew could smoothly proceed.
The crew was full of newcomers with no prior experience working together, especially Kerry, like all new actors, couldn't immediately adapt to film shooting.
After resuming the test shooting, Murphy managed to capture her background and the moment she turned around smoothly. But when James Franco, playing Jeff, walked into the café to greet her, her expression and tone changed.
Just like before, her emotions were too expressive. Even the café owner, Lynch, could tell she disliked the person coming to greet her.
This made shooting difficult. At this point, Kerry, playing Haley, should have shown her innocent and lovely side to entice Jeff.
"Stop!" Murphy called a halt to the entire crew. "Take a break for half an hour."
After being busy with lighting issues for so long, he needed to catch his breath. He called Kerry out of the café.
"Sorry, Murphy..." Standing at the café's entrance, Kerry seemed like a guilty child. "It's all my fault; I didn't do well enough."
Blaming someone like Kerry would only backfire, so Murphy asked, "Does James bother you that much?"
During rehearsals, Kerry had managed to control her emotions towards James Franco. There hadn't been any issues in the morning, so why the sudden change?
"At lunch..." Kerry lowered her head. "He said a lot of unpleasant things."
She then looked up. "Murphy, I really don't like him. During rehearsals, he's always trying to please me, clearly with ulterior motives."
"Oh?" Murphy looked at her. Kerry was naive but not foolish.
"I feel... I feel like James Franco is...," she looked at Murphy, seeing his encouraging smile, she continued without hesitation, "I feel like he's just like Jeff from the script."
"Is that so..." Murphy didn't seem surprised. Instead, he pondered. Kerry anxiously looked at him, her bright eyes seemingly waiting for Murphy to replace the annoying guy for her. However, after a while, Murphy said, "James does indeed resemble Jeff from the script."
"What?" Kerry widened her eyes. "Is that true?"
She lacked experience but wasn't dumb, appearing somewhat panicked.
"Calm down, Kerry." Since Murphy said so, he must have a plan. He reminded her, "You forget, in the script, Haley faces Jeff..."
"...while I'm facing James Franco..." With Murphy's reassuring gaze, Kerry gradually calmed down, her bright eyes showing a hint of contemplation. "He's just a more timid guy than Jeff."
Murphy looked at her, encouraging her. "Dealing with James Franco should be interesting."
"Yeah!" Kerry almost shouted, quickly covering her mouth. Carefully, she peeked inside through the transparent glass door, then whispered, "I can deal with him the way Haley deals with Jeff!"
"A little lesson should do." Murphy wiped the sweat off his forehead.
But he didn't stop Kerry. This was his deliberate provocation, and since this wasn't a film, he believed the girl inside wouldn't do anything too extreme, at most embarrassing Franco a bit.
The benefit was obvious. Facing James Franco and his character Jeff, Kerry only needed to perform naturally, reducing the difficulty of acting.
Back in the café, Kerry's performance during the shooting was completely different. Facing James Franco's Jeff, she fully portrayed the innocent, lovely, childish, and slightly seductive side of the character, even causing James Franco to pause in confusion during the test shoot...
Seeing Kerry in her red hoodie, resembling Little Red Riding Hood, her innocent and adorable appearance and demeanor, James Franco almost couldn't suppress his inner impulses for a moment. Thankfully, he was an adult, having played similar games before, though never encountered such a captivating type, he managed to control himself.
"Cut!" James Franco was still dazed, but Murphy called a halt, giving thumbs up to the two actors. "That was great, Jim, Kerry! You both did amazing!"
This was supposed to be a test shoot, but the result exceeded Murphy's expectations, especially James Franco's momentary confusion facing Kerry, which vividly portrayed the urgency beneath his cultured exterior.
With James Franco's current acting skills, it would be difficult to replicate the same performance.
"This is authentic acting!" Murphy muttered to himself, "If these two can act authentically, the effect will definitely be the best."
Just like Robert Downey Jr. with Iron Man, actors often perform best when their characters are similar to their real selves.
Although there was an occasional smooth shoot, it couldn't mask the various problems within the "Hard Candy" crew. Afterward, shooting fell into a cycle of mistakes, mistakes, and more mistakes. Murphy
's lack of experience was the main reason, while the average ability of the other crew members was another.
After three days, not even a few minutes of café scenes were completed. Murphy fully realized that the people he recruited, with their cheap rates, were directly proportional to their abilities.
Fortunately, he chose a relatively simple film like "Fruit Candy." Otherwise, as a novice director with a crew of average ability, shooting a bigger-budget film would surely drive him to despair.
In these three days, Murphy fully experienced the difference between watching, analyzing, and studying film in film school and actually shooting and producing a film. There was a vast gap between the two, at least as wide as from Los Angeles to New York.
Although faced with numerous difficulties, Murphy never thought of giving up. It was impossible now, as he had already invested tens of thousands of dollars. Giving up meant all the investment would be in vain.
Murphy was determined to persevere, though he couldn't avoid feeling depressed. There was another person feeling as frustrated as Murphy: Lynch, the owner of the Milton Café.
With the crew shooting, the Milton Café had to temporarily close. When they initially signed the contract with the crew, Lynch thought that with such few scenes, shooting would only take two days at most. He hadn't paid attention to the fact that Murphy's contract didn't specify a time limit. After a few days of shooting, he couldn't help but regret it.
Not only could his café not operate, but he also had to provide free meals for the crew. It was draining his finances...
Luckily, the café's scenes were minimal, and before Lynch reached his breaking point, Murphy finally finished shooting the scenes with single-digit shot numbers there, leading the crew to Saint Fernando Valley.
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