Capítulo 29: Continued shooting
When the actors under him are constantly guessing about their director, Levi, as the director, at this time, enjoys the hard-won shooting opportunity.
Levi was also a director in his previous life for some TV series but had never experienced such delight as a prominent director in his previous life.
There are different requirements for filming TV dramas in different countries. In most countries, as long as a crew is equipped with a director, a photographer, and an artist, they can shoot TV dramas. But in the United States, a TV series must have at least four cameras to shoot a scene simultaneously. A few more cameras can significantly increase the shooting speed. When Americans shoot TV dramas, they can produce one episode a week. The scene must be filmed on the spot, and the material must be produced immediately. Costumes, props, sets, everything is very advanced. In these places, it is jaw-dropping.
Many people don't understand why American TV series are of high quality. In fact, this is easy to understand. The cost of filming American TV series is higher, and other countries cannot match the manpower and material resources invested. This is one of the reasons why their TV series are of the highest level.
Some say that American dramas have one episode a week, and other countries can try to follow suit, but they cannot. The investment in financial and material resources determines the speed of the filming of TV dramas. The shooting of TV series does not require superb acting skills, so the success rate is relatively high. Even though a scene is played only once, it must be shot several times for multi-angle shooting when shot using a single camera. So, the pace is definitely different.
In other countries, shooting a TV series can take several months, even a year, or even longer. There are some series that took more than a decade to shoot.
In the United States, an episode of a TV series can be filmed in a week. Also, not every day of the week was filming. From Monday to Wednesday, the actors are not used for filming. They only need to hold their scripts, read them at home, memorize the lines, and prepare their parts. On Thursday, it is usually rehearsal, and on Friday is the official shooting. For ordinary TV dramas, this rhythm can ultimately keep up.
The same is true for CSI: there are almost no big scenes in this drama. There are few scenes with different locations to shoot in this TV series, and the shooting is relatively fast. Levi is familiar with how to work, which can also speed up.
With a top-level prop group, an investment of 3 million dollars for one episode, and four cameras used to film the TV drama, even the top crew may not have had such a situation in his previous life. The investment in this episode is more than 70 times. With such a significant investment, Levi is naturally very satisfied with what he shoots.
"Cut! Okay, this scene can be passed."
Sitting in the director's chair, Levi nodded satisfactorily, signaling to start the next scene. He has to admit that filming the TV series is more straightforward than he imagined: after putting enough thought into it, his crew has much less trouble when filming it.
The filming of TV series has a long cycle and many characters. Often, the most considerable trouble is not the filming process of the TV series but the problems in the process of personnel preparation. There are at least ten indispensable actors in a TV series. It is challenging to ensure that all of these people have memorized their lines and analyzed their character performance methods, and it isn't easy to ensure that they are all fine and can all arrive on time. And once one of these people delays, the whole TV series will be affected.
Levi was also a person in the entertainment industry in his previous life. No matter whether he had contacted or heard of it, he had seen many similar problems. He used to film but didn't have such convenient conditions. They like big brands, so they must succumb to big names. Big-name actors have requirements for lines, camera positions, shooting angles, and half-view panoramas. If the lines are too difficult to memorize, they have to be modified. If the rhythm is insufficient, the screenplay has to be changed. If the lighting is not good when shooting, which shows the bumps on the face of the famous actor, then it has to be adjusted. The big-name actors will have the final say in all these things.
Here, he is the mastermind of this TV series. He is the producer, the director, and the original screenwriter. Different production concepts determine that he has enough power to decide how to do things, making the shooting of TV dramas progress rapidly. He also decided to choose good enough actors when he shot a movie.
In his previous life, the vast market made it rare to lose money filming TV dramas. Therefore, the person who pays will often have the final say in TV dramas. Once a script comes out, the director can change it, the actors can change it, and the producer can change it, resulting in frivolity. So, as a director, it is even more challenging to create excellent works.
In the United States, however, because the competition in the market is more intense and unrestrained, the investment amount has been increased one after another, and high-investment TV dramas are only possible by considering the return. Since the investment is 70 times that of domestic dramas, the possibility of losing money is significantly increased. American TV networks are always efficient. Since they need to make money from these TV series, those who keep their word will only be those who can create wealth, not those who contribute capital.
The rules of capital operation are different, resulting in a gap. For Levi, who has no money, the current model is obviously better than before. This mode made Levi much easier to command everyone.
Of course, the prerequisite is to become a producer and have enough say. If he changes his position and becomes an actor, Levi may like his previous life even more, where big-name stars act in TV dramas and they have a lot of say.
Of course, when filming TV dramas in the United States, there are also some problems. Sometimes actors get drunk and stop filming. The actor may get sick and stop shooting. If the actor is not in good condition or doesn't understand the lines, he has to explain and rehearse repeatedly. Not to mention that if the actor is fired, he has to find a way to let him die in the play. If the actress is pregnant, he has to find a reason that gives her a reason not to play for 4-6 weeks. Moreover, the actors get along very well and may decide to go to their car for a quick 'discussion.' Then, maybe the whole crew is ready, waiting for the two of them or more to hurry up and finish the filming.
Fortunately, there is no such thing in Levi's crew now. The actors are good enough to keep Levi's drama level going.
"Our progress is very fast." Taking advantage of the time between shooting, he flipped through the script for a while. Michael sat on the director's chair next to him and spoke softly, "The shooting process is better than we imagined. The performance is so much better than we expected. When I was involved in filming TV dramas, I rarely saw such a good one. It was really shocking. I don't know, since when did you have this ability?"
Such a TV series has as many as a dozen main actors, and it is difficult for every actor to perform well during filming. There are quite a few actors in this TV series, and everyone performed exceptionally well, enough to surprise people. As for Michael, Levi's performance obviously surprised him the most. He had known Levi for a long time and was also involved when they filmed a movie together. Even when Levi directed two or three actors in that movie, it was difficult for him to do his best. In this TV series, the number of actors has dramatically increased, plus the props team, the camera team, and the entire shooting scene, there are at least 30 people, and now Levi can command very easily. He keeps giving orders to get everyone in place, making people perform their duties, and this command ability surprised Michael.
This guy is progressing so fast as a director.
"It's a matter of being serious or not. Directing a small crew of two or three people makes it hard to make people willing to go all out, so they will be tricked. Now in this situation, can't we go all out?" Levi said this, just an understatement to cover up the past.
Was he playing for fun or playing yourself to suicide? Michael complained a lot, but no matter what, he was happy that his friend was improving in the director's position. The former Levi was not serious enough in doing things. Maybe after committing suicide once, he saw through many things and became fond of doing things seriously. His friend has become better than before, which is good; just be happy for him.
Levi himself didn't take his performance too seriously. It looked like he was doing well, but only adequately. In his previous life, he had participated in the production of TV dramas, so he knew how to do many things, so he could quickly get started. But now, when shooting TV dramas, the conditions are much better. With the use of props, shooting techniques, and actors' performances, he has to master these things a little bit. It's just this level of change, and there is nothing to fuss about.
With money, people, and skills, he would be too ashamed if he couldn't make a movie in such a situation.
Michael didn't understand Levi's mood because he hadn't been similarly depressed. Therefore, he didn't understand why Levi had such a high enthusiasm for work now.
Levi also ignored his thoughts and finally had his own work, and he is now making it with joy and wants to consider all other things.
"The first episode of our TV series has been filmed and sent to ABC. I hope they will be satisfied. They should be satisfied. Our actors are of such a high level; what else do they expect?"
This matter is also one of the reasons that made Michael happy: the filming of the TV series went smoothly, and the actors and actresses of the crew were also very high-level.
"Of course, our actors are of a high level...Clark has done an excellent job."
*****
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