Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Cut! Rachel, I need your expression to be more insane, more ferocious! And,” Wang Yang held the DV camcorder, looking at Rachel seriously, “maniacal, out of your mind, twitching, anything! Just imagine: you are possessed by an evil spirit, and it is taunting you, playing with you, and talking to you. ‘Oh, you stupid human’, something like that.”
In the bathroom of the apartment, Rachel was in blue, plaid pajamas, standing in front of the mirror above the sink. Wang Yang stood by the bathroom door with Zachary Levi standing behind him.
Yes! They were shooting the movie “Paranormal Activity”. In fact, this was the third day of the shooting, and they were halfway through the whole process.
As a movie started to be shot, it was not shot according to the script, but according to the order of different settings, meaning the director would complete all the shots in the same setting first, and then move to another setting. In order to save time and money, it was the most efficient way to shoot a movie. If the director shot the movie according to the order of the script, he or she would have to fly between LA and New York all the time. By contrast, if the director shot the movie according to the order of the different settings, all he or she needed to do was leave the footage to the film editors to connect all the shots as a coherent story.
As for the actors, because of the script, they would be very clear about what they were doing and could get familiar with the whole sequence of the plots.
However, all of the plots in Wang Yang’s movie happened in the new home, which was his apartment. Therefore, there wouldn’t be any different settings in this movie. In order to get Rachel and Zachary Levi to dive into the emotions more smoothly, Wang Yang decided to shoot it according to the script order.
Such a shooting method was definitely one of a kind, but in order to save on production cost, there was something even more particular. The customs of the leading actors were not provided, which meant no matter if it was Rachel or Zachary Levi, both of them were shot in their own clothes. Just like the blue plaid pajamas Rachel was wearing, they were brought to the scene herself.
The scene they were shooting right now was where the leading female character “Mae”, played by Rachel, was awakened in the middle of the night. Then, she went to the bathroom and stood there still. After more than an hour, the leading male character “Kevin”, played by Zachary Levi, woke up as well and realized his girlfriend was not in bed. Therefore, he walked out of the bedroom with the DV camcorder in his hand and went to the bathroom. As he walked into the bathroom, the DV caught the image of Rachel’s ferocious face in the mirror.
Mae’s “ferocious face”! Rachel had tried various ways of acting this expression out, but no matter if it was an exaggerated and maniacal performance style or a subtle and reserved performance from her eyes, Wang Yang just couldn’t be satisfied.
“The performance in my mind should be… um, maybe I should act it out for you myself?” After a long speech of his, Wang Yang suddenly wanted to perform the scene himself. Rachel nodded and said, “Okay, the stage is all yours. Maybe I’ll get your point after.” And then, Wang Yang passed the DV camcorder to Zachary standing beside him and walked to the mirror. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes, trying to dive into the emotions.
“I’ve been possessed by an evil spirit, so I should be in a state of delirium…” Wang Yang tried to persuade himself in his head, and then he slowly opened his eyes and began to squeeze every muscle on his face. Seriously, it looked totally like a Jim Carrey performance. When he saw his own expressions in the mirror, he couldn’t help swearing. Wang Yang “restored” his face and shook his head. “Not like this, not like this.” He shrugged and said disappointedly, “Well, I can’t act it out. I guess my position is to hold the DV camcorder, anyway.”
Rachel and Zachary couldn’t help chuckling, and Rachel said playfully, “That’s so true. You are a natural-born director.”
Wang Yang burst out laughing too, and then said inspiringly, “I can’t deny that my performance was lame, but I think I just noticed something.” He folded his arms across the chest and started to observe Rachel in the pajamas from head to toe. He wasn’t appreciating Rachel’s figure, of course, but he realized a mistake in his way of thinking. Then, he frowned and said, “Rachel, could you just act this scene out in a casual way?”
“Sure,” Rachel replied. Then, her facial expression began to change. In the mirror, she was like a psychopath cracking up her mouth and grinning. And a moment later, she became a fool with her eyes rolling up.
“I got it!” Wang Yang’s eyes were all lighted up. He snapped his fingers and said, “We are all paying too much attention to the performance on the surface, but our thinking shouldn’t be like this!” Rachel stopped her acting and got quite confused about his comment. “So what do you mean, exactly?” she asked. Wang Yang tried to sort out his ideas and said, “In this shot, it requires Mae to be ferocious and insane, but the core of this scene is to create a creepy and terrifying atmosphere! And it is the key to making people feel scared, isn’t it?”
Wang Yang clapped his hands while looking at Rachel and began to explain the most updated instruction to her. “From now on, no ferocious faces, no being out of your mind. They are not the point. What we want is you to be creepy! Think about it. What kind of performance can create this creepy atmosphere?”
Rachel nodded, not fully understood his instruction. She replied earnestly, “Well, let me think about it.”
It was no doubt one of the obstacles in the shooting process. Although Rachel was a college student majoring in drama, and Zachary Levi started acting since he was a little boy, their performances were still rather immature and lacking experience. And the immature performance would always result in more consumption and less efficacy. However, in this shooting, the problem was mostly Wang Yang.
After all, it was his very first time shooting a movie, meaning he was a rookie himself. He had no experience at all either. Luckily, the movie was a mockumentary, which had a low requirement of cinematography skills. From the shooting position to the transition of shots, everything could be amateurish. He could even make the shots especially shaky because the shooting technique of the leading character was just amateur. Therefore, Wang Yang hadn’t encountered many problems in the shooting part.
The real problem was that, when the camera was rolling in real life, many things were out of his expectations as he planned in the designed shooting script. There were also many things that he had taken for granted but were not realistic in reality. Therefore, he had to figure out a solution to cope with the problems. What’s more, another problem was that new inspirations would appear all out of sudden. Sometimes, Wang Yang was enlightened by Rachel’s performance, so he had to revise the script assiduously. As a result, the original version had to be replaced by the new one. Therefore, the shooting speed was slowed down too.
Just like what was happening now, Wang Yang imagined Mae’s ferocious face in his head, but half a day had passed and he was still not satisfied with the shot. And now, he suddenly changed his original idea and wanted to create a creepy atmosphere instead.
“I think I’m getting there.” Rachel thought for a while and said to Wang Yang, “Let’s do it again.”
“Okay, everyone pay attention!” Wang Yang took the DV camcorder from Zachary and stepped back to the position by the door adjusting the shooting angle. And then, he counted down, “3,2,1, action!” As he finished counting down, he clicked the shutter on the DV camcorder.
As Wang Yang shouted “action”, Zachary, standing behind him, started to cry out in deep fear. “Oh, babe! Why are you standing here in the middle of the night?” All of the audio in this movie was taken from the original recordings of the DV camcorder. For one, it could present the authenticity of the mockumentary, and moreover, it could save some money.
Upon Zachary’s scream, Rachel, standing in front of the mirror, started to act. She lifted her lips, and one side of her dimples appeared. The expression should be a sweet one, but she began to stare at the mirror with her eyes opening wide. Then, her eyes rolled up, so the blue pupils gradually vanished in her eye socket.
“Cut!” said Wang Yang. Then, he frowned. “It seemed okay, but somehow not enough. I still feel there’s something missing, but I can’t tell what is missing specifically…” He scratched his head and said, “Never mind. Let’s take a break.”
Both Rachel and Zachary Levi nodded. When encountering a problem like this, the director shouldn’t force the performance. It was highly possible that, after a break, the problem would be solved smoothly.
Stepping out from the bathroom, Zachary Levi went to the balcony for some fresh air, and Wang Yang sat down on the red couch while frowning. He was holding up the DV camcorder and looking at the footage shot by it just now, wondering what on Earth was missing.
“Here you go.” Rachel threw a coat on herself and got two bottles of coke from the fridge, passing one of them to Wang Yang. She encouraged him, “Yang, don’t push yourself too hard. You should let go of it for a bit. This is just the third day of our shooting. We still have more than one week, don’t we?” Then, she joked, “Don’t let me make the 4,000 dollars too soon.”
Wang Yang took a glance at her and smiled. “No worries. It won’t be easy for you to make that 4,000 dollars, cuz I’m a black-hearted director.”
“Director, come on, take a break.” Suddenly, Rachel reached out her hand and took the DV camcorder from Wang Yang, then turned it off and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. She suggested, “How about I tell you a joke? Maybe it could loosen you up a little.”
“Wow, that would be great!” Wang Yang opened his coke, drinking and smiling. “Honestly, my bar is very low, so don’t pick a super funny one. Otherwise, I’ll laugh to death.”
Rachel rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t worry. My jokes are lame. Well, listen…”
While she was about to tell the joke, Wang Yang’s cellphone rang and the pleasant atmosphere was interrupted. Wang Yang said, “Excuse me,” in a hurry and took the cellphone out. The caller ID was Jessica Alba. Then, he answered the call smilingly. “Hi, Jessica?”
On the morning of the day before yesterday, Jessica had come to the apartment for the first group of shots, but at that time, she had only stayed for a very short time. After that, she didn’t show up yesterday, and it was around 5 o’clock in the afternoon now.
“Hi, Yang! How is the shooting going? Am I interrupting you guys?” Jessica’s sweet voice came out of the cellphone. Wang Yang glanced at Rachel and smiled, “Not at all. We are taking a break now. The shooting is okay. ”
Then Jessica said smilingly, “Yang, I’ll be there soon. I made a pizza. Have you guys ordered the delivery yet?” Wang Yang said, “Wow, pizza? Just in time! We haven’t ordered any delivery yet.”
“Then, just hold on there. It’ll be about a half-hour drive.” Jessica hung up the phone delightfully.
Wang Yang, shaking the cellphone, said to Rachel, “It’s Jessica. She made a pizza and she is on her way—about a half-hour away from us.” Then, he licked his lips, acting as he was starved. “Wow, pizza. Just in time! It could be our dinner.”
Rachel joyfully shouted, “Wow!” too.