Chapter 75 This part of my life is called "making a movie"

"Smith's family is out!"

There was no media in advance, and no movie fans would have thought of this situation. They all felt that the cast of "When Happiness Comes Knocks" was like this. Unless Wang Yang persuaded Tom Hanks, who was filming "The Rest of the Desert Island", would not be surprised anymore. But they knew they were wrong. When they saw a latest information released by the Flame Movie, "Christopher Gardner" will be played by Terry Smith, and Chris's wife "Linda" will be played by Jada Smith!

"It seems Will Smith is very confident about this new film. Obviously he doesn't think that the situation will happen that the 'family family appears in a bad movie at the same time' will happen. Will he regret it a year later? But it is certain that the young director is very happy now. This is his promotional method and it has succeeded."

This news undoubtedly brought great excitement to the fans of Will Smith, father-son, husband-and-wife... Maybe Jaden Smith will come out to make a guest appearance, and the whole family will go together. It's really interesting! Many people who were not interested in "When Happiness Comes Knocking" were also aroused and became increasingly looking forward to what the performance of the Smith family would be like?

Wang Yang was indeed very happy. Firstly, he found a suitable starring role, and the performance requires emotional input, and the experiential school pays attention to becoming a role 100%. Now the father-son relationship between Will and Terry is real. Is there any performance more ideal than true interpretation? Secondly, as the media said, this is very beneficial to publicity work, which will be a major highlight of the movie.

After confirming the lineup of Chris Gardner's family, Wang Yang successfully found several other non-supervisor roles, such as Mr. Tostell, who gave Chris an interview opportunity, and believed that the scanner was a madman who "time machine". These characters were not difficult to play, but they were quite distinctive, so the requirements for appearance and temperament were higher.

At the same time, the crew is also in progress. The photography team is mainly composed of "Singing and Dance Youth". The photographer is played by Vale Fist. Wang Yang and he worked happily in "Singing and Dance Youth" and cultivated a certain tacit understanding. Both of them are happy to work together again. Now the fat man Harry George, who is assistant to Vale Fist, has also become the photography assistant of the movie. With the opportunity to personally use the handheld, of course, the focus of his work is still on doing odd jobs.

Regarding the photography style and color style of "When Happiness Comes Knocking the Door", Wang Yang and Valephist discussed it many times and decided to shoot in a simple photography style with bright colors. The colors will change appropriately with the content of the story. At the beginning of the story, Chris' life has not changed yet, the colors are medium bright, and when shooting street scenes, the picture should have a slightly yellowed historical feeling; when Chris struggles hard, the colors can be dimmer; when he persists, the colors will become more and more sunny and warm in the final success. If "Singing and Dance Youth" is a brilliant summer sunshine, then "When Happiness Comes Knocking the Door" is the warm morning light of autumn.

In addition to the photography team, the setters and costume artists of the crew, Wang Yang also spent a lot of effort to choose. This is different from "Singing and Dance Youth". It is all campus sets and costumes, which happen in the present and not much difficulty. The time in the movie "When Happiness Comes Knocks" was 1981, and the 1980s seemed to be just more than a decade ago, but the world is changing with each passing day, and both cities and people are constantly changing. If we better restore the environment, clothes, etc. at that time, it is a very particular job.

In fact, the original version of "When Happiness Comes Knocks" has quite a few "broken shots". For example, in 1981, the subway seats in San Francisco were brown, not blue; a passerby passed by the subway station and ate UTZ brand potato chips that would not appear on the West Coast... Although these details are inconsequential, audiences and fans generally will not find out, let alone look at them, but Wang Yang just wants to do better. Maybe he is nitpicking, but the shots can be less, which requires a good setter.

Of course, some misunderstanding shots are intentional, because those are implantable advertisements, like UTZ potato chips. There are many such advertisements in "When Happiness Comes Knocking the Door", but Wang Yang doesn't want to do such a thing. Those small advertisements can bring three to four million sponsorships to the movie, thereby reducing the cost of making the movie. But his purpose is to rather spend more money than to have the best effect in the movie, deliberately letting advertisements appear in the camera? No, that will easily affect the audience's commitment and make them shout "Please!"

Through Robert Zemegis' introduction, Wang Yang tried to invite Nancy Hager to serve as the setter of the crew. This white woman in her 50s is the setter of films such as Forrest Gump and Truman's World. She has three Oscars nominations for Best Art Director-Scene and 1 award. She is the top setter in Hollywood.

But she rejected Wang Yang. Although she had just finished the work of Coen's new work "Three Days of Escape from Prison" and there was no new film contract yet. Although Wang Yang was sincere and had a reward of nearly twice the market, she still refused, and there was no reason. In fact, she was still the same one. She was not optimistic about Wang Yang, the "baby director" biographical film; Besides, he was not qualified enough. She is now working with top directors such as Coen brothers, Tim Burton, and Robert Zemegis. Fantastic Yang? She is just a child.

After being rejected many times, Wang Yang did not continue to make himself bored. With Will Smith's matchmaking, he finally invited Gordon Xin to join. This 40-year-old man is not bad. He is the setter of "Hurricane" that has not been released yet. In the future, there will be representative works such as "Chicago" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4". He won the Oscar for Best Art Director-Scene Little Golden Man with "Chicago". Of course, his current fame is just a "not bad" setter.

The setter, prop, costumer...the work of forming the crew is completed one by one. When everything is ready, all the members of "When Happiness Comes Knocks" go to San Francisco, and it is already early October.

The weather in San Francisco is still so pleasant in October. As another center of the film industry, there are film crews in the city every month to shoot. Now it has ushered in a new crew, Wang Yang, who is not unfamiliar with the familiar Wang Yang. In the next two months, Wang Yang will shoot movies in this "territory". Today, they will officially start shooting the first set of shots.

"When Happiness Comes Knocks" has several main indoor scenes, Chris Gardner's home, agency, subway station, etc., and there are many exterior scenes, streets, parks, etc. As a child who grew up in the Bay Area, choosing scenery is a very relaxing thing for Wang Yang. He used to wander around the Bay Area, and he also had a "hiking trip around San Francisco" event with the girl during the summer vacation. He could think of a bunch of places where he wanted the street scene.

In the first scene when the computer was turned on, Wang Yang chose the "Chinatown Nursery". To put it exaggeratedly, he could move freely in Chinatown with his eyes closed, and without any effort, Wang Yang found a small street that was very suitable for shooting. There was also a small nursery in the street, with windows that could be seen from outside, and the same graffiti wall with wall paintings full of childlike fun. Of course, there was no "happyness" and "fuck".

The street in front of the nursery was crowded with people, and the photography team was placing equipment and comparing. Harry George carefully placed a plate of film into the camera; Will Smith was wearing a black suit and a brown tie, and he and Terry Smith were talking about the script, Jada and his personal assistant teased Jaden sitting in the bb car; Wang Yang and Varre Fist discussed the shooting angle and nodded from time to time. In the distance, there were some extras who were preparing to play passers-by waiting to start.

"Director Yang!" Gordon Xin, who was standing next to the graffiti wall, shouted. He held a bottle of black graffiti spray paint and looked at Wang Yang in the distance and shouted: "I'm going to start spraying!"

"Oh!" Wang Yang patted Varre Fist's shoulder, then quickly walked to the graffiti wall, pointed to a position, and smiled and said, "Happyness spraying here, remember it is not i, but y." Gordon Xin smiled and pressed the spray paint. With the sound of "Zhizhi", a light black English word "happyness" gradually appeared on the wall. Gordon smiled and said, "Okay, I'll deal with it after it's dry." Wang Yang nodded, pointed to some of the positions above, and said, "Damn spraying here, it's bigger." Gordon changed into a bottle of darker spray paint and began to spray.

Wang Yang did not choose "fuck". The meaning of that word is that it aggravated the harsh situation of the nursery and further explained the poverty of Chris Gardner. He loved his son so much, but he had no choice but to put his son in such a nursery. The effect of "damn" is similar, and it is not a swear word. Wang Yang wants to win the release of G-level as much as possible. Once fuck appears, it will definitely be pg-13.

Similarly, in several sets of daily life shots, Chris's wife "Linda" will wear one more pajama and will not appear in the film without wearing a bra.

There is a little change in the plot of the nursery, that is, the sarcastic Mrs. Zhu is actually a good person, and this only requires a few lines and a few shots to change. Chris Gardner was so poor that he couldn't even pay the money for the nursery. It took him a long time, but Mrs. Zhu did not drive Christopher out. On the contrary, one day when Chris was late to pick up the child, Mrs. Zhu cooked a noodles for Christopher to eat. Although she was unforgivable and opened a not-so-good nursery, she was very kind.

Is the sarcastic Mrs. Zhu a fact? This is not the truth, because the fact is that Chris Gardner was in New York at that time, and Christopher did not go to nurseries. Why did this change be made? Wang Yang is a member of Chinatown. He admits that there are some lower-level nurseries here, and this is fine; but he is not happy that Mrs. Zhu, the only Chinese character with a name in the movie, is a bad person. This is San Francisco! It is Chinatown! He deserves to win glory for this place.

The two letters were quickly dried, Gordon Xin processed them again, making them look like they had been sprayed a long time ago, and when the scenes were arranged, the extras were all in their place. Will Smith stood up and stood at the door of the nursery, playing the role of a Chinese uncle who could not speak English, also swept the fallen leaves and garbage on the ground with a broom.

Wang Yang stood behind the camera and looked at the crew around him, Vale Fister, Harry George, and many old faces in the crew of "Singing and Dance". Are you ready? The second film movie! He grinned, pointed his eyes at the viewfinder, and shouted: "Let's start!" As he said, Vale Fister activated the camera. After the service shouted the serial number, he knocked down the record board with a "knock".
Chapter completed!