Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 266 Everyone is Happy
For the filming of "Inception", Cao Yang directly gave 16 internship places to the Beijing Film Academy and asked these students to serve as assistants on the crew.

His film internship is the most sought-after resource in the school, no doubt about it.

I have interned in his crew, which is a very remarkable qualification in the country at this stage.

Because Cao Yang is now a full-fledged professor in the Directing Department, he simply waved his hand and allocated six places to the Directing Department, including two graduate students and four undergraduates.

The remaining ten places will be shared by other departments.

And it is limited to undergraduate students who are only in their junior or senior year.

There is no other way. If there is no limit, many freshmen and sophomores with connections will probably grab a lot of places.

When Cao Yang added limiting conditions, the school leaders in charge of these matters would understand his underlying intention and would not dare to go too far. Among the dozen or so vacancies, only one or two people with connections would be able to "slip in" each time.

This is actually a tacit understanding.

It is difficult to prevent this kind of thing from happening. It is impossible for Cao Yang to go to schools in person to recruit and inspect for a dozen internship places every time. That is unrealistic.

Setting a limiting condition is the optimal solution.

Of course, it’s not that the leaders in charge of this matter are so selfless. Only one or two people intervene each time.

As mentioned before, this is a tacit understanding. For the leader in charge of this matter, the fewer places that can be inserted through connections, the more precious they will appear, and the "power" in their hands will be maximized.

For Cao Yang, he would add one or two extra intern places on top of the original quota given to the school. That is to say, if the crew originally needed fifteen interns, he would give the school sixteen places.

The extra ones are reserved for those with connections.

In this way, the number of originally planned places has not been reduced, and most of these people are students with excellent performance in school.

Don't think that Cao Yang's actions are unnecessary. Nothing in this world can escape the word "human feelings".

Even the much-praised Europe and the United States are in a bad state, and some are even more blatant.

It’s just that they are better at packaging.

For example, if you take money from a company in China, it is considered corruption and bribery. In Europe and the United States, it is called political donation, which is legal.

He never thought of challenging the world's unspoken rules alone. That's what saints do.

Cao Yang does not consider himself a saint or a hero. He can only try his best to ensure relative fairness and be at peace with himself.

In addition, he also tried his best to arrange some people from Qingying Studio to join the crew. In terms of staff, it has to be admitted that people from Hollywood are more professional.

He wants to train as many people as possible.

Generally speaking, it is definitely for the future of Chinese films.

Of course there is selfish motive. Those people who were trained because of Cao Yang will naturally stand on his side, making his position in the film and television industry more secure in the future.

Today is the first day of filming, and it was scheduled to start at nine in the morning. Cao Yang arrived at the crew at eight.

Precisely because it was the first day, he had to come early. Even if he did nothing, as long as he was in the crew, the staff who had not yet had their run-in would not argue or be perfunctory, and the preparations would be smoother.

Claire Danes didn't come to the crew early. She arrived at around 8:40.

If her assistant hadn't called her in time today, she didn't know how long she would have slept.

She felt that she had a bad sleep at night, as if she had experienced a person's life all night, and that person was the role she was going to play, the male protagonist's wife Mel.

This was very exhausting for her mentally.

However, what surprised Claire Danes was that whenever she thought of Mel now, it was as if she was that person, and her understanding and perception of the character was extremely deep.

It’s as if... as if this is my life!
What the hell, why would I have such an idea?
Claire Danes was very confused, as her understanding of the role was only superficial yesterday.

This character used to study dreams with the male protagonist Cobb and became a pioneer to the Lost Zone. He committed suicide by jumping off a building because he could not distinguish between dreams and reality.

But now she understands the role completely differently.

What about jumping off a building to commit suicide, what about not being able to distinguish between dreams and reality, how could Mel not be able to tell the difference!
The Lost Zone is a magical place where time seems almost eternal, and in some ways, time has lost its meaning there.

In other words, as long as you can stay there, you can gain eternal life!
She just wanted to be with Cobb forever, explore the Lost Territory together, and live forever together.

Why didn't anyone, including Cobb, understand her?

How did Cobb become...

Claire Danes quickly shook her head, as if to drive these thoughts out of her mind.

She looked at Cao Yang, who was discussing with photographer Gu Changwei, with a complicated expression, not knowing how to describe her feelings at the moment. Before yesterday, she was somewhat resistant to Cao Yang's request to write about her character's feelings. If Cao Yang was not a famous director, she would have raised objections long ago.

Moreover, she once doubted Cao Yang's method because she didn't feel that talking about the play and writing about the character's feelings would improve her acting skills.

This method can definitely be of great help in understanding movies and characters, but it cannot improve an actor's acting skills.

In other words, actors with good acting skills can better interpret the roles they play after understanding the content and characters of the movie.

But what about actors who are average or poor actors? Even if we know this information, what does it matter?

He still can't act it out!
Claire Danes has always believed that although acting skills can be trained, it is also an industry that requires a lot of talent.

Therefore, before yesterday, she felt that she had grasped Cao Yang's "secret".

This is also the secret of most directors.

It’s not really a secret, the trick is for the actors to audition!

As long as we keep a close eye on this aspect, find actors with excellent acting skills, and then patiently explain to them the content and connotation of the film, as well as their understanding of the characters, we can allow these talented actors to realize their maximum potential.

This is also the reason why many directors are willing to work with a fixed number of actors.

Because those actors were carefully selected by them and they were in line with their understanding of acting skills.

Like Cao Yang, why did he continue to work with Depp in Hollywood?

Because Depp can understand what Cao Yang said, and can transform it into cognition, and can perform what he wants.

This is actually not an easy thing to do. It is not easy to find actors who can understand and perform according to the director's requirements...

At least that's what Claire Danes thought before she woke up today.

Now, Claire Denis suddenly became excited. Could it be that she was the kind of actor that Director Cao Yang needed?
Why do I understand the character so well? It's like I am the character myself!
Does Director Cao Yang know that I am the kind of actor he needs for long-term collaboration?
At this moment, Claire Denis seemed to see the three major European film queens waving at her.

At this moment, Claire Danes seemed to see the Golden Globe and Oscar winner bouncing towards her.

At this moment, Claire Denis wished that Cao Yang would start filming immediately and shoot her scenes right away, so that director Cao Yang would know that she was his "true love"!
She couldn't help but glance at Depp who was putting on makeup, as if she saw her future self.

Just when Claire Danes was full of confidence, Cao Yang received a call from Xiao Gangpao.

He took the phone from his assistant, he really didn't want to answer the call. The shooting would start in ten minutes or so, and a call at this time would just cause trouble.

"Director Feng, what do you want?"

When Xiao Gangpao heard Cao Yang's tone, he couldn't help but laugh. He knew that Cao Yang must be filming, because when he was filming, he had the same tone when he received calls from outside.

"Brother, that's awesome. I just couldn't help it and wanted to call you to give you a compliment."

The little cannon chuckled, "You're the only one not in Beijing right now, otherwise I would stop filming and treat you to a good meal no matter what, haha... it's really pleasing to the eyes!"

He was filming "Night Banquet" in a studio in Beijing, and he had some free time before the filming started, so he called Cao Yang.

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

Cao Yang smiled and said.

"Hey, forget it if you don't understand. I won't owe you this meal then."

Xiao Gangpao laughed loudly and then said, "Those people really think that they are in power just because they are old, and they have the final say in the Chinese film industry? Bah, without influence, they are nothing!"

Cao Yang didn't want to talk to Xiao Gangpao anymore, so he said, "Okay, I'm going to start filming now, I won't talk to you anymore."

The little cannon still laughed loudly and replied: "Okay, I'm going to start filming now. Finally, brother still wants to say, you kid, you're relieved!"

After hanging up the phone with Xiao Gangpao, Cao Yang shook his head. Xiao Gangpao must be very happy now, right?

Yesterday, October 10, the Golden Rooster Awards announced the nomination list, and Xiao Gangpao's "A World Without Thieves" did not even get a single nomination.

The angry little steel cannon spoke without thinking.

"My current mood is like when I was young and I pursued a beautiful girl, but she never cared about me. A few years later, I grew up and the girl was already a middle-aged woman in menopause. I only had one thought: avoid her as much as possible!"

Not only that, the young actor publicly vowed that he would never participate in the Golden Rooster Awards.

Perhaps in order to save face, Xiao Gangpao told the media that his "A World Without Thieves" had long been withdrawn from the list of nominated films and had not been nominated for the Golden Rooster Awards, so it was normal that it did not receive any nominations.

The reason why he called Cao Yang to say so much today was because yesterday, October 10th, the launch conference of "Inception" almost occupied all the hot spots, and almost no one paid attention to the Golden Rooster Award nominations.

(End of this chapter)