This director loves making friends.

"Uncle, do I make you feel ashamed, that's why you're pretending not to know me?"

"It's okay. All the kids and teachers in my class are like that. My mom often says I'm superfluous and that she shouldn't have given birth to me. When she drinks, she always says she wants to take me with her to die..."

"You're worse than my classmates who mocked me, but I don't hate you. If I hate even you, then I have no one I like."

"Just thinking about it makes me hurt so much here. I won't hate your uncle, don't worry."

"Click!"

Yang Xiaomi recited this passage mechanically, like she was memorizing a text. Apart from a blank expression, there was absolutely no acting involved.

Qin Keqing rested his chin on his hand, frowning, his anger about to burst out, and he really wanted to vent it and give Yang Xiaomi a good scolding.

However, enough criticism has already been done today.

Especially an hour ago, after I scolded Yang Xiaomi again, she started crying and I couldn't stop her. She sobbed for more than half an hour, which made it impossible to film for almost an hour.

Qin Keqing felt that if he continued to curse, he could forget about filming today.

He hates movies with children, especially those with important roles played by kids under ten years old, and he vowed never to touch such movies again in his life.

After receiving Pierre-Lissent's call today, Qin Keqing's initial joy vanished completely, and he calmed down entirely.

"Director, I think that although shooting this scene together would have a greater emotional impact, the actress is too young. Even if she memorizes so many lines, she lacks the expressiveness to complete it. It's too difficult for her."

Photographer Liu Weiqiang reminded Qin Keqing from behind, "This can't go on. We should either break it down into individual shots or stop memorizing lines and focus only on the actors' performances, then do the dubbing later."

Qin Keqing breathed a sigh of relief. After calming down, he realized that he had been affected by Pierre-Lissent's phone call, which made him too impatient.

Why are Hong Kong films able to be produced in such a short period of time?

Most of them abandoned the careful crafting of plot and characters. They weren't exactly shoddy, but they weren't very serious either. Basically, they were considered acceptable as long as they were passable.

This was clearly not what Qin Keqing wanted.

This reminded Qin Keqing of Pierre Lissent's statement that "The Man from Nowhere" needed to be completed by August 25th to qualify for the Venice Film Festival's main competition. Qin Keqing felt she needed to seriously reconsider.

It's too rushed.

The production cycle for "The Man from Nowhere" was already short, and the shooting schedule was very full, leaving almost no room for compression.

Would it be possible if it were done ten days or more in advance?

Yang Xiaomi's constant NGs cooled Qin Keqing's passionate heart.

Hard!

In addition, the Venice Film Festival has always prided itself on being the purest focus on artistry and avant-garde experimentation, with the aim of raising the level of film art and the core of its judging criteria being artistry itself.

Therefore, even if "The Man from Nowhere" were to "jump the queue" into the main competition thanks to Pierre Lissent's efforts, winning an award would be virtually impossible.

The Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival in those days didn't have such low standards yet.

Actually, the Cannes Film Festival's minimum standards aren't low either, but "A Bittersweet Life" just happened to meet the festival's criteria of balancing commercial appeal and artistic merit, and it also marketed itself as a stylized experimental film, so its award didn't cause much controversy.

After all, Cannes has always openly claimed to balance commercial appeal and artistic merit, and it has always done so. Occasionally, when an award-winning film is more commercially successful than artistically successful, no one will say anything.

But the Venice Film Festival at this stage is clearly not up to par.

Even though the Venice Film Festival encourages experimental and auteur films with novel forms and unique techniques, there is a prerequisite: such films must be avant-garde and experimental.

"The Man from Nowhere" can also be submitted as a stylized experiment and auteur film—the fight scenes in this film are novel and subversive globally, unique in this era.

However, "The Man from Nowhere" is too commercially driven, and its exploration of human nature is only superficial, offering only a "slight" redemption without going deep, thus lacking artistic merit.

Even if Qin Keqing uses a lot of points to manipulate things, he is unlikely to win the grand prize. At most, he will only get a consolation prize, which will also be controversial.

Therefore, rushing to produce something without guaranteeing quality, and then not even winning a major award, is simply not worth it!

Qin Keqing realized that his purpose in making "Uncle" was not to win awards, but to establish himself as a "master" and leave his mark in film history as the founder of a new type of action film.

To hell with it. We can't rush the schedule at the expense of quality just for a spot in the main competition.

Let's set our sights on the non-competitive screenings at the Venice Film Festival, targeting special screenings or the closing film.

There's no need to rush these; just send the film copies over two days before the Venice Film Festival closes.

Moreover, if you can secure the closing film, it won't be any worse than being selected for the main competition, and it will likely garner even more attention.

There will be no controversy.

As a pioneering work in a new genre of action films, and also taking into account artistic merit, it may receive more praise.

Unaware that Qin Keqing was deep in thought, the crew members held their breath, remaining motionless as they watched Qin Keqing resting his chin on his hand, deep in thought.

They all knew very well that if they made any big moves or stood out at this point, they would undoubtedly become the director's punching bag, and then they would be prepared to face the director's thunderous rage.

Which one do you think is better?

Now that he had thought it through, Qin Keqing was no longer in such a hurry. He turned to Liu Weiqiang and asked.

Although Liu Weiqiang is better at being a cinematographer, he has also directed three films.

After serving as the cinematographer for "A Bittersweet Life," he directed "The Rape of Hong Kong" before joining the cast of "The Man from Nowhere," which was released in May, even earlier than "A Bittersweet Life."

Furthermore, the box office reached a new high in Liu Weiqiang's directorial career, with 1300 million yuan. After all, it is an erotic film, so it has a very large audience.

Liu Weiqiang was very clear about his position and did not give a direct answer.

"If we want to finish filming this scene as soon as possible, the best option is to use shot-reverse-shot, line by line, with the main shot focused on the male lead. We only need to film a few sets of the little girl's expressions, and we can also add voice-over later."

"If we want the plot to be coherent and more impactful, then we should stick to the original long takes, focus only on the child actors' performances, and add the voice-over later."

Qin Keqing looked at Yang Xiaomi.

Yang Xiaomi was wondering if there would be something delicious to eat after filming when she turned her head and saw Qin Keqing looking at her. Startled, she shrank back and lowered her head, thinking:

"Hmph, you still want me to call you godfather? You've insulted me nine times today, forget about it, I'm not calling you that."

Qin Keqing couldn't help but laugh when he saw Yang Xiaomi's expression.

It seems Yang Xiaomi wasn't driven to "social withdrawal" by the criticism; she's very resilient, which is good. A resilient mind is beneficial; it allows her to recover more quickly from criticism and prepare for the next round.

"Let's shoot a long take; maintaining the continuity of the story is more important."

Qin Keqing said to Liu Weiqiang, "Post-production dubbing is much better than shot-reverse-shot."

Once the requirements are given, the on-site assistant director will tell Yang Xiaomi how to speak in a way that will be more conducive to post-dubbing without memorizing the lines. Qin Keqing doesn't need to worry about this.

Qin Keqing sighed. In his original plan, this scene was to be filmed in one long take. If Yang Xiaomi could complete it to the minimum requirements, she would really have a chance to be nominated for the Best Newcomer Award.

It's a pity that even if her facial expressions were spot on, the post-production dubbing would still fall short, making it difficult for it to become a classic.

Qin Keqing recalled that in the original version of "The Man from Nowhere," the director mentioned in an interview that this scene was also intended to be filmed as a continuous storyline.

Unfortunately, the young actor was unable to complete the scene, and in the end, he had no choice but to perform the scene line by line, which greatly reduced its impact.

Yang Xiaomi is so disappointing!