"No, I don't plan to use top light." Lance looked at the bustling streets outside the car window. The streets of Los Angeles looked no different, as if they were just an ordinary big city, but lacked some characteristics, without the coldness of Chicago, the humidity of New York, and the bourgeoisie of San Francisco. "There are not too many high-rise buildings here, and the whole atmosphere looks very lazy and casual. You can feel the warm sunshine all year round, as if the whole world is surrounded by golden light, which is completely opposite to the tone of the movie."

Hayden looked at the gradually retreating palm trees outside the window and chuckled, "If you need it, you can go to New York to shoot, although things will become very troublesome."

In the United States, different states have different policies. For example, due to different taxes and fees, some crews go to Pennsylvania to shoot in order to save money, or even to Canada. There are many crews who choose to shoot in New York, but it is not very suitable for "killing people with a knife". However, it is easy to increase costs, and secondly, it is more troublesome to block the streets of New York, and the shooting time requirements are very strict - the shooting time of "killing people with a knife" is very urgent. If you go to New York to shoot, the time arrangement will pose severe challenges.

Of course, most importantly, Lance does not consider the urban differences between New York and Los Angeles as the fundamental problem.

"No, that's not what I mean." Lance thought seriously and reorganized his words. "Do you still remember the effect I wanted you to shoot with panoramic views when shooting 'City of God'? The whole shot seemed boundless, and I deeply felt the world was so big, but the characters fled around the camera, as if no matter how they collided, they could not find an exit."

Hayden turned his head and looked at Lance attentively, "Do you want to copy this effect?" He was a little surprised. He thought there was a difference in shooting skills of "City of God" and "killing with a knife".

"No, I hope to use the spacious streets of Los Angeles to create a noisy and lively scene, but the characters are confined to a very small space to live. It's like... well, just like this society, we all know that the world is big. But the place given to us in society is very limited, and the pressure of life compresses our living space bit by bit."

Lance turned to look at Hayden and found that Hayden was still confused. He couldn't help but stop, thought seriously, and reorganized his words, "Say that. In high school, we used to think that we had the whole world, as if we could change the world easily..."

"It's like the quarterback of the football team." Hayden joined the discussion.

"Yes. That's it." Lance nodded, "But after entering university, we gradually felt the pressure. The world is indeed very large. We can see more and more people, and more possibilities, but at the same time we gradually felt the difficulty of finding a place in society." Hayden fell into deep thoughts following Lance's words, "and then we started working. At the beginning of work, we still had dreams and ambitions, but as time progressed, we gradually realized that this society was not that simple. Our world began to be compressed bit by bit, and finally gradually got stuck in an office compartment. Carrying the weight of mortgages, card debts and family, we became a mediocre member of the whole society."

Hayden's brows were tightly tied up, "I know what you mean, so you mean, the streets of Los Angeles are the whole world. We can even use some overhead perspectives to show the majesty of the city, implying the breadth of society..." Thinking of this, Hayden nodded himself. In this way, shooting in Los Angeles is indeed the right choice. There are not so many tall buildings to show this background, "But the taxi driving on the street is like a narrow workshop, tying Max's life to its original place."

"It's not just Max, but everyone in the whole story, that's the case." Lance corrected Hayden's words.

Hayden's brow not only did not loosen, but instead became tighter and tighter. "So, you mean, whether indoors or outdoors, we need to create a sense of restraint and oppression in this spacious space." After being affirmed by Lance, Hayden pondered meaningfully. He had begun to understand Lance's intentions - this is complementary to the tone of the script of "killing with a knife". "In this way, we need to use the switch of the camera, the setting of the camera position, and the changes in the light to achieve this goal. Oh! So, you just want to..." Hayden suddenly realized, no wonder Lance mentioned the light as soon as he got up.

After being silent for about two seconds, Hayden couldn't help but curse, "Hell God." Then he glared at Lance fiercely, "You are trying to drive me crazy."

Lance directly ignored Hayden's complaints and continued driving quietly and peacefully. After a while, he said lightly, "So, do you have a plan?"

Hayden raised his middle finger at Lance, but finally put it down angrily, turned his head depressedly and looked out the window, "You know, you want to break the habit of genre films. This is not just an innovation, but also an attempt to challenge Hollywood's authority."

Lance shrugged, "Or what you think, why am I willing to sacrifice a lot of interests just for the final editing right."

Hollywood's film industry has fully matured. Every fifteen to twenty years, the visual style, editing logic and scene scheduling of commercial films will undergo earth-shaking changes, from classic Hollywood-style continuous editing and complex scene scheduling to the montage style influenced by the New Wave in the 1960s, to the regular and steady forward and reverse shots in the 1970s and 1980s, to the multi-camera multi-angle fast and high-frequency shot switching that was strongly influenced by the Hong Kong film style in the 1990s.

Every qualitative change in style will bring a full-scale impact on genre films, even including the actors' performances and script writing angles, and it is also a comprehensive innovation of the audience's viewing.

For example, the forward and backward camera emphasizes the confrontation and switching between actors' opponents. The most common forward and backward fight is "shoulder" and goes over the shoulder of the person who is facing the camera to shoot the front of the opponent's face. Therefore, the dialogue in the script is crucial. The actor's performance needs to be delicate and accurate, but also requires interaction.

However, in the switching of high-frequency lenses, it emphasizes the creation of the overall atmosphere, which tests the director's ability to control the main line and multiple branches at the same time. When writing the script, it will reduce dialogue and emphasize the sense of rhythm. The actor's performance also requires more physical assistance, and the influence of expression will be weakened.

The current genre film style still continues the system of the 1990s, panoramic and close-ups, fast shots and slow motions, and the quick switching between the chaser and the chaser are integrated into large-scale scene scheduling to highlight the tightness and stimulation of the movie. Michael Mann's original "Borrowing a Knife" also uses this style.

However, in Michael Mann's shots, he deliberately slowed down the pace of the whole movie, creating a streaming and flowing feeling with a slow shot, and then forming an invisible tension. But overall, he still did not get rid of the mainstream style of type films, including camera position setting, lens switching, lighting use, etc.

The direction Lance is working on is trying to break the unforgettable relationship with "reality" in genre films, and uses unique light to shape it, with profound picture texture, and a wild combination of shots to cut off the connection between the audience and reality. From the core idea to the external form, it allows the audience to get out of the framework of "this is a specific story in Los Angeles" and integrates into the general emotionalization of "this is a universal form of society" and explores the huge theme core of the script.

This is not just bold, it can even be said to be crazy.

In fact, Lance once tried in "City of God", but due to the particularity of the story theme, Lance must retain the characteristics of Rio de Janeiro and show the connection between the slums and social foundations, so Lance did not really break the shackles. This time, the story background of "killing with a knife" actually has no direct connection with Los Angeles. Arranged in a big city like Los Angeles is more about creating a sense of magnitude in the world. Lance hopes to make a breakthrough with his head held high.

Hayden let out a long breath and could vaguely feel the boiling in his blood. The more difficult it is, the greater the challenge. When Hayden left the TV series crew and chose to become Lance's partner, not only because of their childhood friendship, but also because Hayden knew that Lance was not a conservative person. He always kept hitting his limits. Countless fantasies were like a big gamble, either winning everything or having nothing.

Now, after "City of God", the challenge has arrived again, and Hayden couldn't help but become excited, even now he has no idea. This is the career he wants.

"Huh..." Hayden took a deep breath, "Tell me more, tell me more. So, what is your idea of ​​the character?" Since he had no idea, Hayden needed to understand Lance's idea in depth and look forward to being able to collide with sparks.

Lance pondered for a while. What he needed to do was to strip away the footage of the original movie in his mind, get rid of Michael Mann's setting of the movie, and then reconstruct the picture based on his conception and structure of the movie, starting with the character...

So, a red taxi slowly appeared in Lance's mind, passing by a string of milky yellow lights. The bright light was not ostentatious, but was restricted to a circle and could hardly support the weight of the night. Therefore, the entire night slowly sank, leaving only a little light chain flowing in the middle of the night, like a gurgling stream. The taxi was moving quietly in the night, like a floating island.
Chapter completed!