Chapter 163 - Charming Vampire
The face in the mirror seemed like a marble relief, serene and elegant. Pale as white paper, almost not a trace of blood color of the face complexion more and more set off that pair of black eyes far and deep, handsome facial lines coupled with the corner of the mouth cynical evil smile. Seeing himself in the mirror in this shape, Lin Mingyang's mind subconsciously thought of vampires.
"If the corners of the mouth were to add some blood that hadn't been licked clean, this look would be perfect!" Tim Burton, who was standing behind Lin Ming Yang, smacked his lips and said.
"The vampire family that Edward's belongs to believes in vegetarianism!" Lin Mingyang ran his fingers across his face, immediately getting a layer of powder on his fingertips, and asked in the mirror, "Is it really necessary to wear such heavy makeup? Appearing in a movie like this, without any explanation, people will know that I'm a vampire!"
"This is just the bare minimum I can barely accept, if not for the consideration of respecting the original, your makeup would be even more exaggerated than it is now!" Tim Burton clasped his hands and grumbled under his breath. Uncle Ti was already holding his hand high this time, at least he spared Lin Ming Yang's hair and didn't get that exaggerated and weird look. "Don't you think you're charming in this current look?"
"I don't know if it's your personal preference for this look or if it's influenced by traditional vampire stories, but who says vampires have to be pale?" Lin Mingyang looked left and right in the mirror, but he couldn't find anything "charming" about this look, "I think you should consider making a vampire movie of the opposite type, and maybe form a new breed of vampire movie."
Vampire as the antagonist in western culture, usually with bloodthirsty as life, brutal and ferocious image appeared in all kinds of literature and film and television works, the most representative that is, Count Dracula, Francis Coppola's famous "400 Years of Terror" is the background of the character of Count Dracula, the movie is not for the sake of horror and horror, but the vampire is such a sad role tells a story of a period of time spanning several centuries but can not be realized. The movie is not horror for horror's sake, but uses the vampire as a tragic character to tell the story of an incestuous love that spans centuries but cannot be realized.
As a subgenre of horror films, what keeps people wanting more of these bloodthirsty monsters is the fact that most vampires in these films live by sucking blood, which in itself is an infectious behavior similar to the spread of a virus, i.e., those who have been bitten by a vampire will slowly become "one of the same kind" and join the vampire ranks, in the words of some obsessive fans of vampire culture. In the words of some vampire culture obsessed, this process of infection and assimilation is called "second kiss", the original bloody process of regicide has been given a layer of romantic color, so vampire movies are not only a horror and scare the film type, usually more complex erotic relationship.
"So you've built another group of very specific vampires into the novel. The main character, Edward's family, lives in seclusion in a small town, like the vegetarians of vampires, because they don't suck human blood and survive in the world by suppressing their desires and cultivating their bodies. These guys are not only not scary and horrible, but also contrary to the traditional stereotypes of the image of vampires who kill people and harm their lives. The entire vampire family is handsome and beautiful, and the hero's father is also a doctor of high standing. They live in tasteful villas, listen to elegant classical music, and have become a group of modern aristocrats who are adored and respected on campus and in the small town?"
Tim Burton was not very impressed by Lin Mingyang's suggestion, and criticized the irrationality of Lin Mingyang's story: "Vampires escaped from the judgment of the sunlight, and have endless lifespans and unattainable abilities by human beings, if there are no fatal flaws, according to your logic, the top of the biological chain should not be human beings, and the top of the biological chain should not be human beings. top of the biological chain wouldn't be a human, but a vampire!"
"I have always maintained that Twilight is not a vampire novel in the full sense of the word!" Lin Ming Yang turned around and leaned his body against the wall, "In my novel, vampires are infinitely powerful, not only can they go up into the sky and transfer instantly, but they are also infinitely strong and immortal, completely possessing features similar to all comic book heroes, just imagine, if these vampires were to change their costumes, they could be Superman, or Spider-Man, and And of course Hellboy."
"Following the usual comic book logic, the story then follows the trend of dividing the vampires into good and evil factions, and of course the result must be the perfect ending where good must triumph over evil without any suspense. With this change, I wanted to make a vampire story that had been slapped down to the point of villainy, synthesize romance, adolescent crisis, and ultimately a comic book superhero element of good versus evil, and end up with a young adult novel that compounds multiple genres."
The biggest advantage of adapting a movie from a best-selling novel is that the novel's influence can create a pre-release buzz for the movie, and Twilight itself already has a loyal following of readers and support, so no matter how much of a column the movie gets made in, it will always have a solid group of advocates.
However, Lin Mingyang thought that the movie adaptation of Twilight could not simply use the previous unattainable sad parting between humans and ghosts as a commercial selling point, but rather, it had to take this vampire theme, which had already been flooded with vampires, out of the huge love epic, and place it on teenagers to make it into a campus movie such as Follies or something like that, and recreate vampires, which is an old-school horror element, to make the vampire image into a group of modern aristocrats with extraordinary taste, and even a little bit of super hero flavor of justice, so that the vampire from the creepy impression, into another kind of romantic fairy tale full of mystery and charming.
Twilight gradually enveloped the entire room, and Tim Burton liked to talk to him in this kind of dark environment. Even Lin Mingyang could no longer open the face and shadow of Uncle Tee across the room, the only thing that burned was his eyes that flashed with essence.
After Lin Ming Yang's narration, Tim Burton, who was hidden in the darkness, finally spoke.
"Your novel has neither the spectral gothic atmosphere of 'A Visit to the Vampire by Night' nor the complex analysis on the psychological level of 'The Seven Deadly Sins'. The only pleasing thing about it is that unlike other vampire-themed films that consistently stick to over-indulgence in a sad or even bitter story, it combines the horror element of vampirism with teenage rebellion and identity crises, which makes this movie pull in the psychological distance to the young lesser youth in the rebellious psychological period."
Uncle Tee's analysis hits the nail on the head. In Twilight, Bella is also a "troubled" teenager, though not in the usual sense of the word, as her parents are divorced, her mother remarried, and she came to Seattle on her own. With such a "problem" type of beginning, through the process of meeting and getting to know Edward and his family, the final ending is that all the knots that Bella was in at the beginning can be unraveled, through such a story, teenage viewers in the process of watching the movie is very easy in this Through such a story, teenage viewers can easily gain a sense of self-identity in this "troubled" girl.
The exchange between the two did not lead to a conclusion, and although Lin Mingyang felt that the heavy makeup would stiffen his appearance and limit his facial expressions, he eventually accepted the pale look. In order to keep his complexion pale, Tim Burton asked the other actors playing vampires in the movie to avoid sunlight as much as possible. Despite this, 4 or 5 minutes a day of makeup application remained essential.
The town of Forks, where Twilight takes place, is a remote and rainy town, and Tim Burton chose to shoot in Forks, Washington, adjacent to Portland, Oregon, the area with the highest precipitation in the country, with an average of 27 cloudy days per month. The unpredictability of the weather becomes the biggest headache during a shoot give or take. A day of shooting can start with rain, snow halfway through, and end with hail. As a result, daily work plans are made in triplicate to accommodate different weather and different scenarios.
At first, Uncle Tee strongly disagreed with Kristen wearing contact lenses, but after the first set of makeup photos were released, attentive Twilight fans noticed the subtle difference and saw it as a complete betrayal of the source material, with some fans even insulting the actor in forums and collecting a petition online that was signed by 75,000 people. Some Fans even insulted the actors in forums and collected an online petition with 75,000 signatures, demanding that the original setting be restored. After learning of this, the producers of Twilight had a tough time negotiating with Tim Burton, and eventually Kristen put on the contact lenses.
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At the rainy Portland airport, the Boeing from Boston slowly landed on the runway, the cabin resounded with the sweet beeps of the flight attendant lady, and Lin Mingyang gently closed the newspaper in his hand. Surrounded by several bodyguards back and forth, Lin Mingyang pulled up his collar and mixed into the departing crowd in a low profile.
In order to avoid Fans, the Twilight crew used the name Transit during the filming, but this move did not succeed in swindling the fans, even Lin Ming Yang's schedule was leaked, and in the waiting hall of the Portland Airport, the fans pulling banners and signs had already waited for a long time, and among them, there were quite a number of media reporters mixed in. Lin Mingyang had just come out of the passageway entrance when he was spotted by sharp-eyed fans.
Several bodyguards beside Lin Mingyang had been waiting from the moment he got off the plane, and when a fan called out Lin Mingyang's identity, they immediately formed a solid triangular human wall, surrounding Lin Mingyang in the center. Even so, the swarming fans still blocked the exit of the passageway. Being surrounded by the crowd, Lin Ming Yang lowered the brim of his hat and wore sunglasses, he refused to accept any media interviews, and hurriedly left the airport under the escort of several bodyguards.
The dark cloudy sky of Portland gave people a very dull feeling, but Lin Mingyang walked out of the airport, but a long breath of relief, after sitting in the special car sent by the crew, he accidentally found that there is actually a passenger in the car.
"Christine, why are you here too?" Lin Ming Yang's eyes widened in surprise, the rest of the cast of the drama group were all in intensive training, at this time Christine should have stayed at the drama group and not appeared in the car that came to pick him up.
"I flew in from Los Angeles, I just arrived half an hour ago." Kristen closed the fashion magazine in her hand and explained with a shrug. She had taken a leave of absence from the set earlier and happened to be returning today as well.
While they were talking, Lin Mingyang's fans had already chased him from the waiting hall to the parking lot, and the bodyguard sitting in the front row hurriedly urged the driver to drive.
"When I got off the plane, I saw a lot of your fans in the lobby, they should have been waiting over here early!" Christine looked at the group of fans that were left behind by the car and said with some envy.
"After you finish this movie, you can enjoy this same 'treatment'. But when you really get to that position, you'll realize that actually being surrounded and worshipped by a lot of people sometimes isn't necessarily a pleasant experience."
Lin Ming Yang smiled helplessly, when he got on the bus he was in a bit of a hurry and didn't have the time to take a closer look at Christian's outfit today, and it was only when he started chatting that he realized that Christian was still wearing contact lenses today.
Speaking of this matter, Christine felt very aggrieved, at first it was the agent Hughes wanted her to wear contact lenses, but Tim Burton wanted her to take them off again. The director was satisfied, the readers were not happy, and she had to put her contact lenses back on again in order to play the role. Kristen felt like a manipulated puppet on a string in the whole thing, having no choice at all, and having to endure all the unwarranted accusations and pressure.
She had never told her manager these words, and she didn't dare to bring them up in front of Tim Burton, but in front of Lin Ming Yang, she opened her heart and poured out all of her grievances. As she spoke, her eyes turned red, and there seemed to be tears in her eyes.
Christine had already grown a look of pity, usually the expression of a slight frown was so adorable, and now this expression that would cry before crying was even more devastating.
"I'm so sorry!" In order to comfort Christine, Lin Ming Yang took the blame onto himself.
From the time the movie was confirmed to be directed by Tim Burton, Lin Ming Yang did not expect Uncle Ti to honestly follow the original. Uncle Tee will definitely leave something of his own in this movie, as the original author of the novel that the movie is based on, Lin Mingyang has tacitly agreed to this from the beginning, and even encouraged Uncle Tee to make his own play on the basis of the script.
Like the "Harry Potter" series of movies, honestly follow the original filming carefully, in the box office success is no problem, but in the movie art expression is very empty. This is because the novels themselves are so well known that the original authors can influence or even dictate the production process of an entire movie from casting to filming. Most people go to see the movie after reading the novel, and this unequal relationship makes the movie an appendage to the novel. This fails to reflect the personality of the director and fundamentally strips the movie of its artistic value.
But Lin Mingyang still underestimated the status of the novel in the hearts of readers, even the heroine Bella what color are the eyes in this kind of detailed issues have people come out to be more serious, which is something he never expected. Tim Burton is not wrong, and Christine is only suffering from an undeserved disaster.
This issue also made Lin Ming Yang realize that the road ahead would be incredibly difficult for attempts to seek a breakthrough based on the original.
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The controversial storm about the color of the heroine Bella's eyes is not the thing that gives director Tim Burton the biggest headache, Lin Mingyang wrote a whole lot of strange and weird things in the novel, how to realize them all in the movie, Uncle Ti for this can be said to be a lot of painstaking.
In Uncle Tee's opinion, the novel "Twilight" is completely a love story wrapped in a vampire shell, the story is very beautiful, so beautiful that the vampire in the sunlight is shining like a diamond, rather than turning into black smoke and disappearing. These children, who were not even accepted by hell in people's hearts, have become works of art in the sunlight under Lin Ming Yang's writing. Although they claimed to have no souls, they could even resist death, and certainly would not have existed in the form of a soul that day.
With such a setting, the fictional story is romantic, but in order to find a way to make Edward glow in the sun, Tim Burton at first researched all the luminous substances in nature, and then approached 10 special effects companies, asking them to make a skin that is "as smooth as marble and as luminous as crystal". Finally, two special effects companies came up with a virtual solution. The crew simply photographed the actor's body for 3D effects, and then used animation software to create a glittering effect.
The second tricky problem was that the vampires in Lin Ming Yang's novels all possessed special abilities like the superheroes in the comics, except for the fact that they couldn't fly, they were simply mutated versions of Superman. The filming of this movie will involve a lot of chasing scenes, it is almost impossible to use real people to shoot that kind of running effect equivalent to the speed of a car.
In order to give the audience the illusion that the vampire is running at speeds beyond human reach, the special effects crew used a platform made of 15 fast plexiglass splits and a truck that traveled at 40 kilometers per hour. And the actors run on this platform at the same time. This makes it look like they are running at 50 to 60 kilometers.
These problems are still within human control, but the climate is not the crew can not control, in the film before the start of shooting, director Tim Burton in the Oregon forest to find an ideal forest clearing, which is a very important scene in the film. However, when there were still two days left to build the set, there was a sudden snowfall, and the clearing was covered with 2 meters of snow, which made it impossible for the set crew to enter. In the end, the crew had to change the location temporarily.