Chapter 917: Bottleneck? Searching
The rehearsal went very smoothly.
However, watching the final part of the recording, Xiao He felt that something was missing.
In the scene, the god, who is labeled with the seven deadly sins by the hero, delivers his lines while changing his expression.
Without the aid of stage special effects and lighting, He, sitting firmly on the high platform, finally seemed to have a different emotion, but this emotion was more like a provocative imitation, and the object of the imitation was naturally the hero who had personally experienced the seven deadly sins.
The gods are merely a mirror, mercilessly reflecting the hero's ugliness and revealing the darkest part of his heart.
However, if the actors are simply confined to a high platform and perform their acts from above, then this performance style is too simplistic.
There's a feeling I can't quite describe...
Another issue is that the story is set against a backdrop of Western European culture, incorporating many classic Western works and allusions.
Therefore, many lines in this script are more in line with the romantic elegance of Western literary scholars.
Such a script is naturally more suitable for international competitions overseas. Even though it is written in Chinese and tells a story created by Chinese people, the story structure and background still do not deviate from the larger Western context.
However, this situation presents them with a rather complex and inherent weakness—
Mother tongue shame.
In fact, Xiao He had already vaguely sensed this problem when Yang Heng and the others were having their morning rehearsal.
This isn't to say that these lines are so embarrassing that the actors are embarrassed to say them. Rather, it's because some of the lines are inherently a bit cringeworthy, and if they were read in Chinese, viewers would feel that the sound and the visuals don't match.
This is like a group of foreigners speaking their lines fluently in Chinese on stage.
The story is fine, the acting is fine, it's just that the visuals and sound feel a bit off, like they don't match.
The same sentence, when read aloud in a foreign language, inexplicably evokes a more unique sense of immersion than when read aloud in Chinese.
Hmm, that's really strange.
Xiao He squinted, watching the video while pondering how to solve the problem.
Yang Heng and his group, on the other hand, were much more experienced in dealing with this situation than Xiao He, an actor who didn't participate in many stage plays.
Yang Heng said directly, "Actually, we've been discussing and resolving these issues during these rehearsals, and we've also come up with a solution for your part. Since you're here today, we wanted to discuss it with you again."
"Oh? What are you planning to do?"
Xiao He was somewhat curious about the methods these professionals used.
His performance was indeed flawless, but the way he presented it on stage was very flawed. However, this problem was not caused by Xiao He, nor was it unique to him. Rather, it affected all the actors in the troupe to varying degrees.
"We plan to continue to add to the stage performance style based on the performance itself."
Yang Heng stated their current thoughts very decisively.
"We do have flaws in the dialogue, which is unavoidable. So let's try to shift the audience's attention elsewhere."
"Xiao He, in the stage performance of 'Twelve Mirrors' at your birthday party, wasn't there a scene at the end where the detective reflects in front of a mirror and finally breaks free from the constraints of multiple personalities?"
Xiao He paused for a moment, then nodded: "Yes."
"So we plan to borrow this form of expression as well," Yang Heng said. "In the end, the evil god transforms into a mirror, directly and nakedly reflecting the seven evil deeds that the hero committed along his journey. That is, the ugly and twisted state of different evils in the same character, which ultimately shapes the hero and makes him an ordinary 'human'..."
"So we decided to use the refraction of the mirror to make every appearance of yours at the same time have a clear symbolic representation of evil."
Yang Heng then pulled out a large map of the stage and started drawing lines, pointing out the approximate stage positions and mirror placements to Xiao He.
Xiao He glanced at it and roughly understood what Yang Heng wanted to express.
In the final performance, the evil god falls from the high platform, signifying the hero's ultimate victory over the evil god. However, it also hints at the hero's complete fall, as he becomes one of the same seven deadly sins and will eventually be enshrined on a pedestal by others, replacing the old generation of gods and becoming the new evil god, thus completing the ironic cycle of "the hero becoming the dragon."
For him, the actor who portrays the evil god, the key moment of his acting explosion is after falling from the high platform. After falling from the high platform in accordance with the plot, he must immediately change positions according to the stage positioning. Finally, using the principle of mirror refraction, he quickly flashes in different places on the stage and performs a "split personality switching performance" of the seven evil deeds.
In layman's terms, this part of the plot requires him not only to portray seven deities symbolizing evil, but also to memorize their movements and coordinate with the movement of mirrors on stage to "flash" to different locations on stage to perform, thus achieving a stage effect similar to teleportation.
"No, have you actually approved this outrageous stage design?"
This was the sentence that Xiao He blurted out after understanding it.
I know you really like "The Twelve Mirrors" and "The Root of Evil" borrowed some performance elements from it, but you can't just copy such a bizarre stage design too!
Who could stand this?
The stage design for "Twelve Mirrors" was already a headache, but fortunately the mirrors didn't need to be moved and their positions were fixed, which allowed for better immersion in the performance.
But now?
Yang Heng and his team's idea is indeed good. If it could be put into practice on stage, the live effect would definitely be amazing. But this is definitely a physics problem!
It's the super perverted kind.
The actor had to move, and the mirror had to move too. This meant that all other people or props along the entire reflection line had to move as well, ensuring that Xiao He's figure could always be reflected, and combined with the smoke atmosphere on set, creating a 'flash' effect...
Incidentally, in the presence of smoke, the mirror-like trajectory of light will be very obvious, and in severe cases, it can easily expose the illusion.
Therefore, moving one part affects the whole situation.
Whenever he needs to move, all the relevant personnel on set, including the staff pushing the mirrors, the lighting technicians, and the prop masters setting up the smoke, must cooperate.
Just thinking about it is already a huge undertaking!
Xiao He's head started to ache: "Are you sure?"
"I wasn't quite sure before, so I was slow to convince everyone."
Yang Heng said confidently, "But the rehearsal just now went very well. It has reached a bottleneck. You can definitely make positive adjustments to break through. Isn't the purpose of our continuous adjustments to make the work better and better?"
So it was uncertain before, but is now certain?
Xiao He felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, realizing he might really be going to die from exhaustion here.
Could it be that Yang Heng told him all that before, telling him to perform well, all for this moment?!