The Best Director

During the daytime, the bar normally bathed in bright light had been set by the lighting technician to resemble the dim atmosphere of the night. The bald white bartender behind the bar was wiping glasses, while young customers shouted and played darts, and those sitting at the round wooden tables chatted over drinks, creating an ambiance brimming with enthusiasm; of course, they were all extras.

The camera positions for the two film cameras were placed at the front corner of the bar and diagonally across from it. Wearing a baseball cap, Valery Fister operated the one at the front, with Wang Yang standing beside him aiming through the viewfinder; the other camera was controlled by Harry George. The rest of the crew, including the lighting and sound technicians, were also in their places, while Joshua stared blankly at Alexis who was sitting at the edge of the bar.

Her brown hair flowed over her shoulders, bangs covering her forehead, slender eyebrows, blue eyes, and a petite round face with a smile, she was the picture of a sweet girl. Next to her sat Natalie, whose long hair had been cut into a loose bob, looking like an adorable good girl; beside her was Jay Baruchel, his hair curled up, looking foolish as if he had just woken up.

“Action!” With the command, the three casually held their glass cups, and Natalie said, “We’ll find one, what’s most abundant in Boston? Nerds and geniuses…”

This scene depicted the MIT team having just lost a major player. As the three drank in the bar, they were approached and fell into a dispute with others drinking there, including Jeff Ma. At this moment, the white classmate playing Jeff Ma, who thought they were just “average nerds,” approached with some shyness and said to Natalie, “Hey, can I buy you a drink?”

Natalie glanced at him and raised her glass slightly while casually asking, “I have an addition and subtraction question for you, how about it?” The scene wasn’t a close-up, so the monitor also captured the indifferent faces of Alexis and Jay. Without waiting for the fat guy to respond, Natalie rapidly recited the line that she had practiced many times during rehearsal, “2+7+4-5+2+4-1+9+2+6-4+2-8-7+4-2+6 equals what?”

No sooner had she finished her line, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. No one called NG! Finally done with that damned line! Wang Yang, that troublemaker!

The bespectacled fat guy stood gaping; it was a very simple math question that a child could solve with his fingers, but that only applied when looking at the numbers directly, not when they were spoken so quickly and in such quantity that he couldn’t keep up! He said blankly, “Uh, can you say that slower?” Natalie glanced away, uninterested, and said, “Can you tell a clock to slow down? Only if it’s broken.”

Alexis and Jay both showed an intriguing smile and took a sip from their glasses.

“21.” Daniel Wu, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly chimed in. Natalie’s eyebrows twitched, and as she turned her head, she heard someone rapidly say, “I have a question for you too, what’s 22 minus 1?” Natalie turned around to see the mocking Daniel Wu, a playful smile appeared on her lips as she said, “21.”

“CUT!” Wang Yang called a halt to the scene, and immediately everyone looked at him. Joshua wiped the corner of his mouth, puzzled and wondering, “What just happened?” Wang Yang looked at Daniel Wu and said, “Daniel, there’s something missing in your expression. You know, Jeff’s line is indeed meant to humiliate these people, but he’s also somewhat proud and smug because he’s smart and because there’s two beautiful women and a nerd sitting there.”

In character development, Jeff Ma was such a proud person. He joined the card-counting team initially to prove his ability, but as he learned and gained practical experience, he realized the importance of the team, as well as the value of friendship and loyalty, still proud, but no longer cynical.

“Don’t tell Jeff I said this about him,” Wang Yang added, causing everyone to smile faintly. Kevin Spacey was a technical consultant who accompanied the film crew, but he wasn’t present for this scene as it didn’t involve card-counting. As the clapper was struck, Wang Yang called out, “Action!”

Daniel Wu adjusted his expression, adding a smile to his sarcastic face, and quickly asked, “I also have a question for you, what’s 22 minus 1?” Natalie smiled and said, “21.” Her face gradually cooled, and she quickly said in a faster tone, “I have a question, if you were on a game show and had to choose one of three doors to open, behind one is a car, behind the others are goats…”

She spoke slower and slower until her head dropped as if it had broken off, and she laughed out, “Director, I forgot the rest of the words!” Alexis, Daniel Wu, and the others laughed along, and Wang Yang spread his hands helplessly, calling out with a laugh, “Who has that damn script for her!”

This scene had no complex movements or camera tracking, but it was not easy to pull off because the lines were difficult to remember and had to be spoken quickly and clearly. Even though they had rehearsed a long time before the shoot, there were unavoidable NGs, and many of them.

This was to be expected, Wang Yang didn’t count on shooting the entire scene in one go—it was impossible. To complete a Q&A without gasping for breath was already smooth sailing; this wasn’t a stage play, movies have editing.

“Script delivery!” Joshua, abiding by his sister’s boyfriend’s advice to “seize every chance to make a good impression on her,” diligently picked up Wang Yang’s script and walked over to hand it to Natalie, believing “be cool when necessary, but smile more at her.” He smiled at Alexis who stood beside him and walked back with steps in retreat. Alexis grew more confused, feeling that something was really off with this guy…

Natalie opened the script and looked it over intently, her lips gently moving as she memorized the lines; Daniel Wu also took the opportunity to glance at his own script and memorize his lines. After a while, Natalie nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go again!”

“Action!” With the command, Valery-Fest and other crew members resumed work, and Natalie continued looking up at the standing Daniel Wu, speaking more quickly, “I have a question… The other two doors have goats, you chose one door, say it’s number one. The host, who knows what’s behind the doors, opens door number three, and there’s a goat. He then asks you, ‘Do you want to change your mind and choose door number two?\'”

Daniel Wu immediately replied, “Change.” Natalie then said, “Why? What’s the benefit of changing your choice? Door number one has a car, he’s trying to trick you!” Daniel Wu, with a slightly disdainful expression, retorted, “You’re tricking me. This is the Monty Hall problem. There are three scenarios: I picked goat number one, the host goat number two, switching lets me get the car; I picked goat number two, the host picks goat number one, switching gets me the car; I picked the car, the host takes a goat, only then do I lose, but the chance of success in switching is 2/3. Why not?”

Wang Yang, resting his chin on his hand, observed Natalie’s performance as she moved on to ask about another game theory puzzle, the “Tiger Paradox,” still rapid-fire, without any pause for breath. Obviously, audiences in front of the big screen wouldn’t catch everything clearly, they wouldn’t have time to think, let alone react… But he didn’t need them to understand; this part needed to be spoken with clear enunciation and seemingly simple language, the goal was to quickly engage viewers and make them feel as if they were thinking.

Not understanding was fine; as long as the protagonists provided a definite answer in the last line, it would be exciting, creating an atmosphere of “these people are geniuses!” At the same time, the audience would also get a preliminary feel for the characters’ personalities and “coolness.”

“%#%*@… Sorry!” “The probability of the tiger… forgot!” “CUT! What the hell, once more!” …

The scene kept encountering NGs for several minutes. Then, finally, it wasn’t just flubbed lines causing the problem. The effort to remember lines led to disjointed performances, prompting Wang Yang to yell CUT again. Natalie was almost sweating from her forehead; the amount of NGs in this scene had surpassed those of “Juno” in total! She took a deep breath, feeling deeply affected, “I’m very sorry!” Wang Yang smiled and clapped his hands, saying, “Let’s all take a break!”

In the midst of laughter, Valery-Fest, Harry-George, and other crew members stopped working and sat down at the bar’s round table to take a break, while the extras continued to chat idly like tourists. Natalie, exasperated, complained, “Ah, these lines are too hard to memorize, I never knew people from MIT were that amazing.” Daniel Wu, sitting down, also took a breath, “My brain’s gotten all muddled too.”

“Good thing I don’t have many lines,” Alexis said, patting her collarbone area, causing Joshua’s eyes to widen and his heart to skip a beat. Jay-Baruchel chuckled and shared his thoughts, “I wish I had more lines, though.”

“HELLO, buddy!” A grinning Wang Yang came over to Daniel Wu, suddenly swung a punch towards his chest with a whoosh! Alert, Daniel Wu instantly blocked the fierce punch with one hand and threw one back, which Wang Yang sidestepped, capturing Daniel’s forearm and aiming his right elbow.

People had quickly grown accustomed to their spontaneous sparring; the martial arts-obsessed director started fighting the moment he got a break that morning. Natalie glanced at the two fighting boisterously, continued perusing her script, flipped a few pages, and began reading the lines for the real card counting scenes. She said, “Yang, I have a doubt. It’s not something I should worry about, but I want to know.”

Wang Yang stopped the punch and took a seat at the bar, letting Wu continue with the script. He smiled and asked, “What is it? Got a question for the director?” Everyone looked at Natalie with amusement, except for Joshua, who couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Well, a lot of the lines seem rather complicated. Even we can’t figure it out in a snap,” Natalie said with quirked eyebrows and a twisted mouth, slapping the script, “I hate them, they’re killing me.” Wang Yang laughed knowingly at her problem, saying, “You mean the audience will be confused? That’s part of the plan. They don’t need to understand. The focus isn’t there.”

Natalie shrugged lightly, remembering the gambling movies she had watched for this film. She earnestly said, “My question is actually that I’ve seen a lot of gambling movies, ‘Gambler Ma Huali,’ ‘Casino Tycoon,’ ‘King of Gamblers’… Compared to them, ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ is so distinctive, especially the gambling part. It looks highly professional, with lots of real techniques, terms, and details…”

Seeing her pause, Alexis asked with some confusion, “I haven’t given it much thought, but isn’t being different a good thing?” Joshua quickly agreed, “I’ve read the script; it’s interesting! Incredible, truly remarkable and different!”

Alexis ignored him while Natalie casually glanced at Joshua and kept flipping through the script, saying, “I don’t know if it’s interesting. We demand attention and thought from people, the lines are memorable, and the story is attractive. But what if it’s not a script that can be pondered over and over, but rather what quickly passes by on the screen, might audiences find it verbose and boring? Always this complicated stuff, very aggressive.”

“So what kind of… atmosphere are you going for with this film? Is there anything similar? I’d like to take a look,” Natalie looked towards Wang Yang, who was deep in thought.

Thinking about this question, Wang Yang said, “I don’t know, I think there hasn’t been a similar movie before, anyway, I can’t find one.” He rubbed his shoulder muscles and said, “Natalie, you know that a movie is ultimately born in the editing room. Asking me what ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ is like now? I can’t answer that, but…”

“Bam!” He pretended to fire a gun with his right hand, blew the invisible smoke off his index finger, and laughed, “Guys, it’s that same old phrase, a cool film.” Natalie flipped her hands over and stared with wide eyes, “That word is too crafty.” Joshua chimed in abruptly, “Yes, the script is very crafty, quite beautiful!”

“Haha, yes.” Wang Yang grinned, in his understanding, the so-called cool was that kind of handsome and dazzling cool, where each character had their own duties, and through details and dialogue, their professionalism and genius were shown off and flaunted, the focus being on creating an impression in the minds of the audience.

Whether it was card counting techniques, the team actually playing 21 in casinos, detection and counter-detection, and each character’s gifted abilities—aside from card counting, what else did these geniuses know? Like being fluent in multiple languages, these were details to be flaunted. But if we’re talking about gambling films…

“Have you guys watched Hong Kong gambling films?” Wang Yang suddenly asked. Alexis and Jay shook their heads, no, and Natalie frowned slightly in thought before shaking her head as well, “No, I like Wang Jiawei’s Hong Kong films. Hmm? Is this film styled after Hong Kong gambling movies?” Daniel Wu said with a smile, “I’ve watched ‘Gambling Heroes’ and ‘God of Gamblers’ a few times, they seem to have a different style, right?”

Wang Yang didn’t immediately answer the question about style but shared his own insights, “The style of Hong Kong gambling films is to focus on gambling, with all kinds of bizarre gambling skills, even superpowers that are beyond reality. Hong Kong film gambling scenes are always very dazzling and cool, with conflict, magic, and panache. In gambling, it’s a painting; Hollywood gambling movies generally focus on ‘why gamble’ and the peripheral stories, digging into the characters’ inner lives, with the gambling table being merely a brief detail, never lingering—it’s a thick line.”

Daniel Wu nodded in agreement and said, “Yes, I feel the same way, Hollywood gambling films seem to not understand gambling techniques, completely lacking subtlety, compared to Hong Kong films…” He paused and then laughed, “Hollywood doesn’t have gambling movies.” Natalie, however, was surprised and asked, “Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders. He had also been puzzled by this question. Could it be that American audiences didn’t like to watch ‘professional’ gambling films? But he thought that wasn’t it, no one likes something amateurish over professional, the more professional, the more exciting and mesmerizing it is, as proven in various medical and crime-solving TV series. Of course, whether TV series or films, no matter how professional, the precondition is the story has to be good, and the characters have to be compelling.

Especially because of film length, it’s not possible to use the entire runtime to introduce card techniques; it’s not an educational program or a documentary. There’s a balance, a rhythm to maintain. ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ is mainly about detectives and counter-detection, the MIT group’s battle against all of Las Vegas.

But without a doubt, what can be called “gambling films” in Hollywood have never focused on the gambling itself, lacking professionalism and detail. Why is that?

Thinking from a producer’s perspective, it seems there might be some clues. Thinking this, Wang Yang looked at Natalie and the others, puzzled, and said with a laugh, “Maybe because, from a business standpoint, gambling films have never really had a market in Hollywood, no one wants to explore and try, and producers don’t want to take the risk. You know, it’s better to take that money and make a romantic film instead.”

Joshua nodded with a chuckle, “I love romantic films, I’ve always been looking forward to love.” Jay questioned, “You’ve never been in love?” Alexis looked at him curiously, and Joshua suddenly didn’t know what to say, “Uh!” Natalie looked at Wang Yang, “Keep going!”

“Then you go to make a gambling film, which isn’t considered a commercial movie, wanting to explore gambling and human nature, emotions, and so on; it’s just a low-budget movie, aiming to win with a creative approach that often takes the route of story depth, so naturally, the camera won’t focus on any gambling technique; with a high budget, you can do a lot of big action and big scenes, then you think, what’s so grand about a little gambling table?”

Speaking of which, Wang Yang suddenly remembered the future film ‘Casino Royale,’ claiming to be a “pure Hollywood gambling film,” which, in fact, after his research into many Hollywood gambling movies, is the one with the most detailed. But comparatively, its gambling element was still somewhat simple, and compared to Hong Kong films, it appeared quite naive.

But he didn’t fully endorse Hong Kong gambling films like ‘Gambling Heroes’ and ‘God of Gamblers,’ that whole style was already 1980s’ technique, unsuitable for today’s world, even Hong Kong finds it outdated.

Exaggeration and superpowers are not professional, ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ seeks dazzling but realistic, high IQ card techniques. It wants the detail-oriented atmosphere of Hong Kong films and the exciting narratives of Hollywood commercial films.

“I want to create a flavor…” Wang Yang stood up, but Natalie became more and more puzzled and asked, “I don’t understand?” Wang Yang continued with a laugh, “You can’t understand now, but trust me! If ‘MIT-21-TEAM’ were classified as a gambling movie, then it would be unprecedented. Haha!” He glanced over at Alexis, Daniel Wu, and the others, speaking solemnly, “You know? We’re going to make it the pinnacle of gambling movies that can’t be surpassed!”

“Wow!” Joshua dragged out his voice in admiration, feigning cuteness, “That’s so exciting!” Alexis agreed wholeheartedly, thinking which of Wang Yang’s movies wouldn’t be exciting? Especially with their own presence in it! Natalie smiled lightly and said, “Okay, even though I’m still very confused about what it will be like, whether it will be boring… I’ll leave it to you, director!”

Wang Yang shrugged with a smile, saying, “I don’t know how it will turn out, but it will be cool, it will be.”

This movie was a brand new experience for him, unlike any before, this movie had no template to follow. Apart from also being adapted from ‘Bringing Down Las Vegas,’ it was completely different from ‘Winning 21′ and wasn’t a traditional Hollywood gambling movie; the outcome was unpredictable. But whether it was blackjack, Texas hold’em, or Omaha… whatever it was, a movie like this had never appeared before, who knows whether the audience would like it or not?

You have to try to know the result! Just do your best!

As Wang Yang walked towards the camera, passing by Joshua, he patted his head, laughing, “I can’t guarantee any miracles, but at least it hasn’t taken that path of failure. So, I chose door number two. That’s a 2/3 chance of winning!” He suddenly yelled at Natalie and Daniel Wu, “Hurry up and read the script! If anyone NGs later, I’ll punch them all the way back to Long Island, New York!”

“I’m waiting!” Natalie gave him a provocative look; everyone naturally knew he was joking but they all started to look seriously at the script and memorize their lines, because as actors, none of them wanted to hear that dreaded “NG!”

Then Wang Yang talked with Valery-Fister and a few others about the shooting angles for a moment. Seeing that it was about time, he picked up the megaphone and shouted, continuing the shoot that wasn’t completed before!

After everyone was prepared, the word “Action” sounded, and following a few NGs, the scene finally moved on to the last few shots.

In the previous probability paradoxes and mathematical problems, Jeff Ma’s performance had surprised the three people of the MIT group, which naturally sparked their huge interest. Jeff Ma’s mental arithmetic speed and memory were nothing short of miraculous, and his logic was purely mathematical, unaffected by emotions, making him an excellent choice to fill the vacancy of a major player!

“If you must gamble, how can you win?” Natalie’s eyes were filled with laughter, while Alexis and Jay Baruchel had smiles on their lips as if they had found prey. Suddenly hearing an unrelated question, Daniel Wu thought for a moment, his voice slowing down as he said, “There’s no winning in gambling.”

“Very good!” Natalie revealed a playful smile and asked, “Which school are you from?” The chubby student quickly replied with a delighted smile, “MIT!” The three of them immediately looked at each other and laughed. Natalie murmured with a chuckle, “MIT, MIT… OK!” With those words, she stood up and left, followed by Alexis and Jay. After taking a few steps, Natalie suddenly turned back and asked, “Are you part of any extracurricular clubs?”

Daniel Wu chuckled softly, looking away, and said, “I’ve answered too many questions tonight.” Natalie nodded knowingly, replying with a smile, “So that’s a no, but don’t worry, you’ll join a club soon.” With that, the three walked out. The chubby student called out in confusion, “Hey, what do you mean? Which club?” Alexis glanced back with a smile, “The club that does math problems.”

“CUT!” As they walked away, Wang Yang yelled out, relieved at heart— the first scene was finally complete! He gave a thumbs-up, exclaiming cheerfully, “All good! That’s a wrap!”

The place immediately erupted in cheers, the whole bar became noisy with celebration. After rejoicing over the smooth start of the shoot, the crew hurriedly began adjusting the equipment, ready to shoot the next series of shots.

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PS: Wow Li continues to seek recommendations. Thank you, everyone! Nowadays authors often say that recommendation tickets are free, a mere gesture from you all, and yet it’s the energy source for Wow Li!