The Best Director

Chapter 321: Chapter 321 BANG!

There were still over nine months before June 2005, and the post-production editing of “Firefly” had just started—ample time since films scheduled for release during the same period like “Fantastic Four” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” were still in the shooting phase. Quality work often takes time, especially for innovative sci-fi epics like this one, so no one would complain about having too much time. The special effects production for “Firefly” had already begun, with the movie set to have more than 1,800 special effects shots, over 1,000 more than “District 9”.

From the Battle of Serenity Valley, The Great Train Robbery… to the Battle of New Shanxi, and the ending. The storyline boards gave the visual effects team a detailed sequencing to follow, and parts of the scenes were completed sequentially, allowing attempts at assembling the effects. Furthermore, this allowed Wang Yang and others to start editing a rough cut without music or special effects. There were three credited editors for “Firefly”: Wang Yang, Margaret Goodspeed, and Lee Smith.

For the original score, Wang Yang invited Hans Jimo and Jan Kaczmarek to collaborate on the composition.

Inviting Hans Jimo as the composer might seem cliché, but since his Hollywood debut with “Rain Man” in 1988 and his first Oscar nomination, this 47-year-old German has rightfully become “the spokesperson for Hollywood blockbuster scores” with his compositions for “Thelma & Louise”, “Bold Ambition”, “The Lion King”… “The Rock”, “Gladiator”, “Mission: Impossible 2”, “Black Hawk Down”, “Pearl Harbor”, “The Last Samurai”… Over the years, he has scored for 48 movies and has received 7 Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score, winning once.

If you include the information from the future film archives, he also composed for the “Batman” series, “Pirates of the Caribbean” 2, 3, 4, “Kung Fu Panda” 1, 2, “Inception”, and other blockbusters, truly a top-tier master.

Hans Jimo is skilled at blending electronic and traditional orchestral music to produce a sound that is both electrifying and majestic, with a touch of the tragic grandeur of the traditional orchestra. He often includes classic chants that are either deeply majestic or passionately powerful, like in “Rain Man”, all of which compose colorful, compelling, and bold symphonies.

These were precisely the notes Wang Yang wanted; the emotional enhancement needed the music to deal the fatal blow, especially the grand tragedy aimed for in “The Battle of New Shanxi” to ignite the audience’s emotions. The caliber of Hans Jimo’s scoring was indispensable. Now, as the youngest Oscar-winning Best Director, and with “Firefly” being a 200 million sci-fi megaproduction, it was hardly surprising that he could engage Hans Jimo, who enthusiastically said, “This is my most important project in 2005”. Wang Yang knew “Firefly” was a great opportunity to aim for the Oscars.

Wang Yang had been old friends with Jan Kaczmarek, having previously collaborated on “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “District 9”. If Wang Yang needed Hans Jimo for the more action-packed scenes, then he needed Jan Kaczmarek for the quieter ones. Perhaps not as bombastically emotional, but the Polish man’s piano, strings, and children’s voices expressed a tenderness, a piercing melancholy, that Hans Jimo lacked.

It wasn’t about creating grandiose sci-fi scenes or exuding slow, artistic vibes. What Jan Kaczmarek aimed to bring to “Firefly” was a sense of ease and innocence. Wang Yang had complete faith this old-timer would deliver, and one only had to look forward to the upcoming “Finding Neverland” releasing on November 12. The dashing piano, lively strings, and spirited children’s chorus, even the typically rugged brass was used with finesse by Jan, in a style befitting a fairy-tale world.

During consecutive preview screenings of “Finding Neverland,” a critic commented that the score’s only flaw was that it was too “light,” the “Jan Kaczmarek trifecta” of piano, strings, and children’s chorus had strikingly similar roles, same melodies, rhythms, dynamics, with the instrument voices not distinctly separated, lacking differentiation at a fundamental musical level, resulting in many passages seeming effortlessly cohesive, but poorly defined harmonies and timbre, missing the spatial tension typical of Hollywood scores.

However, Wang Yang thought that the critic was simply talking nonsense—how wonderful the melodies of “Finding Neverland” were!

Including a multitude of different forms of creation, creators often face too many constraints, whether due to personal inner turmoil or external pressure; Wang Yang saw that some composers often got lost in the exuberance of formality, liking to pile up boring elements of different kinds; film composers, in particular, since their music serves the visual content, are innately restrained from expressing themselves, especially in heavily commercialized Hollywood; sometimes “experience” and “risk” trump all, sticking to the rules is just fine, so what’s there to say about emotional investment?

Yes, allowing strings and harmonies, strings and piano, to appear together in concert was to forsake the epic texture that Hollywood scores usually adhere to, weakening spatial tension in pursuit of a lighter, more delicate expression.

But if it was forsaken, then let it be forsaken: why should every yearning be for the same grandeur of tension? Different film content, different scenes and shots, all have their unique ways of expression and reinforcement— “Finding Neverland’s” “light” was brilliantly light! Wang Yang hoped that several important scenes in “Firefly” could also have this atmosphere.

Indeed, due to the score, Jan Kaczmarek and the producers of “Finding Neverland” had several disagreements; of course, Jan stood his ground. Maybe Wang Yang’s private support and understanding, along with his unswerving enthusiasm, played a role, as Jan Kaczmarek agreed to accept the invitation to collaborate on the score with Hans Jimo, a departure from his usual solo compositions in a string of previous films.

Hans Jimo and Jan Kaczmarek are undoubtedly masters of scoring, their combination of action and stillness nearly perfect. Not only did Wang Yang recognize talent—the announcement that the two would collaborate on “Firefly” immediately sparked great anticipation among movie and film score fans alike, wondering what kind of clash their musical notes would create!

Of course, they must wait for the editing team to produce results before the score team could start work, and how they proceed will naturally depend on whether the visual content of “Firefly” can provide them with the passion and inspiration needed for creation. However, the score team was not without preparation; they needed to consider how to integrate the cowboy + East, how to perfectly incorporate traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu, pipa, and small gongs to display some Eastern artistic ambience?

They planned to travel to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China among other places, to discuss and research with local musicians and film composers in Asia, also inviting some talented musicians to join the team and participate in the work, determined to make “Firefly” a new pinnacle in their careers.

In terms of editing, this was Margaret Goodspeed’s sixth time serving as the editor for a film directed by Wang Yang, while Lee Smith (known for works like “The Truman Show”, “The Perfect Storm”, and “The Dark Knight”) continued their collaboration following “District 9”. Along with director Wang Yang himself, the three of them formed the leading team of the editing group. Although all were editors, their tasks differed in focus: Margaret primarily edited the “static” parts, the other two focused on the action and combat scenes, with Wang Yang keeping a particularly close eye on the martial arts shots.

Clearly, “Firefly” wasn’t a cult film from start to finish, so the editing style couldn’t be too CULT. It needed to follow a path that was grand and atmospheric.

Excluding the opening flame animation and the closing credits, the pre-set length of “Firefly” ranged from 150 to 180 minutes, that is, two and a half to three hours, with Wang Yang hoping to keep it around 165 minutes. This again broke his record for the length of a single film in a significant way; apart from “Paranormal Activity” at 90 minutes, his other seven films were around 120 minutes. This change also meant that there was a new narrative rhythm.

The “New Shanxi Battle” was merely the ultimate climax reached towards the end of the film. Theoretically, from the very opening battle of Serenity Valley, the film was meant to be shocking, with its continuous fighting and adventure, the rapid and vast change of scenes, and a cast of diverse characters all seen from the perspectives of the two storylines: Serenity and the Blue Hands.

How those climactic points should be handled was left to be pondered and decided during the fine cut; currently, Wang Yang and his team’s task was to produce a rough cut. Even more pressing was to create a 2.5-minute teaser trailer to support the launch of several viral marketing plans for “Firefly”.

“My primary demand is that it must have an exciting tension, a burning force!” In the dimly lit editing room, with several computer screens on a table displaying different shots, Wang Yang was expressing his requirements to the team working on the trailer. While trailers and credit sequences could be conceived and produced by specialized companies, Wang Yang preferred to be hands-on and had always done well. Looking over at Margaret and her colleagues, Wang Yang continued, “In these two minutes, we need to roughly deliver a riveting story, and of course, include one or two humorous lines and shots.”

Artistic director Kevin Cavanaugh nodded and heard him say, “But! It’s crucial to clarify the relationships. This time, we are fitting exciting shots and split dialogue to the pace of the preselected music, which is like a symphony, a rock song! Excitement, quickened heartbeats, anticipation! And you know, it has to have the effect of a ‘spoof template’, so no superfluous voiceovers—let the dialogue of the characters link everything! Details like director, leading actors—don’t be too verbose, just have their roles and names appear briefly in separate scenes…”

“You’ve all heard Hans Jimo’s music for the trailer. Let’s start brainstorming now!” Having outlined his requirements, Wang Yang opened the script and the list of scene numbers while Margaret and the others also began consulting their own copies. The music they had just heard indeed had the power to send one’s adrenaline soaring. Considering the script, Wang Yang suggested, “Let’s try starting like this, with the Blue Hand’s line: ‘There’s something you need to know. She’s a very dangerous person, with secrets you shouldn’t know…’ and the shot of River hiding in the box from above.”

Margaret thought of something, pushed up her glasses, and said with a serious smile, “Yang, you should appear in the trailer too, right?” Wang Yang glanced at everyone and nodded with a laugh, “Yes, I will!”

The viral marketing campaign for “Firefly” was far more than just a spoof trailer; the continuous rollout of new tactics had many film distributors blushing with envy, and in the past few days, it had certainly broadened everyone’s horizons.

Flame Films had struck a deal with the Italian game publisher “Da Vinci Games,” launching a “Firefly” edition of “BANG!”

“BANG!” is a card-based murder game that debuted in 2002 and is steadily growing in popularity worldwide. It just won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game of 2003. Designed with a wild Western theme, it features Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, and Renegade roles. The core victory rule is for the Outlaw to kill the Sheriff; the Deputy aids the Sheriff to eliminate the Outlaws and the Renegades; while the Renegade’s goal is to kill the Outlaw and Deputy before finally killing the Sheriff, being the last one standing.

The game includes both real and fictional characters like Butch Cassidy, Black Jack, and Suzy Lafayette, as well as props like guns, mustangs, and beer, each with different functional effects.

The “Firefly” version swaps the setting for a new star system in the future, with roles corresponding to the Alliance, Blue Gloves, Reavers, and Independents. It changes “Indian Invasion” to “Reaver Invasion,” where all players except the initiator must discard a BANG! (attack minus 1 HP), and those without BANG! to discard or unwilling to discard lose 1 health point. It also replaces the equipment card “Mustang” with “Firefly,” reducing the distance to all players by one; and naturally, the characters have all changed, too.

Characters like Captain Mal and Blue Gloves were on the playing cards, with Mal’s role ability allowing him to draw a hand card from any player during the draw phase; Blue Gloves could use any number of BANG! in a turn; River could swap the use of BANG! and MISSED! (dodge attack)…

It’s unclear how many people will play the “Firefly” version of “BANG!”, but Flame Films’ novel move certainly captures attention! As soon as they released a set of hand-drawn comics and a set of live-action actor playing cards on their official website, it sparked coverage by many media outlets including Yahoo, and the website’s soaring traffic clearly showed that the move effectively achieved its promotional goal. More people gained a deeper impression of “Firefly’s” characters and world setting; more also learned about “BANG!”, the game, making for a win-win for Flame Films and Da Vinci Games.

Flame Films had no plans to mass produce the game as a physical card set for sale or operate it online, as outlined in the agreement between both parties; however, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t print any. Participation in other viral marketing activities on the official website gave a chance to win a gift package that included physical playing cards, T-shirts, and other gifts.

Would office workers and housewives buy into it? This wasn’t within Flame Films’ considerations when playing this BANG!, yet it indeed stripped the geeky, bookish movie fan base of their MISSED!, losing them 1 HP, and garnered significant interest from countless others who previously didn’t pay much attention to “Firefly.” And what really got these geeks as excited as if Christmas was coming was that “The Big Bang Theory” was about to be hit with a BANG! (