With film critics who “understand” the characters even better than the director as a knowledge base, it was easy to persuade Teacher White. As soon as they started talking, it was a flood of character analysis. The key was to act convincingly, and if there were still doubts, it was fine to analyze from another angle.

After trying twice more, they finally performed the result Shawn Carter wanted.

Now, whenever Teacher White looked at Shawn Carter, there was even a bit of fear.

Later, when Teacher White was interviewed, they told the reporter—

“Other directors are very fierce in the theater, but Director Carter basically never loses his temper. He just asks you to repeat the NG, and after you’ve NG’d more than twenty times, he’ll have a one-on-one talk about the character.”

“To be honest, although I’m a teacher at Beijing Film Academy, I think even the professors there can’t talk as much as Director Carter. The script for the character Ishii Yulian is only seven pages, but I feel like Director Carter spoke twenty or thirty thousand words about the character’s emotions.”

“Only now do I kind of miss those hot-tempered directors. Facing Director Carter, the pressure is really intense.”

Shawn Carter watched the results from behind the screen with satisfaction. You have to know, when Ishii Yulian appears in the izakaya, accompanied by the music “Battle Without Honor or Humanity,” it’s a classic.

And “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” has also become the signature soundtrack for big boss entrances.

Chapter 11: Professional

Filming in Japan was rather difficult, with a lot of action scenes. Since Shawn Carter was also serving as the action director, but didn’t know a thing about martial arts himself, such a martial arts director is, if not unique, then certainly one in a million—truly terrifying! ...Okay, that’s enough drama.

“Sister Foster, this isn’t right. Today I’ve already glued Newton’s coffin shut with 502, buried it, and sprinkled salt on top. The one in charge is Niu Bi. We don’t need to show any signs of being hurt, or move slowly, or anything like that.”

“The flying is too exaggerated. Our style is absurd, not exaggerated. Let’s do another take.”

“Cut, cut, cut, get a more suitable extra.”

“Here, your sword-holding move should be like this.”

Shawn Carter’s teaching method was very simple: just get in there and demonstrate. Of course, the demonstration only covered moves that weren’t too difficult, like how the female lead should look when holding a sword in a standoff.

Mindy Foster hesitated, wanting to say something.

Shawn Carter said directly, “Sister Foster, if you have something to say, just say it.”

“As an actor, I don’t doubt the director’s arrangements, but I’ve studied Sanda for a few years, and this way of holding a sword isn’t good for offense or defense,” said Mindy Foster.

“Looking cool is all that matters. This film is a complete mishmash, throwing out a lot of the visual and auditory logic of cinema,” Shawn Carter explained.

“Is it really okay for an action film to abandon logic?” Mindy Foster had been filming for several years, had worked with both unknown and famous action directors, but none of them were like Shawn Carter.

“You can always trust my Baili Shou—wait, no.” Shawn Carter blurted out a catchphrase from his previous life as a gamer. In his past life, as a top Baili Shouyue player, crystal defender, comeback master, and walking aimbot in the national server, he had the confidence to say this.

Uh—seems off topic. Back to the point, Shawn Carter immediately corrected himself: “You can always trust my action design.”

It’s unclear whether Mindy Foster was intimidated by Shawn Carter’s confidence or felt it was impolite to keep questioning the director, but in any case, Mindy Foster didn’t ask further.

“Director Carter, we’ve been reported for disturbing the peace. The public security office just sent someone over,” said Scott Stone.

Normally, this kind of issue should be handled by the company, or at least the responsible producer, and never fall on the director. However, for this crew, Shawn Carter was the sole investor. Even if the distribution company would get a share of the profits later, that was for the future.

Here’s a little trivia: at the start of a film, you often see “producer” and “co-producer.” The former represents a company, the latter represents multiple people.

If there’s a problem, solve it. Japan is quite strict about noise control, especially in residential areas. Shawn Carter represented the crew to apologize and tried to finish filming before 9 p.m. But it was impossible to guarantee this completely. First, regarding sound: yes, there are walkie-talkies on set, but with a hundred or two hundred people, you can’t give everyone one, so communication is basically by shouting. Besides, even with a strict plan to finish by nine, it’s not always possible to stick to it perfectly—actors’ conditions are unpredictable.

For this reason, Shawn Carter’s years as an assistant director in his previous life came in handy. He decided that after nine o’clock, most of the crew would leave, and any necessary close-ups would be reshot during the day. This is similar to how, when filming bed scenes, most people are cleared from the set.

This filming method explains why, even though two shots are supposed to be continuous, you sometimes see continuity errors in costumes. What looks like continuous shots to the audience might actually have been filmed months apart due to actors’ schedules or on-set factors.

After two months in Japan, the izakaya scenes were finally finished, which meant all the killing scenes were done, taking a total of three months.

Meanwhile, the animation commissioned from Production I.G was completed a month ago. Japanese anime is indeed a very mature industry.

That afternoon, Shawn Carter gave the whole crew a day off to rest. Since they were in Tokyo, they had to make a pilgrimage to Harajuku. The return flight was booked for the next day.