Chapter 21 Dance! Dance! Dance!

"Tony, do you think there's a scientific basis for this claim of being photogenic?" After that wonderful singing performance earlier, Lin Ming Yang became acquainted with the cast and crew, and while removing his makeup, in a good mood, he chatted with his stylist.

"I'm glad you asked a question related to my area of expertise, in fact the profession of stylist came into being largely to solve this problem. You know that many big stars' images on screen differ greatly from reality, and therein lies the charm of a stylist, we always strive to bring out the actor's most perfect image in front of the camera!" The work in Tony's hand didn't stop when he answered this question.

"Other than personal feelings, does it have any more professional and reasonable explanation?"

"You need to turn to a more professional person for this question, such as our photographer!" Tony shook his head slightly apologetically, then pointed towards the back, where Mark, the crew's cameraman, was organizing his equipment.

"Mr. Mark, our Felix asked a very professional question, and I think you can give him a more accurate answer!" Tony briefed Mark on what had happened.

"Specifically, the difference in photogenicity is due to the imaging principle of the camera or camcorder. Since the image captured by the camera through the principle of optics is a two-dimensional image, it can't reflect the sense of hierarchy before and after the object, coupled with the light and the angle at which the shot is taken, it affects the viewer's visual perception, and this causes certain defects in the face of the photographed person to be magnified, and all these factors will result in varying degrees of distortion in the photo or video!" Mark thought for a moment, "The current emergence of 3D photography technology can solve this problem, but the cost of utilizing this technology is still very high now, and it is usually the kind of large production films that will be used!"

"IMAX?" such a term suddenly popped up in Lin Ming Yang's head.

Mark froze, he didn't expect this little guy Lin Ming Yang to know quite a lot, "That's right, IMAX is one of the more leading 3D technologies, but the cost is also much more exorbitant, and the field of application is still only limited to a handful of anamorphic screenings in science museums. As far as I know, Hollywood commercial movies do not look favorably on this technology, but there is a director who holds IMAX in high esteem, he even predicted that in the future Hollywood movies will enter the 3D era."

"Advanced technology will always replace the original technology to become the mainstream, this is the inevitable law of things!" Lin Mingyang agreed with the director's view, the most important thing is that in the era in which he lived, Hollywood did launch a lot of 3D movies with shocking effects.

"Then you'll have to work harder, if you have the chance to work with that director in the future, maybe you can become confidants!" Mark laughed, obviously he also just took this statement of his as a joke, that great director left an incomparably magnificent footnote to Hollywood commercial movies at the end of the last century, but no new work has been released since then.

Although this was just a joke with encouragement, Lin Ming Yang got serious, "That director is?"

"The King of the World, James Cameron!"

Mark's words brought Lin Mingyang a small shock, now many people thought that "Titanic" for becoming James Cameron's finale, because this movie created a box office myth that is almost impossible to be surpassed. But Lin Mingyang heart is clear, James Cameron is actually brewing a more magnificent plan, this will be a perfect self-breakthrough, now James Cameron is the king of the world, ten years later he is still the king of the world!

To be able to work with such a great director as James Cameron was still a far-fetched dream for Lin Ming Yang, who had just hit the road. But what Mark didn't expect was that it was his words that led to one of the most legendary peak collaborations in Hollywood many years later.

Now Lin Mingyang has not thought so far, still immersed in the first performance in the joy of success he soon ushered in the second to make his headache. In front of the camera, he played a role that could always dance, and now that the problem of singing has been solved, dancing has become a big problem.

Singing well, that could be attributed to personal talent, who let Lin Mingyang be born with a clear and thick voice. But it has never been heard that anyone was born to dance, those talented dancers were honed later in life. In this regard, director Kenny Ortega was particularly strict with Lin Ming Yang, and the crew hired a special dance teacher, and all the actors had to receive professional training.

Lin Mingyang, who was known for his flexibility on the basketball court, was surprisingly stiff on the dance training ground. Because he was the main character, the coach had to patiently and carefully instruct him over and over again.

"Felix, just relax, okay? We're not doing a mechanical dance here, our movements must be soft!" Coach Emily, who was in charge of training this group of young actors, wasn't too old herself, she was a New York Broadway actress, she wasn't very pretty but had a great body. Compared to Megan's sexiness, Emily was a bit more voluptuous and mature. There were a lot of young boys like Lin Ming Yang in the cast, and there were quite a few who were enamored with her.

In the past, Lin Ming Yang might have even secretly commented on this beautiful coach, but now he didn't have such a mind. Today he had already repeated that set of dance moves no less than ten times, but Emily still wasn't satisfied. After correcting Lin Ming Yang's movement mistakes, Emily twisted her head and nodded to the sound playback engineer beside her, "Replay the accompaniment from just now once more, Felix, finish the movements, pay attention to keep up with the tempo, and familiarize your body with this sense of rhythm!"

Lin Ming Yang smiled bitterly and nodded his head, looking at the mirror he put himself through all the movements, the problem wasn't in his body's poor coordination, he had tried to do a lot of difficult twisting movements under the basket, the toughness of this body wasn't bad.

The original Felix should have received some kind of special training when he was a child, and his body's instinctive movements were always habitually simple. But dance demanded physical expression, and to do that required a sufficient number of movements to support it. Lin Mingyang's problem is that he omits a lot of movements without thinking, and unfortunately he hasn't yet reached the advanced dancer's realm of simplifying the complexity into simplicity, so the movements he makes are awkward.

After repeating it many times, the results achieved in the end weren't very good, Lin Ming Yang had a frustrated look on his face, while Emily had a bit of a headache. She could see that Lin Ming Yang was indeed training very seriously, the sweat on the boy's forehead that was more than anyone else's could prove his hard work, but why was the same training much less effective on him, could it be that he was a different kind of genius and wasn't suited to the way normal people trained? Or was he simply a hopeless fool when it came to dancing?

Emily told director Kenny Ortega about her concerns, he wasn't quite willing to accept the latter possibility because he didn't believe that Lin Ming Yang would be dumb enough to do that, but the problem needed to be solved urgently, what the crew lacked the most right now was time. Thinking about it and not having a better solution, Kenny Ortega became a bit anxious and angry, and at this time producer Eckles finally brought him a good news.

"Ortega, the company has agreed to your request to extend the shooting cycle, and on top of that I've gotten you an extra half month!" He loudly announced the news he had brought, but Kenny Ortega only gave a soft "oh" sound, his face still had a sad look on it.

"An accident happened while I was gone?" The first thing that came to Ecks' mind was a filming accident, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.

"We ran into a bit of trouble, and if we can't solve it, you guys just can't finish this movie even if you give me more time!" Kenny Ortega covered his face and said bitterly.

"What exactly happened?" Ecks felt that things shouldn't be as serious as he thought.

"There's some problems on Felix's side, the dance instructor relayed to me that he's having a not-so-small obstacle in learning to dance!" Kenny Ortega looked at his producer with a helpless look on his face, "Learning is going very slowly, perhaps we'll have to change our plans temporarily!"

"That's not possible, the company won't agree to us doing that!" Eckles vetoed his idea without any room for negotiation, "The problem is in those areas specifically, hasn't Felix always performed well before?"

"He's training hard, but he can't get the hang of it!"

After a moment's meditation, Eckles offered to watch the actors train, and it was only when he said so that Kenny Ortega remembered that his producer's old profession seemed to be stage directing, so he might be able to think of some good ideas.

The two of them stood far away from the training ground, watching Lin Ming Yang's performance, Kenny Ortega watched more and more anxious, but it was Eckles who looked thoughtful. After half a day, Ecks finally nodded his head, as if he was certain of something.

"I have a way to solve this problem!" The confidence shown in Ecks' words was undoubtedly a lifesaver for Kenny Ortega.

"What solution?" He asked impatiently.

"Let him start practicing fancy basketball first!" Ecks looked at Kenny Ortega with certainty, "If I'm not wrong, this little guy should have received free sparring or similar fighting training since he was a child, and it's very professional, you can see that he strives for simplicity in all of his movements, and this habit has already become a kind of instinct for his body, we have to let him learn a more flamboyant physical expression first !"

"Are you sure this will work?" Kenny Ortega asked with some hesitation.

"Try it!" It was just Ecks' personal judgment, and he wasn't absolutely sure, "Unless you have a better idea right now!"

This conversation between the two determined the direction of Lin Ming Yang's next training, and he was finally able to leave the dance training ground for a while, as the crew had found a fancy basketball coach specifically for him, an ordinary-looking, not-tall black man.

Compared to several of his black teammates on the Firefox team, this coach named Phil's body looked a little weak, and Lin Ming Yang doubted that if he met such an opponent in basketball, he could knock the other side to the ground with a little force. Unfortunately, this wasn't a basketball court, and what Phil was trying to teach him wasn't how to beat his opponents to score.

"Felix, I heard you play in the high school league?"

"We just won the state championship!" Lin Mingyang was proud to mention his brilliant record on the court.

"Oh, that's great!" Phil's acted casually, "The fact that you came from a championship team doesn't help our training, I'm more interested in knowing what position you play on the court!"

Phil's words were like throwing a pot of cold water on Lin Ming Yang, he replied sardonically, "Organization and scoring both!"

"Good, so you're a skillful player!" Phil finally nodded with satisfaction.

"Is that important?" Lin Mingyang asked in disbelief.

"Of course, for fancy basketball, skilled players will learn fast!" Phil said with a straight face, "Before we start, it's necessary for us to figure out two questions, what is fancy basketball and how does it differ from formal basketball techniques?"

If Jefferson knew that Lin Mingyang was preparing to learn fancy basketball, then none of his days in the Firefoxes would be good in the future. Fancy basketball was considered by many professional coaches to be a "wild game" that involved a lot of foul play. Lin Mingyang had received formal basketball training before, and if he had any contact with it, it had been playing an online game called "Street Basketball" on his computer before he crossed over.

"Your coach must have warned you guys to stay away from street basketball, that's not a formal technical move!" Phil looked like he knew what Lin Ming Yang was trying to say, "That's right, if you want to enter the NBA, learning fancy basketball isn't a wise choice, but that's not why I'm here today. All the moves I'm here to teach you have to be used very carefully on the basketball court because the coaches and the referees will come after you."

"Fancy basketball is more form-oriented, with juggling dribbles, imaginative passes and dunks, fused with powerful hip-hop music, all of which make it a highly spectator-friendly and entertaining basketball show. As a sports fashion, it is about style, freedom and creativity. Here you can simply understand it as a combination of basketball and dance. I'll make you dribble the ball better, even though a large part of this movement is completely redundant in the game, and you have to remember you're in a show, not a real game!"

After explaining the concept of fancy basketball clearly to Lin Mingyang, they began a simple training session. Phil's goal wasn't to actually train Lin Ming Yang to become a fancy basketball master, he just needed to make Lin Ming Yang's movements more tense and expressive. And producer Eckles' idea was to use the fancy basketball training to stimulate Lin Ming Yang's inner expressive yu.

Compared to dance moves, fancy basketball moves were easier to be accepted by Lin Ming Yang, who quickly grasped the technical essentials of them, and in the subsequent dance training, he was surprised to find that his movements were no longer so stiff, and he was able to gradually grasp some of the basic rules of those moves Emily instructed him on. His progress made everyone in the crew take a long breath of relief.