In the end, they hadn't managed to come up with a good solution.
It wasn't that Lyman hadn't suggested any ideas, but every suggestion he brought up was dismissed.
Ideas like capturing close-ups of the characters, narrowing the perspective, or using wide-angle shots to enhance the sense of space, all failed to earn Ang Lee's approval.
This guy's approach to filmmaking was completely inconsistent with his usual personality—stubborn to the core. It's often said that one might not fully understand life, but when it comes to movies (his lifelong pursuit), that's different, it's what he values most, and any negligence is unacceptable in his eyes.
He even suggested that if they couldn't achieve the desired effect, they should just delete the entire scene.
After all, the sheep wouldn't be drinking raw water either.
Without further ado, he pulled Lyman into designing a character close-up, using Ennis's expression to convey his conflicting thoughts and hesitations.
On one side was the person he loved, urging him to leave the mountain and start a new life in an unfamiliar place. On the other side were family, work, friends, and lovers...
Eight or nine out of ten things in life don't go as planned, and the same applies to filmmaking. Not everything can go smoothly.
Ang Lee also came to realize that continuing like this wasn't a viable option.
They estimated that they might as well proceed with this approach. While it might not capture the same aesthetic as the previously envisioned scene, it could at least allow the story to progress smoothly.
...
Early the next morning, while the sky was still dimly lit, Lyman woke up.
He had gone to bed early last night, but his sleep quality didn't improve much.
He was staying at the only inn in the town, and the room's decoration left much to be desired. The bed wasn't particularly spacious either; it was rather stiff.
Since he didn't have much to do, Lyman got up, went downstairs, grabbed some bread as breakfast, and headed up the mountain.
In about 30 minutes, he arrived at the already set-up film set.
Perhaps due to the early hour, most of the people bustling around were crew members. The actors were absent, but director Ang Lee was already there, deep in conversation with someone.
"You'll need to darken the lighting for the upcoming shots. Then, when we're at this point, gradually increase the brightness. Understand?" He held a storyboard in his hand and carefully explained to the lighting technician.
"Early start, huh?" Noticing Lyman's approach, he greeted casually.
"And you're earlier," Lyman replied with a wave, settling down in a nearby chair.
"Where's Rodrigo? Where did he go?" Ang Lee was still busy preparing for today's shooting. He looked around, not spotting the cameraman, and asked.
"He went down to move equipment." A passing crew member answered.
Well, the name Rodrigo Prieto might sound unfamiliar, but he was exceptionally skilled at shooting emotionally nuanced works.
For instance, he was the cinematographer for "Love's a Bitch" just two years ago.
The style of that work's shots was equally graceful. The director was also interesting, Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man who secured Leo DiCaprio's Oscar with "The Revenant".
Back then, the debut's age of beauty gave way to an oily uncle in the later years. The pictures of him playing with a water gun on the set had become an internet sensation, often collected as reaction images by many netizens, and couldn't help but evoke feelings of nostalgia: time is truly a pig-killing knife.
"Boss, did you need something from me?" Before long, Rodrigo arrived.
He was Mexican, and his spoken English was perhaps not as good as Ang Lee's.
However, this didn't pose much of an issue for their communication.
Sometimes, with just the storyboard, he could understand exactly how to shoot.
Lyman didn't have much to add, so he stood by, boredly looking around.
Not far to the right, between the tent and the shade structure, a small room had been set up with green screens and some makeshift wooden boards and fences. The roof was covered with cloth and bits of sheet metal, a hodgepodge of styles.
He went inside and knocked. The room was cluttered with miscellaneous items, and on a wooden rack were pots, bowls, ladles, and other household items. This, presumably, was the temporary living space for Heath's character Ennis on the ranch.
Passing through the room, he found the area where the sheep were kept.
There were a dozen or so, fenced in. They were calm, occasionally bleating a couple of times or leisurely grazing.
"Lyman."
As he returned to the shade structure, he saw Heath Ledger waving and smiling at him.
Lyman nodded, and Ang Lee handed him the revised script for the scene.
"Is this today's scene?"
"Yes, grasp it well and aim to nail it in one take," Ang Lee patted his shoulder as a sign of encouragement.
"Sure, I'll take a look first." Heath Ledger held the page in his hand, then sat in a corner, contemplating the emotions. That's how he usually did it.
Before long, the actors started arriving one by one.
Jake Gyllenhaal, who portrayed Jack, Jack's wife Anne Hathaway, and Heath's on-screen wife Michelle Williams were among them.
For the shoot, Anne had even cut her hair a bit shorter to fit the role, but she still looked beautiful.
She and Lyman weren't close, but she still politely greeted him.
After all, with his experience in the industry, leaving some impression was never a bad idea.
"Hello, Director Lyman."
Hearing the greeting, Lyman looked up, then smiled and responded, "Ms. Hathaway, hello."
She was also gradually gaining attention as a "pretty face" in Hollywood. Her debut in "The Princess Diaries" had catapulted her to the ranks of secondary actresses.
But, like many actors criticized for their poor acting, after earning fame, Anne Hathaway had begun to attempt a transformation, breaking free from the innocent image she'd maintained since her screen roles began.
After all, Hollywood is brimming with actresses relying on their looks. Without broadening one's acting range, a few years later, she'd be like some of the briefly famous actresses, vanishing swiftly and leaving no trace within the industry.
Participating in "Brokeback Mountain" was a crucial step in shedding her idol image. She attached great importance to it.
The actors sat together before the shooting started, either rehearsing their lines or chatting.
Unlike their intimate relationship in the film, Heath and Jake didn't click in real life.
Or one could say, Heath relied entirely on his acting skills to portray the character. There were no emotions involved; in terms of emotions, it was Michelle, who played his wife in the film, that he genuinely liked. Their interactions quickly ignited a spark of romance.
At this moment, the two of them were engaged in an animated discussion over the script.
However, the atmosphere between the other two main actors seemed somewhat awkward.
Anne sat quietly to the side, and Jake intentionally maintained a certain distance from her, occasionally looking over the script with Heath but rarely engaging with her.