Old Mike commanded the camera crew, capturing New York's magnificent landmarks from the best angles.
Soon, these beautiful scenes would be blown to smithereens and burned to ashes under the reconstruction of CGI technology.
"Leon, watch your expression! You can be crazier! Cameramen, make sure to avoid any unnecessary background elements in the shot!"
"Lock the focus on the protagonist and the Empire State Building itself!"
"The better we do with the details now, the smaller the gap between the live-action footage and the CGI later!"
Although Mike was nearly sixty, his energy and ability to direct on set far surpassed those of young directors just entering the industry.
Every shout, every direction was spot on, without a wasted word.
Even a layman like Leon, who knew nothing about film production, could see that Old Mike was leagues ahead of a hack like T-Ray.
There weren't many outdoor shots. Under Old Mike's excellent direction and the two actors' perfect performance, the shooting plan, originally estimated to take a whole day, was finished in just one morning.
Leon was now a record label boss too, albeit the lowliest kind.
Even lower on the totem pole than T-Ray's Black Panther Records.
But seeing a capable director like Old Mike, it was hard not to be tempted.
If any record label could possess such a talented director, their competitiveness at the VMAs would jump up a tier.
On the way back to Roc Nation, Leon kept casually chatting up Old Mike, bombarding him with flattery and successfully closing the distance between them.
Old Mike didn't curse or smoke on set, acting like a refined university professor.
But the saying "when a refined man goes bad, he's worse than a beast" applied perfectly to Old Mike.
When Leon asked him about shooting techniques, Old Mike crossed his arms, adopted the pose of a master, and quoted an ancient Chinese proverb: "No secret, I just have much experience (It's nothing special, just practice makes perfect)."
What does that mean?
Leon indicated he still didn't quite get it.
Old Mike took out his phone, opened the gallery, flashed a mysterious smile, and signaled Leon to come closer.
When he saw the content of the photos, Leon was shocked. The women in the photos were all stark naked, posing provocatively and making lewd expressions at the camera.
He was completely mesmerized. Not because the girls in the photos were particularly charming, but because Old Mike's photography skills were truly exquisite.
Even the giant of the adult entertainment industry, Brazzers, couldn't capture this kind of raw female lust.
Seeing Leon's surprised expression, Old Mike looked even smugger. "Life needs a goal to strive for..."
"Since I entered this industry at twenty-two, I've been constantly finding girls to shoot with, honing my skills."
"Now I'm a grandfather of ten, and I still stick to this habit."
"Salute to the great Louis Daguerre!"
The image of the refined gentleman in Leon's mind instantly shattered into dust. But thinking about it again, this was normal.
The film industry is like this; no one can escape the messy affairs between men and women.
Robbie, seeing the two acting sneaky, also leaned in. "What interesting stuff are you looking at? Let me see!"
When she saw the explicit photos, Robbie didn't react with shame or anger as Leon expected. Instead, she started critiquing them seriously.
"This girl's expression is really sultry... The photographer's technique is great too, but her body isn't that good."
"She looks less than 5'3". Is she a Hobbit?"
In front of Robbie, Old Mike, who had been pretending to be decent, chuckled. "Of course, these btches can't compare to you, Miss Robbie..."
"Obviously~ If I took photos like this, they'd look ten thousand times better than hers!"
"OMG! Absolutely! Even God couldn't argue with that!" Old Mike looked excited, lasers in his eyes. "If you want to dedicate yourself to art, these old bones are ready to serve you for free anytime!"
"No way~ If I take photos like that, only that 'special guy' gets to take them~" Robbie flashed a playful smile and hugged Leon's arm. With her exaggerated makeup, she looked even more mischievous than usual.
"We're almost at the office. Stop messing around." Leon hurriedly called a halt to this meaningless discussion.
It started as an attempt at poaching talent but turned into a discussion about "artistic photography."
However, this conversation wasn't entirely fruitless for him.
Old Mike revealed that he used to be an assistant cameraman on the team of Star Wars creator George Lucas. So he knew every step of special effects filmmaking like the back of his hand.
Lucas might be inferior to masters like Kubrick in terms of artistic contribution, and commercially maybe half a step behind Spielberg and Cameron.
But when it comes to mastery of special effects, probably no one in the film industry can touch his throne.
It was just that his company, Industrial Light & Magic, was in a bit of trouble—the deep-pocketed Disney was aggressively pursuing it.
Old Mike told Leon a top-secret piece of news. Only Disney executives and Lucas's closest friends and family knew about it.
The always-tough Lucas had recently shown willingness to compromise with Disney. Their offer was just too high!
But Leon wasn't surprised after learning this "secret."
The artisan's watch, the master's blood and sweat, the pursuit of ideals—all were lies.
As long as the price is right, there is nothing in this world that cannot be labeled and sold.
Lucas treated this company like his own child, the career he fought for all his life...
But under the fervent money offensive of the rich second generation (Disney), he could only watch helplessly as this "girl" was reduced to a whore for anyone to exploit.
The shooting inside the studio afterward was much simpler, just constantly changing poses against a giant green screen.
This way of shooting made Leon extremely uncomfortable, and he couldn't get into the zone for a long time.
Luckily, Robbie was a professional actress and patiently guided him. "Use your imagination, and you'll get into it quickly!"
Leon couldn't understand this at all. In films before the millennium, actors had to do dozens or hundreds of takes to achieve a perfect scene.
Many broke bones or even nearly lost their lives for it.
But in this era, actors just had to strike a few poses in a boring studio to make a fortune.
Fortunately, although the shooting process wasn't smooth, it generally met Old Mike's expectations.
When Old Mike announced the wrap, Leon could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
---
By late August, the studio version of Sucker for Pain was finally complete.
From producer Big Dog to Vice President Lenny to boss Jay-Z, everyone was very satisfied with the final result.
So when Leon asked Jay-Z if he could increase the budget to invite Kendrick Lamar to join him at next week's Made in America festival, Jay-Z agreed without thinking for long.
Even though this meant an extra appearance fee and minor adjustments to some guest performance schedules, Jay-Z thought it was all worth it.
As the owner of the Made in America festival, he could do whatever he wanted to push his own artists.