We had a meeting with Max today. I had prepared myself by rowing some five kilometers at the gym in the morning, well, afternoon (after waking up, that is), and then I walked into the office. He was already in full steam like only Max can be. Right away he barked to the editor to open up some of the problematic scenes and told me to tell him how to edit them to fix them. Mind you, our actual editor, Mrs. Fang, had already quit the project since she had a baby and couldn’t finish what we were doing, and anyway, it was more Max’s show now, with all the changes pouring in on a daily basis.
I told him that I’m not going to start editing now, but that we would discuss what the new cut would need in my opinion. I had written a lengthy and rather snarky list commenting some of the changes he had introduced to the cut but decided against blurting it out in its’ full snarkiness. It rarely is worth it, and again, the actual conversation that arose from it helped me to see better the root of some changes, and also allowed me to comment my concerns to him. So eventually we agreed I would do a few days of editing work, and then screen my take to Max.
After the meeting, which lasted some three hours, Chris invited me to a dinner with some friends of his. We went to this Schezuan place, famous for its’ tasty and pretty spicy (and oily, mind you) dishes. Joining us was a Chinese actor – a tall guy from the north (we discussed why people from the northern regions are taller, guessing it had something to do with the nutrition – turns out it’s not really true, but there is a slight correlation to that direction.) There was also an American producer who was there to meet with the actor, as she was working on a project she was looking to cast him.
We had a great dinner, it was nice talking in English, although the Chinese actor felt a bit left out, and the poor thing ended up wanting to pay the whole dinner in the end. But hopefully he gets the part at least!
Taxi home, few hours of sleep, then tossing and turning in bed until morning, breakfast and then a proper 6 hours of sleep. Apparently my regular cycle here.
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