A Genius Director at the University of Southern California

A Genius Director from the University of Southern California

1991, Los Angeles, United States.

The University of Southern California, also known as USC, houses the most famous film arts school in the United States.

This school has supplied a continuous stream of film industry talents, including directors, editors, and cinematographers, to Hollywood.

Inside the school, at the sports ground, a handsome man and a pretty woman are talking under the watchful eyes of a countless crowd.

"Kevin, let's break up."

Pera said coldly, her face possessing that of a top-tier green tea bitch. Looking at the handsome face of Kevin before her, a trace of regret stirred in her heart.

Steve Kevin, an orphan and a directing genius, whose short films have earned praise from countless professors within the school.

A genius like this is, in a sense, bound for a limitless future.

She should never have given up on such a promising male, no matter what.

Unfortunately...

Pera glanced at a man surrounded by the crowd who cast a gaze of adoration toward her, returning a sweet smile to him.

No matter how much of a genius he is, he remains nothing more than a potential stock.

At Southern California University, there are plenty of directors bearing the name of genius every year, but ninety-five percent of them ultimately end in failure.

The reason for all this is simple: Hollywood does not accept losers.

They only get one chance.

And as a newcomer director, wanting to achieve success with a first film—the difficulty of this... is simply too great.

If Kevin were not an orphan and had money at home, then even if he failed, his family could still fight for more opportunities for him.

However, as an orphan, he struggles immensely even with raising funds for his very beginning first film, let alone considering other issues.

As for that other man, he is the biological son of a Fox executive in Hollywood. If she can stay by his side, the success rate of her wish to become a major star will increase significantly.

Especially since that man promised her not long ago that as long as she stays with him, she can secure the position of female lead in a low-budget movie.

Thinking of this, Pera's heart grew even firmer.

Looking at the foreign woman in front of him suddenly uttering a breakup, Kevin stood there in a daze. A wave of memories suddenly surfaced within his mind.

His name is Chen Daoxuan, a minor director from the year 2020.

In his memories, in order to get money to shoot a new film, he drank a great deal of alcohol with investors at a karaoke bar, eventually passing out drunk inside the establishment.

In the final scene after getting drunk, he could only utter a single phrase: so big, so white.

That's right, the female lead was so big and so white.

As for the connections behind the scenes, there is no need to elaborate further.

How did he suddenly end up among this group of foreigners?

Unable to figure all of this out, Chen Daoxuan, anxious to shake off his current predicament, nodded involuntarily, English spilling from his mouth.

"Okay!"

Three days later, inside the dormitory.

Steve Kevin finally sorted out what had happened and his current situation.

He, Chen Daoxuan, was a third-rate minor director from China in his past life.

He, Steve Kevin, is a genius in the eyes of the professors at Southern California University.

The memories of the two intertwined, creating him.

Of course, although he possesses two streams of memories, Chen Daoxuan's forms the dominant half.

Still, in the United States, he certainly cannot use the name Chen Daoxuan.

Therefore, from now on, his name is Steve Kevin.

"Kevin, are you alright?"

A six-foot-tall giant on the side asked with concern.

Ever since Steve Kevin was dumped by Pera three days ago, he had grown dazed.

He stopped talking much, lying quietly on the bed like that for three whole days.

This made it hard for him not to worry.

"Thanks, I'm fine. I just figured some things out."

"By the way, Mitt, do you want to complete the graduation project with me?"

A smile appeared on the strong man's face:

"Of course, we're the best partners!"

A smile similarly appeared on Kevin's face.

During these three days, he didn't utter a word. Apart from sorting through the two streams of memories, he spent most of his time pondering his future path.

As a director in both his past and present lives, the path he chose in this life was still that of a director.

What he wanted to do was become a great director like Steven Spielberg.

This meant that he had to continuously achieve success in the film industry.

For a director, true success did not lie in artistic awards.

It lay in the box office.

No matter how many artistic awards he had, if he failed with three films in a row, no one would dare to invest any capital in him again either.

Yet as long as the box office kept succeeding.

He would be able to use this status to step by step expand his connections, earn money, and win position.

And the first step was to complete a perfect graduation work.

Which was a movie.

That's right, Kevin's goal pointed straight at film.

The normal growth path for a director might be starting from other jobs like screenwriting and cinematography, then rising step by step as an assistant director and finally a director.

Normally, on such a path, wanting to stand out took at least five to ten years.

He had no time to wait and slog his way to prominence; the memories in his mind only had about thirty years of usable time. If he could not attain a high enough position and enough money within these thirty years, it meant that all those prophetic memories in his mind would lose their effectiveness.

With an opportunity like this placed before him, how foolish he would be to miss it.

After agreeing with his roommates and partners on the goal of jointly completing the graduation work.

Kevin immediately began seclusion, picking up pen and paper to recall in his mind which movie he should choose.

As a student who had not yet graduated, even though he had a certain reputation on campus, he was unknown outside of it.

This meant that it would be difficult for him to pull in major investments.

Therefore, a low-budget movie became his choice.

Among low-budget film genres that easily yielded dark horses, Kevin instantly thought of horror films.

Blood and sex were the two things that most easily caught people's attention, and horror films undoubtedly constituted a genre that blended the two quite perfectly.

Today, however, what Kevin was going to choose was not some Category III film masquerading as a horror movie, but a genuine classic horror film.

Saw

As a classic horror film produced by Lionsgate, all the plots, layouts, and filming techniques of the movie were thoroughly ingrained in his heart.

This was also a method many directors studied, which was to analyze the filming techniques of certain movies step by step and analyze the frames one by one.

In his past life, Saw was undoubtedly one of the ones he focused on analyzing.

Before everything began, however, what he needed to do was produce a detailed project proposal.

Hollywood movies were never about art, but rather the film industry.

This meant that if he wanted to attract investment, a project proposal that looked genuinely viable was indispensable.