Rachel is fond of pushing the story and the audience just a bit too far. She appreciates the edge that a lack of security brings. This also makes for great storytelling. She demands just as much from herself as those watching her films, which is why she wanted to direct this film which integrated dance so heavily. While she has an eclectic group of films to her credits that include car chase action (Los Angeles Kidnapping), the integration of live action and animation (“A Better World”), and others…dance was a previously unconquered genre. True to her own voice, she presented the beauty and grace with the nefarious personality traits of certain characters for which she is known. A great deal of preproduction work based on the choreography was required. The film boasts five major dance scenes with differing moods. Zhou was adamant that the emotional tone of these dance sequences matched the story development of the film. A substantial amount of time was spent by the director with the cast and choreographers, tweaking the scenes to present them in congruent fashion with the dialogue based scenes and trajectory of the plot. Rachel painstakingly designed the look of the film to integrate with these dance sequences, working with her DP Yang Shao (the youngest ASC member, and CEO of Tilta Inc. US). The director reveals, “We watched a lot of movies about dance like Black Swan, Step Up, Billy Elliot etc. to get inspiration. We are both into Steadicam shots and we agreed on shooting the dance sequences with a Steadicam and two cameras. The main lighting source was “a strip above the dancers’ heads. We had about eight rows of 1K cinema globes running 60 feet across the stage. We just used different gels and put the lights on different channels.” Victoria Hochberg states, “It’s very Rachel. The look of the film, the pace of the story, it carries you to one place and just when you think you know what is going to happen…”
Zhou is very particular about the casting as she demands a great deal from them. “Once More” was particularly so when it came to the main character William Geller. Jaeme Velez was cast and required to not only dance well but to do so with a disability. Geller is a ballet dancer who has the drive and intense commitment that the field requires. He has also experienced a possible career ending situation and the despair created from this adds to the complexity of the character. The perfection required in the ballet world seems unattainable in his current situation and drives his action in the film, both expected and unexpected. Rachel worked with Velez to help create a character who seems known and incredibly difficult to pin down at the same time. While he presents plenty of personality, the spring from which it comes is unclear…a delightful quandary to the viewer, thanks to Jaeme and Rachel. Zhou relates that Selina Lee was in a state of deepening into her embodiment of her character throughout the entire production. As Geller’s love interest, she may be an even more tragic character than he.
“Once More” is the story of William Geller, a psychologically collapsed dancer. His overwhelming nervousness causes his left leg to tremble while he is dancing. At audition for an American dance competition show called ‘Dance Miracle’, he is told by his manager to say something impressive as an addition to his dance. Following an overly confident statement,
he falls and breaks his left leg. Losing all hope, he intends to commit suicide but is accidentally saved by a neighbor girl, Selina, whom he was secretly in love with. Unaware that he intends to kill himself, Selina encourages him to keep dancing. After Selina moves out, William starts pulling himself together. He tells his manager that he`s got a perfect story to tell the audience when he gets back to the stage. After a year, William returns to the show with a touching speech and dances well, even with his infirmity. Following his performance, he gives a heartfelt speech about how inspiring Selina was and how much he misses her. He confesses his love to the world and the audience is moved. William achieves instant fame with his tale of secret love that drove him to work back to achieve his dream. Months later, William, now a celebrity, returns home and meets Selina, who is waiting for him at the door. She tells him that she was surprised by his confession of love and she is available. In a painful and well concealed plot twist, William turns her down and claims to not know her. Dismissing her as a crazy fano, Selina leaves confused. From his room, William watches her leave and then throws…. sorry, no spoilers here. But the unexpected ending is more than satisfying….and stunning. What can be revealed is that once William gets what he always wanted he finds out that the price of not being honest, the desire of superficial things and lies makes him miserable and at the same time. William Geller himself is a critique of the society that we live in now days.
“Once More” with its deceptive characters and twisting plot lines earned immense praise. In a climate that is often formulaic, “Once More” is the antidote. Rather than denying the potential for the negativity of society, Rachel feels that exposing the potential makes for riveting viewing. She states, “I enjoy being artistic/weird, and I also enjoy being normal. When I am being normal and hanging out with friends, family, or a pet, I can get inspirations from them. Later, when I was working as an artist, I can utilize what I get from normal life. Art always originates from life and I completely understand the characters and the world created in this script, are just fantasy, or an escape. I enjoy the escape, but I also know the path back to my daily life. To deny that these motives exist in the world is to put yourself in their path. It’s much more fun to explore them artistically in film.”