of 'The Farewell.'

"Ha!"

This is a scene between Billi and Nai Nai, her grandma.

It's the morning after Billi has arrived in China,

and Nai Nai is exercising.

It's played by Nora Lum, aka Awkwafina, and Zhao

Shuzhen as Nai Nai.

"Ha!"

This was the first scene that we

shot on the first day of production.

And I was kind of nervous about it,

because I wasn't sure of the chemistry between the two

actors.

And the entire scene is shot in one

take with a static camera.

And we just let the actors move freely around the frame.

But I knew that I wasn't going to be able to edit the scene.

So Anna Franquesa Solano is my DP,

and we talked a lot about this scene,

because it's the first scene where Billi and Nai

Nai are together alone.

And we wanted it to be a static shot because we wanted

the audience to feel the natural chemistry

between the two actors--

"Ha!

Ha!"

--without the camera getting in the way.

So we put markers down on the floor,

eventually, because at first, we

gave the actors a lot of freedom,

and Nora would roam off camera.

And she would just be off camera the whole time.

So this exercise is something that my own grandmother did.

And it was always kind of funny to me,

but she took it very seriously.

And I had a hard time, actually,

getting Zhao Shuzhen, who plays Nai Nai,

to do the exercise, because it's not something that she

does in her real life.

And it's actually quite difficult.

It takes a lot of core strength to really get

the loudness of that 'ha.'

So it took a lot of practice, and she was pretty winded

by the end of it.