Movies, especially those with relatively high investment, are a large-scale battle that requires careful planning. In the entire preliminary preparations, there are undoubtedly the three jobs-producer, director and screenwriter.
The script has long been finalized and will not be changed at will without special circumstances. In the previous two months, Duke has also done enough director's planning, but he still will not be relaxed before the film starts, and the director must be involved in many matters.
Although there are special personnel responsible for the rental equipment and props, Duke should also look at it roughly. Those that do not meet his needs must be replaced. Taking the production, photography, and art director to watch the scene is also the basic work of the director in the preliminary preparations. one.
The photographer has to figure out how the camera works in a real environment; where he, the director, feels that the venue is different from the scene in his mind, he has to communicate with the set designer and art director to see how to transform it closer to the desired scene feeling; After the venue, the filmmaker went out to discuss rental matters with the venue, discussing the use time, cost, precautions, etc.
The personnel venues are determined, and Duke corrected the script according to the actual situation, and made the sub-shot artwork into different scripts according to the plan—how many pieces of each scene need to be shot, which positions to try, and the emotions of the actors at this time To what extent should it be developed or controlled...
In addition to the sub-shot script, Duke also wrote a schedule to coordinate the time according to the venue and the actors. The plots that took place in the same venue must be integrated and filmed at the same time. The director must have a clear idea, if he commits different costumes of actors in the same venue. The low-level mistakes of hedging are the laughing stock of amateurs.
In addition to these, Duke has to take several assistant directors to make a schedule. The first assistant director Keene will make vague remarks against him from time to time. The whole work is stumbled. Duke has been under tremendous pressure. , I almost couldn't help getting angry a few times.
Fortunately, Duke knows very well that he is shooting and making a movie, not to engage in personnel struggles. He is the one who is distracted by these trivial matters, and it must be himself who loses more than the gains.
It took more energy than expected to complete the recording and remind Duke of another thing. He desperately needs an assistant who is savvy and capable and understands the film business. If there is such an assistant, he can basically learn from these complicated affairs. Get out of the middle, so as to focus more on filming.
It's a pity that he doesn't even have money to pay back his credit card for the time being, so where is the money to hire an assistant.
In short, compared to the crews of the previous life, the preparatory work for Hollywood movies is more complicated and detailed, and it also takes more time, and it takes time for actors to set makeup and study roles. Robin Grande expects September The start-up in the middle of the day was naturally a bubble, and the preparation period for "Life and Death" was delayed for two full weeks. It was not until October that the preliminary preparations came to an end.
On October 3, 1991, Duke, who was tortured by heavy work and stress and started to lose sleep, was reborn from the ashes and rejuvenated, because "Life and Death" was finally launched in the Universal Studios studio!
There was no press conference, no flashing of lights, and no complicated rituals, and the crew quietly started filming.
"Cut!"
Just ten seconds after the first trial shooting, Duke called to stop. He stood up from behind the director's camera, walked back and forth several times between the props and scenery arranged in the elevator on the ground floor of the building, and finally stood on the shooting site. intermediate.
Dennis Hopper, who played the villain, as well as another extra actor, were let aside.
Some scenes are fine to the naked eye, but when filmed with a camera, the smallest problems will be infinitely magnified. Although there have been constant exchanges for more than two months, Duke and the various departments of the crew have cooperated for the first time.
"The light is darker, I need the gray metal texture to be stronger."
After thinking about the scenes just taken for a few minutes, Duke found that the scene and the camera position he had conceived had problems, and tried to adjust, "The camera position of the second camera moved 30 degrees to the left. You only need to capture Dennis's back and clothing. ..."
The costume artist immediately raised his hand next to him.
Walking to Dennis Hopper, Duke pointed to his somewhat worn overalls and said, "Change to the grayer one."
Then Duke turned his head and said to the extra who played the security guard, "You come with me."
Duke walked to the door of the elevator, turned around and looked at the extras who followed him, pointing to the place where he came, and said, "Your expression of surprise was too heavy just now. Be careful to restrain yourself. You have to walk along the outside of Dennis. ."
Seeing the other party nodded solemnly, Duke observed the camera again before returning to the director's camera.
"Except for being younger, you still look like a director."
Hearing the monotonous nasal voice, Duke turned his head and looked at Sophia Coppola, who was standing next to him holding the chronograph, but said nothing.
The adjustment was quickly completed, and at Duke's signal, an associate director called 'start'!
Throwing away all distracting thoughts, Duke concentrated on watching the footage captured by the camera. The security guard in the footage quickly walked to Dennis to check his maintenance order, and then the camera fell on his right hand hidden behind the maintenance order. on...
"this is?"
Duke frowned immediately and shouted directly, "Stop!"
He strode to Dennis Hopper and took the maintenance order. The white paper was full of messy letters. Maybe even God could not understand what was written on it.
"Props!" Duke's voice was not loud, but it was extremely loud, "I want a fake repair order, not this!"
He gestured to the person in charge of the props group to put down the piece of paper, and the other party ran over quickly. Without waiting for him to explain anything, Duke said directly, "You have ten minutes to solve it!"
Duke's words don't carry any emotional color, and they are completely business-oriented.
This team is not his team now, nor will it be his team in the future. There is only a working relationship between them, and whoever has a problem with their work is responsible for it.
Sitting in his seat, Duke rubbed his forehead. The first time he called to stop can be said to be a problem of his lack of experience. This time it was the props team because of carelessness...
"Need something to drink?"
The temporary assistant assigned to him by the crew suddenly said, "Coffee or black tea?"
"No need for the time being." Duke shook his head and looked at the side curiously, "Sophia, why are you on the crew?"
"I need to make money, a sum that will allow me to live in Europe for a period of time."
Sophia Coppola didn't mean to conceal it. He said directly, "After the shooting of "Alien 3", I called Uncle Lucas, so I came here. Don't forget that I'm here for David. ·Finch has worked as a temporary assistant and is considered a bit senior."
"Are you going to Europe?" Duke thought for a while, but was blank. He only knew some of Sofia Coppola's experiences after 2000.
"Mum helped me contact Karl Lagerfeld."
The young girl showed a look of yearning, "Chanel will have several internship positions next year, and Karl Lagerfeld has promised to reserve one for me."
From Sophia Coppola, it can be seen that Chanel's attraction to women, perhaps her going to Europe, is also related to the performance in "The Godfather 3" that was abused by film critics.
Duke would definitely not mention this topic, he would not expose her scars in front of a woman.
Shooting restarted quickly. In less than ten minutes, the props team produced another maintenance order. Regardless of whether these people have doubts about Duke, they still have professionalism. Taking money to do things is the most basic in Hollywood. In principle, if this is not even done, these people will not have their current qualifications and status.
However, the shooting was still not smooth. From the setting to the camera position, many times they were constantly adjusting. The crew needed to run in on the one hand, and Duke's lack of sufficient experience was on the other hand. It took a full two and a half hours. Duke has finished shooting the first shot since it started.
Although Duke has worked very hard in this life and has some experience in his previous life, he is not an omnipotent genius. He makes mistakes and makes mistakes. He also needs to adjust the rhythm of himself and the entire crew.
These all take time.
Duke needed to work in with the various types of work on the crew, as well as with the actors. The long morning shooting in the morning made Dennis Hobbo tired, and he also made some small complaints through his assistant.
"Dennis Hopper's assistant mentioned something to me."
During the transition break, Sophia Coppola conveyed to Duke in time, "He said that Mr. Hober has been too busy at work recently and is not in good health. I hope that the following shots used to run the crew will be placed on other actors. "
"I made another inexperienced mistake."
Muttering softly, Duke waved his hand to the curious Sophia Coppola, indicating that he knew.
This is a very simple question, but it was ignored by Duke. He is a new director. If some famous actors are used to run the crew, the other party will inevitably be dissatisfied.
Hollywood is full of actors with all kinds of quirks. If you are a super director, all the problems in the filming are not a problem. If you are a director like him, you must be cautious in many aspects. Old movie bones like Dennis Hopper are still considered. It's subtle, it's not impossible to run into that kind of bad temper and a little famous.
The crew under Vanity Fair will never be in harmony, unless the person in charge of the set can suppress everyone in the crew.
What his goal is, Duke knows very well. In order to achieve this goal, he can both fight hard and make necessary compromises. He can even ignore some unharmonious voices. Does not have the ability and qualifications to fully control the crew.
Afterwards, Duke changed the filming plan and moved more extras to the front. During the whole week of starting the machine, he never filmed a few major actors. After more than a week of running-in with collisions and contradictions, the crew's It started to run smoothly.