Whether it's as a director or a producer that Murphy moonlights as, if you're not good at dealing with people, then you're not cut out for the industry.
As a producer, Murphy needs to connect with all kinds of people; as a director, he needs to communicate and collaborate with actors and film crews.
Coordinating the crew and logistics is just as important and trickier than the directing job itself, and he certainly lacks sufficient experience or skills in this area, and to make it even more difficult, interpersonal skills usually can't be immediately passed on through someone else to someone trying to get into filmmaking.
It requires Murphy to rely on practice to change yourself, to enrich yourself, to mature.
There are also paperwork and financial aspects that Murphy has to deal with.
Paperwork needs to be organized and labeled for later use, and this includes production resources, legal documents, checks and accounting books, licensing agreements, contracts, licenses, copyrights, photos, and more. For this purpose, most production companies have secretaries, accountants and office staff to handle these "back office" matters.
In large production companies, these employees are part of the production department and spend their days researching expenses, analyzing client information, etc., so that the crew can be prepared for any problems that may arise.
For a low-budget production like Murphy's, the producer is either the top organizer, or he or she has to find a dedicated person to fulfill that role, who must be diligent and professional.
The finance person Murphy hired was not strictly speaking qualified, so he got the accountant from Fruit Loops to oversee that part of the job and answer directly to him.
In addition, some important paperwork Murphy can only carry his own, even if it is in Los Angeles, the shooting process of the documents and all the text formalities for the filming of the movie and enjoy the legal protection of the film is essential, if he ignored this aspect of the importance of the project is likely to encounter some unimaginable difficulties.
Then there is the actor rehearsal, Murphy knows the importance of rehearsal, he will not rush to go to the shooting, deliberately the second floor of the side bedroom to pack out, to James Franco and Seth Rogen, the two leading men to rehearsal.
A lot of movies don't rehearse before shooting. Sometimes it's because the actors are so "big" that they don't think rehearsal will do them any good; sometimes the director doesn't think it's a good idea and the actors lose their spontaneity.
But a plasma horror film like this doesn't require explosive performances from the actors, and the money invested in it means that the shoot has to be quick, with patterned rehearsals, which Murphy felt was more appropriate for his crew.
In addition to the actors to say the scene, Murphy and other departments of communication and collaboration is equally no less done.
He and the cameraman Philip Lasher and lighting engineer David Robie several times to set up the warehouse inspection, and some of the scenes of the shooting techniques, lighting design in advance, he asked Philip Lasher and David Robie respectively to provide the crew with a list of the required photographic equipment and lighting equipment, and in the equipment leased in place immediately after the debugging, try to minimize the situation encountered during the last shooting.
On the other hand, Murphy asked each department of art, scenery, props, make-up and costumes to submit designs according to his plan, and all staff members had to reach a consensus on the aesthetic style of the film and unify their creative ideas.
Art director Helena Espola was in charge of the scene setting. Since the warehouse was large enough that the crew could not use it completely, Murphy asked that the scenes not be too many or too scattered, and that the distance between each scene not be too long, in order to facilitate centralized shooting.
Prop master Beck Claybert also submitted a list of required props to Murphy, with Paul Wilson collaborating on the purchase, rental, and production of props.
Jack Watson, who was in charge of the make-up department, had been designing the actor's make-up according to Murphy's ideas, and the headgear, wigs and such that he needed would also be purchased by Paul Wilson.
It was no exaggeration to say that a thousand things were pressed on Murphy alone, and the heavy workload and heavy pressure also made him feel the importance of a full-time producer and a few professional assistant directors.
Paul Wilson is conscientious and responsible but inexperienced and needs time to hone and develop.
In the late stages of preparation, Murphy realized that he had thought a thousand times and overlooked one more thing, forgetting to find a professional field sound recordist.
The minimalist shooting of Fruity Hard Candy, and the almost entirely post-production sound, led to this oversight.
The good thing is that the discovery is early enough, recording engineer in Hollywood is not a scarce profession, now looking for a is not too late, Murphy to Bill Rossis made a phone call, just after two days of time, the agent to help the crew contact the right person, after some fine talk, the two sides signed a contract, the recording engineer will be a week before the start of the filming of the official entry into the cast.
Fix the sound recordist, Murphy together with Bill Rossis and cameraman Philip Lasher went to a company in Hollywood to look at the camera equipment, compared to other, he attached more importance to this aspect.
Murphy is not a materialism worshipper, does not think that the new technology is necessarily suitable for all the film, the camera equipment is the key to the shooting effect is to meet his shooting requirements, the camera equipment is a film is essential equipment, but also a guarantee of the quality of the film, but it is not determinative, so to practical, effective choice of equipment equipped.
He still chose Sony's 35MM camera, different from the previous time, this time Murphy leased three, a handheld and two need to set up a large camera.
When it came time to negotiate the price, Bill Rossis again showed Murphy the favorable side of having a full-time agent.
Rental equipment companies are generally reluctant to reduce the cost of standards, but Bill Rossis borrowed the name of CAA, to find concessions on the rental time, the same price, Murphy stepped in can only be leased for half a month, he reached a one-month rental contract with the other side, directly let the camera equipment rental expenses reduced by fifty percent.
In addition, Bill Rossis also requires the rental company must be equipped with professional maintenance personnel.
"Important, high-value equipment, the rental company will usually be equipped with a special follower throughout the maintenance to ensure the safety of the equipment, oversee the proper use of the equipment, cleaning, as well as storage." When walking out of the rental equipment company, Bill Rossis added to Murphy, "The followers are usually sent by the equipment company, you can also ask them to do some extra things, such as following the focus and pushing the track, and generally they will not refuse."
The salary of these people would be counted in the rental fee, which meant that the crew would at the very least have another laborer with a high degree of professionalism.
Thinking about the rental situation during the previous shoot, and then looking at the rental agreement reached by Bill Rossis, Murphy felt that he and Jessica Chastain were simply two idiots.
It also made Murphy realize that the water in this business was just as deep, and that he was indeed still a fledgling.