Hollywood Road

This is indeed a rookie question, but Murphy answered it seriously.

He thought for a while before saying, "There are countless stories and legends in this world, and human beings are the species that are best at telling stories. Every object has its own story, and everyone has its own story. We perceive stories, We are interested in stories. For me, the most important thing is how to tell a story, how to tell a particular story in an appropriate way.”

John understood, "The story is the most important thing for a movie?"

"Photography, acting, editing, post-processing, costumes, all are equally important, and all the factors that make up a movie are equally important." Murphy smiled, "But all of these are in the service of telling a good story."

Just like the current Hollywood movies, the story is getting simpler and the special effects are getting better and better. It seems that as long as there are visual effects, everything is not a problem, but it will cause aesthetic fatigue and go from bad to worse.

In many cases, telling a story well is very, very important.

Suddenly a black-haired boy raised his hand, and Murphy nodded, "Everyone, just take it easy."

Gal Gadot glanced at Murphy, and said, "Murphy is here to communicate with everyone, so don't be so restrained."

The black-haired boy smiled shyly and said, "I want to ask how to tell a good story."

"Every director's style and approach are different, and there will be differences."

Someone brought a chair over, and Murphy thanked him and sat down first, and waited for the people around him to sit in their chairs, and then said, "When I'm making a movie, I always use one or two words to describe the movie. The theme is summarized, and I clearly use one word in my heart to summarize the theme and core of what I want to express. It is very important for the director to have this concept, because what the director does most often is to choose: this character is Long hair or short hair? Dress or pants? Beard or no beard? So when you don’t know what to choose, thinking about what the subject is can often help you decide.”

Murphy said to these curious and enthusiastic guys, "A good movie should have a cause, a process, and a result, but it doesn't have to be in this order."

The people headed by John and Mosen were thoughtful, and the lounge fell into a brief silence until the girl named Minna sitting behind them spoke.

"I'm an actor in the club." She introduced herself first, and then said, "I heard that actors in Hollywood have a low status, is that true?"

"The status of star actors is not low. Does anyone think that Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio have low status?"

Looking around, everyone was shaking their heads. Murphy suddenly changed his tone, "If you haven't reached the upper level, actors are indeed a disadvantaged group compared to directors."

This is a common scene in the industry.

"That...then..." Minna hesitated, and with Murphy's encouraging smile, she settled down and said, "There are many directors in Hollywood... there are bad rumors between directors and actors, you... you as Director, will you bully the actors of the crew?"

Hearing this question, many people turned their heads to look at Minna, especially John and Mosen, with dissatisfaction almost written on their faces.

Gal Gadot frowned, and Murphy patted the back of her hand comfortingly, and said, "Most actors are actually a disadvantaged group. They are very worried that their performance will be criticized, humiliated, and useless. So in On set, I try to create a rapport and let them know that it’s okay if the performance isn’t as good as it should be—I want them to develop their own style and confidence.”

Ming Na asked a lot of questions, and asked again, "Did you pay much attention to the performance of the actors during the filming?"

"When making a movie, the director needs to pay attention to all the minutiae of the set, but this does not mean that he needs to stare at them wholeheartedly." Murphy has never been an actor guide, let alone focus on one aspect, "When the camera when it starts turning,

I seldom go directly to an actor's performance, but focus my attention elsewhere. This way, I can feel right away when something isn't quite right during the shoot. Looking away does not mean that you need to stare there, but just look there like you usually look at things. "

"In that case," Ming Na was very puzzled, "doesn't the director help the actors?"

"Yeah?" She is not the only one who has the same problem, "Doesn't it mean that the director's guidance is also very important to the actors?"

Now that he was sitting here, Murphy calmed down, "Guiding actors is a part of a director's work, not the whole thing. The director's job in this aspect is to clearly know that his actors need to be in this scene or What kind of emotion is conveyed in this line, and it is necessary to cultivate the ability to discover the greatest potential of actors and let them give their best performances. You must have a deep understanding of an actor's character and his strengths and weaknesses, so that you can Help them solve some specific problems and help them realize their potential."

"So that's how it is." Ming Na muttered, before returning to silence.

"Murphy." The person in charge named Mo Sen suddenly raised his hand and asked, "What kind of character can make the movie more beautiful?"

"The better the villain," Murphy shrugged, "the better the movie will be."

No one expected that Murphy would give such an answer, and there was laughter in the lounge.

A bald young man stood up, "Murphy, as you said, the director needs to be responsible for the overall situation. Which job do you like best on the set?"

This is no longer a movie topic exchange, it is about to become an exclusive interview with the media.

Murphy didn't mind either, and said with a smile, "I'm very lucky, because I like what the director does. And the director's task is extremely important, because if one or two things fail to meet expectations, the entire work will fail. So , you have to be physically involved in every part of the production process, and every choice you make has to be true to the original intention."

As he talked, Murphy also thought of his own experience in the past few years, and said with emotion, "Once you see the right thing appear in front of you—such as an actress, with the right clothes, the right lighting, and the speech The conversation is so moving, you will be so excited that you almost faint. So you need to coordinate the whole scene, you need to have a clear request for any details such as lighting, sound effects, actors' positioning, etc., and you need to be in the process of shooting Constantly adjust so that it achieves the most ideal effect. You have to understand that these are the jobs you need to do. You also need to constantly compare the reality with the assumption, and clearly judge when it is feasible and when it is not. "

These rookies kept nodding their heads. With Murphy's experience in the industry, it was not difficult to answer their doubts.

Murphy spread his hands, and said, "The relationship between the director and other members of the crew should be a cooperative relationship rather than a leadership relationship. The leaders of each department have special skills, so the director must be good at listening and humbly accept their expertise in the field. Opinion. They are filmmakers as much as directors.”

Mo Sen raised his hand again, "Which do you think is more important, the script or the star?"

"There was a time when every Hollywood director was chasing after a good script, but nowadays," Murphy sighed and shook his head, "people like to fill the screen with close-up shots of various stars, as if they can't wait to put them on the screen. The president on Mount Rushmore is like the side."

Hearing Murphy talk about the script, Mo Sen became more active, "I've been writing a script for the past few months. If I want to impress the Hollywood production company, what should I pay attention to?"

"Don't fall into the trap of those basic principles of screenwriting advocated by Syd Field."

Seeing what he said, many of these relatively simple-minded students were puzzled, and Murphy explained without waiting for them to continue asking, "As we all know, Syd Field wrote a book that guides script writing. , for a few reasons, it has become a custodian rather than a scriptwriter's bible."

Murphy coughed softly, "The supervisors I'm talking about are not screenwriters, but those who develop the outline, supervise the script, and give instructions in the film studio. They have attended Syd Field's class and bought his books. started criticizing the script..."

He spread his hands and shrugged, "For example: Well, you know, the first turning point should be on page 12, and yours is on page 17, obviously it doesn't work! Syd Field's rules are so ridiculous, If there really was a formula like he said, wouldn't every movie be a hit? Just connecting a, b, and c would create a great movie and audiences would flock to it, but not every movie would be a hit Popular, and a lot of the films created by his rules could have been thrown down the toilet."

There was a short silence in the lounge again, and then there was a lot of chatter. Murphy was very open-minded and didn't take it to heart at all.

Later, the group of guys asked some questions about various types of work, such as photography, scheduling, site selection, and art direction. Some of them were outrageous, but Murphy also answered them one by one.

Compared with the celebration party in the restaurant, the discussion ended later, and it was past midnight when Murphy and Gal Gadot walked out of the messy restaurant.

"It's so late." Murphy took Gal Gadot's hand, showing no intention of leaving, "You can't drive me back, can you?"

It seems that they have never tried the different tastes of carnival in the school's apartment dormitory.

Gal Gadot held Murphy tightly with his backhand, obviously not wanting to leave, and pulled him towards the apartment dormitory. (To be continued.)