Made in Hollywood

The bright sun shines on the streets of Burbank, making people dizzy. Maybe the weather is a little unusual this year. The Greater Los Angeles area, which has entered the late autumn season, is drier and hotter than previous years. It hasn't rained much since August. The air seemed to burn when it was inhaled into the lungs, and the feeling of dryness spread all over the body, making the fire unstoppable.

Holding up a sign protesting against the movie version of "The Lord of the Rings", Brad Miller was facing the blazing sun, hoping that the media reporters on the opposite side could take pictures of their group a few more times, so that the protest could be expanded to all "The Lord of the Rings" in the United States. The Lord of the Rings fans.

As a staunch supporter of novels, Brad Miller has organized a large number of people to protest on the New Zealand studio with like-minded book friends since the filming of the film, but the director of the film Duke Rosenberg Except for a few random mentions in an interview that would satisfy Lord of the Rings fans, they never responded to their protests.

This feeling of being ignored made Brad Miller even more annoyed than worrying about the other party ruining the near-perfect masterpiece in his heart. Duke Rosenberg obviously didn't care about the opinions of their die-hard fans of fiction!

He has made some successful movies, but if he can successfully make other movies, he may not be able to make "The Lord of the Rings" successfully!

In particular, "The Lord of the Rings" has been in post-production for more than two months from the start of shooting. How much farce has this crew made? Angel Fairy Show? Actor farewell ceremony? And those gifts that were given out? What do they think of The Lord of the Rings? A casually hyped publicity show?

"The Lord of the Rings" should be deep, restrained, low-key, not so flamboyant.

"Hurry up! Pull up our protest signs!"

Under the bright sunlight, the protesting book fans around seemed to be weak. Seeing a reporter on the opposite side looking at him, Brad Miller hurriedly reminded his companions.

Compared with the book fans who stood at the gate of the Warners studio where the sun was shining directly, the reporters hid in a shady place. Although the protest slogans and signs were extremely conspicuous, the camera in his hand did not mean to move.

The more you see the protest, the less fresh it is. This is true for journalists and even more so for the audience of the media.

Looking at the book fans who would drag a bunch of people to protest at the gate of the studio every once in a while, even as a reporter for "World News Weekly". Kevin has no interest in filming. He has been running this line since August, and the other party will appear every three or five times. It is really not new.

There will be no news to capture, Kevin thought boringly, if he really wants to protest, he will burn the Warners studio together with the director and film inside. The real protest.

That way he'll also have the best news to write about.

Thinking of the news, Kevin couldn't help but look inside the studio, expecting news from the Lord of the Rings studio or other sources.

Even Duke Rosenberg's tidbits are good.

Since a paparazzi pictured him on vacation with Victoria's Secret Angels in August, the famous director seems to be doing the same again. He has turned into a workaholic, and basically maintains the two-point line from Duke Manor to Warner Studios every day, and there is no news to hype.

In fact, Kevin is very clear that every successful director has a workaholic side. There is no such thing as success in this world. Not to mention directors who need to put in a lot of effort and energy, they are entertainment reporters. If you don't actively look for it, no big news will fall on your head.

A black Bentley turned from the intersection, and Kevin picked up the camera, along with other reporters. swarmed. Although he can only shoot at the front and rear of the car, he will not fall behind. After all, Duke Rosenberg's value is many times more than those protesting book fans.

Through the filmed windows, the flashing lights could be faintly seen outside. Duke did not intend to stop, so he drove into the parking lot, transferred to a battery car, and soon arrived at the Lord of the Rings studio in the office area.

From mid-August to the present, the post-production of "The Lord of the Rings" has started for more than two months, but the film has too many special effects shots, and the post-production is quite cumbersome, just "The Fellowship of the Ring", Duke A timetable of up to half a year was listed, and Duke could not wait for the release of the first film before starting the post-production of the second film.

Although the later stages of the trilogy are indeed divided, the work of "The Fellowship of the Ring" has to go ahead of "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King", but the special effects production of the latter two parts has also begun more or less. some.

For example, the flying beasts of Treebeard and Nazgul, Weta Studio has already completed the modeling work, especially the former, and there is a team dedicated to rendering.

"Hi Mike, how's it going?"

Walking into the editing room, Duke saw that Mike Dawson had just finished checking a shot, walked over and asked, "Have you made the cut before Aragorn leads the Hobbit to Stormtop?"

"It's cut."

Mike Dawson pressed the playback button and played a paragraph just cut out, "It's a bit long though."

Looking at the picture on the screen, Duke frowned slightly. He didn't use parallel montage now, but Aragorn led the four hobbits to leave the Prancing Horse Hotel and enter the wilderness on their way. This section seems a bit lengthy.

"Mike, cut this part."

Duke pressed the pause button, this is the scene of Aragorn hunting and singing about a certain elf married to a human after the group camped, "Cut all of them, and the scene of them on their way, only the forty-fifth and seven are kept. Two panoramic shots on the eleventh, and the rest are all cut out."

"Is it a little short?"

As an editor, Mike Dawson must read the original book, "It's a long journey in the book."

Hearing Mike Dawson's reminder, Duke thought for a moment, but still said, "Cut it out, we've spent enough footage and film time on Hobbiton, the journey in the book is too long, we don't Probably do that, otherwise the pace of the film would be too slow."

Even if it is possible to subtract some dispensable scenes, Duke still feels that the rhythm is a little slow for the completed part. Fortunately, the suspense of the Lord of the Rings and the Ringwraith chasing has always existed, and the most bland Hobbiton scene , There are also picturesque scenery to enjoy, which must also attract the audience to continue watching.

Moreover, Duke also prepared a big scene at the beginning of the film, and the time saved later was for the beginning of the war.

After being busy for a long time, finishing the main editing plan for today, and handing over the remaining fragmentary footage to several assistants, Duke and Mike Dawson left the editing room together and walked into the CGI special effects room specially set up for Weta Studio opposite. Richard Taylor, head of Weta Workshop, nodded to the two and resumed his work.

Duke didn't bother him, and went straight to Mary Victoria, who was in charge of "The Fellowship of the Ring". She led a group and is currently rendering the scene of the combined human and elves fighting the Mordor army at the beginning of the trilogy. .

Since this part was all shot on blue screen, the special effects artists needed to cut out the background of each frame, and then replace it with the scene of the Land of Mordor, and at the same time modify the effect of the war, except for the live-action pictures shot with the camera In addition, the scene of the distant battlefield made by relying on CGI should be added.

Richard Taylor didn't know when he came over. Seeing that the special effects work had come to an end temporarily, he looked at the completed effect picture playing on the screen, and said confidently, "The opening battle of "Gladiator" released this year was overwhelmed. Many people have heated discussions, but compared to this paragraph, their war is simply a group of minors making a fool of themselves."

The people sitting around here are all nodding in agreement with Richard Taylor's words.

Although Duke didn't say anything, he also agreed with his point of view, not to mention the difference between the two films, it's just the war scene, the beginning battle that he specially strengthened, and the war of any cold weapon movie in the history of explosion film. scene.

Of course, this is just the beginning, it won't be very long, and the effect is to attract the audience to watch it.

The real big-scene war drama must be placed in "The Return of the King", the final work of the trilogy. Although each of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has a climax, it will not vent the climax all at once. The most sensational scenes are naturally reserved for the end.

"Mary," Duke asked the group leader, "how long will it take to complete this opening scene?"

"Three to four weeks." Mary? Victoria gave a very conservative answer.

Duke thought about Warner Bros.'s promotional schedule and said, "I want to see the opening scene in early December."

"No problem." Mary Victoria replied directly, "I promise to finish it."

According to Warner Bros.'s promotional plan, "The Fellowship of the Ring" will inevitably appear in the Super Bowl's halftime commercial. The commercial is only 30 seconds long. For any movie, especially an epic masterpiece like "The Lord of the Rings" Said, it is too short, and if you want the audience to remember, you must leave an extremely deep impression on them in a short period of time.

As usual, Duke's choice was simple, using the most eye-catching thing to spark the audience's interest.

In the commercials he prepared, except for a few shots of Lord of the Rings and Frodo, the rest of the time will be handed over to the epic battle at the beginning!

So many years of immersion in mainstream commercial films, combined with previous experience, Duke knows exactly what most audiences like to see.

The post-production of the film is neither slow nor fast, because CGI effects cannot save time, the actual progress is slightly slower than Duke's plan, but it is not too slow, "The Fellowship of the Ring" will definitely be in To be completed before the start of next summer.

Duke has been busy late in The Fellowship of the Ring throughout November until December begins when he's heading to New York to sit on Marvel's board of directors and witness Ivanka's just-launched instant-sharing site.

These are also two important investments for him in the future. (To be continued ~^~)

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