Hollywood Road

After David Ellison's loan was in place, Stanton Studios injected capital into Ice and Fire Studios, which was established with 20th Century Fox. The first funding of 20th Century Fox was also in place. "The Game" was officially approved, and the preparations for this fantasy series were also announced.

Of course, the preparatory work has already started. Murphy and George Martin have been polishing the script since more than a year ago.

At the same time, Murphy also issued a summoning order to his team. Although he didn't understand why he suddenly changed from filming to directing TV series, everyone responded positively.

After a long period of cooperation, they also discovered that following Murphy, both fame and fortune are at your fingertips.

Working with familiar people can undoubtedly reduce a lot of unnecessary troubles.

Because of the investment relationship, "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" is mainly divided into two parts. Stanton Studios is led by Murphy, and 20th Century Fox is fully responsible for Kara Firth.

This can also ensure that the work of the crew can be carried out in the predetermined direction to the greatest extent.

Murphy and Kara Firth will also have some conflicts at work, but they will not let these affect their personal relationship. The two most powerful people on the crew can cooperate sincerely, and the conflicts among the people below will be correspondingly reduced.

Moreover, Twentieth Century Fox is more involved in production and distribution, and it is Murphy's team that is actually used for the actual preparation and shooting.

The heads of the various departments of the team have not changed, but people such as Fili Raschel and Helena Espora are very clear that they must keep up with Murphy's progress, otherwise they can only be eliminated, so yes The manpower responsible for each has been adjusted to a certain extent.

For example, Philip Lascher's filming team dismissed a photographer who had participated in the filming of "The Gone Girl" and "Deadpool", and publicly recruited three new photographers. The main photographer of the entire photography team The division reached five in order to meet the filming requirements of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones".

The art and set teams in charge of Helena Espora are no exception. Murphy has never filmed similar fantasy subjects in the past, and many members of her team do not have much work experience in this field. Recruiting new staff is a must. s Choice.

There is also David Robbie's make-up, clothing and styling department. They not only need to recruit new personnel, but also study some clothing characteristics of the European Middle Ages, and then integrate the descriptions in George Martin's book to design a design that meets Murphy's requirements. Clothing and character modeling, etc.

During this process, many old employees who had worked with Murphy several times left this big team, and more newcomers joined it. Letting go of the old and bringing in the new is one of the most effective ways to maintain competitiveness.

Even outsiders have heard about the fierce competition in Hollywood. These are normal and natural changes. While Murphy is competing with other people and projects in the market, he must also create a good competitive atmosphere within the team.

Everyone is in harmony, working smoothly and steadily. That is just an ideal state, and it is not suitable for the highly competitive Hollywood.

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones is a series, a work of fantasy, the result of a collaborative effort, and a production that relies heavily on location, design and photography to make illusions come true. Because of its huge "body", it requires the cooperation of many people.

Murphy has always been aware of this, and a close-knit team is essential to complete such an epic TV series.

Preparations for the first season were already in full swing before the decision to shoot digitally, and after testing with Murphy and Philip Lascher, the crew chose to use the Sony F35 as the camera for shooting.

The reason why I chose this digital high-definition camera is that the Alexa digital camera made in Germany has not yet appeared in this era, and it is also because the Sony F35 can present clothing and materials in front of the camera.

Frankly speaking,

Murphy was very impressed with the Alexa high-definition digital film camera produced by the German company ARRI, but it is a pity that this camera will not be available for several years.

Since 20th Century Fox won a tax rebate of up to 6 million U.S. dollars from Northern Ireland, Murphy did not hesitate to set the main shooting base of the series in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, after investigating with Kara Fitch. At the same time, it is basically determined that the scenes of Westeros will be shot in Belfast.

In addition, several location inspection teams headed by Paul Wilson also dispatched in advance to find suitable locations for location shooting in various places in Europe and America.

The crew not only has one filming team, Paul Wilson and Seth Rogen, who has already confirmed to join the crew, will also be in charge of a filming team to shoot some side plots, which can also effectively improve Crew productivity.

After several cooperations and working together for a long time, Murphy still has sufficient confidence in Seth Rogen and Paul Wilson.

Of course, he also solemnly warned Seth Rogen that the crew does not need too many humorous shots.

This is also a good opportunity to exercise Seth Rogen. In film production, no matter what kind of theoretical study, more practical experience is needed.

"In recent years, North America has produced a large number of popular series, but the fantasy series has never appeared on the schedule of prime-time TV dramas."

A huge conference room in the Fox Building was packed with people, all looking forward, and Murphy stood in front of them, talking, "Our "Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" can fill this gap." Blank, this will be a work that includes swords, dragons, and magic."

This is a preparatory meeting for the crew. Except for the actors who have not yet been confirmed, the heads of all departments have come to 20th Century Fox to participate in this meeting.

Since there really wasn't any successful fantasy TV series in the past, these guys who had followed Murphy for a long time, although they chose to continue to cooperate with him, they couldn't help but feel discouraged.

Murphy convened this meeting mainly to expound some conceptual views and strengthen the confidence of his team.

If the members of the team don't believe that the fantasy series they filmed can be successful, it will definitely affect the actual work effect.

As the producer representing 20th Century Fox, Kara Firth sat on the left hand side of the conference table, but didn't say much, and completely handed over the stage to Murphy.

She knows exactly what time and what kind of things she should do.

"In terms of the unbelievable popularity of fantasy genres like the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and the Harry Potter series, fantasy is the most successful film and television genre."

Standing at the forefront of the conference table, Murphy propped his hands on the table, looking full of confidence and momentum, "But there has never been a fantasy TV series in the past. If anyone dares to try, it must be us! We are A team capable of shooting any dark subject!"

"A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" has a typical dark style, whether it is the color of the picture or the direction of the plot, it is so.

This is also an important reason why Murphy chose this series, and this style is what he is best at.

"But fantasy themes often mean high production costs."

Murphy never thought of shooting some messy content to fool the audience, it would easily lose the appeal he has accumulated over the years, but the production cost is also a problem that he needs to consider practically, and he must come up with a practical solution. "High production costs are usually one of the reasons why fantasy series can't come out. When we shoot "Game of Thrones", we will pay more attention to the development of characters, characters and plots, and avoid those large battle scenes."

Large-scale war scenes cost a lot of money. After all, this is not a summer commercial film, but a TV series that pays more attention to the plot. In addition, it is the first season. Instead of spending funds on war scenes, it is better to further polish the plot.

In fact, the full-scale outbreak of war in the original book doesn't start until after the first book.

Murphy straightened his body, walked back and forth twice, and said, "This is not a story scene like "Lord of the Rings" where tens of thousands of orc legions cross the prairie, because the most expensive production ("Lord of the Rings") is those The creation of non-human beings. And in the filming of the first season of "Game of Thrones", there were not many such creatures."

Without those fantastical creatures, money would undoubtedly be saved on an expensive CG production.

If it was just an ordinary director, Murphy would definitely ask the producer to continue to invest more, but he is not. In addition to the director and producer, he is also one of the main investors in this series, and the return on investment must be considered.

The investment of tens of millions of dollars is definitely not a small amount for Murphy. Once the investment fails miserably, even for him now, he will be hurt.

After all these years of struggle, he has just accumulated a net worth of tens of millions of dollars.

"We're not shooting a teen-oriented film and television production like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy!"

Even if he is an avid fan of this series, Murphy can't deny that the "Lord of the Rings" series is somewhat childish, which is definitely not suitable for "Game of Thrones". "We are shooting works for an adult audience. My ideal for a finished show, extravagant, gory, dark, quirky, and sometimes surprisingly luscious. Malicious and kind, as unpredictable as life."

His voice is getting louder and louder, "I think the audience may watch this series for various reasons, such as: the tension of the plot, death and hope, the destiny of the direwolf, fantasy elements and fantasy spaces, family feuds, power temptations, deviant sex, brutal violence."

Murphy's eyes swept over everyone in the conference room, and said, "And the most important point! You must keep in mind the core concept and ultimate definition of the series."