Hollywood Road

Just after Thanksgiving, Murphy announced the main poster of "Dark City" on his Twitter and Facebook at the same time. Chris Dann stood under a dark sky, with Manhattan smoking behind him, But the World Financial Center no longer looks prosperous, but rather cold and dilapidated. ?

In the next few days, the official posters of The Magician and Jay Rachel were released one after another, which aroused quite a strong response among fans.

However, Murphy has not paid attention to these for the time being, and the post-production work of "Dark City" is quite busy.

After spending quite a long time, Murphy and Jody Griffith finally finished the first cut of the second version of the film. This version is more than 240 minutes long, which is 100% short of the 100% required by Murphy. The length of minutes or so is very different, and there is still a lot of work to do in the next fine cutting.

A wonderful film is the result of careful editing.

And as the number of videos and shots watched in the editing increased, Murphy could also discover the shortcomings of some of the ideas planned before. Filmmaking is always like this, and the initial thought may not be the best.

As soon as the finishing work started, he was ready to adjust the first shot at the beginning of the film.

"Jody, adjust the first shot frame."

Standing in front of the monitor, Murphy looked at the clip and said to his editor, "I want the first shot to be aimed at the protagonist!"

"Chris Dann?" Jody Griffith asked puzzledly, "Or a magician?"

"James' role!" Murphy said without hesitation, "The magician is the hero of this movie."

Jody Griffith nodded, and adjusted the lens by himself. According to Murphy's request, the first scene of the film was replaced with James Franco's back, and the picture went from far to near, and finally there was a roughly A freeze frame of about 0.5 seconds.

Although the audience will not know that this is a magician when they watch the film, but they will definitely realize it later.

The opening shot is aimed at the protagonist, which can shorten the distance between the audience and the movie for the first time, so that the audience and the protagonist face each other from the beginning, and strengthen the audience's sense of substitution in the movie.

In addition, aiming the camera at the protagonist is also conducive to the natural development of the film's story, leading the whole story.

Murphy used an almost still shot to show the actor played by James Franco, and deliberately placed the protagonist on the left side of the screen in the editing composition, coupled with the distinctive black and white light and shadow The back view can better highlight the reckless behavior of the characters, and set a dark and crazy tone for the film.

Like the opening shot, Murphy didn't hesitate to tweak the rough cut whenever he thought it might have been better.

In addition to editing, Murphy's other job is to process some special effects shots of the film.

He added a large number of explosion scenes in this film. For specific purposes, most of the special effects rely on traditional methods to cooperate with post-editing, instead of using the netbsp that is more common today; For example, in the car chase scene filmed in Manhattan, New York, in addition to the actual shooting, some difficult and difficult shots used the now outdated model special effects technology, which made the cost of special effects very high, but look It sounds very real and shocking.

This is also one of the reasons why Murphyken used this backward technology to produce. From the perspective of the completed special effects, "Dark City" can be said to be impeccable. , Murphy also asked the special effects team to model a 1:8o hospital to make up for some explosions and places that could not be taken care of during shooting.

This kind of traditional special effects production can also make the audience feel the shock brought by the film. Murphy used many close-up shots in this film to describe the villain, the magician, even surpassing the real protagonist Chris Dane. , is to make the clown's evil, twisted and crazy image firmly remembered by the audience.

In recent years, both in North America,

It is still overseas, and there are very few magician-like characters on the screen. When Murphy was editing, he paid special attention to shaping this character. The use of a large number of close-ups will make the audience feel more oppressed and feel more. The evil aura emanating from the character of the magician.

Of course, Murphy's consistent editing style will inevitably make the film have no urine point, with a tense and tight rhythm, coupled with perfect image creation, to leverage a box office miracle.

There are a lot of scene changes in this movie, and the use of light is also a lot. Murphy will not ignore Chris Dane. After all, this is the leading actor. Rhys Dane is a man who needs shadows.

As for the music, I have to say that Hans Zimmer is a master of commercial soundtracks. More and more soundtrack samples were sent to the studio in the Fox Building by him. The mighty horn sound and tight rhythm create a dark And stalwart atmosphere.

All these made Murphy quite satisfied.

And Hans Zimmer is not only a soundtrack master, but also knows business operations.

"As the soundtrack composer of "Dark City", it is an incomparable enjoyment and joy to work with a great director as talented as Murphy Stanton, and it is also a great honor for me. He is the kind of person who is willing to listen to others, welcome A wise director of observations of all kinds."

Facing the reporter's interview, Hans Zimmer was not stingy with his praise, "We work together and want to make a great movie together. We all want to be shocked and surprised, but we have a strong relationship with the audience. Resonance is also what we pursue. No matter how grand the production scene is, what Murphy pays most attention to is the story itself. As long as you have seen his previous films, everyone can appreciate his good intentions."

Facts have proved that spending a lot of money to hire Hans Zimmer is completely worth the money.

In December, when the fine editing was almost completed, Murphy considered making the first trailer of "Dark City", and Hans Zimmer also came to the Fox Tower studio again to assist him in completing this part of the work .

According to the contract signed by the two parties, Hans Zimmer needs to configure a good enough soundtrack for the trailer.

This is also a very important job in trailer production.

All commercial directors actually understand that the weight of music will account for more than 30% of whether a commercial movie trailer can be attractive.

A piece of music with a typical melody and rich rhythm changes can be said to be the core of an action movie trailer. No matter how good the editing skills of the trailer are, if the music is mediocre, the trailer will also look mediocre; It doesn't matter if it's a little rough.

Music is the most intuitive thing that gives people a "feeling". Two minutes of music contains a huge emotional flow, without saying a word. Together with music, the audience can feel "excited", "moved", "love", "disillusioned" Emotions such as philosophy, religion, tension, fear, and depression, these abstract themes can be subdivided into countless specific images.

As for the screen and dialogue, in the short two minutes of the trailer, only sporadic "information" can be presented.

Therefore, the soundtrack of the trailer is quite critical.

The soundtrack is important, and the editing of course cannot be ignored. After Hans Zimmer completed the arrangement of the trailer, Murphy made the editing of the ordinary shots intentionally not press the rhythm according to the music, and only pressed the important shots on the rhythm.

Why? All the shots are pressed against the rhythm, the first is very awkward, the second looks like mV, and the third is the most important. Every shot is pressed against the rhythm, which is very cool. When it comes to a brilliant shot or a shot that should be strengthened , and then pressing on the rhythm point will not be so cool, and the effect will not come out.

Another point, in the overall grasp of the trailer, Murphy will lower his voice before the camera fires, be quiet after the fire, and then raise a higher voice. For example, before the gun explodes, he will stop the music and let the whole sound system Be quiet, say a word or something, then shoot or explode.

This is done to make the body look taller and more powerful, to create contrast through energy differences, and to strengthen the effect of the trailer.

As the post-production of the film is completed step by step, the release time in May 2013 is getting closer and closer, and 20th Century Fox's promotion of "Dark City" is becoming more and more intensive, and related posters and behind-the-scenes shooting anecdotes continue. Released, such as Murphy, Margot - Robbie and James - Franco and other creative personnel, also frequently appeared in the media, creating some topics that can attract fans.

At the same time, the "viral marketing" on the Internet has never been relaxed.

On Thanksgiving, the film's official website and Murphy's Twitter account launched a crossword puzzle that everyone can participate in. The game requires netizens to click on the notes on the webpage, search for letters through the city names and clues displayed on the notes, and then take photos and upload them to this website. When all 49 letters distributed in American cities are found, you can Spell it into a complete sentence.

This novel online and offline interactive activity immediately attracted many netizens to participate, and soon, the phrase "the way to survive in this world is lawlessness" was spelled out, and "Dark City" also participated in this first wave. Famous in interactive marketing.

The enthusiastic response of the event has also accumulated experience and confidence for 20th Century Fox's next offline activities. Soon they planned the magician imitation contest, the global gift hunt, and the lighting ceremony of the Chris Dann supporter building. Other activities have also achieved good results.

According to the comments on the "Hollywood Reporter", "Dark City" successfully maximized the publicity effect through the combination of online and offline activities, and provided an excellent example for the viral marketing of other films in the future.

Such publicity has also attracted the attention of countless people, such as Archbishop Marquez Costello. 8 For more exciting novels, welcome to visit our Reading Academy