Made in Hollywood

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If you want "Independence Day" to be a big hit, careful pre-preparation and detailed shooting at every point and face are essential. Although the filming is only done without actors, most of the main actors have already entered the crew. They not only have to accept the military With proper training and rehearsal, whether it's a director or an actor, if you don't work hard, you will definitely be eliminated from Hollywood.

Time slowly turned to December, and the preparations for the early stage entered the final stage. Duke was still leading the crew to shoot special effects scenes, especially those shots that needed to be synthesized by computer CGI, which were at the highest priority level. Allow enough time for production.

It is completely computer special effects burned in dollars, and there are no shortcuts. The CGI special effects produced in half a month and a month are placed on the big screen, and the effect is different from the sky and the earth.

The spaceship, alien mothership, alien model, F-18 and F-16 models appeared in front of the camera one after another. After having the most basic material images, the special effects team began to synthesize huge explosion images while perfecting the explosion images. air battle scene.

Inevitably, explosions sounded in several studios every day, far more frequently than when filming "Brave Island". In just over half a month, many people were tortured to the point of nervous breakdown by Duke.

"Aunt Leah has come to visit the class."

Hearing Sophia's words, Duke, who was standing on the shooting stage, nodded, turned around and waved in the direction of his peripheral mother, without giving up the work at hand.

"Jos, the countdown to 20!" he yelled into the loudspeaker.

With the sound of the booming explosion, a model of an alien spaceship with a radius of 30 feet fell in the explosion and slammed into the ground covered with green screens. When Duke called to pass, he was already waiting around. The dead firefighters rushed up and sprayed the scattered sparks with a fire extinguisher.

Although the investigation results of the last fire always showed that it was just an accident, Duke paid a lot of attention. Not only would a copy of the film be sent to the bank vault on the same day after shooting, but also Warner Studios had specially equipped enough security personnel for the crew. .

Don't think that Hollywood has a complete industrial system, and the fire will disappear from history. Just this month, the "Forrest Gump" crew on the Paramount set also had a fire, and Robert Zemeckis was far away. Unlucky than Duke, the fire not only burned a lot of props and photographic equipment, but also burned a part of the film. Even if most of the film was safe in time, the crew had to be reconvened to make up.

It is said that the fire is also an accident, as to whether it is a real accident, maybe only God knows.

The crew temporarily entered the rest phase. Duke got off the elevator, instructed the assistant director Zach Snyder, walked to the periphery of the venue, and there was still a distance between them, and he waved to his mother.

"Mom..." He walked over quickly, "Why do you have time to come here?"

His mother is a busy person, now flying between New York and Los Angeles, and occasionally to Europe.

"An advertising crew in Santa Fia is filming in the studio." Mrs. Leah's eyes fell on the little girl next to her, "Scarlett said she missed you, and I'll take her over by the way."

"Hi, Duke." The little blond girl shook his hand at him.

"Long time no see, Scarlett."

Nodding to her, Duke asked directly, "How are you familiar with the characters? Tell your mother that starting next week, you will find time to come to the crew to rehearse with Bill Pullman."

"Yeah, I got it."

She took Mrs. Leah's hand and walked with Duke towards the rest area of ​​the studio. "I don't think this role is too difficult. Most of the time, it is used as a background painting."

"Mom, sit here."

Greeting his mother to sit down at a rest table, Duke said to a female assistant next to him, "Ellie, two cups of coffee and one juice."

"Hey, Duke!" Scarlet said dissatisfied after sitting down, "Did you hear what I said to you?"

"certainly."

The mother could bring Scarlett Johansson over, obviously she liked this goddaughter better, Duke pushed her the juice from the assistant, "You go on, Scarlett."

"That..." The little girl rolled her shining eyes, picked up the juice, and hid her smiling face behind the cup, "Can you add a few more lines for my character."

She kept her eyes on Duke's face, and seeing that his expression changed slightly, she quickly said, "Just ten sentences! No...three sentences will do..."

"I'll add an extra scene for you."

Duke won't joke about things at work, and he won't change it at will, even if this is his mother's goddaughter, "Maybe you should fly a fighter jet and bomb alien spaceships, Scarlett!"

Scarlett Johansson pouted and lowered her head slowly, "Forget it."

"Scarlett..." Mrs. Lia stretched out her hand and rubbed the little guy's head, "Patience is a beautiful moral quality. Waiting now can be exchanged for future success."

"Well," she nodded vigorously, "I see, godmother."

It was probably someone who supported her. When Mrs. Leah turned her head to talk to Sofia Coppola, Scarlett Johansson wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at Duke very quickly. Duke didn't even look at her. , This little girl is a veritable troublemaker, but she still has a relatively close relationship with her own family.

Sophia also sat down over there, and she chatted with Mrs. Leah about the movie.

"Duke's thinking is not something that ordinary people can understand." Sophia's words were full of ridicule, "According to the script, the key weapon for mankind to defeat aliens in the end turned out to be computer viruses. I'm not very proficient in computers, but I want to come. Viruses are all based on computer language and certain systems, so do aliens use the same computer language technology system as us?"

Mrs. Leah laughed directly, "As a mother, most of the time, I can't guess what he is thinking."

"Dear..." Duke put down his coffee cup and looked at Sophia, "This is a sci-fi film, and it doesn't need so much rigorous logic. If the most reasonable settings are followed, then aliens will definitely occupy the earth. Our film Will lose money for lack of audience."

"But you can't deny it, Duke." Sophia saw someone beckoning on the other side and stood up. "A lot of the settings in the film are too rough."

"I'm going to work, Auntie."

"Sophia, come to Santa Monica if you have time."

As the break was about to end, Duke found a female assistant and asked her to take his mother to visit.

"Let's go to see the aliens." Scarlett Johansson couldn't wait to jump out of the chair and pulled up Mrs. Leah, "The last time I came, I saw it once, and it looked like the real thing, it was terrifying and terrifying. ."

After returning to work, not long after the studio, there was another explosion, just like the media commented, and Duke would never give up.

The explosion scenes that can be shot in the studio or studio are basically concentrated in this time period. The landmark buildings in North America have long been destroyed in front of the camera. As for the alien attack, why did you choose the landmark buildings? strike, rather than those more urgent military objectives, does this need to be explained?

Anyway, Duke thinks that there is no need to explain at all. This kind of sci-fi film is mainly for the audience to watch. When they watch the familiar building reduced to ashes in the explosion, the soaring adrenal number is enough to cover up some loopholes in logic. .

"Independence Day" is different from "Life and Death" and "Brave Island", this is a film that is completely sold on VFX.

Perhaps, he will really open the era of visual effects in Hollywood?

In his spare time, Duke would also come up with these ideas. After all, in the future, mainstream commercial blockbusters in Hollywood, like this "Independence Day", have embarked on a simple, rude, and direct path to making money.

Duke is shooting, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox are also initially maintaining the topic of the film, formulating a detailed publicity plan, and officially confirming the film's release time in mid-December - June 1994 It premieres in North America on July 30 and officially opens in North America on July 1 — so that the film’s first weekend, July 1, 2, and 3, will be tied to the Independence Day holiday, which has the potential to completely inspire public interest in the film. Enthusiasm for watching the film titled "Independence Day".

There is no doubt that this is a film full of great Americanism. In the words of Sophia mocking Duke, it even delusionally changes the national days of other countries in the world. If it is replaced by the former Duke, this type of film There is inherent rejection and disgust, but from today's standpoint, if "Independence Day" succeeds, it will be enough to bring him huge benefits.

The butt decides the head. There is a certain truth to this sentence. From Duke's current position, why should he give up such a film?

The first thing he faces is the North American audience, and he also produces commercial movies. The first thing he has to please is the North American audience. Although the subject matter and certain aspects of the film will inevitably arouse the disgust of many people in other countries and regions, don’t forget one thing. , movies that sell very well in North America can always sweep overseas markets.

In other words, as long as Duke can guarantee the quality of the film, there is no need to worry too much about the reaction of overseas markets.

However, the success of summer films depends not only on the quality of the film and the intensity of publicity, but also on competitors in the same period. The most typical example is that if "Brave to the Dead Island" directly collided with "Jurassic Park", The box office performance is definitely not as good as it is now.

So Duke, in addition to busy shooting, also asked Warner Bros. to compile a list of movies that are sure to be released in June and July next year.

Although there is James Cameron's "True Lies" in mid-July, it is more than 2 weeks before "Independence Day", and the two sides will not constitute too fierce competition.

When looking back, Duke saw a very familiar name-"Forrest Gump", which will be released in North America on July 6!