Made in Hollywood

"The most pressing thing now is to find a suitable actor to replace her!"

In front of the beautiful Rivendell set, the filming of the crew had just come to an end. Taking advantage of the break, Duke called Charles Rowan and several other crew leaders over, "Swordsmanship is good, we can go through the whole process. When using a stand-in, the key is that the actor's temperament must be in line with the character's setting in the novel."

He turned to look at the production manager, "Charles, the contract is terminated as soon as possible."

"I'm communicating with her agent." Charles Rowan's ability to handle affairs is trustworthy.

Duke rubbed his forehead, this is also impossible, not to mention such a huge crew of "The Lord of the Rings", even if it is a small crew in the independent film circle, unexpected situations will happen from time to time during filming.

"Duke..."

The speaker was Anna Prinz, who came back from the location. The actor who quit is related to the part she will be in charge of filming. "I suggest that one of the actors who participated in the audition should be re-selected."

"That's the only way." Duke nodded, "Anna, you are responsible for this."

In fact, things are not complicated. Anna Prinz is about to film a scene about Princess Eowyn of Lohan, and the Australian actor Miranda Otto who plays her is also ready to join the group. Who knows that just a few days ago, The other party was involved in a car accident in Australia and had several fractures in his leg and hand bones, and had to withdraw from the set.

The people around gradually dispersed, and Nancy Josephson, who had been standing on the periphery with Tina Fey and Cate Blanchett, came over.

"Duke," she whispered. "Can I recommend someone?"

"Let's talk." Duke turned his head and watched the staff on the set busy setting up the meeting room of King Elrond of Rivendell, "You have signed a new actor again."

"No." Nancy shook her head, "One who worked with you before."

"Oh?"

Looking back, Duke looked at her. "who is it?"

"Kate Beckinsale,"

In this respect, Nancy Josephson is definitely a qualified agent, always striving for every possible opportunity for her clients, "I think Eowyn is a good fit for her."

"Nancy, although the character is generally a vase." Duke didn't even think about it. Rejected directly, "But some scenes are still very important, and I don't want to use a poker-faced actor."

The last collaboration, Kate Beckinsale's poor acting, left Duke with an extremely bad impression.

Eowyn does prefer vases, but there are differences between vase roles and vase roles in Hollywood films. She is still suitable for vampires without any expressions or pure vase roles with low requirements for acting.

See Duke's very bad impression of Kate Beckinsale's acting. Nancy didn't say anything anymore. After all, Duke's words had much more weight than the future of the young actor under his name.

This suddenly vacated role has a considerable weight in the film, and it didn't take long for Nancy to leave. While Duke was not busy, Cate Blanchett also came over.

"Do you also have an actor to recommend?" Duke asked after seeing her tall figure.

Blanchett smiled softly. "Remember Ella Fisher from my house. Duke?"

"She?" Duke frowned and thought, remembering who it was. He nodded to Blanchett, "Kate, leave her contact information to Tina and get her ready to come to Wellington for the audition."

"Thank you." Blanchett leaned into Duke's ear. "My Lord Sauron."

Duke responded with a business-like attitude, "I can only give her a chance to audition, and the others cannot make any guarantees."

Speaking of which, he was slightly curious, "What is her relationship to you?"

Most of the time, Hollywood actresses, there is such kindness and love there.

"Ira is one of my cousins," Blanchett explained.

After the short conversation, Duke returned to work. The representatives of various races who participated in the King Elrond meeting, most of them finished their make-up, waited in the rest area, and the layout of the venue was nearing the end.

After walking around the shooting venue, Duke returned behind the monitor, looked at the leaves that piled up the venue, and called the person in charge of the props team over.

"Bill, have your men get up on the lift to spread the leaves."

Just as the person in charge of the props team was about to leave, Duke patted him on the arm again, exhorting, "Six people!"

Elrond's meeting, though long, was cut into a lot of short shots, in which The Hobbit was to switch back and forth between actors and doubles, when Ian McLean and Elijah Wood appeared in close-up shots at the same time During the middle, the crew also raised the place where Ian McLean stood to highlight the difference between nine feet and four feet.

Then there is the job of spreading leaves that Duke instructed.

During this meeting, Rivendell's leaves are constantly falling to indicate the expansion of evil, which means that the six crew members have to keep throwing leaves on the crane that goes to different locations on the set.

Don't look at this as an inconspicuous job, the crew started preparations a long time ago.

The fallen leaves were collected bag by bag in autumn, but the leaves that were separated from the trees quickly turned yellow and did not look like fresh fallen leaves, so the props team took every leaf. The leaves are re-stained, and then there are the fallen leaves that are heavily used in this scene.

Shooting a movie is never easy, and it’s not at all that having a great script or a director can do everything.

One meeting, Duke filmed for two full days, and then moved to another studio to continue filming the previous scenes of Ross Lorian. Some shots could not be shot in the wild, so we had to choose a studio with better environmental conditions. It can be done better with props and blue screen.

Most of the trees in the Golden Forest are realized by the crew with props and sets. After a short filming, these elaborate props and sets will look like the Titanic model that James Cameron spent a lot of money to build. Like a boat, it can only be turned into garbage and disposed of as waste.

At times like this, the people in the props group and the art direction department always have a hint of reluctance, after all, they have put a lot of effort into it.

It can also be seen from this aspect that the time spent on preparatory work for most films is often several times or even a dozen times longer than the time spent on filming.

It's not too obvious now. In the past few years, 100 million US dollars will become the basic starting point for mainstream commercial films. If the film wants to sell well, it will rely more on special effects. The production cycle of Hollywood films will also be prolonged. One year of filming and production, one year of publicity and release, will become the most basic production process.

Most directors will even be detained in this process. The large investment also determines that the production company will not take the production process as a child's play. Except for the top group of directors, other directors must follow the Hollywood assembly line model. .

Even top directors like James Cameron and Steven Spielgerberg are examples of continued success in the standard Hollywood model.

To put it bluntly, if it weren't for cheating, Duke would not be making movies at a rate of basically one a year.

And this speed has almost reached his limit. Even if he can bear some things, the rest of the crew can't bear it.

Don't forget that movies are always a product of teamwork, not a director's job alone.

Although there are occasional emergencies, the shooting progress has always been under Duke's firm control. In recent days, he has been shooting Ross Lorien's scenes in the studio. After each day's shooting, he has to review another one. Shot by Anna Prinz in the studio.

Zach? Snyder officially left the crew to prepare for the second two parts of "The Matrix". Anna? Prinz naturally took over the position of the first assistant director, and cooperated with Duke to share the heavy shooting work.

There are too many shots for the trilogy. Duke also negotiated with John Schwartzman to let him lead a film crew alone, but the increasingly fat director of photography did not become a director independently. I plan, just want to be the top director of photography in Hollywood.

"We've worked together for many years, Duke," he said to Duke, "I know how much effort and energy you've put into this day, and how much pressure you've endured. The career of directing is too scary for me. The hectic work schedule and the ubiquitous stress would overwhelm me."

This kind of thing can't be forced, Duke couldn't find a second suitable candidate for a while, and the crew had to continue to shoot in two ways.

It took a little more than a week for Ross Lorien's part in the studio to shoot, and the set up was about to be dismantled.

Before the dismantling, the person in charge of the props group, Bilt, stood here and took a commemorative tidbit for recording.

Facing the props and sets that were later turned into ruins, he was very touched, "It took us 8 months to build the props, but the shooting time did not exceed 8 days. After the shooting, these beautiful trees and forests will disappear. , but for generations of audiences, it will be in the movie forever.”

All I can say is that this is filmmaking.

The process of making a lot of big investment films is often a project that produces a lot of waste.

Later, Duke participated in another interview for the role of Eowyn, but took into account Anna Prinz's opinion. After all, most of Eowyn's scenes will be filmed by her.

The opinions of the two people are relatively consistent, and there are not too many differences. Among the three actors who participated in the second audition, they chose Isla Fisher recommended by Cate Blanchett, and informed the other party to report to the crew as soon as possible.

With the completion of Queen Galadriel's role, Cate Blanchett also became the first official actor to bid farewell to the crew. Duke, according to the original agreement, used the Queen's crown and white costume as a souvenir A gift was given to her.

However, he specially prepared two sets of the queen's costumes. (To be continued ~^~)

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