Made in Hollywood

Beginning in mid-February, Duke and Anna Prinz ended their respective location shoots. In the studio on the Wellington set, they worked with Weta Studio's technicians to shoot a large number of CGI composite shots, and even Duke At one point, the filming was temporarily handed over to Anna Prinz, who concentrated on participating in some purely CGI-synthesized scenes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Of course, this situation will only last for a few days, and Duke will not be away from the crew for too long.

With the passage of time and the in-depth filming, the actual operation of the entire crew is far ahead of the plan made with Duke. At this point, Duke can be said to have fully recognized himself, and he can easily capture and use the commercial elements of the film. , The production of fast-paced and big-scene films is far more cumbersome than independent films, but for him, he can easily control the overall situation.

On the contrary, those slow-paced dramas that purely promote the plot with emotion and always describe the diametrically opposite spiritual aspects of the characters are extremely difficult for him to grasp.

In other words, Duke's inner character is biased towards reality, and the film he is good at is biased towards naivety.

The advantages of this situation far outweigh the disadvantages for him. His cognition of the real world is more realistic, and he can avoid those unrealistic fantasies. If he naively regards Hollywood as a pure place of white flowers, how can he be played in the end? I'm afraid I don't even know.

The theme of the film tends to be naive, which means that the largest audience, a niche film that can blow up the world's audience and media word of mouth, no matter how it works, its commercial performance will not be comparable to a successful commercial masterpiece.

The original "Lord of the Rings" has a wide audience in the West. As long as the film does not have too many inexplicable literary and artistic flavors, it must be a popular film. Although the film will touch the dark side of people's hearts, it will come to a certain extent. More like a fairy tale.

The production of fairy tales is full of literary and artistic flavor, and it is natural to rush to death. Therefore, in the communication with Weta Studio, Duke repeatedly asked to strengthen special effects and fighting scenes.

Although the post-production of "The Fellowship of the Ring" will not start until the second half of the year, according to Duke's plan, the film will set a world record using about 1,600 special effects shots!

As for whether some professionals will jump out at that time. Duke didn't care if he criticized him for making such a huge production into a CGI cartoon. According to the development of the film industry, pure GCI live-action films will inevitably appear in the future.

The development and progress of technology cannot be stopped by some people standing up and shouting, and those who follow the old ways will eventually be eliminated.

For the rest of February, the crew stayed in the studio. Just like Cate Blanchett, there are some actors who don't have a lot of roles but have a lot of weight. With the end of the role shots, it's time to leave the crew.

After more than a year of getting along, the final parting is inevitable.

In front of the blue screen in the studio. Boromir, played by Gerard Butler, is lying in a pile of leaves, with three black orc arrows stuck in his body, and the whole person seems to be dying.

Duke stood behind the director's monitor and nodded slowly unconsciously. Clearly happy with the state of the two actors.

Viggo Mortensen's acting is not top-notch, but quite good. Moreover, his grasp of Aragorn is extremely in place, and in the completed shooting, he has almost completely become King Eliza.

In contrast, Gerald Butler is undoubtedly inferior. This sturdy actor is indeed not known for his acting skills, but his efforts are obvious to all. At this time, he is basically performing at a super level.

Every movie must have a climax, even the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is no exception. It's the finishing touch in a climactic scene.

After being invited to Rivendell, Boromir had been the backbone of the Fellowship of the Ring in the early days, saving a few hobbits from the orcs several times, but Gondor was the most powerful against Mordor. The frontier, protecting the country and the White City has always been the obsession in Boromir's heart. In addition to the human nature in Tolkien's writings, he has not resisted the temptation of the Lord of the Rings, and wants to take it as his own to fight against powerful demons. many.

His greed is abhorrent, and his dreams and repentances are moving, and he once told Aragorn that he wanted to go back to Gondor with him, to hear the silver trumpet sound, and to see the banner of the Holy White Tree fly over the White City.

Boromir's wish finally did not come true, but the film is different from the original and will give him a heroic affirmation.

Gerard Butler held the hilt of the sword on his chest, and seemed to use all his remaining strength and faith, and said to Viggo Mortensen, who was leaning in front of him, "I am willing to follow you, my Brother, my leader, my king..."

"Rest in peace, son of Gondor."

Aragon's line is undoubtedly the best comment on Boromir. Viggo Mortensen closed Gerard Butler's eyes, lowered his head and printed the kiss of the king on his forehead...

Orlando Bloom, who was holding a short bow behind him, squinted at the two of them. If they were people who didn't know the inside story, they would seem to be full of love at first glance.

"Cut!" Duke shouted, then added, "Vigo, Jerry, well done, but you guys have to do it again."

This is one of the most sensational scenes in "The Fellowship of the Ring", and although the two perform extremely well, Duke's requirements must be excellence.

It took three more shots before Duke called to pass. The end of this scene also means that Boromir has completed his journey to Middle-earth, and Gerard Butler will also bid farewell to the crew.

In front of the camera, Viggo Mortensen pulled up Gerard Butler, who was lying among the leaves. Gerald Butler nodded to him and strode towards Duke's position. John? One of Schwartzman's camera assistants immediately set up the Steadicam, and the camera closely followed Butler's tall, strong figure.

Since there is no need to shoot next, Gerald Butler directly pulled out the three long arrows inserted in the costume and threw them aside, walked to Duke who had stood up, and gave him a strong hug.

"Thank you, Duke."

He has changed from a little-known actor to a newcomer who is relatively high-profile now. Duke can be said to have played a crucial role. Gerard Butler is still very grateful, "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to allow me to Take part in this amazing journey."

"You've come a long way, Jerry."

Patting his back hard, Duke separated from Gerard Butler, "Keep working hard, we will have opportunities to cooperate in the future."

The copyright of the illustrated novel is in Warner's hands, and the director has been his deputy for many years. Of course Duke will not let it go.

Taking another step back, Duke gestured back, and immediately someone brought a Gondor silver horn, and handed it to Gerard Butler, just like when he said goodbye to Queen Galadriel, it was from the crew Routine - Whenever a lead actor leaves, Duke will give them a character prop as a souvenir.

It was Boromir's horn that was given to Gerard Butler.

Gerard Butler took it over, temporarily handed it over to his assistant, and started hugging and saying goodbye to the rest of the crew, putting on a good show that was hard to part with. It seemed that the entire crew exuded brotherly and sisterly feelings. , but always followed Gerard? Butler's camera lens, but reminded everyone that this is just a Hollywood drama often staged.

These filmed things will play a certain role in the pre-promotion of the film and the promotion of CD-ROM in the post-production.

The parting is short-lived. Gerald Butler's farewell to the crew does not bring much sadness. The crew is still operating normally, but as the filming of the concentrated scenes basically ended, the remaining scenes became more and more fragmented, entering March. Later, often in this shot, Duke is still shooting Isengard's strong orcs, and the next shot needs to enter Mount Doom to see how Andy Serkis bites off Elijah Wood's finger.

Correspondingly, the filming speed of the crew is also slowing down.

Duke originally had a 15-month shooting plan, but even if the pace is slowing down now, he is confident that all shots will be completed around 14 months.

This is related to his absorbing the experience of his predecessors, and it is also inseparable from the sufficient preparatory work of the crew.

During the filming interval, Duke also went to Australia twice. "Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolution" are under intense preparation. After all, these two films were shot together. Although the workload is not as good as "The Lord of the Rings", it is also It's huge and complex enough that you don't even want to start shooting in the first half of the year.

Zach Snyder has been by Duke's side for nearly ten years and has been serving as his first deputy. He has received enough training. At present, there are not many problems in the preliminary preparations.

He is also very clear that now he is no longer a senior assistant director, but a rookie director. Some powers are impossible to obtain, and he also understands the reasoning that enough is enough.

Like most directors and producers, Zack Snyder had conflicts with the producers representing Warner Bros., but was limited to what he could do with his work.

At the same time, Duke also received samples of "Mission Impossible 2" that Tom Cruise asked someone to send over, and he even took time to come to Wellington to watch the samples with Duke.

Clearly, Tom Cruise has put a lot of trust in Duke's vision for cinema as their relationship evolves.

Even Tom Cruise said, "If you're not satisfied, I can reject the dailies edited by John Wu and give it to you or Mike Dawson to re-edit it!"

Duke did not do this. The reputation of "Mission: Impossible 2" may be worse than that of "Mission: Impossible 1", but Bai Ge? Wu did a pretty good job. As long as there is no problem with the announcement, the box office of the film should be better. higher than the first.

Of course, this is a sequel to a big-selling film. If the box office is not as good as the previous one, Bai Ge? Wu won't have to wait a few more years. After the film is released this year, he can go back.

Sending Tom Cruise off, Tina Fey brings the latest on the stock market from North America! (To be continued ~^~)

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