Made in Hollywood

After the Oscars in 2001, Duke finished editing the footage for The Fellowship of the Ring, but before post-production was over, a Howard Shaw-produced score needed to be added, and then sound edited.

Overall, Howard Shaw's score was exactly what Duke wanted, but he didn't immediately work on the last two jobs.

In the soundtrack, Howard Shaw combined symphony and opera techniques, extensively selected African, Indian, Gurter and other world music materials and carefully brewed the magical epic tunes of the new century, releasing a sensational and regrettable grand momentum, stirring wave after wave. A wave of majestic frenzy.

There was no problem with the tune, Duke was dissatisfied with the version played.

"Howard, I have no problem with your tune."

In the conference room of the Lord of the Rings studio, Duke sat at the top of the conference table, and this project must be subject to his opinion, "but the level of the players is a little weaker."

This is an obvious question, even a layman like Duke can hear it.

This is also very impressive to him as a "Lord of the Rings" fan, once the soundtrack and performance.

"Duke, our time," Doug Walter reminded him. "There's less than a month until the trial."

Duke frowned and thought for a moment, "Try it out and use the no-score version."

This is a common practice in Hollywood, Doug Walter thought for a while, then nodded slowly.

"Charles..." Duke turned to his production manager. "You're in charge of contacting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and getting them as soon as possible."

After Charles Rowan nodded, Duke added, "Howard, once Charles has an agreement with the Philharmonic to play. I need you to communicate with them in a timely manner."

"No problem." Howard Xiao also nodded.

Finally, Duke looked at Doug Walter, who is likely to be the next CEO of Warner Bros. It is necessary to build a good relationship, "Doug, Howard's composition is very good. I think it has the potential to become a classic, with a more excellent composition. Band performance is helpful for future soundtrack albums..."

He slowly slowed down, "If the film can be as successful as I expected, we can also cooperate with the Philharmonic Orchestra to hold a "Lord of the Rings" concert in the future!"

Doug? Walter's eyes lit up immediately, which undoubtedly adds another way to make money for the film.

Currently. Various peripheral products of the film are also under development and production, such as the Lord of the Rings chain, the elf short bow, the elf headdress, the evening star pendant... and many other accessories, as well as the doll images of the characters, etc., are also about to enter the distribution stage. .

The source of income for this series. But not only from the box office, DVD and TV copyright income, all kinds of peripherals are also the focus.

The session was over, adding the soundtrack and sound clips paused, Charles Rowan and Doug Walter on Duke's advice. They were busy with their negotiation and publicity work.

Charles Rowan's negotiations with the Philharmonic were the first to come to fruition, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic was really famous. The scale is also huge enough, but these also mean huge expenses, and it is not the first time they have played a movie soundtrack in the face of sufficient bids. The two sides quickly reached an agreement, and Howard Shaw also entered the Philharmonic's resident station to help the other party become proficient in score and performance as soon as possible.

In addition, at the suggestion of Howard Shaw and the Philharmonic Orchestra, The Lord of the Rings Studio also invited the famous soprano singer Renee Fleming, the legendary female singer Anne Lennox, and the flutist James ? Galway polishes the soundtrack.

This led directly to the final cost of "The Fellowship of the Ring" to exceed Duke's estimated $115 million.

And during this time, Duke was also not idle. He and Weta Studios continued to improve the special effects of the film. Since the budget was overrun, he simply increased the total production cost of the film to 120 million US dollars!

At the same time, the promotion of the film is still proceeding in an orderly manner.

In mid-April, on the eve of the preview, all the Trump-related industries in the United States were replaced by the most prominent billboards with posters of "The Fellowship of the Ring", which attracted the attention of passers-by.

It is undeniable that Donald Trump's show-style marketing is indeed easy to arouse people's disgust, but his vision is still good. The various buildings under Trump's industry are basically located in the most prosperous areas of major cities in the United States. After that super show, his reputation became more famous, or maybe it was because he participated in this movie. He didn't mean to violate the contract at all. After Duke made a phone call, he actively cooperated with the promotion of "The Lord of the Rings". Work.

Even, in the latest episode of "Walking with Billionaires" he recorded for NBC, he also specifically mentioned "The Lord of the Rings", and invited Elijah Wood and Sean Austin and other crew members after the film was released, on his show.

The ratings of this show are very good. As a businessman, Donald Trump is not without reason for being so active. The first and foremost is that he is optimistic that this film will sell well, and inviting the "Lord of the Rings" crew can continue to expand the show's influence. ...

Besides, this is an invitation after the release. If the film goes viral, he can completely cancel this invitation.

In short, as in the past, Warner Bros. used all the propaganda methods available today, with the slight difference that they increased their propaganda efforts on the Internet.

The success of "The Matrix" and "Blair Witch", Internet marketing played an important role, especially the latter.

The major Hollywood companies are not fools. Under such circumstances, how can they not see the value of the Internet to the film industry?

However, compared with the major Hollywood companies that started late, the network army controlled by Duke is already strong enough, and even in the voting for the most anticipated summer movies launched by Rotten Tomatoes, "The Fellowship of the Ring" With the participation of more than 100,000 people, it got 99% anticipation and a score of 9.9.

Although the film is highly anticipated by the audience, the role played by the network navy cannot be ignored.

Duke is very clear that both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB can be influenced by the Navy. After all, a certain director's brainwashing farce was too famous.

It is rude to say that Duke and Warner Bros. are using various means and methods to promote the film.

Any movie that sells well is not a super-selling movie as long as it is made of good enough quality. Throughout the history of Hollywood movies, the quality is excellent or even a classic movie, because the Xuanfa is not good enough, it leads to the street. Countless.

That's right, Duke has relevant memories of the past, but making a movie is not as simple as copying and pasting. If there is no accumulation in the past and the hard work of more than ten years before he came to this world, even if he has seen or even studied those How can the film be?

Directing is a highly professional job!

Then there is the propaganda. If a film does not have the support of propaganda, can it sell well? There is only one "Titanic" in this world.

Moreover, the former big ship, although the publicity and distribution in the early stage was relatively general, but after the film showed a trend of big sales, the publicity was almost overwhelming!

Speaking of distribution, this is more important to the film. The film does not have the support of the distributor, which means that there will not be enough theater chains. If there are no theater chains, how can it get the box office? If there are not enough moviegoers, where can there be high peripheral income?

Duke knows that the movies have sold well in the past. The question is will others know about it? Hollywood produces so many movies a year. If it is not enough confidence now, but put it in the past few years, why should the distributors and the theaters do their best to support his movies?

There is still a release time, and the average director has no say in this regard. If "The Matrix" hits a big ship? What are the consequences?

Whether a film can be a big hit at the box office and surrounding areas depends on the quality of the film itself. There are too many factors that can affect it in the future.

For example, in the previous "Spider-Man", if it did not cut out the scene of Peter Parker crawling on the World Trade Center, what kind of consequences could it cause?

Any successful film depends on more than just the film itself.

Duke never thought that "The Fellowship of the Ring" does not do publicity and distribution work. Before and after "Pearl Harbor", "Shrek" and "Tomb Raider", there were many big productions and big announcements. When the film is competing, just throw it out casually, you can kill all the enemies in seconds, and easily stand at the top of the North American box office charts.

That's just a daydream!

Success never arrives by itself, it always requires human effort.

To this end, Duke prepared a publicity budget of $80 million for "The Fellowship of the Ring", making the total investment for the first movie to be piled up to $200 million!

The success or failure of the first film is self-evident for the importance of a series. As long as "The Fellowship of the Ring" sells well, the subsequent two films can save a lot of money in terms of publicity.

Counting the fees that the film has to pay to Tolkien's copyright agency and the original copyright holder, after the release of "The Fellowship of the Ring", the global box office must reach at least 600 million to 650 million US dollars, in order to recover the cost through the box office .

This can be said to be a huge pressure, but every major Duke production is carried forward with a mountain-like pressure, and no amount of pressure can overwhelm his rock-solid shoulders.

The time is slowly approaching May. Although the soundtrack is still being recorded, the preview can no longer be postponed. In the last weekend of April, Warner Bros. convened three consecutive performances involving theater representatives, media reporters and ordinary audiences. The trial screening, the various statistics and statistics of the trial screening will directly affect the release of "The Fellowship of the Ring".

If "The Fellowship of the Ring" has a poor reputation among the theaters and ordinary audiences, even if it is Duke's work, it cannot be drawn on an ultra-high scale. (To be continued ~^~)