Made in Hollywood

Regardless of the shape, the Iron Man jacket needs to show the traces of industrial carving. A perfectly fitted jacket can make the heroic spirit unimpeded. The degree of freedom in the comic version can ignore the part that destroys the silhouette of the suit, but the movie version does not have this freedom. The solution is to create a system that allows overlapping panels to slide or twist against each other.

Creating realistic-looking metallic images can be a difficult challenge, especially when it comes to digital jackets that can be continuously combined and realistic.

Realistic brushed metal coats have excellent detail, while digitally created bumpy brushed surfaces will require more rendering power to resolve without flickering and antialiasing.

Special effects production had to use the latest technology to simulate the changes that would occur on brushed metal surfaces, no matter how far the camera was from Iron Man or how close to him, it was a must, and it all depended on industry Light Magic and Weta Studio's strong technical capabilities to solve.

There are often surprises in the production process, some tasks are often simpler than expected, and sometimes there are effects beyond Duke's imagination, such as the fight between Iron Man and Iron Man, which relies on special effects to synthesize in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

The original plan, Duke wanted to let two people fly over and destroy this dissimilar theater with a tendency to destroy the dead The most criticized arch of the theater, and the contrast formed by the Hollywood Chinese Theater, is more in line with architectural aesthetics than before, creating a different kind of joy.

So, Duke simply abandoned the original plan and adopted this version.

As long as it conforms to the theme and style of the film, it does not drag down the entire post-production plan. Duke is also willing to try and implement some interesting new ideas, rather than simply using CG special effects mechanically, those effects will definitely be more or less limited.

Looking at Hollywood, it is common for a movie to spend more than half a year or even longer to produce special effects. Iron Man is no exception.

In fact, from the beginning of the preparatory period, some special effects productions have been ahead of the shooting. Although these special effects will not be used all, they will also occupy a considerable share in the film, while others will be in post-production. It is constantly being transformed by the crew adding new elements, and is slowly added to the appropriate place in the film in a different way than before.

Also, Stan Lee seems to want to show his importance to Marvel as a whole, with his writing team. He wanted to be involved in the post-production, but Duke refused without hesitation. Even if there was a conflict between the two sides, it was impossible for him to let the screenwriter participate in the post-production of the film.

the reason is simple. It's true that the script is one of the foundations of a film, but what a screenwriter writes isn't what ends up in the picture.

Stan Lee, for example, didn't follow the script with Duke. It was very objectionable to let the actors improvise during the filming, but Duke ignored his suggestion to remove this part of the content, and there was even an argument between the two sides.

However, Duke holds the final editing rights. Even Stan Lee, the father of superheroes, said that he could not influence his decision.

This kind of quarrel is also normal, everyone has their own ideas, Stan Lee wants to continue to influence the operation of Marvel, in order to highlight his importance, so as to gain a more favorable position in the sharing negotiation with Marvel, But Duke is very clear that Stan Lee does not belong to this era, and making soy sauce in the movie is the job he needs to do most.

Duke has his own ideas for characters and films, and even prepared as many as seven versions for some improvised scenes, so he can choose more suitable scenes according to the requirements of post-editing.

No director is an all-rounder, and Duke has never thought of taking over all the work in the crew and filming. He just grasps the general direction and uses his own ideas to drive and inspire others. This is not an easy task. Once it is done, the crew will explode with great enthusiasm for work and creation, and become a highly efficient team.

In turn, the ideas of these people will bring all kinds of creative inspiration to Duke, thus making the whole production process form a virtuous circle.

Duke would never let people like Stan Lee break the tacit understanding that the crew formed.

Cooperating with a tacit team can also make up for some of the problems Duke overlooked. After all, he is just a person, not the all-knowing and omnipotent Encyclopedia Britannica.

For example, when post-production used CG to retouch the cave where the terrorists imprisoned Tony Stark, an assistant from Weta Studios made a suggestion.

"I used to live in the mountains of Afghanistan and know a little bit about the geology and climate there."

Standing in front of the big screen, the assistant pointed to Robert Downey Jr., who was breathing constantly in the picture and said, "The caves in the remote mountainous areas of Afghanistan are very cold, and the temperature in some caves can be close to freezing point, and people's breath will inevitably bring out whiteness. gas……"

On the screen, all the actors could not see the white breath they exhaled.

After the assistant's reminder, Duke immediately sent people to check the information. Some videos about Afghanistan, especially the clips of TV stations interviewing Taliban people in caves in recent years, can clearly see their exhaled breath.

So Duke told the special effects production department to use post-production techniques to make necessary adjustments to all the scenes in the cave in order to make these scenes 'cold'.

Their job, using CG, is to add breath to the actors.

After the work was done, Duke found that the effect was very good, making the actors breathe out, showing the harsh conditions of captive life, especially billionaires like Tony Stark who are used to living a good life. It added a little more convincing to his later transformation.

However, the production of various special effects completed by the special effects team is on the one hand, and Duke's choice through post-production fine-cutting is another.

"Iron Man" still maintains the traditional Hollywood commercial first. In this entertainment-oriented commercial film, the so-called profound theme or artistic value must give way to visual effects and entertainment.

Duke knows very well that the main audience for this type of film is obviously the audience between the ages of 14 and 35, who just like hot scenes and high-intensity visual impact, with fast editing and high-decibel sound to stimulate their nerves, and get satisfaction from it.

Compared with the previous "Batman: Hour of War", the final film of "Iron Man" will contain much more special effects scenes.

Retaining as many excellent special effects scenes as possible within a reasonable range is one of the concepts that Duke adheres to when cutting.

In addition, Tony Stark's character charm is also an aspect that he should focus on.

Iron Man's appearance may seem too bulky and not handsome enough, but Duke doesn't worry about that at all, because audiences are simply won over by his oppressive charisma.

Iron Man is different from comic heroes such as Spider-Man and Batman. He is very concerned about the appearance. Iron Man is a combat armor and a weapon, so once it is measured from the perspective of traditional comic heroes, it is easy to cause certain damage. misunderstanding.

And most of the time, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., is still showing his true colors, and his image is enough to fascinate a female audience.

In the fine cut, Duke also kept the scenes and lines showing Tony Stark's personality and sloppy mouth as much as possible.

Tony Stark's character is very charismatic, which is not only reflected in picking up girls.

Although it is their main task for superheroes to fight against evil forces, after all, they are not robots, but human beings with flesh and blood, especially Marvel's superheroes, who often have the shortcomings of ordinary people. Do the audience like them? , personality charm is extremely important.

Robert Downey Jr. himself is not a good person who follows the rules. He always exudes wildness and restlessness, as well as a kind of toughness and uncompromising. These his unique charms are well played in the filming, because There is a big gap with the previous heroes, and it is very likely to give the audience an alternative freshness.

In addition, Tony Stark is very good at joking and flirting, and most importantly, he is very rich, and women have basically zero resistance to this.

Iron Man is not as serious and dull as other heroes are usually, Tony Stark is always straightforward and relaxed, splashing his sense of humor everywhere arrogantly, even when he is with robots, he does not change his pompous nature, but he is also Steady but not frivolous, with a leader's momentum, everyone around him is convinced and willing to be at the mercy of him.

It can be said that Tony Stark, who is not wearing armor, also has the demeanor of a superhero.

To a certain extent, if Robert Downey Jr. said a hundred sentences in the rough-cut dailies completed by Duke and Mike Dawson, at least ninety sentences would make the audience laugh.

In Duke's words, that is Tony Stark's charisma is enough to conquer many people, if the fighting power is also strong, how can the audience not love him?

Then there is the soundtrack. Since it is a film full of metallic textures like Iron Man, the main soundtrack will inevitably be dominated by heavy metal rock, but like the protagonist of the film, it is very naughty, often playing cards out of common sense, unpredictable, and A little humor is often revealed.

By March, Duke's fine-cutting was basically completed, but the special effects of many clips were not done well, and it was necessary to wait for the progress of the special effects team.

That is, this month, the work of Time Warner and News Corporation on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, which have secretly reached a cooperation agreement, has created certain results. And Duke, the original proposer, was also the focus of their contacts. (To be continued ~^~)

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