Made in Hollywood

Several military off-road vehicles drove from a distance, bringing up the white sand in the sky. After the car stopped, Duke opened the door, and a hot air came oncoming. The sun in the sky was scorching the earth like a fireball. It was hot and hot. He stepped on the almost white sand and felt a little hot to his feet.

Colonel Daniel Fries got out of the car in front, walked over to Duke, stood beside him, pointed his right hand into the distance, and said, "This is it. With this as the center point, a radius of thirty-five miles. , are temporarily assigned to the crew for filming."

"There won't be missiles coming, right?"

The speaker was John Schwartzman. He raised his hand to cover the blazing sun from the sky and said, "The desert is a bit white, but it's a little bit different from the Middle East, but it's not a big problem, we can do it through lighting and lenses. Adjustment."

"It's here."

Looking at the endless white desert, Duke made his final decision, "The scenes in the Middle East are set here to shoot, presumably none of you want to go to the Middle East, right?"

Just as his mother mentioned several times, Duke has no interest in going to Israel, but it is not because he has no choice that he will not go to the Middle East.

The scenes in the Middle East can completely be shot in the Baisha Missile Range, but it is close to the white desert, which is somewhat different from the Middle East.

The White Sands Missile Test Site is located on the border between New Mexico and Texas. As the name suggests, this is a desert national park that is pure white and snow, but the desert where the missile test site is located is not pure white, according to Colonel Daniel Fries. Introduction, it is about 50 miles away from the real pure white desert.

The shooting of many explosion scenes in the plan was completed at the Baisha Director's Test Site, and the crew was able to go deep into the military's stronghold, entirely from the support of the Pentagon. In order to create a good and positive image of the US military, the Pentagon not only provided a shooting location, but also allowed the crew to follow the roaring fighter jets from the air.

Everyone walked along the simple road in the desert for a while. Duke saw a building, there were probably dozens of houses, but it was obviously not taken care of for a long time. It looks a bit run down, and the walls are collapsed in some places.

"Colonel," Duke pointed to and asked Daniel Freese, who was walking beside him, "what is that place?"

"The old abandoned military camp was originally intended as a target for missiles, but it has never been used."

Probably guess what Duke wants to do. He added, "If you can use it for shooting, just use it."

"Hannah!"

Hearing what he said, Duke beckoned to the back, and art director Hannah Serena came over wearing a large mask. He pointed to her and said, "Is it convenient to use them to set the scene?"

After carefully observing for a few minutes, Hannah Serena said, "Yes. It should save some workload."

Then, the group returned to the car. I went to look at several other locations, and then drove out of the Baisha Missile Range by car.

Leaving New Mexico, Duke did not return to Los Angeles, but was accompanied by Colonel Daniel Fries. With Hannah Serena and John Schwartzman and others, they went to Edwards Air Force Base, Hoover Dam and Las Vegas to do a field trip.

In Las Vegas, Duke was received by the city hall. The mayor of Las Vegas directly stated that if Las Vegas becomes one of the main locations for "Transformers", the city hall will try its best to cooperate. The filming of the crew, things like closed street shots were not a problem at all.

With relevant support, Duke also decided to put the final battle scene in Las Vegas, which seems to be a good idea to destroy half of Las Vegas.

Duke returned to Los Angeles and met with Google's Larry Page and Shel Gabriel. The two sides also formally signed a stock exchange agreement to get the shares in Duke's hands, plus the other small With the shares obtained by shareholders, Google has successfully become the largest shareholder of Instant Share, and the shares with voting rights in its hands are close to 50%. When the next shareholders meeting of Instant Share is held, it will be a major change in management. Start.

Of course, Duke will not do anything without interests. After signing the share exchange agreement, he has steadily become Google's largest shareholder, but the Class A shares with voting rights in his hands are still lower than those of Larry Pei. Chi and Shel Gablin combined, and the other would certainly not let him threaten their control of Google.

However, Duke didn't interfere with Google's plans either. He knew that he was purely a layman in the IT industry, just like he wouldn't be stupid enough to point fingers in front of Steve Jobs, nor would he boringly interfere in Google's affairs.

The signing of this agreement is a win-win situation for Duke and Google, but it is tantamount to a heavy blow to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization behind him.

But Duke didn't take it too seriously. Ivanka Trump is an ex-girlfriend after all.

As for what she and Donald Trump think, Duke won't care, and he still has quite a bit of work to do.

Hasbro's design team dispatched from its headquarters in Rhode Island, according to Duke's request, once again completed the concept design of the Autobot and Decepticon. This time it was approved by Duke, and after some modifications After that, the drawings were sent to ILM, and ILM's model studio would manufacture Transformers models of different scales according to the design drawings.

In addition, with the shape design of Transformers completed, another special effects group at ILM, established a special effects studio at Warner Studios, and began modeling for future CGI productions.

All of these jobs require a lot of time, and there is no chance of taking any chances. CGI special effects, to put it bluntly, are piled up with time and money. Those special effects that seem to be five cents are actually only for one reason. The money spent on special effects production Not enough.

According to Duke's requirements, "Transformers" must have the best special effects today. Not to mention CGI generation, but only model production, Optimus Prime's model needs nearly 12,000 parts, which is definitely a time-consuming process. A labor-intensive project.

This is also related to another requirement of Duke, all the robots in the film will not be sturdy and bulky, just like the elite warriors in the human army, whether the body of the Decepticons or the Autobots will have a natural flow The beauty of it is that when it is deformed on the big screen, every part of the whole body will move at the same time.

And this design will continue to the related peripheral toys launched by Hasbro. Hasbro has made plans. The most expensive toys, as long as the special parts on the Transformers are touched, Optimus Prime and Megatron will be Deformation can be done automatically.

Of course, such toys must be expensive.

However, as long as the film is popular enough, there will definitely be a large number of fans who will pay for it.

Throughout August, Duke has been busy. The preparation for a movie like "Transformers" is far more complicated than those independent movies. It can't be sloppy in the slightest. A small mistake in the early preparations may be shot become a serious problem.

Although the specific work such as making schedules and recordings has long been no longer required by Duke himself, Hannah Serena's assistant team is enough to complete it, but Duke still has to review each studio, even if it is him Where things can't be taken care of, Tina Fei, who is the production manager, will also look over.

"Strictly speaking, you are the person in charge of the crew."

After reviewing a storyboard draft, Duke raised his head and looked at Tina Fey who was sitting at another table, and said, "How does this job feel?"

"Fortunately, it's a bit similar to what I did before."

When Charles Rowan was there, he mainly assisted Duke's work, which was not difficult for Tina Fey, "It's just busier than before, with a lot of negotiation on venues, props, equipment and finances, I need to talk to myself."

The funds are controlled by a third-party guarantee company. In the past, when Duke needed funds, Charles Rowan asked for it. Now, of course, it has been replaced by Tina Fei.

Third-party guarantees are a universal system in Hollywood, which can effectively curb some of the other ideas about money that many people on the set inevitably have. All directors in Hollywood work under this system, and Duke is no exception. In some ways In other words, Duke is also a supporter of this system. In the past, the films invested by Duke Studio also used third-party guarantees.

Even with previous collaborations with Tom Cruise and Warner Bros., Duke would not be idiotic enough to hand over the funds directly to the other party or the crew to control.

A mature industry will inevitably have a corresponding system as a guarantee.

"Warner Bros.' second tranche of $50 million has arrived."

Tina Fei looked at the statement and said, "For Industrial Light and Magic and IMAX, we need to pay a fee in advance."

Duke waved his hand, "This is something you and the CFO should consider, don't tell me."

After the "Dark Knight" created the IMAX boom, IMAX now has a certain amount of confidence. Duke is shooting "Transformers", and they no longer provide cameras for free, and the crew needs to pay related rental fees.

This is normal, there is no free lunch in the world, and business transactions are business transactions after all.

And after the IMAX technology fully shows its advantages, it is inevitable that many companies and films will follow suit, and there are not many IMAX cameras in the world that have naturally become a hot commodity.

After relaxing a little, Duke opened the folder again and continued to review the storyboard artwork. Tina Fey on the other side was also concentrating on her work, but after opening several document bags and looking through them, she took one and walked away. to Duke's side.

"The results of the first audition for the three main roles." Tina Fey put the file bag in front of Duke, "This is from Anna just now." (To be continued ~^~)

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