Made in Hollywood

The editing of a feature film is often more time-consuming than shooting, and it is never an easy job.

Does the rhythm of the film match the director's intent? Are the characters alive? Is the story clear? Are there any dark lines in the plot? If not, does the clip create one?

When it comes to editing, it's impossible to make every shot perfect.

Maybe there are generous statements, witty words, witty and amusing, or cynicism, or a secret offer, or a surprise.

If the criteria for choosing a shot is just the actor's performance, then editing is a fairly simple job.

But this is never possible. In the movie "Transformers", the actors' performances can only be ranked in a relatively low position. Duke and Mike Dawson also need to consider how the protagonist's partner performed? Is the camera position appropriate? Are the lights appropriate? Whether the weather conditions meet the requirements...

After ILM's preliminarily finished special effects footage, temporary dialogue, music, and sound effects all need to be inserted into the sequence.

The film was completed step by step, gradually getting rid of the rough appearance, but the scene shot may not have the same effect as Duke wanted. A scene that is only 30 seconds long may become one or two minutes long after adding special effects. play.

In Duke's view, the difficulty in this stage of work is how to carefully select the shots of the real scene, and at the same time make the Transformers show their mighty power on the pictures generated by special effects, and at the same time, after adding special effects, how to let the Transformers and actors Harmonize with nature.

In the Transformers studio, the daily production is checked and accepted by the relevant person in charge in the morning, and the satisfactory results are selected and passed to Duke. Once Duke says it passes, several of his assistants will send the approved part to the audio-visual technology department. , which are assembled into real movie clips. ‘

If you are not interested in this kind of work. Must be a very boring process.

But Duke maintains great enthusiasm every day in post-production. Every morning of the working day, he will call the heads of various departments together to discuss today's day in the fastest and most concise way. Production of the screenplay.

There is one point that Duke emphasizes almost every few days. He asked to control the scene as much as possible, so that the Transformers have more playing time.

As the special effects production continues to be completed, Duke is getting busier and busier, not to mention sitting together and chatting leisurely over coffee like during the Oscar nominee luncheon. The heads of various departments even need to race against time to communicate with him.

"Duke wants to see us have our own minds and work tirelessly day and night for better results."

As an Oscar nominee for Best Editing, the reporter interviewed. Mike Dawson once said, "He would sit in front of the system and string together selected footage in sequence. All of a sudden, these scattered parts had an aura, a magic clutch. He could Remember every shot I took. Even more impressive than us. He has a precise eye and a great sense of rhythm. Working with him, we try to keep up with his pace. Duke's style speaks for itself, but he also hopes Everyone can offer good ideas."

no doubt. The final film of "Transformers" will set the record for the use of special effects shots.

After additional investment from Warner Bros., the film will use more than 2,000 special effects shots. These are all done by Industrial Light and Magic, and their technical advantages are also abundantly reflected in the simulation of environment, lighting, physical effects, and the synthesis of CG characters and real environment pictures.

The hardest part of all the special effects shots is the one where Optimus Prime, Jazz, Tin Hide and the ambulance are collectively deformed. Duke used two cameras to shoot footage from different directions, which was then synthesized by Industrial Light and Magic through CGI footage.

Excellent special effects pictures, but also need the same excellent sound to match.

In the beginning, Duke just planned to repeatedly modify the film clips, and did not use 5.1 channel to generate sound effects.

Transformers Studio has a set of 5.1-channel equipment, but it has been racing against time to modify the picture, and there is no time for the sound track.

But if there is a mistake in the soundtrack and then go back and modify it, it will undoubtedly increase the workload, so Duke thought of a compromise.

The crew extracted and divided the 24-track sound files into left-channel, right-channel, surround mix files, or saved them as low-frequency files with relatively rough sound quality, and then stored the pictures and their corresponding sound effect files by categories. .

When it needs to be played in a 5.1-channel system, find out the original files of the sound effect files corresponding to the picture, and synthesize them with the picture.

The effect of this approach is flawless.

In addition, the military also has representatives stationed at Warner Studios to keep abreast of and feedback on the progress of "Transformers".

This also highlights the influence of Duke's films from the side. Anyone in the United States who has a little brain knows that Duke's films are really popular films that can be widely circulated, and can be influenced by the big screen, the Internet, DVDs and TV sets. To countless people all over the world, since the Pentagon has sponsored his film, it is natural to need a positive image of the US military.

In this regard, Duke has always had a good reputation, and he has worked with the Pentagon for many years, and he will not get in his head and think that the Pentagon is full of idiots.

Even in North America, tanks or fighter jets are not something you can borrow casually, and you have to contact the military to use them in a movie.

In post-production, Duke also made sure that the U.S. military was tall and positive in the film.

Whether it's the battle scenes, the dialogue or the uniforms, they all embody the values ​​of the American military today. For example, the soldiers in the movie refer to the Transformers robots as "non-biological alien lifeforms", reflecting the military's habit of phrasing and using strange technological words.

Probably very satisfied with the crew, at a Comic Con in New York in February, the Pentagon also sent people to participate in several promotional activities for "Transformers".

"Director Rosenberg is in charge of the Hollywood side of the film, and we're in charge of the military part, and our cooperation has been very smooth."

Colonel Paul Shearer from the Pentagon's Office of Public Relations also specifically accepted an interview with CNN, "The cooperation between the military and the entertainment industry can make the military look more human. We are not just protecting the country, although this is our top priority. "This film will make the public understand that there is a human side to the military, too. Wherever protection is needed, where help is needed, we will be there."

Although the colonel's words are full of Americanism, this is propaganda aimed at North America.

Of course, the focus of the campaign is still on Duke, though it won't be in New York for too long. But Duke was interviewed by Vanity Fair at the event, and it was important to make the film, as was the promotion of the film.

Due to the extremely limited interview time given by Duke, the female reporter sent by Vanity Fair sat opposite him without going around in circles, and the question went directly to the subject.

Pointing to the huge promotional poster, she asked, "The movie is about 'a boy and his car'?"

"I worked a lot with my colleagues to make sure that the narrative position of the film is really from the child's point of view." With his arms on the arm of the chair, Duke spoke faster, "But I started from a It started with some military elements to make the film tougher, more intense. More intense."

The female reporter looked down at her notebook and asked again, "Have you thought about who the target audience for this play will be?"

"I thought this movie would be more appealing to kids and 20-somethings."

What Duke said happened during filming, "The military sent some people to help us. I worked with them on set the first day. I'm a little embarrassed..."

He gestured to say hello, "I said 'Hello everyone. I know what I'm going to say is hilarious. Take off. And land there.' They asked right away 'Which robot? Starscream or Megatron?' Instead, I was taken aback - how did these army guys know this? I knew in that instant. Now, Transformers affects a much wider range of people than I thought."

The female reporter pointed to Optimus Prime on the poster and the transformed truck, and said, "You changed the shape of Optimus Prime, and many Transformers fans were furious because of it, and there were even rumors that you received death threats?"

"No, I just got a lot of really interesting feedback."

While someone did mail something like that to the studio, Duke didn't take it to heart. "What did they say 'Damn, Duke Rosenberg, you ruined my childhood dreams; Duke Rosenberg' Grid, I'm going to kill you.' I understand how they feel, you know, people always miss their childhood with love and doting."

Having said this, Duke couldn't help laughing, "To be honest, they only have that cartoon in their minds, and few people are willing to seriously think about what Transformers should actually look like, because they don't want to throw away their childhood memories."

"Duke, at the beginning of this year, several directors in Europe criticized you for not being aggressive..."

Seeing that the time was about the same, the female reporter asked a sensitive question, "What they attacked is not filming at all, but destroying the art of filming."

"I don't think so, I'm proud of the style of film I've chosen."

At the beginning of the year, the media did hype this incident, but Duke was busy in the post-production of "Transformers" and was too lazy to respond, and the so-called European directors probably hyped themselves in this way.

Duke thought about it seriously, and then said, "I am very happy in life. People who attack me don't really understand me. They think that what I do is not art. For example, a foreign reporter from Hollywood came to me in the morning, and she directly Ask me 'Aren't you going to move on to art film development and do something more valuable?'"

He spread his hands, "I said, 'Are you kidding me?' This picture of Optimus Prime hanging behind me took a whole group of artists, an action blockbuster compared to a low-budget art film in the south of France. It's far more difficult. Like Optimus Prime, making an object that doesn't actually exist looks like it has a soul and intelligence. That's the essence of art. Strangely, many people think it's an easy trick." To be continued~^~)

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