Made in Hollywood

As an audio-visual art, the charm of movies lies in their "presentation". Duke's editing of the plot and dialogue is also a disguised form to make the audience feel more integrated in the process of watching the movie.

A large part of the reason why many commercial movies are called brainless nowadays is that they are afraid that the audience will not understand, such as explaining through lines, or arranging a large number of connecting scenes.

This is what Duke inevitably discarded when editing. In the opening ten-minute edit of "Fury Road", he will not give any explanation at all. He only needs to explain all the relevant information that the audience wants to know through the screen, including World setting, character personality, conflict reasons, story direction, etc.

In other words, one aspect of editing is to tell stories through pictures, which is not difficult to do, because audiovisual language is a compulsory course for every director.

The footage played in the editing room is showing an opening scene completed by Duke and Mike Dawson, a lizard twisting its ugly body, insisting on sneaking up to Tom Cruise's feet, and then turning into a real lizard. The dead lizard in Cruise's mouth, in addition to showing the aura of the male protagonist, there is also an important background explanation-this is a world where the weak eat the strong!

"For the vast majority of viewers, the excitement of watching this film mainly comes from its action scenes."

The day's work has just begun, and Duke confessed to the entire post-production team, "It's also chasing cars and fighting, how can "Fury Road" be refreshing? The most obvious thing for the audience is the duration of the action sequence."

The audience is undoubtedly the focus of Duke's production of films.

He also said, "I divided the film into three main action segments, and the action scenes in all segments must last for more than ten minutes!"

Mike Dawson took Duke's words and said, "Compared with other Hollywood action movies that are only a few seconds of stunning, our editing is to make this movie extremely smooth."

In theory, anyone can make a long action scene. But whether it can make the audience watch with enthusiasm or even mesmerize is a question on another level.

To be precise, from the design of the action itself, to the rhythm of the choreography between actions, to the contrast and echo between paragraphs, and then to the way the shots are presented. Both reflect the director's directing and editing ability.

In fact, judging from the design of the action itself, Duke's version of "Fury Road" is similar to those Hollywood road movies, still focusing on vehicle modeling and personal stunts.

But after all, he is a director who pays attention to technology. More advanced technology is used in the shooting, and the action performance is more like "spectacle". For example, the appreciation of the 150 modified vehicles with different shapes is equivalent to a "monster show" in the automotive industry. But they still have to chase and collide together, and then explode violently, and most of these incredible stunts are actually done by stuntmen desperately...

The combination of these perceptions provides a novelty and excitement that is unmatched by other action movies with serious homogeneity.

And compared to the spectacle effect of the action itself. The editing within the action paragraphs and the echoing rhythm between paragraphs can better reflect his current level and skill as a film director.

Duke compared the whole film to a grand opera, and the three main car chases are undoubtedly the most colorful movements.

These three plays. In the editing between him and Mike Dawson, the respective splendor of the "movements" in terms of content and "melody" gradually emerged.

Three action scenes. Edited together by Duke through ingenious techniques, it can implicitly and accurately show the upgrade and change of the relationship between the hero and heroine, and complete the tasks of advancing the plot and perfecting the character of the characters.

In fact, the relationship between the editing and arrangement of such action sequences and the expressiveness of the film. Duke borrowed some techniques from Ang Lee. The three sex and love scenes in Ang Lee's "Lust? Caution" don't seem to have anything to do with the "action" mode, but they are actually similar to what he used.

An action film director like Duke, who strives for perfection, will also use post-production to edit and design enough rich changes in a single action scene, so that the simplest action scenes become as rhythmic as music.

For example, in the rough cut of the car chase scene in the third paragraph, he let several main characters, several supporting characters, two main villains, and those secondary characters swinging on high poles, everyone has their own performance moments Every time they "perform", it is a complete thrilling design, one after another.

The purpose of this is very simple, it is to let the hearts of the audience experience the ravages again and again accordingly, and the degree of aftertaste afterward is as enjoyable as experiencing multiple orgasms.

It is true that these skills of expressing action are nothing to a director like Duke who is based on action elements, but he obviously wants to make the new film more "beautiful"-apocalyptic iron blood, deliberately beautiful, strange and captivating .

In post-production, Duke is pursuing a strange and captivating beauty, a deliberately enlarged and enhanced aesthetic.

Therefore, in addition to editing, Duke also has another important job, which is the processing of picture color.

The super-saturated tone he wants can make the world in the film as rich and colorful as the world of comics. In the words he once lived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it is a real "golden dog's eyes that are bright and blind".

For the processing of tones, photographers and editors need to have a certain commonality in concept. After so many years of cooperation, Duke’s dedicated photographer John Schwartzman and editor Mike Dawson have also formed a unique relationship. The tacit understanding of aesthetics can transform camera movement and editing into extreme aesthetics that have never been seen before.

Editing also makes the combination of shots in many scenes look more crisp and powerful.

In terms of more specific lens processing, Duke also has a lot of careful small means, so that the simplest shots, through John Schwartzman's camera and Mike Dawson's editing, glow with breathtaking beauty.

For example, during the chase in the middle of the film, the heroine puts down the front guardrail of the car and shovels up the sky to put out the fire, which can make people get goosebumps.

In addition, through editing, Duke needs to further enhance the "ecstasy" atmosphere, whether it is the almost cult motorcycle worship of the villain believers, or the nervous interpretation of the main and supporting actors, and even many death scenes that imply martyrdom , coupled with chicken blood to the maddening soundtrack, will make the audience feel as if they are not watching a movie when watching a movie, but in the midst of a cult sacrifice in the last days, even if they are exhausted by the intensive sensory stimulation, Also shouted hoarsely to rush to heaven.

What he pursues in the post-production is this kind of "enchanted" beauty, which makes the seemingly simple film produce magic power and have endless room for aftertaste!

In addition, in the editing of many fighting scenes, Duke borrowed from the momentum editing in "The Bourne". Natural and pretty.

If you want to make an excellent movie, you need a very sophisticated and strict lens language from the beginning to the end, and no frame can be sloppy.

There is not a single character that is not refined, no scene that is not elegant, no shot that is not rich in content, and no edit that is not well thought out. This is the basis for making an excellent movie.

At the time of fine editing, the clip of Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise fighting close to each other lasted only one and a half minutes, but Duke used 96 shots of long and short combinations, and it took three full days with Mike Dawson time.

He really wants to know how those directors who can cut a standard-length film in more than ten days or even a week do it, and how to ensure the quality of the film if they do it?

If you really want to be a good director, you don’t need to listen to film critics, and don’t pay too much attention to some theorists. Duke’s experience over the years clearly told him that filming and film review are completely different.

Audio-visual is the most basic technique of film, just like language is the basis of writing, color and composition are the basis of painting, a director can only integrate audio-visual skills into his own by constantly drawing, filming and reading films. intuition.

Every shot of the movie is completed through conception-conception-script-storyboard-actual shooting. When shooting, every shot must consider lighting, lens focal length, movement, composition, and camera position. Sometimes in order to shoot a For the shot, Duke had to direct the crew to set up the lighting and set up the camera positions for several hours.

And these, he will never be able to do it alone, relying on a strong and cooperative team.

The same goes for post-production, which is not the job of the director alone.

While Duke was in post-production, promotional work for Fury Road was underway.

When the time entered April, Duke and IMAX held a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. The films included in the agreement include IMAX 2D and IMAX 3D, and "Fury Road" is the first of them.

Duke and IMAX's new president, Richard Gelfond, sang each other's praises.

"IMAX's development trajectory is very good, coupled with the cooperation with 3D technology, will bring audiences an unprecedented ultimate viewing experience." Duke said.

Richard Gelfond said, "Director Rosenberg's strategic cooperation with IMAX is a very important step. It is a further expansion of our cooperation in film marketing and release strategy. We believe this cooperation will Bring better box office to the film in the future."

At the same time, IMAX will vigorously promote "Fury Road".

The two leading actors, Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise, also frequently appear in public, especially Charlize Theron, whose image of shaved long hair is more eye-catching.

Warner is also making a big fuss in this regard. Many media have reported reports like "do you like the bald goddess, and you still think she is still sexy". (To be continued.)

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