The black RV had just approached Mason Avenue, and because the street in front was temporarily blocked, he had to stop. George Lucas pushed the door and got out of the car, standing on the periphery of the crowd and looking forward. He saw the hanging crane. The camera on the arm heard the roar of car motors and the brakes of tires rubbing against the road.
Called the assistant and asked him to negotiate a few words with the people who maintained order on the crew. George Lucas easily entered the set and, under the reminder of a staff member, came to a high platform to avoid the possibility of rushing cars. .
"Uncle Lucas..."
Hearing the words with a faint nasal sound, George Lucas nodded and raised his voice slightly to ensure that his words could reach the other party's ears when the set noise kept on.
"Sophia, did the shooting go well?" he said.
"It's much smoother than the literary play in the studio." Sophia Coppola almost reached George Lucas' ear, pointed to Duke who was personally controlling a camera in the distance, and said, "Speed, collision, explosion, maybe These are problems for others, but for the crazy Rosenberg director, this is his favorite and best at shooting things."
Just as Sophia was speaking, there was a loud noise in front of him. The black Hummer h1 knocked down a prop wire rod, →, several cars that had been placed on the catapult were thrown high, and the back The car that rushed slammed into one place heavily, and the glass and fragments that fell and flew, like fallen leaves rolled up by the violent wind, shot in all directions, and some even landed not far away from them.
"Are you going to see him?"
The crew entered a short period of rest and switched to a nearby intersection. Sophia asked Lucas, "There will be a collision scene next."
"I'll take a look outside first." Lucas followed the crew to the next intersection, "Don't disturb Duke for now."
Far away from the intersection that served as a temporary set, Lucas gradually focused on Duke as the center point. He could see that Duke was very dedicated and excited.
The temporary studio is chaotic and disorderly like a battlefield. Everyone is cautiously busy. It seems that an upside-down explosion may occur here at any time, and there are so many cameras flying all over the sky. George Lucas even felt that Many are completely unnecessary.
Next, he thought of the filming set of "Life and Death". Although Lucas has not been to many times, he has also seen Duke filming action scenes. This is almost always the case. At that time, he also felt The setting of the scene was meaningless, but when the shooting effect came out, it suddenly became clear. It turned out that Duke knew the purpose of each camera very well. In fact, he had already stitched these scenes together in his mind.
The scene looked chaotic and disorderly, but it was obviously under the control of Duke. Lucas watched for a while and saw a tram, a Hummer h1 and a Ferrari sports car were towed to the set. He recommended The team of pyrotechnics also placed explosives on a model tram.
"Never give up if you turn upside down!"
For some reason, Lucas remembered some film critics' evaluation of "Life and Death".
Frankly speaking, after the release of "Life and Death Speed", although he was very optimistic, he did not expect to get such outstanding results in the end. The first feature film North America box office exceeded 100 million US dollars. Steven Spielberg has not done it, but he is a recognized super movie genius.
Now that I think about it, he tried his best to promote Lucasfilm's "Speed of Life" project, which was simply a big bargain. Not only did Leah and Duke owe them favors, but he also easily earned more than ten million dollars. This is the first time such a good thing has been encountered in more than two decades.
Perhaps this is luck, but in Lucas's eyes, it's not like some people say. The success of "Life and Death" is just Duke Rosenberg's luck. After all, behind a successful film, there is no cohesive director. Hard work? The hard work and concentration of that little guy is something he has never seen among young people in these years.
If you are replaced by another young director, it will be difficult not to be dazzled by such a success. Hollywood is the most seduced and deceived place in the world. If you can't keep your focus on your career, you will inevitably become the one that crosses the Hollywood sky. Meteors.
He has a certain talent, knows what he wants, and can work hard for it. There are too few young people like this now!
"Let's go and take a look." Lucas said to Sofia who was with him.
The two gradually approached the shooting location, the clearest of which was Duke's loud voice, "John, install the camera on the Hummer, you still have twenty minutes."
Turning his head, Duke saw George Lucas, and did not say hello to him, just smiled at him, and continued to busy with his work. The next thing to film is a series of collisions, and there is no room for sloppy.
"Christie..." He walked to the recording team and called the person in charge. "I want to record live. Put the recording equipment on the Ferrari and the tram. I don't want any modification. I want the most real and harshest car crash and friction. !"
"Martin, come here, come here!" Duke called the stuntman over. "Don't drive the car too fast. Give yourself time to escape safely. Be safe!"
The stuntman in thick protective clothing gave Duke a thumbs up.
In the end, Duke returned to the film crew and told John Schwarzman, "The first camera was horizontally positioned 180 degrees parallel to shoot, and the second camera in the air was transposed at a 60-degree angle. The main goal was to capture details. It's Ferrari. The third plane is shooting upwards at a 30-degree mixed upward angle. I want to see the underside of the tram when it blows up.
"John, we don't have a chance to come again!" he said at last.
John Schwarzman nodded solemnly to Duke.
The temporary set looked chaotic. In fact, everything was under Duke's control. Seeing that the situation was developing almost exactly as expected, he returned to the camera under his personal control, adjusted the aperture angle, and prepared to shoot with a wide-angle lens.
"Next time I will go to San Francisco City Hall to talk about shooting,"
Robin Grand came over suddenly, "I will definitely become an unpopular figure."
"Don't worry, Robin." Duke did not raise his head, and continued to adjust the camera. "Jos Williams is an expert on explosions. They have carefully calculated that they will control the explosion within a reasonable range. Damage to roads and buildings."
As time went on, the heads of various departments successively gathered the situation to Duke, and the preparations were ready.
"Uncle Lucas..."
Not very far from Duke, Sophia handed a pair of earplugs to George Lucas, "It will feel better this way. The saboteur is about to make noise."
On the other side, Duke held a megaphone and shouted, "Fireworks?"
"Ready!"
"photography?"
"Ready!"
"trick..."
Finally, he shouted, "Go!"
The tram model with explosives and the scrapped off-road vehicles parked together made a loud bang at the same time. The flames of the explosion rose, and the tram carriages were thrown high like leaves in a hurricane, rolling towards the intersection. After falling down and hitting the road, he was pulled by two black steel wires. With the help of the downhill gradient, he made an extremely harsh rubbing sound and slammed into the Ferrari parked at the intersection.
"Crunch..."
"Crack..."
This brand-new Ferrari sports car was crushed by the tram model and completely turned into a pile of scrap iron!
"perfect!"
Behind the camera, Duke slowly stood up, raised his arm, and waved hard.
The scene returned to calm, and many people sighed with relief. They were nowhere near as excited as Duke. Some people seemed to have nervous expressions on their faces. Recently, they have been bumped and noised. And the explosion, tortured to almost crazy!
"Robin..." Duke said to the production manager next to him, "You are left with the rest of the cleanup."
After speaking, he picked up the megaphone and shouted, "Transition!"
Now the crew is in good condition. Duke doesn't want to waste the hard work of adjusting the rhythm, so naturally he has to shoot a few more shots.
"Good job, Duke."
The crew was ready to transition again, and George Lucas came over, "Your shooting skills are getting more and more skilled."
"Thank you!"
In the face of these truly super directors, Duke does not have any proud capital, "I still have a lot to learn."
"I look forward to seeing a masterpiece like "Life and Death"."
Hearing what Lucas said next, Duke also showed enough confidence, "George, I promise you will see it."
The two sides said a few more words, and George Lucas said goodbye. Duke knew that the other party was busy and did not keep him. He just asked his assistant to send Lucas out of the temporary set instead.
"Something?" Duke asked, and Sophia, who was standing next to him, did not leave.
"Charles Rowan just called me." Sophia took out a notebook and said while flipping through it, "Warner hopes you can attend the MTV movie awards ceremony."
"Mtv?" Duke was stunned. Sophia explained, "The MTV Film Awards is a film award founded by the mtv television network last year. Although it is an emerging award, it has a certain influence in the audience. The award is different. It does not judge the film based on the eyes of the judges. Instead, it relies entirely on the general audience to vote for the award, at least in their publicity."
"Am I nominated?" Duke asked.
""Life and Death" has received a lot of nominations." Sophia Coppola said, "Best picture, best actor, best actress, sexiest actor, sexiest actress, best kiss scene, most There are a total of eight nominations for best action scene design and best screen partner."
"Let me go, Warner is for promotion, right?" Duke immediately thought of the film being shot.
"That's right." Sophia nodded, "Viacom and Time Warner's media are fully hyping up this award, wanting to make it into a world-class film award, and the award method selected by the audience determines It will not lack attention."
"Well, remind you by the way." Sophia said with a monotonous nasal tone, "Warner suggests that you bring a female partner."