Chapter 103

If you want "Independence Day" to sell well, careful preliminary preparation and detailed shooting to every point are indispensable. Although currently only shooting without actors, most of the main actors have entered the crew. They not only have to accept the military With proper training and rehearsal, whether it is a director or an actor, if you don't work hard, you will definitely be eliminated by Hollywood.

Time slowly turned into December, and the early stage was preparing to enter the end. Duke still led the crew to shoot special effects scenes, especially those that need to borrow computer cgi to synthesize the lens, which is the highest priority. He must be the special effects team of Industrial Light and Magic. Allow enough production time.

It is a computer special effect that is completely burned in US dollars. There is no shortcut. The cgi special effect produced in half a month and a month is placed on the big screen, and the effect has a gap between heaven and earth.

Spaceships, alien motherships, alien models, f-18 and f-16 models appeared in front of the camera one after another. With the most basic material images, the special effects team began to synthesize huge images while perfecting the explosion screen. Air combat scene.

Inevitably, there will be explosions every day in several studios. The frequency is far higher than when shooting "Break into the Dead Island." In just over half a month, many people were tortured to nervous decline by Duke.

≡★, "Aunt Leah came to visit the class."

Hearing Sofia's words, Duke, who was standing on the shooting stage, nodded, turned and waved to the direction of the peripheral mother, not giving up the job at hand.

"Jos, the last twenty detonated!" he shouted into the megaphone.

With the rumbling of the explosion, a model of an alien spacecraft with a radius of 30 feet fell in the explosion and slammed heavily on the ground covered with green screen. When Duke called to pass, he was waiting around. The deadly firefighters rushed up, holding a fire extinguisher and spraying at the scattered sparks.

Although the results of the last fire investigation have always shown that it was an accident, Duke paid much attention to it. Not only would the film be copied and sent to the bank vault on the same day after shooting, it also asked Warner Studios to allocate sufficient security personnel for the crew .

Don't think that Hollywood has a complete industrial system, and fires will disappear from the long river of history. Just this month, the crew of Paramount Studios "Forrest Gump" also broke out, and Robert Zemikis was far away. Unlucky than Duke, the fire not only burned a large number of props and photographic equipment, but also burned a part of the film. Even if most of the film was rescued in time, the crew had to be re-recorded.

It is said that the fire is also an accident. As for whether it is really an accident, perhaps only God knows.

The crew temporarily entered a rest period. Duke stepped off the elevator platform, exhorted the deputy director Zach Schneider, walked to the periphery of the venue, and beckoned to his mother after a certain distance.

"Mom..." He walked quickly over, "How come you have time to come over."

His mother is a busy person, now flying between New York and Los Angeles, and occasionally going to Europe.

"An advertising crew in Santa Feia is shooting in the studio." Mrs. Leah's eyes fell on the little girl next to her. "Scarlet said I missed you. I'll take her over by the way."

"Hi, Duke." The blond girl shook her hand at him.

"It's been a long time, Scarlett."

Nodded to her, Duke asked directly, "How are you familiar with the character? Tell your mother, starting next week, find time to come to the crew to rehearse the scene with Bill Pullman."

"Yeah, I got it."

She took Mrs. Leah's hand and walked with Duke to the rest area of ​​the studio, "I think this role is not too difficult, most of the time it is used as a background painting."

"Mom, sit here."

Greeting his mother to sit down at a rest table, Duke said to a female assistant next to him, "Ellie, here are two cups of coffee and a glass of juice."

"Hey, Duke!" Scarlett said dissatisfied after sitting down, "Did you hear what I said to you?"

"of course."

If my mother can bring Scarlett Johansson here, she obviously likes this goddaughter better. Duke pushed her the juice from the assistant, "You go on, Scarlett."

"That..." The little girl turned her shiny eyes, picked up the juice, and hid her grinning face behind the cup, "Could you add a few more lines for my character."

Her eyes kept looking at Duke's face, and seeing his face changed slightly, she quickly said, "Just ten sentences! No... three sentences will do..."

"I'll help you add an extra scene."

At work, Duke will not make jokes, nor will others say a few words and change at will, even if this is the mother's goddaughter, "Perhaps you should pilot a fighter plane and bomb the alien spacecraft, Scarlett!"

Scarlett Johansson pouted her mouth and lowered her head slowly, "Forget it."

"Scarlet..." Mrs. Leah stretched out her hand and rubbed the little guy's head. "Patience is a beautiful moral quality. Waiting now can be exchanged for future success."

"Well," she nodded vigorously, "I see, godmother."

Someone probably supported her. When Mrs. Leah turned her head to talk to Sofia Coppola, Scarlett Johansson wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at Duke very quickly. Duke didn't even look at her. , This little girl is a veritable troublemaker, but she still has a relatively close relationship with her family.

Sophia also sat down there, and she chatted with Mrs. Leah about the movie.

"Duke's thinking is not understandable by ordinary people." Sophia's words are full of teasing. "According to the script, the key weapon for humans to defeat aliens turned out to be computer viruses. I am not very proficient in computers, but I want to come. Viruses are all based on computer languages ​​and the existence of certain systems. Could it be that aliens use the same computer language technology system as us?"

Mrs. Leah laughed directly, "My mother, most of the time, can't guess what he is thinking."

"My dear..." Duke put down his coffee cup and looked at Sophia. "This is a science fiction movie. It doesn't need so much rigorous logic. If you follow the most reasonable setting, the aliens will definitely occupy the earth. Our film You will lose money for lack of audience."

"But you can't deny it, Duke." Sophia saw someone beckoning on the other side and stood up. "Many of the film's settings are too rough."

"I'm going to work, auntie."

"Sophia, come to Santa Monica if you have time."

The rest time was about to end, and Duke called a female assistant to let her take his mother to visit.

"Let's go to see the aliens." Scarlett Johansson jumped off the chair and pulled up Mrs. Leah. "When I came last time, I saw it once and did it like the real thing. It was terrifying and terrifying. ."

Back to work, not long after the studio, there was an explosion again, just like the media commented, and Duke would never give up.

The explosive scenes that can be shot in the studio or studio are basically concentrated in this time period. Landmark buildings in North America have long been destroyed in front of the camera. As for the alien attack, why do you choose landmarks? Does it need to be explained instead of the more important military targets?

Anyway, Duke believes that there is no need to explain. This kind of science fiction film is first and foremost to make the audience enjoyable. When they watch the familiar building burn to ashes in the explosion, the soaring adrenal gland number is enough to cover some logical holes. .

"Independence Day" is different from "Speed ​​of Life and Death" and "Courage to Death Island". This is a film that is completely focused on visual effects.

Perhaps, he will truly open the Hollywood visual effects era?

In his spare time, Duke will also come up with these ideas. After all, in the future, Hollywood, mainstream commercial blockbusters are like this "Independence Day", embarking on a simple, crude, and direct way of making money.

Duke is shooting here, and Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have also formulated a detailed publicity plan based on the preliminary maintenance of the topic of the film, and officially determined the film's release date in mid-December-June 1994 It will premiere in North America on July 30, and will be officially released in North America on July 1. This way, the first weekend of the film will be connected with the Independence Day holiday on July 1, 2, and 3, which may completely stimulate the public's interest in this film. Passion for watching the film named "Independence Day".

Undoubtedly, this is a film full of Great Americanism. In Sophia's words mocking Duke, he even delusionally wants to change the National Day of other countries in the world. Innately repulsive and resentful, but from the current standpoint, once "Independence Day" succeeds, it will bring him huge benefits.

The **** decides the head. There is some truth to this sentence. From the standpoint of Duke, why should we give up such a film?

He first faced North American audiences and produced commercial films. The first thing he had to please was North American audiences. Although the subject matter and certain aspects of the film will inevitably arouse the disgust of many people in other countries and regions, don't forget one thing. , Movies that are super popular in North America can always sweep overseas markets.

In other words, as long as Duke can guarantee the quality of the film, there is no need to worry too much about the reaction of overseas markets.

However, the success of the summer film depends not only on the quality of the film and the intensity of publicity, but also on competitors in the same period. The most typical example is if "Break into Death Island" directly hits "Jurassic Park", The box office performance is certainly not as good as it is now.

Therefore, while Duke was busy shooting, he also asked Warner Bros. to collect a list of films that were confirmed to be released in June and July next year.

Although there will be James Cameron's "True Lies" in mid-July, there will be more than two weeks before "Independence Day", and the two sides will not form too fierce competition.

When looking back, Duke saw an extremely familiar name-"Forrest Gump" released in North America on July 6th!