Chapter 673: Mastering the Entire Situation

Back in Los Angeles, Murphy only rested for two days before Hans Zimmer, who was responsible for the soundtrack this time, called to inform him that part of the soundtrack samples were completed.

An excellent film needs an equally excellent soundtrack to enhance the atmosphere. When the two are perfectly combined, the effect is far greater than the sum of its parts, a fact proven time and again by many past and present movies. Therefore, Murphy immediately cut his vacation short and arranged to meet Hans Zimmer in a professional studio at the Fox Tower.

Both being veterans in the industry, their meeting was straightforward without unnecessary formalities. After brief greetings, Murphy said directly to Hans Zimmer, "Let's start now."

"Okay." Hans Zimmer nodded and instructed his assistant, "Alex, play it."

The delivered soundtrack was divided into three main parts, involving the three most important characters in "Dark City": the Magician, Jay Rachel, and Chris Dane.

Murphy and the film's producers, Gal Gadot and Kara Faith, perked up their ears to listen attentively as Hans Zimmer's assistant played the initial version of the soundtrack.

The first to play was the Magician's main theme. As Hans Zimmer had mentioned to Murphy, he used a lot of oppressive electronic music to highlight the agitation and extreme evil brought by the Magician.

Although Murphy was a complete layman in music and did not understand the highly professional knowledge of composing and creating, after more than ten years in Hollywood and producing so many films, he had a certain understanding of film scores.

The oppressive feeling was a distinct feature of this Magician theme, using seemingly very discordant single-note changes, combined with special effects produced by electronic synthesizers, creating a strong auditory impact.

Hans Zimmer clearly used a lot of cold tones to create the dark atmosphere of the soundtrack. Many discordant chords and almost manic strange melodies, coupled with rich electronic elements, and even simulated stopwatch countdowns and explosive sound effects, were integrated. The variety of tones mixed together not only made this electronic effect describing the Magician rich in auditory stimulation but also made the emotions more vivid and real.

After playing the Magician's main theme, next was Chris Dane's background music. This piece inherited the tone of "City of Chaos" but was richer and more splendid. Violins played a continuous sixteenth-note spiccato, strong and powerful, creating a sense of urgency with percussion instruments. It also showcased a sense of instability and unease, much like Chris Dane's constant brink of falling into the abyss.

Adding to this were the long notes drawn out by the strings, a complete release of passion, combined with the accelerated and rhythmically strong Chris Dane theme, full of dynamic energy.

This soundtrack combined the effects of electronic music and orchestral music, exuding a commercial flavor and a strong modern sense.

Having collaborated with Hans Zimmer many times, Murphy knew that this method frequently appeared in Zimmer's works. The score used rapid transitions between electronic and orchestral music, transitions so swift they were almost imperceptible, making the music flow smoothly.

The final piece was the background music for the female lead, Jay Rachel. This soundtrack used a lot of beautiful piano solos and numerous thematic variations, clearly divided into two parts, much like Jay Rachel's dramatic life.

Even in the bright first half, the piano melody used a series of cold notes, a rather diffuse melody, seemingly telling a poignant story.

When the room fell silent, Murphy turned to Gal Gadot and Kara Faith, asking, "What do you think?"

"I think it's great." Gal Gadot, now quite professional herself, nodded and said softly, "Hans Zimmer's consistent high standards."

Kara Faith also showed approval, "Very impressive!"

Hans Zimmer, standing at a distance, looked at Murphy, knowing well that Murphy was the one with the final say.

Murphy asked the assistant named Alex to play the three pieces again, pondered for a moment, and said, "Hans, I'm very satisfied with the score. Please finish it as soon as possible, no later than the end of February next year."

"No problem," Hans Zimmer immediately stood up, "I will complete it on time."

"Good, let's call it a day then."

Murphy stood up and shook hands with Hans Zimmer, saying, "I look forward to your good news."

After seeing off Hans Zimmer, Murphy did not plan to leave. In the adjacent editing studio, Jody Griffiths was watching all the shot footage with several assistant editors. Murphy went over to take a look.

After discussing the editing with Jody Griffiths, Murphy left the Fox Tower. In the following days, he would arrive at the editing room on time, handling some preparatory work before the formal editing. Since over eighty percent of the film's effects were shot in real scenes with fewer CGI-treated shots, he scheduled color grading for the footage and put the editing on his agenda.

Entering November, Murphy and Jody Griffiths began the rough cut of the film, reducing over 1,850 minutes of footage into a coherent action crime movie.

Although some CGI-composited special effects scenes were not yet included, those needing only background and lighting adjustments were mostly completed. Once the rough cut's style met Murphy's requirements, the focus was on making the story tighter while maintaining the overall style, which was their main task.

The film's theme was dark and heavy. If paced as slowly as "Heat," Murphy believed "Dark City" would fail miserably, causing 20th Century Fox considerable distress.

"My requirement is simple: use concise and sharp editing to create strong narrative tension and highlight the film's dark and heavy theme!"

Through Murphy's efforts, dark commercial blockbusters, starting with "Man of Steel," had become a mainstream type in North American films, a novelty that would likely remain relevant for the next decade. However, not all stories could carry the dark style, and given the constraints of existing content frameworks and styles, it was unrealistic to turn all commercial films into dark-themed movies or to completely eliminate the dark style from big commercial films.

To some extent, the visual impact of the dark style could lead to fatigue.

In fact, it's the viewing process that can easily cause fatigue. The dark worldview, the back-and-forth struggles between good and evil, and the human nature swirling within can easily make one feel "tired."

Such films, unlike Disney and Marvel's light-hearted commercial movies, did not give a "crisp popcorn" feeling but had their own advantages, not as monotonous as popcorn movies, easily forgotten after consumption. They continued to engage one's nerves.

Of course, from another perspective, the dark style was not a universally applicable style and was not an element every director could handle. "The Dark Knight" was the peak of the dark style, but by "The Dark Knight Rises," the dark style was significantly reduced.

This had commercial considerations, but the limitations of the style itself on the film, story, and characters were also a major factor.

Some people believed that the dark style was a high-tone, high-quality film style, not comparable to general commercial films, especially those loud superhero ensemble films.

In reality, even in Murphy's view, the dark style had nothing to do with high class. It was just a choice related to the studio and the director.

For example, some Marvel superheroes could be adapted into dark versions, but Marvel had never done so because it was vastly different from the style of Marvel comics and the entire series.

More importantly, not everyone liked dark films. For most viewers, movies were just entertainment. So generally, shooting seemingly profound, uniquely styled films often couldn't satisfy mainstream audiences, particularly the substantial market share of underage viewers.

Nowadays, in the increasingly important overseas film market, the audience's recognition of commercial films was "high-tech special effects blockbusters."

Thus, when "The Dark Knight" was released, audiences preferred to see it as an independent film rather than a superhero movie.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige once said, "The Dark Knight showed the difference between a comic book and a film and the potential of a film. But I don't think audiences would love this dark, gritty film endlessly. So we didn't make 'Thor' or 'Captain America' as dark films like 'The Dark Knight.'"

Even now, Murphy finds some truth in these words.

Movies are always diverse. Disney and Marvel stick to their styles, and Murphy sticks to his. Unless the established style fails, they won't change it easily.

While Murphy immersed himself in the post-production of "Dark City," Gal Gadot had to oversee the entire operations of Stanton Studios. As the daily operations manager of this shell company, she had to keep track of several projects the company was investing in, such as "House of Cards" and "Game of Thrones."

Moreover, after Murphy provided an outline for "Fifty Shades of Grey," she was considering how to run this project.

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