Made in Hollywood

Several military off-road vehicles drove from a distance, bringing up the sky and white sand. After the car stopped, Duke pushed the car door, a rush of heat came oncoming, the sun in the sky scorched the earth like a fireball, the air was sultry and the ground It was hot and hot, and he felt a little hot when he stepped on the almost white sand.

Colonel Daniel Fries got out of the car in front, walked over to Duke, stood shoulder to shoulder with him, pointed his right hand into the distance, and said, "This is it. Take this as the center point, within a radius of 35 miles. , Are temporarily assigned to the crew for shooting."

"Isn't there any missiles coming?"

The speaker was John Schwarzman. He raised his hand to cover the blazing sun falling in the sky and said, “The desert is a bit white, and it’s a bit different from the Middle East, but it’s not a big problem. We can use lighting and lenses. Adjustment."

"That's it."

Looking at the endless white desert, Duke made the final decision, "Middle-Eastern scenes are set here to shoot. Presumably none of you want to go to the Middle East?"

Just as my mother mentioned several times that Duke had no interest in going to Israel, but it was not that he would not go to the Middle East without a choice.

The scenes in the Middle East can be shot in the Baisha Missile Range, but here is close to the white 9▼, the colored desert is somewhat different from the Middle East.

The Baisha Missile Test Site is at the junction of New Mexico and Texas. As the name suggests, this is a desert national park with pure white and snow. However, the desert where the missile test site is located is not pure white, according to Colonel Daniel Fries. Introduced, here is about 50 miles away from the true pure white desert.

The shooting of many explosion scenes in the plan will be completed in the Baisha Director's Proving Ground. The crew can go deep into the military's stronghold, entirely from the support of the Pentagon. In order to create a good and positive image for the US military, the Pentagon not only provides shooting venues, but also allows the crew to follow the roaring fighter jets from the air.

Everyone walked along the simple road in the desert for a while, and Duke saw a building. There were probably dozens of houses, but apparently it had not been taken care of for a long time. It looks a little run-down, and the walls in some places have collapsed.

"Colonel," Duke pointed there, and asked Daniel Fries, who was walking next to him, "Where is that?"

"The abandoned old barracks were originally intended as targets for missiles, but they have never been used."

Presumably guessing what Duke wanted to do, he said again, "If it can be used for shooting. Just use it well."

"Hannah!"

Hearing what he said, Duke beckoned to the back, and the art director Hannah Serena walked over wearing a big mask. He pointed to her and said, "Is it convenient to use them to set up scenes?"

After carefully observing for a few minutes, Hannah Serena said, "Yes, it should save some workload."

then. The group returned to the car and went to take a look at several other places. Then drove out of the Baisha Missile Range.

Leaving New Mexico, Duke did not return to Los Angeles. Instead, accompanied by Colonel Daniel Fries, he took Hannah Serena, John Schwartzman and others to Edwards Air Force Base, The Hoover Dam and Las Vegas do field inspections.

In Las Vegas, Duke was received by the City Hall. The mayor of Las Vegas directly stated that if Las Vegas becomes one of the main locations for "Transformers", the City Hall will try its best to cooperate with the filming of the crew, and things like closed street shooting are not a problem at all.

Can get relevant support, Duke also decided to play the final battle. In Las Vegas, it seems that ruining half of Las Vegas is also a good idea.

When Duke returned to Los Angeles, he first met with Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Gebrin. The two parties also formally signed an equity exchange agreement to get the shares in Duke’s hands, plus other childhood With the equity held by shareholders, Google has successfully become the largest shareholder of Instant Share, and the voting shares in the hand are also close to 50%. Instant Share will be the next major change in the management when the next general meeting of shareholders is held. Start.

Of course, Duke would not do things without interest. After signing the share swap agreement, he steadily became the largest shareholder of Google, but the Class A shares with voting rights in his hand are still lower than Larry Pei. With the sum of Qi and Sergey Gablin, the other party will certainly not let him threaten their control of Google.

However, Duke did not have any plans to interfere with Google. He knew that he was purely a layman in the IT industry, as if he wouldn't be so stupid as to scribble in front of Steve Jobs, nor would he boringly interfere with Google's affairs.

The signing of this agreement is a win-win situation for Duke and Google, but for Donald Trump and the Trump Organization behind him, it is tantamount to a heavy blow.

But Duke did not take it too seriously, Ivanka? Trump is an ex-girlfriend after all.

As for what she and Donald Trump would think, Duke would not care, he still has a lot of work to do.

The design team dispatched by Hasbro from its headquarters in Rhode Island, according to Duke’s request, once again completed the conceptual design drawings for the Autobots and Decepticons. This time it was approved by Duke and after some revisions After that, the drawings were sent to the hands of Industrial Light & Magic, and the model studio of Industrial Light & Magic will manufacture Transformers models of different scales according to the design drawings.

In addition, with the completion of the shape design of Transformers, another special effects group of Industrial Light and Magic established a special effects studio in Warner Studios and began modeling for future cgi productions.

All of these tasks require a lot of time, so you don’t want the slightest speculation. To put it bluntly, cgi special effects are piled up with time and money. Those special effects that seem to be five cents actually have only one reason, the money spent on special effects production. Not enough.

According to Duke’s requirements, "Transformers" must have the best special effects today. Not to mention cgi generation, but model making. Optimus Prime’s model requires nearly 12,000 parts, which is definitely a time-consuming process. Huge labor-intensive project.

This is also related to another requirement of Duke. All the robots in the film will not be sturdy and cumbersome, just like the elite fighters in the human army. Both the Decepticons and the Autobots will have natural and smooth bodies. Its beauty, when deformed on the big screen, every part of the whole body will move at the same time.

And this design will continue to the related peripheral toys launched by Hasbro. Hasbro has formulated a plan for the most expensive toys, as long as they touch the special parts of Transformers, Optimus Prime and Megatron. The deformation can be done automatically.

Of course, such toys are certainly expensive.

However, as long as the movie is hot enough, there will definitely be a large number of fans paying for it.

Duke has been busy throughout August. The preparation of a film like "Transformers" is countless times more complicated than those of independent films. It can't be sloppy. A small mistake in the preliminary preparations may be filming. China has become a serious problem.

Although the specific tasks such as the development of schedules and field records have long been unnecessary for Duke to do, Hanna? Serena’s assistant team is enough to complete, but Duke still has to review each studio, even if it is him. Tina Fei, the production manager, also has to look at the places that cannot be taken care of.

"Strictly speaking, you are the person in charge of the crew."

After reviewing a sub-shot artwork, Duke raised his head and looked at Tina Fei who was sitting at another table, and said, "How does this job feel?"

"Fortunately, it is somewhat similar to what I did before."

When Charles Rowan was here, he was mainly assisting Duke’s work, which was not difficult for Tina Fei. “It’s just busier than before. Lots of venues, props, equipment, and financial negotiations. I need to talk about it myself."

The funds are controlled by a third-party guarantee company. In the past, Duke needed funds, and it was Charles Rowan who asked for it. Now of course it has been replaced by Tina Fei.

Third-party guarantee is a universal system in Hollywood. It can effectively curb other ideas about money that many people in the crew inevitably generate. All directors in Hollywood work under this system, and Duke is no exception. In some respects In other words, Duke is also a proponent of this system. In the past, the films invested by the Duke’s studio all used third-party guarantees.

Even with the previous collaborations with Tom Cruise and Warner Bros., Duke would not be idiot enough to hand over the funds directly to the other party or the crew to control.

A mature industry will inevitably have a corresponding system as a guarantee.

"Warner Bros.'s second tranche of $50 million has already arrived."

Tina Fei read the report and said, "Industrial Light and Magic and imax, we need to pay a fee in advance."

Duke waved his hand, "This is something you and the financial director should consider, don't tell me."

After "The Dark Knight" created the imax craze, the imax company now has a certain degree of confidence. Duke filmed "Transformers". They no longer provide cameras for free, and the crew needs to pay related rental fees.

This is a normal situation. There is no free lunch in the world. After all, business transactions are business transactions.

Moreover, after the imax technology has fully demonstrated its advantages, it is inevitable that many companies and films will follow suit. There are not a few imax cameras in the world that naturally become a hot commodity.

Relaxing a bit, Duke opened the folder again and continued to review the sub-shot artwork. On the other side, Tina Fei was also focusing on work, but after opening a few file bags and looking through it, she walked away with a file bag. Go to Duke's side.

"The results of the first audition for the three main characters." Tina Fei put the file bag in front of Duke, "This is what Anna just sent." (To be continued...)

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