Made in Hollywood

The editing of a feature film is often more time-consuming than shooting, and it is never a simple task.

Does the film rhythm match the director's intention? Are the characters vivid? Is the story clear? Are there any hidden lines in the plot? If not, can the editing create one?

When it comes to editing, it's impossible to make every shot that is perfect.

Perhaps there are generous statements, witty remarks, witty, ridicule, ridicule, secret surprise, or surprise.

If the standard for choosing a shot is only the performance of the actors, then editing is a fairly simple task.

But this is never possible. In the movie "Transformers", the actors can only perform at a relatively low level. Duke and Mike Dawson still need to consider, how does the protagonist's partner perform? Is the camera position appropriate? Is the lighting appropriate? Does the weather meet the requirements...

After the initial completion of the special effects pictures produced by Industrial Light and Magic, temporary dialogue, music and sound effects need to be inserted into the shot sequence.

The film was made step by step, and gradually got rid of the rough appearance, but the shots taken on site may not be the same as Duke wanted. A shot of only 30 seconds, after adding special effects, may change to 8 and become a two-minute shot. The length of the play.

In Duke’s view, the problem at this stage of work lies in how to carefully select the shots taken in the real scene, and to make the Transformers show their power on the screen generated by the special effects. At the same time, how to make the Transformers and the actors after adding special effects Coordinating nature.

In Transformers Studio, every day's production is checked and accepted by the relevant person in charge in the morning, and the satisfactory results are selected and passed to Duke. Once Duke says it is approved, several of his assistants will send the approved part to the Audiovisual Technology Department. , Assembled by them into real movie clips. ‘

If you are not interested in such work. It must be a very boring process.

But Duke maintains great enthusiasm every day during post-production. Every morning of the working day, he will gather the heads of various departments together to discuss today’s date in the fastest and most concise way. The production of the act.

There is one point that Duke will emphasize almost every few days. He asked to control the scene as much as possible, so that the Transformers have more playing time.

With the continuous completion of special effects production, Duke is getting busier and busier. Don't talk about sitting and chatting leisurely with him at the Oscar nominees luncheon. The heads of various departments even need to race against time to communicate with him.

"Duke hopes to see that we have our own opinions, and work tirelessly day and night for better results."

As an Oscar nominee for Best Editing, when a reporter interviewed, Mike Dawson once said, "He will sit in front of the system. The selected footage will be string together in order. All of a sudden, these are scattered. There is aura, divine light clutch. He can remember every shot he took, and he is more impressive than us. He has a pair of precise eyes and a strong sense of rhythm. Working with him, we must try our best to catch up with him The pace. Duke’s style is the same, but he also hopes that everyone can provide good ideas."

There is no doubt that the filming of "Transformers" will set the record for the use of special effects lenses.

After additional investment by Warner Bros. The film will use more than 2,000 special effects lenses, all of which are completed by Industrial Light & Magic. Their technical advantages are also reflected in a large number of environments, lighting, physical special effects simulation, and the synthesis of cg characters and real environment pictures.

The most difficult part of all special effects shots is the collective deformation of Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, and ambulance. Duke used two cameras to shoot the material from different directions, and then synthesized by Industrial Light and Magic through cgi.

Excellent special effects pictures also need the same excellent sound effects to match.

At the beginning. Duke only intends to modify the movie clips repeatedly, and does not use 5.1 channels to generate sound effects.

Transformers Studio has a 5.1-channel equipment, but it has been racing against time to modify the picture, and there is no time for the soundtrack.

But if there is a mistake in the audio track and then go back and modify it, it will undoubtedly increase a lot of work. So Duke thought of a compromise.

The crew extracts and divides the sound files with 24 audio tracks into left channel, right channel, surround mixing files, or saves them as low-frequency files with coarser sound quality, and then separates the pictures and their corresponding sound effect files into categories. .

When it needs to be played in a 5.1-channel system, find the original files of the corresponding sound effect files of the picture and synthesize them with the picture.

The effect of this approach is perfect.

In addition, the military also has representatives stationed at Warner Studios to keep abreast of and feedback on the progress of "Transformers".

This also highlights the influence of Duke’s films from the side. Anyone with a little head in the United States knows that Duke’s films are truly popular films that can be widely circulated and can be influenced by big screens, the Internet, DVDs, and televisions. To countless people all over the world, since the Pentagon sponsored his film, it is of course necessary for a positive image of the US military.

In this regard, Duke has always had a good reputation. He has been working with the Pentagon for many years, and he will not be so overwhelmed that he thinks that the Pentagon is full of idiots.

Even in North America, tanks or fighter jets are not something that you can borrow casually. If you want to use these in the movie, you must contact the military.

In post-production, Duke also ensured that the image of the US military in the film was tall and positive.

Whether it is battle scenes, dialogue or uniforms, they all reflect the values ​​of the US military today. For example, soldiers in the movie refer to Transformers robots as "non-biological extraterrestrial life forms," ​​which reflects the military's habit of chewing on words and using strange technical words.

Probably I am very satisfied with the crew. At an animation exhibition in New York in February, the Pentagon also sent people to participate in several promotional activities for "Transformers".

"Director Rosenberg is in charge of the Hollywood side of the film. We take care of the military part inside. Our cooperation is very smooth."

Colonel Paul Shearer from the Public Relations Office of the Pentagon also specifically accepted an interview with n, "The cooperation between the military and the entertainment industry can make the military look more humane. We are not just protecting the country, although this is our top priority. This film will let the public understand that the military has a human side. Where we need protection and help, we will appear.”

Although the colonel’s words were full of Americanism, they were originally propaganda aimed at North America.

Of course, the focus of the publicity campaign is still on Duke, although he will not stay in New York for long. But Duke still accepted an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair magazine at the event. It is important to make this film, as is the promotion of this film.

Due to the extremely limited interview time given by Duke, the female reporter sent by Vanity Fair sat behind him and did not go around in circles. The questioning went directly to the subject.

She pointed to the huge propaganda poster and asked, "The theme of the movie is'The Story of a Boy and His Car'?"

"My colleagues and I worked a lot to ensure that the film's narrative standpoint is indeed from the child's perspective." With his arms on the armrest of the chair, Duke spoke faster. "But I added some military elements from the beginning to make the movie style tougher, more intense, and more tense."

The female reporter looked down at her notebook and asked, "Have you ever thought about the target audience of this show?"

"I thought this movie would be more attractive to children and young people in their twenties."

What Duke said was something that happened during the filming, "The military sent some people to help us. I worked with them on the set on the first day, so I was a bit embarrassed..."

He made a greeting gesture. "At the time I said to more than forty soldiers,'Hello everyone, I know what I am going to say is very funny. But, please imagine that there is a 40-foot-tall robot standing here, he is going to rise into the air, and then land there. "They asked right away, "Which robot? Starscream or Megatron?" It turned out that I was taken aback-how do these guys from the army know this? At that moment, I understood. I used to think a lot more broadly."

The female reporter pointed to the Optimus Prime on the poster and the deformed truck and said. "You changed the look of Optimus Prime, and many Transformers fans were furious because of this. There are even rumors that you have received death threats?"

"No, I just received a lot of very interesting feedback."

Although it was true that someone mailed something similar to the studio, Duke didn't take it seriously. "What do they say, "Damn it, Duke Rosenberg, you ruined my childhood dream; Duke Rosenberg, I want to kill you." I understand their feelings, you know, people are always I miss my childhood full of affection and love."

Speaking of this, Duke couldn't help laughing. "To be honest, they only have the cartoon in their minds. Few people are willing to seriously think about what Transformers should actually look like because they don't want to abandon their childhood memories."

"Duke, at the beginning of this year, several directors in Europe criticized you for not being enterprising..."

Seeing that the time was almost the same, the female reporter asked a sensitive question, "They criticized you for not shooting a movie at all, but destroying the art of film."

"I don't think so. I am proud of the style of film I chose."

At the beginning of the year, the media did hype the incident, but Duke was too busy with the post-production of "Transformers" and was too lazy to respond, and the so-called European directors might have hyped themselves in this way.

Duke thought about it seriously, and then said, "I am very happy in life. The people who attacked me didn't really understand me. They thought I was not in art. For example, a foreign reporter from Hollywood came to me in the morning and she directly Ask me, "Aren't you going to turn to the development of art film, shoot something more valuable?"

He spread his hand out, "I said, "Are you kidding me?" The picture of Optimus Prime hanging behind me consumed the energy of a whole group of artists. The action blockbuster is compared to shooting low-cost art films in southern France. The difficulty is too much. Just like Optimus Prime, making a non-existent object look like it has a soul and wisdom. This is the essence of art. Strangely, many people think that this is a simple trick." to be continued..)

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