Made in Hollywood

One of the greatest things Hollywood has done in the past two decades is to upgrade virtual technology into a weapon to restore the real world. ↖↖ However, it is rare to use extreme special effects and logical structure to fully present the consciousness picture in the human brain.

"Inception" wants to show the effect of four layers of dreams within a limited space, and relies heavily on post-editing. The narrative sequence of this film is not according to common sense. It is like a person who wakes up and cannot tell himself. The dreams are clearly organized.

In order to be able to show the situations in different levels of dreams at the same time and clearly explain the special time difference of different levels of dreams, Duke once again chose "cross editing" and put forward higher requirements.

He asked the dimmer to give each different sceneries and dreams a completely different feeling, thus effectively avoiding the confusion of expression that may be caused by cross-editing.

"From one place to another, we hope to have some changes in color," Duke said to the dimmer and Mike Dawson. "Calgary has a barren and cold feeling, the corridors are warm and the trucks are It’s neutral. Even if we cut to a very small scene, even if we cut to an isolated thing out of the background, the audience can immediately know where the character is."

This is a way to facilitate storytelling and to enhance the friendliness of the film to the audience so that the audience can watch and understand the entire film.

"We will rely heavily on cross-splicing,"

Before all the work began, Duke specifically explained to Mike Dawson, "If the appearance of different scenes is very different, you can be very relaxed when editing, but I don't want to do too artificial processing on the screen. On the contrary, we have to find each The natural tone of the place. In the script, I wanted to make different cues of action happen in places that are inherently different in design and feel. I ask everyone to pay attention to it. Including the art and sound department."

In "Inception", the editing between dreams according to the settings can be said to be space-time, especially the last four-layer dream. Duke wants to make the cross-editing of the four space-times create a tense atmosphere, especially in the final preparation In the waking part, the people left by the four dreams fell in their respective layers, constantly crossing. At the same time, but the time difference caused by the different dreams, I use the cross-edited close-up shots of the characters to edit the characters to wake up layer by layer.

The tension created by the cross-editing can also arouse the emotions of the audience.

Probably because of a relatively idle relationship recently. Sophia Coppola occasionally comes to Warner Studios to exchange views on film production with Duke. After watching the rough cut samples by Duke and Mike Dawson, Most of the special effects are not added, and she still has some feelings.

Sofia said to Duke while sitting at the rest table drinking coffee. "You have profoundly changed the mainstream Hollywood movies."

"I just participated in the transformation of mainstream Hollywood movies in the 21st century."

Picking up the coffee, Duke took a sip, and said, “In essence, it’s not wrong for those people to say that I’m just a superficial director and producer. Everything I do is just to give the audience a view. Shadow pleasure."

Sophia did not approve of Duke's words, gently turning the coffee cup with his right hand, speaking of the comprehensive influence on contemporary Hollywood movies. You can be in the top three at least among directors in the last two decades, and probably only James Cameron and Quentin Tasino can compare with you. "

See what Duke wanted to say. Sophia, who knows him well, said first, "Don't mention my father, George, Steven and Martin. They are too old after all. They belong to the previous era. I mean the production of such a specific object as Hollywood movies. Influence. And my judging criteria is not the box office."

Duke put down his coffee cup and smiled, "I am a reformer at best, not an innovator or a disruptor."

"I agree with that." Sophia nodded before drinking coffee.

Hollywood mainstream commercial films also don't welcome subversion, it just accepts improvement. but. For film production, improvement is not something to be touted.

There are many good directors and movies that have not improved, and there are also many creators who have made improvements but whose final works have average response.

In fact, Sophia knew very well what some old academics thought of Duke.

They think that his film is a kind of vulgar and popular modernism, like a copycat version of some techniques that have long been common in serious art, so as to entertain more people.

In Sophia's view, through Duke's films, ordinary audiences can comfortably understand and enjoy some originally very avant-garde artistic concepts, but Duke's commercial positioning of films determines that they always lack that kind of thinking and fascinating. Connotation and philosophical depth, they are too like a building block game with only one solution, precise and stable, so mechanical and modular.

It can only be said that Sophia Coppola's philosophy is very different from Duke, which is also an important reason why Duke has not used her in any commercial works.

However, Sophia also acknowledged Duke’s achievements in the innovation of Hollywood movies, “For example, in superhero movies, you brought completely different superhero movies, and you introduced some real political and social issues in superhero movies. In the past. , These are not discussed."

"Since Superman has such great abilities, what is the point of catching robbers and thieves every day? He can completely change the laws of the world and truly benefit mankind."

After saying this, Duke spread his hands and said, "Hollywood will not shoot that way, because superhero movies are essentially fairy tales. Some of the conflicts involved in "The Dark Knight" can indeed be found in real life in corresponding versions, but Still a fairy tale."

Let Batman deal with some real social problems instead of the pseudo-problems that Superman faces. It is indeed very profound, but this is still a commercial method. Choose many hot public issues and throw them into the narrative of the film. The audience will naturally Discover what they care about and increase their attention to the film.

While Duke was busy in the post-production of Inception, something happened in Hollywood that shocked the entire world. The box office record of Titanic was once again set by James Cameron himself.

It is impossible for any film to remain at a high level all the time, even "Avatar", which does not conform to the normal film market rules, is no exception. After the incredible increase in the fifth weekend, the North American box office of this film has finally appeared. The normal downward trend is that the decline rate is unusually slow every weekend.

"Avatar" does not have any weekend box office results of more than 100 million US dollars in North America, but its most feared place is the terrible trend of stability. Now it has been in theaters for more than 11 weeks, and the weekend box office still has 13.65 million US dollars!

This can't help but frighten people.

And in only eleven weeks, the North American box office of the film exceeded $700 million, reaching as much as $720.6 million.

This set a new North American box office record!

Not only in North America, but in the global market, the trend of this film is also horribly stable, and the global box office easily crossed the threshold of "Titanic", setting a global box office record with a record of US$2.418 billion.

More importantly, "Avatar" has also brought about a revolution in the movie market, which has completely pushed the 3D and ima craze triggered by "Transformers" to a peak. Theater companies around the world have not only set off the opening of ima theaters. The craze, even the 3D eyes that have always been unpopular, have become a hot commodity.

On the other hand, the success of "Avatar" has also aroused the market's desire for 3D movies, even "Alice in Wonderland", a pseudo 3D film that has been transformed into a post-production process, has achieved craziness with the help of "Avatar". The big seller.

Similarly, Duke, who was prepared for this, has also become one of the winners of this wave.

The 3D-transformed version of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has been released in three consecutive games, and has landed in more than 1,000 theaters in North America and more than 60 overseas markets. In less than a month, more than 70 million US dollars in North America were harvested. Box office and nearly $250 million in global box office.

This not only brought considerable profits, but also played a role in pre-warming up the upcoming "The Hobbit" trilogy.

The 3d wave has also penetrated into all aspects of the mainstream Hollywood movie circle. Major production companies have formulated 3d film shooting plans. Even the films that have already been filmed are ready to be converted into 3d movies through post-production.

"Fast and Furious 5 will definitely be a 3D movie!"

In the office of Universal Studios, David Ellison, executives from Universal Pictures, and Van Diesel, who had been negotiated to finalize the cooperation, gathered together. David Ellison stood up and emphasized, "The Speed "And Passion 5" must also be a 3D movie!"

"I have no opinion!" Van Diesel agreed with David Ellison's statement.

Of course, the people of Universal Pictures will not have any opinions. Now everyone can see that the 3d film will inevitably bring more box office revenue.

"Justin Lin has agreed to continue to be the director of "Fast and Furious 5"." An executive of Universal Pictures said, "The main actors of the first film have basically negotiated terms and agreed to return..."

He paused and said to David Ellison and Van Diesel, "But we didn't find Jessica Alba."

Jessica Alba disappeared from Hollywood completely since she was released from prison. In fact, she can no longer gain a foothold in Hollywood.

Van Diesel thought for a while and said, "Take her out."

At the end of this brief meeting, Van Diesel and David Ellison walked out of the office together. When entering the elevator, David Ellison suddenly lowered his voice and said, "My people found Jessica? Alba." (To be continued.)

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