Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 46: It's a bit difficult

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After hearing Brian De Palma's instructions, the staff randomly selected one of the several boxes of copies of "Run Lola Run" samples and put it into the video player, pressed play, and everyone looked at the wall together. 's big screen.

On the screen, after the slate, the first thing that appeared on the screen was an empty shot.

From a fixed-point upward shooting perspective, bright golden sunlight is projected in from the window hung with two strings of half-open bamboo curtains.

Under the strong light, the pattern on the bamboo curtain, the Barbie doll in the corner, the withered bouquet on the windowsill, all elements give people a sense of quiet and perfect harmony.

The criteria for judging the quality of movie lenses are basically the excellence of several elements such as composition, color, and camera movement.

The lens in front of me has obviously reached an impeccable level in terms of composition, color and use of light.

There was no outsider in the screening room who didn't understand movies. Therefore, although they didn't see the actors' performance for the first time, it was just such a simple empty shot. Everyone couldn't help but secretly admire it: beautiful.

The fixed-point empty shot, which lasted about 5 seconds, lasted three times.

Immediately afterwards, the second shot is still an empty shot.

However, this time it is no longer a fixed point, but a slowly moving forward shot.

In the picture, Laura is photographed with her boyfriend, with a radiating heart-shaped red card and scattered clutter on the table. The light and composition are also very good.

Then, in the third shot, although it was still an empty shot, the screen began to move.

Laura's green plaid trousers are on the left, the black beer bottle is on the right, and in the middle is a slowly crawling little turtle. Compared with the first two empty shots, this shot is more interesting, faintly conveying a restless mood.

Everyone also realized at this time that this should be a series of consecutive empty shots.

However, the three shots and three completely different compositions are all full of imagination, showing the creator's profound aesthetic skills.

After a series of empty shots, Laura herself finally appeared on the screen.

People in the screening room who were exposed to this movie for the first time were slightly surprised when they saw Lola's strong color style composed of fiery red hair, blue vest and green trousers. This avant-garde image, which is almost like a cartoon character, was a bit surprising. It's still rare in Hollywood movies. However, due to the perfect set of aerial shots just now, these people couldn't help but regard this alternative as innovation.

The samples developed from the original negatives naturally have no sound.

The silent picture continued to play for more than two minutes, and everyone in the screening room had different reactions.

"Run Lola Run" producer Ron MacMillan was completely relieved at this point. After so many years in Hollywood, Ron could still easily judge the quality of the samples in front of him. The shots Simon shot were countless times better than the best-case scenario he had ever imagined.

So, it is obvious that Simon's directing style is different from other directors in the past few days, and he is not trying to be mysterious at all. This is a young man with very high filmmaking talent.

Katherine Bigelow has seen Simon display various extraordinary talents more than once. Therefore, she had enough confidence in Simon from the beginning. At this time, she was just enjoying the samples with everyone.

David Giller just had a thought in his mind. He was indeed right about the little guy.

As for Brian De Palma.

He should be the most professional person in the whole room.

Although Robert Redford and Kathryn Bigelow have some directing experience before, both of them have very little experience in this area.

Because of his professionalism, Brian De Palma was increasingly surprised as the demos played.

After Simon gave up his cooperation with Orion, Brian De Palma did not withdraw his promise to serve as the executive producer of "Run Lola Run". He really admired Simon as a young man.

However, Brian De Palma was not without worries.

In the film and television industry, the phenomenon of screenwriters turning into directors is very common, but this is often a step-by-step process.

Simon's screenwriting skills had just caught the attention of Hollywood, and he couldn't wait to switch to directing. Brian De Palma believed that this was definitely an unwise choice.

Therefore, although he has made a promise, if the future film of "Run Lola Run" is too terrible, Brian De Palma will not allow his name to appear in the subtitle list of this film. .

But now, Brian De Palma has completely put aside his original worries.

The first empty shot that appeared on the screen made Brian De Palma give a very high evaluation.

From a purely technical point of view, if a strongly backlit scene is not handled properly, defects such as glare and fog will appear in the picture, but Simon's lens did not reveal any of these problems.

If only this one shot is perfect, it’s nothing. The subsequent series of backlit shots of Laura standing in front of the window making phone calls are impeccable in all technical aspects, which is very rare.

Moreover, Brian De Palma is also very positive about the warm yellow tone set by Simon for the film. Warm yellow can be said to be the easiest tone to make people feel relaxed and comfortable. This color scheme also looks more cinematic. .

In addition, the samples in front of me from a box of quarter-and-a-half-length film films, the use of various shooting techniques also shows Simon's excellent lens scheduling ability. Especially the last shot in the sample film where Lola rushes out of the room and turns all the way to her mother's bedroom and then back to the TV screen. The trajectory of the camera is simply unconstrained.

However.

None of this surprised Brian De Palma the most.

As soon as the four-and-a-half-minute demo was finished, Brian De Palma immediately asked Ron MacMillan, who was sitting on the other side, with some uncertainty: "Ron, has this version of the demo been dubbed?" Too sexy?"

In the film era, the samples that were developed and printed from the initial negatives had different effects in terms of color exposure and other aspects of each lens due to differences in lighting, scenery and even the quality of the film itself during the shooting process. Therefore, after a movie is edited, the samples must be color-corrected one by one by professional colorists, and a special color scheme must be set for each lens, and then handed over to the staff of the printing laboratory for processing one by one according to the corresponding plan.

Moreover, most movies generally need to go through at least three color matching processes to achieve the final screen effect that the audience sees.

It is not difficult to imagine how complicated the color matching process would be for a movie that often has thousands of shots. However, even in the digital age many years later, no movie can escape the complex color matching process.

but.

Just now.

However, Brian De Palma found that in the four and a half minute sample shot of "Run Lola Run", there was not much obvious difference between different shots in terms of exposure, color tone, etc.

You know, although they all belong to the same scene, the color, lighting, etc. of each shot in the sample are completely different. Therefore, counting repetitions, it is a miracle that this kind of uniformity of color and exposure can be achieved without any color matching between more than twenty shots in total.

When Ron MacMillan heard Brian De Palma's sudden question, he was stunned for a moment and said with some confusion: "Mr. Palma, shouldn't color matching be done after the editing is completed?"

After hearing the conversation between the two, David Giller, who was originally discussing with Robert Redford the technique of the last follow-up camera in the demo, suddenly reacted, glanced at the darkened screen, and immediately turned to The staff next to the video machine said: "Quick, play the sample again."

The screen in the room soon lit up again.

Everyone, who had basically realized what was happening, stared at the big screen on the wall.

Due to the shift of attention, after playing it again, everyone also discovered that there were still some color differences between different shots of the sample.

However, everyone has to admit that this difference is actually very small.

If it weren't for the schematics at the beginning of each shot, the entire demo would basically feel the same as watching a finished movie.

It is conceivable that if all the shots of the film in the future can reach the current level, this means that after the editing is completed in the future, the film may only need a very simple color matching to achieve the perfect finished film effect.

Has it ever happened in a regular Hollywood commercial movie that only one color matching is required to complete the film

That's right.

appeared.

The name of that movie is "The Godfather."

However, the person in charge of filming "The Godfather" was Gordon Willis, a top Hollywood photographer who was also proficient in lighting and scenery. Moreover, the reason why "The Godfather" only underwent one color matching was not only the excellent quality of the lens itself, but also the reason why it was forced to meet the deadline.

Nowadays, a new film by a newcomer with a production cost of only a few hundred thousand dollars can make people feel that the film may only need a simple color matching to achieve the final effect based on the quality of the sample footage.

How can this not be said to be a miracle

After playing four and a half minutes of samples, David Giller immediately ordered the staff to play another few boxes of samples.

More than twenty minutes later.

As the screen in the screening room dimmed again, everyone was silent for a moment.

Then, Robert Redford turned directly to Ron MacMillan, with some obvious eagerness in his tone, and said: "Ron, this movie, the photographer, lighting engineer, and set designer, all were introduced to me. I will definitely invite them to be part of my next film.”

After hearing Robert Redford's words, David Giller and Brian De Palma also looked at Ron MacMillan.

They are not willing to miss such outstanding behind-the-scenes talents. Both of them have been busy with "The Butterfly Effect" during this period, and they are not very clear about some matters on the "Run Lola Run" crew.

Ron MacMillan was stared at by the three bosses, but he couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

This kind of requirement.

It's a bit difficult.

The director personally serves as the photographer.

The scenery seems to have been made by the director himself.

As for the lighting technician.

Um.

this.

Who is the lighting engineer