Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald tossed and turned in his bed and didn't get a good night's sleep.

Sometimes, to judge whether a person has talent in something, it is to see whether he can quickly identify the master. Only when we know who is good can we talk about learning and improving.

Many people have been reading books for many years, and they can't tell who is real kung fu and who is fake.

Walter Murkey is such a master, he answered a few times, as if he pushed open a door in front of Ronald's eyes, allowing him to peep a few glimpses of the real secrets of top directors in the movie hall. He shyly closed the door again.

Of course, if you meet an expert, if you are willing to teach you, you must also talk about fate. Walter Murkey and Ronald met each other's eyes. After a few rounds of questions and answers, Walter asked Ronald to be his assistant.

The plan was to stay in Los Angeles and wait for the fall semester to return to New York for college. But when he encountered this rare opportunity to study side by side with the master, Ronald didn't want to let it go.

After thinking about it for a night, I made a special trip to ask former boss Roger Coleman the next day.

Roger Coleman heard that Walter Murkey agreed that he would go to Diorama as an editing assistant, and agreed:

"You may not know that Walter Murkey was at USC, and Star Wars director George Lucas was two of the best students at the time. George's film debut, THX1138, was written by Walter.

He later moved into sound editing, where Walter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound for Coppola's film "The Great Conspiracy." He also made the recording of 'The Godfather', although he did not sign it. "

"Coppola admired him a lot. If it wasn't for the financial difficulties of Diorama's 'Apocalypse Now', Walter would have had the opportunity to direct last year."

"So you think I should give up college and study editing in a diorama?"

"No, no, Ronald, that's not what I meant. I think you should go to college."

Roger Coleman said solemnly, "Anyone who has the opportunity should try college life, which will change the way a person thinks and change his destiny.

You go to school first. Walter always welcomes you anyway. You can study with him when you are on vacation. "

Ronald nodded, he was indeed a little too urgent.

"I heard from Mr. Merzi that I came back to New World Company today to give a lecture. Can I sit in?"

Roger Coleman stood up and hugged Ronald, "Son, you're always welcome here."

Walter Murzy's lecture was held in the New World Company Screening Room. Ronald arrived early, took a seat by the aisle and sat down. This is the place to watch the demo of "High School of Rock and Roll", returning to a place full of memories, a bit cordial.

Walter Murkey is a cross-disciplinary professional, editing both film and sound. So the editors and mixers of the new world came to listen to his lectures.

Walter first showed a clip, an early black-and-white clip in Hollywood, about five minutes long.

"Has anyone found something special about this film?"

"He didn't edit it, he just finished it in one shot," an editor replied.

"Yes, in fact Hitchcock also made such a film, his Rope, the whole film has only 8 shots, each film is connected by a black screen, except for a jump cut in the middle, the whole film Not a single cut."

"My question is, why do you need to edit when a movie can be made like this?"

Walter Murkey continued to question and answer himself.

"There are two reasons. One is the difficulty of shooting, which requires a long rehearsal, and if one place is not handled properly, the long shot will have to be reshot. For cost reasons, Hollywood chose editing instead of long shots."

Walter Murkey, went on to play another clip, Kubrick's "2001 A Space Odyssey,"

Opening segment.

An ape threw a bone into the air, and when it fell, it turned into an elongated spaceship.

"Another reason is that editing can challenge the limits of human imagination, and if we use all Hitchcock's methods, then such imaginative narratives cannot be completed.

The evolutionary history of mankind for millions of years is completed in this one drop. You can't find a simpler way of expressing it than Kubrick. "

"That's what editing is all about."

Walter Murkey is like an encyclopedic guru of film editing, recording, sound editing, and more.

Sometimes Beethoven's symphonies, sometimes Shakespeare's sonnets, sometimes the ancient Eastern Book of Changes are quoted to explain various editing and sound editing methods.

Ronald was mesmerized.

For example, he said that movies are more like Beethoven in classical music. One of the characteristics of Beethoven's music is the introduction of dynamic range. The music can be very loud all of a sudden and very light all of a sudden.

Just like the close-up and long-range of a movie shot, you can switch at any time. In the older Bach, there is absolutely no such difference of hundreds of times louder contrast.

For another example, he talked about the use of soundtracks in movies, and don’t tell the audience where the climax of the plot is in advance.

A lot of editors and sound editors, just to save trouble, have a weird piece of music when they encounter scary things. When you are happy, have a happy time.

But before the characters discover the danger, you match the dangerous soundtrack, and the audience will not be so afraid when they see the danger of the danger. Because they have been prompted by the music: there is danger next.

In the movie "The Godfather", the classic Mike Corleone assassination scene. Walter Murkey kept quiet, without any background music.

It wasn't until after the assassination that the climax of the opera came. Only then will the emotional experience of the audience be complete.

"Ambient music is an amplifier of mood, not a generator," concludes Walter Mersey.

"When it comes to ambient music, I think music should be globalized."

Worldizing doesn't mean using music from other countries in the world, but it means that the music in the movie should be the same as what we hear in the real world, not directly using the soundtrack of the record.

Walter Murkey cites the wedding scene at the opening of "The Godfather" as an example, since that's the movie most people have seen, except poor Ronald.

"In the wedding scene, during the filming, we played music live, so the live radio would record noise, speech, the sound of the wind blowing through the microphone, and most importantly, we were more than ten meters away from the recording of the performance. local recording.

Human ears are very sensitive, and we can easily distinguish a sound source from a dozen meters, a few meters, or a hundred meters.

If the music at the Godfather's wedding were to be synthesized directly from the record soundtrack, we would have lost most of the real-world information.

Therefore, I used the live sound track and the record sound track to synthesize at the same time. When the camera was outside, I put a little more live sound track, so when you watch this wedding scene, you will feel like you are in it. "

No wonder the music in "High School of Rock" is a bit weird and lacks a sense of presence.

Ronald thought to himself. After I participated in the filming and post-production of "High School of Rock", listening to Walter Murkey's lecture, I can really improve some rank.

"How can we better determine where a certain shot should be cut? Sometimes it's the first half second or the second half second, it feels similar." An editor asked.

"That's a good question, and my answer is, let our intuition tell ourselves, where should we cut?"

Ronald pricked up his ears when he heard that Walter Murkey was also holding up his intuition.

“If you stay with a movie for a long time, it will form an intuition. The guidance of the director, the performance of the actors, the interaction between the actors, a movie will have its own unique rhythm.

As long as we feel this rhythm, we can intuitively find that pattern. No matter how many times you hit the stop button, the video will stop on the same grid every time. "

What? The editors below coaxed and started talking to each other.

Is this possible? A movie can play 24 frames of film in one second, and each frame of film is only twenty-fourths of a second. Play the movie at normal speed, and then press the stop button every time, can it be played on the same frame?

"In fact, if I don't hit the same frame twice, I know I haven't formed an intuition. I'll go back and watch more film until I get these emotions, feelings, performances into my brain and internalize them as intuitive. Part of it, so I can play on the same grid."

"Then if you want to stop at the same grid every time, is there any trick?" Ronald took the opportunity to ask.

"Hi, hello Ronald. Yes, I have some tricks to help me get there. The easiest trick is to edit while standing," Walter said.

Standing clip? Can you still sit? Ronald was a little puzzled. The editor next to him whispered, "Walter and the others are in a diorama, using a West German KEM editing machine, which is horizontal, and they have to sit in front of the table to cut."

"Humans evolved from apes, and we are used to standing and walking. When standing, people's intuition reacts the fastest and most accurately. This is the intuition that humans have evolved over millions of years of hunting, so I am used to standing and editing. "

"The second trick is to imagine yourself watching film on the big screen. Editors' windows are usually small, and a small picture creates an illusion.

In fact, when it is played on the big screen, the picture will have more details, which will cause the editing point that is established on the small picture to not be established on the big screen. "

Walter Murkey added: "I usually fold two little people out of paper, a man and a woman, and put them in front of the editing machine screen, so that you can imagine what the picture will look like on the big screen."

It turns out that, Walter Murkey means that intuition is the internalization of various daily feelings. As long as we are immersed in a world for a long time, we will intuitively make decisions, which often best meet the needs of this world.

Could it be that my intuition was from watching a movie in a previous life? How many movies did you watch before you could naturally develop all kinds of intuitions? Have I been a movie fan in my last life?

When the lecture was over, Walter Murkey stopped Ronald and handed him a bottle.

Ronald took it and saw that it was a bottle of honey.

"This is my wife, Angie, and my own bees. This is the best honey for you." Walter Murkey said with a smile.

"I'm about to leave for Cannes, where Coppola will continue to revise the movie. I heard from Roger that you're going to study at New York University in the fall. Next summer, I'll be waiting for you in San Francisco."

Ronald excitedly embraced Merzy, who was born in 1943, exactly the age of Ronald's uncle.

"Remember to watch more movies, whether it's a new movie or an old movie, that's the source of inspiration." Walter Murkey urged.

The two waved goodbye.

Ronald felt that everything had been done in Los Angeles, and there was no good opportunity to improve if he stayed any longer. He should return to Staten Island, New York, to prepare for college life and a photography business in New York.