Heads Up Hollywood

Landing.

This is the city of Rosarito in northern Mexico.

As early as four months ago, the crew purchased an area of ​​160,000 square kilometers here and established a complete filming location.

A large artificial lake was opened up on the shooting site, and the famous "Titanic" was moored on the lake.

Even with psychological preparation, when seeing this huge ship with the scenery of the pier in the early 20th century, people are still amazed, and there is a feeling of dislocation in time and space.

"James, you're doing great!"

Tang En sighed, sincerely admiring.

Cameron's face was full of vicissitudes, and he was quite emotional, "The investment in the film is indeed huge, but I have not wasted every penny of the crew."

Come on, this guy is still complaining that Twain robbed him of his directorship.

Tang En laughed and shook his head, "Can I board the boat and have a look?"

Cameron guided Dunn to board the ship, and the exclamation and respectful eyes around him made him quite proud, "The carpets, tables and chairs, layout, and style here are all made according to the standards of a hundred years ago, and many props are from England. It was flown in."

Tang En nodded.

Really, there is a reason for such a large investment in movies.

"This ship is so beautiful!" Kate Winslet whispered, "Twain, I read in the script that the ship will be destroyed in the end, is it true?"

Tang En smiled and said, "Of course not, that's special animation effects."

"I can rest assured that."

Leonardo Ricaprio immediately noticed something strange in Kate's words, and said in a low voice, "Hey, have you eased up with Tang En?"

The two get along very well, and they are already good friends who talk about everything. A smile and complacency flashed across Kate's face, "Of course, it's handy!"

"How did you do it?" Leonardo was surprised. He was very smart, so he didn't believe that Tang En would be as easy-going as he appeared on the surface.

Kate didn't hide anything, whispered, "I went to his room last night."

"Spent the night?"

"Um."

"No wonder!" Leonardo suddenly realized, and teased with a smile, "Tang En...how is he?"

A rare blush appeared on Kate's fair face, and she pursed her lips, "Very strong!"

"Wow!"

Leonardo laughed.

"Don't talk nonsense with others, Tang En will be unhappy." Kate is still cautious.

"I have a measure."

Leonardo waved his hand nonchalantly.

...

After visiting the big ship, everyone went to the hotel to arrange rooms, and decided to start shooting in the afternoon.

As the director, Dunn would naturally be allocated the best room. He found Grant Hill and whispered, "Arrange Kate's room next to mine."

This is Hollywood. Of course, Grant understood Tang En's extended meaning, so he was not surprised, "Don't interfere with the shooting."

Tang En said with a smile: "Don't worry, I have a sense of proportion."

At this time, the door of the room was knocked open with a "bang", and James Cameron broke in angrily as if fighting.

"Hey Jamie, what are you doing?"

Grant got up immediately, with a serious warning on his face.

"What am I going to do?" Cameron threw a document in his hand on the sofa angrily, "I want to ask, what is he going to do?"

Grant Hill raised his eyebrows, looked at Tang En with a calm face, picked up the document from the sofa, and found that it was the movie's storyboard script.

This script was created by Cameron and painted by himself. It is exquisite and detailed, just like a work of art.

only……

On this exquisite painting, there are a lot of red crosses that are very ugly.

"Twain, you edited this?" Grant understood the reason for Cameron's fury.

Tang En said seriously: "That's right, this is the result of my staying up for five nights in a row."

Grant said in a heavy tone, "Twain, I think you need an explanation."

Cameron gritted his teeth: "You are a director, and I respect your work, but you are just a director, and you have no right to change the script!"

This is Hollywood, and Hollywood rules prevail.

The director is just a tool for the producer to realize the idea on film into a screen image.

This is why many great directors also serve as producers.

Tang En also investigated the sunglasses system. In terms of the division of director and producer's abilities, skills such as editing, screenwriting, post-production, and casting are all assigned to the producer's name, which shows how powerful the producer is.

In fact, after the 1990s, Hollywood has gradually moved towards the formalization of commercial films, and Hollywood films have been completely reduced to the core system of producers. Any director, even a super famous director, will not get the right to edit.

So big directors like Spielberg and Cameron, once they make a film, must also serve as a producer, in order to control the final editing rights.

However, Tang En was confident.

Grant Hill, who supported him, is the official spokesperson, and Cameron has long since fallen out of favor.

If Tang En hadn't felt so much guilt towards Cameron, he would have even teamed up with Grant to completely empty Cameron.

The most important point is that Twain's modification is in the interests of Fox Films and satisfies the relaxed mind of the entire crew, but it will not shake the beauty of the movie.

“Quite simply, because in my opinion, the existence of those shots is meaningless, and it would not only waste a lot of our shooting time, but also consume a lot of our shooting budget.”

With a calm expression, Tang En made a downward gesture to Cameron, and pointed to the sofa beside him.

He is by no means aimless.

To complete a film, at least dozens or even hundreds of hours of material must be shot, and the final editing will be completed after appropriate deletion and modification.

A movie is two or three hours long, and the remaining large amount of material is of course wasted.

However, in order to have more choices in the post-production of the film, producers and directors often shoot a large amount of material regardless of the cost, so as to ensure that there are enough materials for post-editing to avoid reshoots.

Especially Cameron, this guy claims to shoot the movie three times!

The first pass is writing the script, the second pass is the process of directing the play, and the third pass is the final editing.

How the movie will be edited in the end, including Cameron himself, is uncertain!

But Twain is different, he is a movie buff, he has watched "Titanic" at least seven or eight times! For the final film of the movie, I already had a template in my mind.

Since this is the case, why are those discarded and useless shots taken?

Time-consuming, labor-intensive, and money-consuming!

Cameron's anger persisted, "Your explanation can't impress me!"

"James, do you think that if we shoot according to this script, we can catch up with next year's summer vacation?" Tang En stared at Cameron with burning eyes, "In my shooting plan, we will finish all the scenes before the end of the year filming, then three or four months of post-production, and release in mid-May next year."

"This is impossible!" Cameron denied with a glance, "With the current progress, two and a half months will definitely not be able to finish filming!"

Tang En smiled and said, "So, we need to revise this script."

Grant understood Tang En's intentions. In the final analysis, he was still responsible for Fox Pictures, and said hesitantly, "Twain, even if he wants to catch up with the schedule, the quality of the film cannot be affected."

"Of course!" Tang En expressed confidence, flipping through the script, "Look at this scene, the leading actor and the supporting actor would wrestle together because of Ruth. It is the positioning of the film, which is seriously affected. What we shoot is a beautiful romance film, not a martial arts action film! Leonardo is not Bruce Lee!"

Cameron was silent, and Grant Hill nodded, "Well, it makes sense."

Tang En flipped another page casually, "This scene is the ugliness unleashed by human beings on the verge of life and death when a disaster strikes. It's too cruel to compete with old, young, women and children for a place on a boat."

Cameron immediately said: "This is human nature! There are gentlemen who sacrifice themselves for others, and there should be humble villains here. Human nature is complicated. If it is only one-way, film philosophy is too shallow."

Tang En shook his head, "It's not that we don't want to shoot, but we have to take it all down and shoot it simply! "Titanic" is a catastrophe, and it will make all movie fans feel cold. We can no longer stab them with such bloody facts. We need to Fairytale-like human nature, to alleviate the psychological trauma caused by the disaster to movie fans."

Grant's eyes lit up, "That's right, Jamie, in the final analysis, this is still a Hollywood commercial blockbuster, and we can't criticize its artistry too much."

Cameron sighed and fell silent again.

Tang En turned another page, his brows slightly lowered.

This scene is a historical fact of that year.

When the "Titanic" sank, a big ship "California" happened to pass by, but... the big ship chose to turn off the telegraph...

Cameron glanced at it and shook his head, "Okay, little guy, you've convinced me that this set of shots is indeed too indifferent, let's discard it."

Tang En smiled, "James, thank you for your approval."

Cameron smiled wryly.

He agreed with some of Tang En's statements, but doubts arose in his heart. If all of these were modified and implemented according to Tang En's ideas, then this movie...is still his movie?

It's a pity that his thoughts are not important now. He is nominally the first producer of the crew, but in fact, Grant Hill has taken over the power.

Grant rubbed his brows, and said in pain: "Twain, your idea is very good, and I agree with it. It's just...you deleted two-thirds of the scene script! Just in case...I mean in case What should I do if there is not enough material in post-production?”

Tang En pointed to his head, and said confidently, "Grant, can you trust me? The picture of the movie has already been formed, and the next task only needs to be filmed."

Grant sighed: "Well, your approach will save the crew a lot of money, and at worst we can make up for it later."

Tang En smiled and said, "Thank you for your support, Grant."

...

"Do you think he's okay?"

After leaving Dunn's room, Grant asked Cameron quietly.

Cameron shook his head, "I don't know."

But immediately he let out a long sigh, and said with a lot of emotion: "But I know, Tang En...he is a genius!"

If Tang En heard this scene, he would laugh out loud!

"James, are you praising me? Or are you praising yourself?"

Ha ha!