Hollywood Road

Starting from the beginning of March, fans who follow Robert Downey Jr. found a book recommended on his latest blog. ≧ 一≯Novel≧ ≦≦≦≦≤

"I just returned to Los Angeles after my vacation. When I was shopping in a bookstore on Sunset Boulevard, I found a very interesting graphic novel. It seemed to be adapted from a certain character. The story about a magical girl was very, very interesting."

This is a blog written by Robert Downey Jr. himself, and of course by Murphy and Twentieth Century Fox.

In addition to the text on the blog, Robert Downey Jr. also published a cover photo of a graphic novel with a very striking line of words - "Amazing Amy".

"It's here, this bookstore has it."

Two girls walked into a bookstore in downtown Los Angeles, and the one with the black long hair said to the blonde short girl, "Daisy, here's the Robert Downey Jr. graphic novel."

"Come on, let's go find it."

Daisy entered the novel sales section of the bookstore first, and quickly found the graphic novel on a bookshelf. She opened it and read it. It was indeed a story about a magical girl. "It seems very good."

"Well, I've read it, and it's pretty good." The black girl nodded in agreement, "I just don't know which character it was adapted from. The prototype of Amy in the book must be a super genius."

A boy wearing glasses next to him was attracted by the words of the two, and couldn't help but leaned over and asked, "Excuse me, may I know what book you are talking about?"

"This." Daisy picked up the book and shook it in front of him, "Amazing Amy."

"thanks."

The man with glasses nodded politely to the two girls, went over and took the same book, stood there looking through it for a while, and walked towards the cashier with it.

Daisy looked over to the cash register, "Let's go too."

She is going to go back and have a look first, and if it is really good, she will recommend it on her blog and discussion groups.

At the same time, the blogs of quite a few well-known bloggers in North America are recommending this graphic novel called "Amazing Amy", and this novel even appeared in the supplement of "New York Times".

As a part of Twentieth Century Fox, a book push column of Fox TV also highlighted "Amazing Amy".

When the program was broadcast, the host made a key recommendation.

"We often say that a person's appearance as an adult often comes from her childhood. There is such a girl who spent an unusual childhood. The unusualness lies in the fact that she has a pair of writer parents. This pair of writers The parents created a graphic novel called 'Amazing Amy' and the main character in the book is said to be based on their daughter Amy."

"While Amy and her author parents chose to keep personal information private because they didn't want the books to interfere with their personal lives, we can still see from the graphic novel that Amazing Amy is a gifted girl."

"Amy has excellent grades since she was a child. She is a straight-A student. She started learning violin at the age of five and won the top three in amateur competitions held in her state; she started learning to play volleyball at the age of ten and continued throughout her high school career until she entered Harvard. I didn’t give up until college; when I graduated from college, Amy got a double master’s degree in psychology and sociology, and raised a dog…”

"Amazing Amy was a winner in life until she got married."

The female character in the book is very likable. After being promoted by the media, the Internet and some columns, the graphic novel gradually opened up sales. Although it did not make it to the North American bestseller list, it also sold out within a month. There are more than 100,000 volumes, attracting many book lovers.

Some book fans even set up their own blogs dedicated to the amazing Amy.

Some people on the Internet have summed up Amy's various advantages. The amazing Amy will always hand in a beautiful report card. She is an amateur music master, and her violin skills are comparable to professional players. The champion of the youth volleyball championship is a top student who graduated from Harvard University.

With the increase in the sales of graphic novels, some book fans and other Internet users, guided by some Internet public opinion, kept asking on the Internet-who is the original character of the amazing Amy?

Quite a few people called the publishing house, but the publishing house under the News Corporation gave a reply that it had signed a strict confidentiality agreement with the original author and could not disclose any information to the outside world.

The more mysterious it is, the easier it is to attract curiosity and inquiry.

I don't know when, a blog suddenly appeared on the Internet, and the blog attracted the attention of quite a few people. From the outside, the purpose of the blog was only one - where is the amazing Amy?

Due to the lack of the support of the original work and the anti-Hollywood sentiment of the film, if "Gone Girl" wants to get a sufficiently bright box office result when it is released, it must use more methods in publicity.

In terms of publicity and marketing, Murphy and Kara Firth worked with the relevant departments of 20th Century Fox to determine a complete plan as early as the beginning of the project, and now they are implementing it according to the plan, and the feedback from the market is also good.

Still, Murphy is mostly finishing up post-production on Gone Girl.

After finishing the editing of the first edition, he took out the opening and ending scenes separately and reprocessed them. The first frame and the last frame are Amy Dunn played by Charlize Theron.

And after processing, it will be a single frame picture.

A single frame is rarely taken seriously compared to an entire movie, but the first and last frames of a film can leave a deep impression on viewers, and Murphy begins and ends with very similar frames. , so that the end is corresponding, it is full of great significance, and represents the development direction and theme of the whole story.

Murphy also added James Franco's late voiceover to the opening and closing one-shots.

"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head, and I imagine breaking her lovely head, combing her brain, trying to find the answer, the answer to any marriage question: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What did we do to each other?"

This monologue, which is easy to arouse the audience's suspicion and echoes the content of the first half, was put at the beginning by Murphy.

There is also a monologue that echoes the second half of the content, "I woke up beside her, looked at the back of her head carefully, and tried every means to figure out Amy's mind. For the first time, I no longer felt that I was Staring at the dazzling sun, I finally caught up with my wife's madness, because I can feel her changing me again: I used to be a brat, and then I became a man with both good and bad, Now at least a protagonist - I can live with the idea that I still have someone to cheer me on in our never-ending marital battle. Hell, at this point, I can't imagine not having Amy life, she is my eternal opponent."

After finishing the beginning and the end, Murphy and editor Jody Griffith continued to polish the content of the feature film.

Before Murphy shot enough material for editing, his usual shooting method is to use the home shooting method to ensure that there are enough shots for selection in the end. Usually, he shoots a long shot as the main shot, and then shoots close-ups separately Shots, reaction shots, cut-ins and cut-aways.

Shooting is for editing. Murphy’s shooting like this is of course planned to use a typical editing method. Many scene clips generally start with a long shot as the first shot, give them a guide, and then follow up with a medium shot that contains the main plot. , and finally a close-up that isolates individual actors or performances.

Sometimes, he will also add a positioning shot, which is usually placed before the panoramic shot to explain the background of the plot to the audience.

Because of many cooperations, Jody Griffith can better understand Murphy's intentions, and Murphy also delegates power to him, and he needs experienced Griffith to provide him with some different editing ideas.

During the fine-cutting, Murphy gave Jody Griffith greater authority to handle the rough-cut material, instead of sticking around as the director himself, the excellent and cooperative editor would organize it by himself, Take a look at the material, look for bright spots, and investigate whether a breakthrough method can be used to add icing on the cake and save the director a little time.

However, Murphy will not only review Jody Griffith's finely edited images, but also have a fixed time to communicate with him in the morning and evening. If the director is always busy and can't even make a phone call, then It is difficult to collaborate, the editor needs to communicate with the director at the right time, and get the director's feedback, ideas and encouragement on the editing results in a centralized way.

Murphy was also direct in his communications.

If an actor's performance does not satisfy the director, the director may say euphemistically: "Do it again with feeling", but if he says to the editor: "This scene is cut without a sense of power." They just said, "Cut out these five frames from this section and transfer it to xxxx." Instead, the editor can better understand the essence of what the director wants.

In addition, Murphy has never been stingy about sharing his ideas with Jody Griffith.

During the active communication between the editor and the director, if the director can share more nutrients about film shooting, narrative structure and flexible creation, it will not only be meaningful to the editor himself, but also be of great help to the editing work.

Compared with the shooting that was much faster than planned, the post-editing of "The Lost Lover" can only be described as a tortoise. The importance of editing to a film is beyond doubt, and this film is especially critical. Due to sufficient time, ink Fei didn't want to rush to work either.

From February to early May, the post-production gradually came to an end, and Murphy also accepted the invitation of 20th Century Fox to participate in the screening of "Kingdom of Heaven". (To be continued.)