Hollywood Road

Sue!

Although he grew up in an environment that ignored individuals and individual motivations, Murphy knew very well that a film must not be made like this, especially this kind of film. If the protagonist does not even have a convincing motive, the final film will be even It can be sold well, but it will not become a classic, and it is even more impossible to achieve his goal of highlighting style.

Even though Hollywood movies have portrayed so many righteous characters, few movies can fully explore the three-dimensional aspect of the protagonist, especially commercial movies. How do Hollywood commercial movies shape characters?

For a good person, write a little bit of disadvantages, such as carelessness and impulsiveness; for a bad guy, write a little bit of a good side, such as elegance, empathy... Many so-called three-dimensional characters in commercial movies are created in this way.

In fact, in Murphy's opinion, this method of destroying the rhythm of the story is a bit of a waste of money. Of course, it is more advanced than simply creating high-level characters in the main theme movie, but it is not much better.

A truly top-notch character is not afraid of being well-written, because the screenwriter does not simply organize the story to write his strengths and weaknesses, but puts him in an equally top-notch story, making him subject to the antecedents of the story, Let him bear the consequences of the story.

Two words in one sentence: "motivation" and "cost".

This rule is common in all popular movies in Hollywood. Why is "The Return of Superman" repeatedly criticized, because Superman is not restrained in the story, has no commitment, and does not pay the price. He just does what he should do. So if this kind of old-school movie remake is still not innovative, it will appear bland.

"Spider-Man 1" was criticized as being stupid and naive, because the little spider insisted on paying the price of losing his uncle in order to reflect "greater ability comes with greater responsibility". In fact, the plot of the uncle's death has nothing to do with the main story line.

On the other hand, the word-of-mouth of "Spider-Man 2" has risen, that is, because the little spider took responsibility after losing his ability in the sequel, and took this as the emotional main line of the story.

"Iron Man" created such a big surprise for the audience, but also because the screenwriter let the character of Tony Stark determine the fate of the story, instead of using redundant stories to show the character of Tony Stark, and Tony The reason why this jittery person is so likable is that he paid a painful price from the beginning, and the motive of revenge drives the audience to want to help Tony himself.

Motivation and cost are the three magic weapons for movies to conquer audiences and critics.

Therefore, Murphy will find a sufficient motivation for the protagonist that can be almost perfectly integrated into the story of the entire film, and will show the price that needs to be paid after the motivation.

Yes, motives and costs have to serve the whole story.

After so many years in Hollywood, Murphy summed up a golden rule: a bad movie must start with a bad story.

How to tell a story so that people can't stop it is the most fascinating part of the movie.

Telling a good story is very simple, and it seems not difficult to do it, but there are not many Hollywood movies that can really tell a good story. Murphy intends to abandon the traditional genre film narrative mode that has been tried and tested in Hollywood for decades, and boldly learn from American dramas. narrative rhythm.

What should the traditional Hollywood narrative look like?

In fact, anyone who has studied the suspense setting of Hollywood movies basically knows the routines of Hollywood movies.

To put it simply, an American screenwriter and producer named Syd Field, once in many books—most of which have become required reading materials for film screenwriting majors—summarized what a mature commercial script under the Hollywood system should be. It has a basic structure: the first act of establishment, the second act of confrontation, and the third act ending; at the end of the establishment act, there is plot point i; at the end of the confrontation act, there is plot point ii; plot point i and plot point ii, respectively, are the two most critical plot points in the narrative progression of the script, their task is to move the plot to the next act, in the form of "an event which 'hooks' the action and turns it to another one direction".

This is indeed the simplest and most effective model that Murphy has ever seen. The essence of Hollywood is the production line. A successful model is summed up after countless successful or failed market cases. Once it is effective, Hollywood has never been shy about repeating it. Use it over and over again.

Murphy dare not say that all Hollywood scripts are written according to Syd Field's teaching materials, but most of the commercial films and even excellent literary films can see the great effect of this mode, and most movie fans have always been I am enjoying the pleasure brought by this mode.

For example, "Iron Man", the film that made Robert Downey Jr. a superstar, is a typical example of this.

The first act of the film is the establishment, which is to show Tony Stark's genius career and luxurious life; the plot point i is that Tony Stark is captured by terrorists; After successfully escaping, after returning to the United States, he changed his past, withstood the pressure and closed the military factory, and devoted himself to researching, testing, and upgrading Iron Man 2 and 3; plot point ii is to find out that the long-term partner turned out to be the real mastermind behind the scenes, and was dug out of his heart ;The third act is the ending, Tony defeated the evil iron monster, and also defeated himself.

The reason why the stories of "Iron Man", including other existing Marvel films, are so fascinating is that they are arranged according to such a pattern.

Murphy has studied it carefully, and it is not difficult to find that the plot points i and ii, which Syd Field repeatedly emphasized their importance, indeed played a key role in "Iron Man": plot point i made Tony Stark a new man, and Plot point ii contributed a big BoSS to the whole story, and they all did an excellent job of reversing the direction of the story.

This film only arranges three action scenes throughout, interspersed with some literary dramas, telling the logic of the story, clarifying the relationship between the characters, no need to set up any big suspense, saving time and effort.

To be precise, almost all of Marvel's movies are products of the typical Syd Field model.

Therefore, after watching too many Marvel movies, there is often a feeling that Marvel movies are all carved out of the same mold, and they are all repeating the road they have already traveled.

But no one can deny the success of Marvel, just as it is impossible to deny the important role of the Syd-Field model in Hollywood films occupying the global market.

All of Marvel's films can be said to be excellent works, but none of them are recognized as super classics. Perhaps this is the difference between the so-called excellent works and peerless classics.

For example, "Iron Man" is a premium product produced on the Hollywood production line, and it is still a long way from a super classic.

Now Murphy is already a first-line director in Hollywood, and he does not lack the support of box office results. Naturally, he wants to seek more, so he ignores the consideration of this general model, but organizes conflicts based on clues, and learns from some American drama screenwriters in this regard. It's okay to do it.

The screenwriters of American dramas are full of thoughts about the density of conflict creation and resolution, and they don't think much about the rhythm of the drama. Murphy's plan is the same. From the first minute to the last minute of this new series, it is Constantly creating conflicts, resolving conflicts, creating bigger conflicts, and resolving bigger conflicts... until finally a butterfly effect was produced, which evolved into a war and social storm that spread throughout New York.

It took nearly ten days for Murphy to finalize the framework content such as character design, theme, and outline, and it will take time to continue to adjust. The specific script writing may not be until after the Oscars.

However, he is not in a hurry. He wants to create a classic series. How can it be so easy? Repeated polishing is a necessary process. The phrase on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, "I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry" is very suitable to describe the current Work.

The progress of the script for the new project was very slow. Murphy spent almost all his time on it while thinking and revising it. It was not until 20th Century Fox informed that "The Wolf of Wall Street" was about to be discontinued from North America that he averted his gaze a little. .

After nearly 20 weeks of screenings, "The Wolf of Wall Street" has basically been unable to generate box office from North American theaters. Although considering the Oscars, 20th Century Fox can pay a certain amount of income to make this film in Los Angeles and Taiwan. After the Oscars in the few theaters in New York, both Murphy and 20th Century Fox knew that the film had already received enough nominations, and it was almost impossible to win a major award, and they did not do it again. Instead of wasting resources, it is better to release from North America, follow the effect of the Oscar period, and launch DVD and online paid versions.

In March, "The Wolf of Wall Street" was officially released from North American theaters, and the North American box office finally stopped at the figure of 241.68 million US dollars.

Although it did not break through the US$250 million mark, this figure was enough to ensure that "The Wolf of Wall Street" broke into the top ten of the annual North American box office rankings in 2009.

For such a Wall Street-themed film, it can be said to be a very proud achievement.

The executives of Twentieth Century Fox also got the news from Bill Rosses that Murphy was preparing for a brand new series. After "The Wolf of Wall Street" was released from North America, they immediately notified Murphy. The 20% share that belongs to him will be paid in place within the next month.

Subsequently, 20th Century Fox launched the DVD of "The Wolf of Wall Street", but now that the DVD is gradually depressed, the sales volume can only be said to be relatively average. The discs of each version only sold less than 3.5 million sets in the first week .

Compared with DVD, the pay-on-demand and online rental of the film has increased by nearly 50% compared with the previous "Inglourious Basterds". This can also be said to be a trend in the offline development of the film industry in the future.

At the subsequent Oscars, neither Murphy nor "The Wolf of Wall Street" won anything, and Catherine Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker" became the biggest winners.

The weekend after the Oscars, North America ushered in the most important film ever released in March - "Batman v Superman". (to be continued)). If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point () to vote, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please read here. )