Hollywood Road

Due to the continuous special screenings for film academy members and media critics held in several major North American cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, the performance of "Diego Ross" in the second weekend was not good, although these screenings did not prohibit fans from buying. Tickets to watch, but the name Murphy Stanton is quite attractive to Oscar judges, media reporters and professional film critics, just like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

This directly led to the emergence of many free viewers on the screening, which affected the box office revenue to a certain extent.

Ten movie theaters, after three days of screenings on weekends, "Diego Ross" earned a box office of more than 280,000 US dollars, and the average single-house performance is still not outstanding. The only thing to be thankful for is that the film did not double due to the expansion. The single-house box office has plummeted.

The new week of Christmas holidays is coming, but "Diego Ross" will not blindly expand the scale of screenings.

"Before the New Year, the film will maintain a screening scale of ten theaters."

In the driving car, Bill Rossis said to Murphy, "Such a screening is enough to get tickets, and it also allows the judges and media reporters to see the film, and it also prevents poor audience reviews. diffusion."

While word-of-mouth isn't the key to awards season, it can influence some people's voting choices.

"I have communicated with Kara Firth." Murphy has recently been in contact with Kara Firth via the Internet every day, "Before most of the votes from the Oscar judges are sent back, "Diego Ross" will be limited to twenty. Screenings in cinemas."

Most of the judges usually mail their ballots back to the academy in mid-January, and a small number of them will wait until the final deadline before mailing back.

"Diego Rose" was screened too late, and it was bound to miss most of the outpost awards, including the Golden Globes, which is a disadvantage.

Fortunately, the media and professional evaluation of this film are good enough, otherwise there are not many qualifications for Oscar nominations.

However, the film also has an advantage. The storyline is about Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. A considerable number of Oscar judges live in the Los Angeles area all year round. They should all remember the chaos of that era. The film may arouse their nostalgia feelings.

When people get old, they are prone to nostalgia, but the Oscar judges can be called a club for old men.

The car drove all the way to Santa Monica's commercial plaza, where there was a Blu-ray limited-edition DVD signing event for "City of Chaos" there today. In order to create momentum for the follow-up film, Murphy needed to attend in person.

Although the box office of "City of Chaos" is not particularly high, the subsequent online on-demand, rental and DVD sales are all very satisfactory. " in stark contrast.

Faced with these two completely different situations, Murphy himself analyzed it. The most criticized part of "Diego Ross" is the gentle narrative rhythm and the climactic plot transition.

This is also the biggest difference between this film and "City of Chaos".

Although "City of Chaos" is boasted by many fans as a very connotative and thoughtful film, one thing Murphy is sure of is that when watching this film, fans will not really think about it, because the pace of the film is too fast No, there is no such frequent use of long shots as in "Diego Ross".

The shots are short, the editing is sharp, and the plot keeps turning, finally pushing the plot and the audience's emotions to a climax. This is the biggest feature of "City of Chaos" except for the black elements.

From these aspects, "City of Chaos" is a typical Hollywood movie. Even if he himself is praised as a personality director, he actually knows very well that he is still a typical Hollywood director.

In fact, after comparing Murphy's thinking, it is not difficult to find why his films have become so popular in North America and even the entire Western world in the past. , hate and other emotions,

And basic human behaviors such as violence and violence.

These films have been established in genre, and the techniques pursue smoothness, coherence, and no trace. The audience is familiar with the routines of this type of film and obtains satisfaction from the realization of the expected effect. Then Murphy added some serious and dark scenes. The theme, and then make appropriate adjustments to better meet the audience's nature of pursuing fresh and exciting, rather than completely overthrowing and starting over.

Even, compared with traditional Hollywood commercial films, he pursues a more compact rhythm, attracting people with constantly changing and changing plots and images, and does not require people to use a lot of brains to think about the content, at least when watching the movie.

In this way, the audience only needs to follow the rhythm of the film, and the dark and serious content mainly produces thinking after watching the film, which is in line with the psychological needs of most audiences who want to relax and pursue intuitive stimulation when watching movies.

In fact, not only Hollywood popcorn commercial films, even his commercial films that focus on black seriousness and realism, in fact, often simply stylized the problems in real life

Half of the money earned by Hollywood movies comes from the global market outside the United States. Even a director like him who directs an A-level production with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars needs to consider that when the film is aimed at audiences all over the world, it needs to pay attention to tapping the common psychology of human nature. and demand.

There is one thing that Murphy himself cannot deny. Looking at the films he directed, they all ignore the independent history and culture of a country.

In the eyes of some art directors, this actually damages the value of the film.

From the perspective of pure film art, Murphy can't deny this.

Even a work like "American Beauty" that seems to be more thoughtful in Hollywood films, there are many clichés in it, overly dramatic, and involves murder... So it is different from those advocated art movies.

But having said that, how many pure art films are there in today's world?

"If you really want to seriously discuss the messy and complex problems in life, you need people to use their brains to analyze them. Movies that analyze problems put forward more than basic audio-visual requirements for the audience, that is, this kind of movie needs to be understood by art, and the audience must infer the screen. What is not directly expressed in the world, to discover the hidden deep meaning in the unseen and unheard..."

Thinking of this, Murphy couldn't help shaking his head. Let alone ordinary audiences, quite a few directors might not be able to do it.

A few days ago, he saw an interview with a European film director on the Internet. Although he didn't quite agree with the statement about art films, he also left a deep impression.

In an interview, the European director believed that because of the continuous development and changes of people’s values, politics, history, culture, and the environment will change. Some highly experimental and advanced films may be better understood in the future and are more serious. Artists are always exploring how to use new techniques to express new ideas to surpass the current limitations. There will be failures, but movies are in common with other arts and even sciences, and they always gain something based on a lot of failures. If you don't innovate, you go backwards.

Moreover, there are different types of artists. Some people create works that mainstream audiences like, while others are constantly exploring and striving to innovate. It is this force that promotes the continuous development of art.

Murphy agrees with the latter point. Strictly speaking, most directors in Hollywood are the type who can create works that mainstream audiences like.

The commercial vehicle arrived at the Santa Monica Commercial Plaza at this time, and Murphy stopped thinking about it, and turned his head to look out the window. The flashing lights outside kept blinking, and it seemed that there were many reporters.

Several bodyguards and Bill Rosses got out of the car first, and after blocking the reporters from driving away, they opened the car door for Murphy. Under their protection, Murphy went straight to the exhibition area in the center of the square building regardless of the reporter's messy questions. .

Santa Monica Commercial Plaza is one of the locations where Hollywood movies often engage in activities. It is connected to Santa Monica Beach in front of it. It is the most fashionable shopping mecca in California and a shopping center on the west side of Los Angeles.

"Murphy, it's Murphy..."

As soon as he walked near the exhibition area, Murphy heard a high-pitched shout, "Murphy! Murphy!"

Although the voice was chaotic, his name was still clearly distinguishable.

In order to avoid confusion among movie fans, the organizer arranged for Murphy to go through the east side entrance. At this time, he looked up and saw a long queue in the hall and near the main entrance of the commercial plaza, looking out from the transparent glass door , I can't see where the end of the line is at all.

After all, this era has changed, and the appeal of a great director is not much worse than that of a superstar.

Entering the temporary exhibition area, several bodyguards followed Murphy all the time, for fear that there would be overly enthusiastic movie fans...

"Director Stanton..."

The person in charge of the event was one of Kara Firth's subordinates. At this time, he came over to say hello. Murphy nodded to him, and walked directly to the signing table, saying as he walked, "Bate, let's get started."

Bate hurriedly followed Murphy and reminded, "There is still half an hour before the signing begins, should we take a break first?"

Murphy shook his head, "No need, it looks like there are a lot of people here today."

He walked to the back of the signing table, pulled out the chair and sat down. The movie fans who were holding DVDs on the opposite side became agitated when they saw that the signing was going to start early.

Bate was well prepared, pressed the microphone button on his collar, and said loudly, "There are a lot of people here today, and everyone is very supportive of Murphy. Murphy also deliberately came a little earlier and insisted on starting the signing earlier. In order to satisfy more fans, please consciously line up and maintain order!"

As the sound spread, the movie fans became quieter, and with the help of security personnel at the scene, the restless team quickly restored order, and then the staff opened the barrier and let the movie fans walk in.