Legendary Hollywood Director

A black Ford pickup went all the way west, through the pleasant Château d'If, and gradually approached Marseille, the largest seaport in France.

Although it is only two thousand years old now, the very prosperous market of Marseille can already be seen.

The city is surrounded by limestone hills on three sides, and borders the Mediterranean Sea in the southeast. The water is deep and the port is wide, so that 10,000-ton freighters can travel unimpeded, and the west is connected with Northern Europe.

This unique geographical location also makes Marseille the largest gateway to France's foreign trade.

When the car entered the city, Thomas slowed down slightly and turned left and right to a neighborhood.

"That's it, let's go down." Thomas sat in the driver's seat and opened the door as he spoke.

"Wow, it's finally here." Ryan said and opened the door on the right.

Lehmann followed and got out of the car, and saw a shop on the street with a lot of photographic equipment.

The three walked forward, and when they approached the vicinity, a middle-aged man heard the sound and came out, "Uncle Angus, long time no see." Thomas took a step and hugged the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Haha, Thomas, how come you have time to come to my side, where is your father?" The middle-aged man looked a little happy when he saw Thomas.

"He's still in Paris and didn't come here. This time I brought a friend here to rent some photographic equipment," Thomas replied.

"Oh, that's right, then come in quickly." With that, Angus greeted Lyman and the others, and brought out three cups of coffee.

"Come on, let's have a taste. These are coffee beans that we grind at home."

"Thank you, uncle." Lyman took the coffee and thanked him politely.

"You can try to choose, don't worry, since you are Thomas's friends, I will definitely give you the best price."

With the assurance of this sentence, Lehman's heart was also somewhat relieved.

He took out a list from him, which recorded the camera equipment and film shares they used to shoot the film.

In addition to the three 35MM special cameras, there are also color films produced by Kodak that need to be purchased.

This 35MM color film matched with the camera has a length of 122 meters per reel. According to the current film shooting and projection specifications, under normal circumstances, about 27 meters of negative film is needed to shoot one minute of footage. It takes about 4.5 minutes to shoot.

In this way, it is reasonable to say that it seems that it is enough to buy about 20 reels of Kodak color film. After all, according to Lehman's scheduled production, there will only be about 90 minutes of footage.

But in the end, Lehmann bought 300 reels, and this is a conservative number. If the film is not enough, he will pre-order at any time.

To make a movie, almost all the materials shot by the director will be ten times or even dozens of times the length of the film. For famous extravagant monsters like James Cameron, the material images are even hundreds of times.

For a film crew, the money spent on film is often a lot of money. This is why Lehmann knew that Thomas had an acquaintance with photographic equipment and ran from Cannes to Marseille in such a hurry.

Save a little per plate, 300 plates can save a lot.

Fortunately, Thomas's face was good enough. When Lehmann said that he wanted 300 reels of Kodak 35MM film color film in advance, Angus only charged 80 euros per reel.

The market is generally sold for 140 euros per plate. Even if the order is large and a little discount is given, it will never be close to the cost price of 80 euros.

"A total of 24,000 euros." Lehmann silently remembered the price in his mind.

His sourcing journey isn't over yet.

Once the camera is selected, the matching lens must also be selected.

Wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, soft light photography lens...

The film "Buried Alive" is mainly used to shoot close-up and medium-range photography, so I chose the lenses that need to be used in these two parts, plus the three 35MM cameras, the cost is 8,000 euros, and the rental period is 2 A few months later, out of trust in Thomas, Angus did not even let Lyman pay the prepaid breach of contract or compensation.

That's another big savings.

The rental cost of the filming equipment spent today is 32,000 euros. Since the preparation of the film, more than 50,000 items need to be prepared, such as staff salaries, production of props, purchase of cosmetics and cheap special plasma. Shooting funds in euros. This was achieved only after someone provided the crew's costumes and recruited two interns with special throttling skills.

Lehmann was a little skeptical that the 450,000 euros he had fooled could last until the end of the film.

The preparatory work is too expensive. Although the later filming seems to be less expensive, the rental of the venue and the recruitment of actors have not yet been carried out. This will also require a sum of money, as well as the post-production of the film. Lehman also plans to Hiring a professional and experienced editor, the licensing fee for the soundtrack, and the post-production studio also rents one...

As long as he thinks that there are still many hardships in his filming road, he feels as if his head is about to explode.

I moved all the rental and purchased photographic equipment to a Ford pickup that was rented for 80 euros a day and the fuel tank was full. I waited for Thomas to exchange a few words with Angus, and then, in the sound of thanks from the three of them, they set off again and prepared Return to Cannes.

"Thomas, thanks to you this time, I'll give you a big red envelope when the movie is released." Lyman began to promise big cakes with unknown prospects again, but this was the only way he could think of in return.

"Hey." Thomas smiled a few times without saying a word, and continued to control the vehicle smoothly.

"If you want me to say, it's better to introduce a beautiful girl to him. Thomas, don't you have a girlfriend yet?" Ryan turned his head and asked.

"Well... I had one in college, but I broke up with her, and now I'm single."

"Very good, I will introduce a girl from the Cannes area to you."

Lyman couldn't see it anymore, so he quickly took down the stage, "Ryan, you don't have a girlfriend yourself? You're still thinking of helping Thomas find it."

Ryan responded with disdain: "That's why I didn't look for it. How many girls have I played with? They're not like you. I haven't tasted it yet. Ignore him, Thomas, we'll have time when we have time. Let's go to Martinez Beach together, there are so many beautiful girls there."

"Okay." Thomas agreed casually.

After the car drove back to Cannes, they did not return the Ford pickup as soon as possible. Instead, they drove towards Martinez Beach where they had just chatted. The suitable shooting location Thomas found was nearby.

Turning left at a highway intersection and driving into a small road, the car continued to drive, and Thomas also opened his mouth to introduce the information of the house, "The real estate agent said that it was a large warehouse used to store wood before, and the owner later Because the business transformation no longer needs this aspect, the warehouse is rented and sold. That place is not far from Martinez Beach, and the neighborhood is very remote and there are not many residents, which is very suitable for our film shooting.”

Lyman nodded, satisfied with Thomas' work. Such a location for shooting must not be selected in the downtown area, not to mention disturbing the residents, and there will be a lot of trouble if you are onlookers, and the remote ones are naturally more suitable for shooting needs.

"Ryan, is the family photo you collected ready?" Lyman turned his head and asked Ryan.

"It's done." Ryan said carelessly, "I used one from my cousin's family. She fit the image of a cute girl very well when she was young. I told my aunt and she agreed to put the photo in the movie. go in."

"Well done." Lyman agreed.

In this way, there is no need to pay the license agreement fee for photos. In France, if you don't communicate well with others when using portrait rights, you will be properly compensated.

The crew doesn’t have much money, so it’s a good idea to save a fortune. If you don’t plan carefully, maybe you can put all 450,000 euros into the preparatory work.

Big projects have plans for big projects, and small projects also have rules for survival. Lehmann sees it very openly.

If he has a sufficient budget, he naturally doesn't need to do this, but unfortunately he doesn't.

There are fewer and fewer trees on both sides of the road, and the path has become more and more rugged. Except for the sound of the motor of the Ford pickup~www.wuxiaspot.com~, there is no longer any noise that belongs to the city. After driving for about 5 minutes, a A large warehouse in the grass appeared in view.

"Can we go in and see?" Lehmann asked suddenly after getting out of the car, walking a few steps.

"I paid the deposit, and the real estate agent gave me the key to the warehouse. We can go in and visit." Thomas was very meticulous and considered a lot of things.

"Then let's go." Ryan also said at this time.

The three walked forward, first walking around the warehouse, and then Thomas opened the big lock at the door with the key and entered inside.

"It looks so broken and dirty." As soon as Ryan went in and saw this scene, he couldn't help but say.

"It is estimated that no one has used this warehouse for a year or two." Lehmann also responded.

"Maybe so, but this warehouse does have enough space for us to shoot." Thomas said a good word.

"But we have to clean the warehouse again, so much dust, how to shoot?"

"Then clean it up." Lyman answered Ryan's question, and then he asked, "If you rent for two months, how much is the rent?"

"I asked for 600 euros."

300 euros a month, still such a large warehouse, although it needs to be cleaned, it is also very cost-effective. Lehmann quickly calculated the gains and losses in his mind.

"Thomas, take the time to sign the lease contract with the real estate agent after you go back. We want this warehouse, and I will give you the required expenses later."

"Yeah." Thomas nodded without any objection.

After confirming the filming location, the focus of the preparatory work is almost completed, and there is no target for the starring candidate that this movie needs most...