Made in Hollywood

After just two days in Dublin, Mrs. Leah flew to London. The annual catwalk in 1995 was not only the first time in the history of Victoria's Secret, but also the most important event after the Super Bowl halftime show, as an advertisement Santa Fea, the planner, has too much preliminary work to do.

After sending his mother away, Duke plunged into work and even forgot about inviting Sophie Marceau from the studio next door to come out for drinks. The focus of this profession has not diminished.

In mid-December, the weather in Ireland dropped to around 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and before the set-up and some preparations were over, Duke announced that the crew was officially starting, because the beach set was ready.

It's Duke's largest shoot since filming, even surpassing some of the battle scenes from "Independence Day."

On the sea, on the beach, and behind the coastal fortifications, all the people were in darkness. Including props, makeup, costumes and other crew members, the total number of people who participated in the shooting of this scene has exceeded 2,000 people. This is a great test of Duke's overall planning ability. moment.

Fortunately, these two thousand people will never appear in the same shot, and even those shots of hundreds of people, in fact, except for the few live actors in the front row, the rest will use CGI to add or replace the background in the later stage, and This is not a one-shot shooting, and various montage techniques are enough to solve many problems in shooting.

Of course, there are always many difficulties when shooting. For example, the sea near the British Isles is not calm this season. The large boats leased by the crew for filming are not bad. Those landing craft swayed on the sea, causing many people I didn't get used to it. Although the vomiting scene was very real, it wasted a lot of time.

The troop lent by the Irish government is better. Although it is an army, it has been trained for a long time. The American soldiers led by Tom Hanks, except for a few people who are naturally adaptable, are basically All vomited.

Standing in the tent under the German fortifications, Duke stared at the monitor, which played the footage collected by John Schwartzman from various camera assistants. The shots were the real reflections of the American soldiers in the landing craft before the war.

Duke's brows have been frowning, obviously not very satisfied with the shot.

"Is there a problem?" Sophia asked curiously, "I think it's pretty good."

"Huh?" Duke turned to look at her.

Maybe it was because she had participated in the shooting of many movies, and this time she was the assistant director. Sofia Coppola obviously had some confidence in herself. She pointed to the screen of the monitor and said, "I think these reactions are very real. Someone vomited. Some pray, some panic, some pretend to be calm..."

"Although I have never enlisted in the army." Sophia looked at the resting place, which was a few Marine Corps officers, "but I have been in contact with them. I think this is the most normal reaction of human beings. If every soldier has high fighting spirit and regards death as home to go to the battlefield, that is false, right?"

"It's not the problem here, they're all doing well."

Hearing these words, Sophia was slightly stunned, Duke didn't wait for her to respond, turned his head and beckoned to the director of photography sitting in the rest area, "John! Come here!"

John Schwartzman walked over immediately.

"Is it a camera problem?" he asked.

"Here, look..." Duke pressed the pause button and pointed to the monitor screen, "John, the lens is too bright, there is a sense of distortion, and it does not conform to the documentary technique. I want the light to be more diffuse and soft."

"Also," Duke frowned and added, "the colors are too saturated..."

"Fade down?" Sophia interjected.

Duke nodded, "Yes, toned down."

"It's not difficult." John Schwartzman is an expert in this area. "I can do special processing on film negatives to fade the colors."

"As for the lighting." He thought about it for a moment, then called to his assistant, "Ben, bring a portable camera here."

Ben Watts walked over quickly with a hand-held camera in his hand. After John Schwartzman took it, he fiddled with it for a while, and then took a few shots of the interview with the sea, and said, "Duke, there is a way!"

He connected the camera to the monitor, pressed play, pointed to the screen and said, "Look at this lens, I took off the camera's protective lens. Without the protective lens, the light can directly enter the lens and reflect off. It turned out to be more diffuse and soft.”

"Let's do this for now." Duke was basically satisfied, "Take a few more test shots to see."

After a dozen consecutive test shots, the overall effect was not bad. The crew ended a short break, and a large number of actors and extras wearing US military uniforms were ready to board the landing craft and return to the shaky sea.

"Zach..."

Duke's side is also urgently assigning tasks, "You go to the No. 2 landing craft and capture the soldiers in the boat. John, you go to No. 1 boat, your task is to keep an eye on Tom Hanks! Sophia, you and Ben Watts Go to No. 2 speedboat, mainly to capture the bow and port side of the landing craft! David, you go to No. 1 speedboat with me!"

After speaking, Duke looked at the other three assistant directors and the rest of the camera assistants, "You follow the pre-arrangement and use long-range shooting on the shore!"

The group went to work on their own. Duke grabbed the camcorder next to him, walked to the beach, and shouted to Sofia Coppola, who was walking to the other side, "Be careful! Fasten your seat belt and don't fall into the sea!"

"You still worry about yourself." Sophia shrugged and walked with Ben Watts to the speedboat parked by the sea.

Walking to the vicinity of the landing craft, Duke first waved to Tom Hanks and others, and then to the officers led by the Irish side. The brigade of American soldiers walked into the landing craft, and an amphibious landing battle began again.

Now this season, working at sea is bound to suffer a lot. Although it is far from freezing point, the sea water is still cold. When standing on the speedboat to shoot the shot of the landing craft charging, the water splashes hit the face and fall into the neck. Absolutely uncomfortable, but Duke has always been in shape, and his enthusiasm and focus on the cause never seemed to fade.

After the filming was over, when he returned to the shore, he, the director, did not have time to rest, and reminded the relevant staff of the crew to deliver hot coffee in time for all those who participated in the filming, especially the main actors, who were driven by him to the trailer to replace the dry ones. After all, if someone gets sick, it will delay the progress of the entire crew.

"You're getting soaked!"

After changing clothes, Sophia came over, squeezed Duke's clothes, and brought a thermos. After Duke had a few sips of hot coffee, he urged, "Hurry up and change your clothes, if your director is ill, The trouble for the crew is even greater!"

Signing "OK" to her, Duke walked into his trailer, took off his wet waterproof suit, put on his dry tracksuit, grabbed a baseball cap and put it on his head, and returned to the set.

Most of the crew can take a break for a while, but Duke can't. He has to review the shot just finished. Fortunately, after readjustment, it basically meets his requirements. Even if the light and color are still not ideal in some places, they can pass the post-production. Technology solves it.

After resting for about half an hour, Duke walked out of the tent, looked at the scene that was still being set up, and strode over.

Because the filming has just started, the filming will not be smooth. Let’s talk about the first landing craft charging scene. It took more than three days for the rehearsal to end today’s shooting, and nearly half of December has passed. If you want to catch up with next year's summer season, you must speed up at least not slower than the current shooting speed, after all, you must leave enough time for post-production.

The next thing to shoot is the scene where the landing craft washed up on the coast and the Allied troops were directly exposed to the guns of the German army. A lot of blood plasma would explode here. Although Ireland does not have so many messy environmental protection organizations in North America who jumped out to cause problems for the crew, but The seawater here also cannot be polluted casually, and animal plasma must not be used. The props team specially ordered special tomato sauce and vegetable juice that are close to human blood.

The venue here, Duke, has stepped on it several times. The script sketches and shooting plans alone have made a thick pile. With sufficient preparations in the early stage, the shooting will become relatively smooth. The camera, the blasting point, the main actors Walking, etc., under the leadership of the assistant director Zach Snyder, after a simple exercise three times, Duke asked the assistant director to start.

The sounds of gunshots, wind, water, explosions and howls were mixed together for a while. Since the documentary filming method was adopted, the method of on-site recording was bound to be used.

The whole shooting scene was extremely chaotic. The Irish extras who acted as background paintings, according to their own settings, some fell at the door of the landing craft cabin, some died on the road of the charge, and some hid behind obstacles...

Standing on the platform not far away, Duke tried his best to watch the scene as a bystander. Although the beach was chaotic, it was actually not out of control. Before filming, Zach Snyder had already brought them with them according to the preset settings. The plan has been rehearsed here for a long time.

In the most critical position, John Schwartzman personally controlled a portable camera to capture Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks. The Oscar winner and Hollywood superstar also showed an excellent career. Literacy, even if the whole body is almost soaked by icy sea water, he is still doing his best to complete his role.

Wounded people tumbled on the ground, cowed soldiers huddled together and trembled, under war there is no strong, only cruel...

The battlefield gradually quieted down, and Duke returned to the beach, regardless of the red liquid everywhere, and began arranging the small scenes.

Soon, the beach regained its vitality. A soldier was shivering behind the iron frame made of triangular iron. soldier.

"Mom! Mom!" the soldier shouted in fear.

Perhaps the soldier's performance was too realistic, or perhaps this timid behavior was really cowardly. Duke suddenly heard a sneering voice behind him.

He turned his head and looked back with cold eyes.