Made in Hollywood

Just after Christmas, Duke left the island. After arriving in Brisbane, he had someone send Scarlett Johansson back to North America. Although he only stayed on the island for a little more than a day, he had already noticed it. Certain problems can turn to the worst of them if not carefully controlled.

Perhaps it was influenced by the divorce of her parents. In her conversation with him, Scarlett Johansson mentioned more than once that monogamy is completely contrary to human nature...

Duke is very clear that he is not a good person, let alone a gentleman. He also likes sexy and beautiful women. He has always been chasing fresh and beautiful excitement, but he also has his own bottom line. Since entering Hollywood, he has not really touched any future. As an adult woman, he also knows that his control in this area is extremely limited, like most men.

So, it might not be the best way to do things out of sight, after all, Scarlett Johansson is not yet sixteen.

And once this kind of thing starts to break through the bottom line, with his self-control ability in this regard, it may be difficult to maintain the bottom line in the future.

The reason why people are different from beasts is undoubtedly one of them being able to control their own sex.

Putting those things aside for a moment, Duke went straight back to New Zealand, halfway through filming on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a ton of work awaiting him.

Three days later, the crew reassembled in Wellington. Duke first called the key members of the team and held a brief meeting to determine the specific progress of various aspects and prepare for the next step of shooting.

After Zach Snyder left the crew to prepare for the sequel to The Matrix, the crew had to move forward from the original three-way to the two-headed shoot of Duke and Anna Prinz, a slower pace than before.

"I've shot most of Eowyn's scenes."

Anna Prinz mentioned her side of the shoot after the treasurer said the current account spending, "Most of Ella Fischer's scenes are done. Only the final match against Angmar the Witch King and A few shots of Minas Tirith."

The actress recommended by Cate Blanchett, whom Duke has not seen since the audition, was mostly shot by Anna Prinz.

Duke nodded, flipped through his schedule, and said. "Anna, in the next stage, you will shoot Faramir and the scenes of Frodo, Sam and Gollum. In terms of motion capture, please refer to Andy Serkis's opinion."

With the increase of Anna Prinz's scenes, Duke gradually gained confidence in her and began to give her some important scenes.

He turned again to the production manager. "Charles, when will the extras I want be available?"

"You'll see when we arrive at Nelson's Valley." Charles Rowan only had two days off for Christmas, and he had already contacted a large number of extras. "The male models who played the elves also arrived in Nelson."

Richard Taylor took the initiative to speak. "Weta Studio is ready, just waiting for the past to shoot."

What Duke will shoot next is the Battle of Helm's Deep, the famous fortress of Rohan, just like other props in The Lord of the Rings. There are no ready-to-use templates, and they are all based on the description of the novel. Newly built, and the exterior special effects of Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith in the White City were outsourced to Weta Studios.

The next day, the crew was again split in two. Actors such as Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis stayed on the set in Wellington, filming with Anna Prinz, while Duke led the team to a mine near the small town of Nelson, ready to shoot the exterior of the Battle of Helm's Deep play.

To the west of the mine is a valley formed by mining, which is the prototype of Helm's Deep, and to the south of the mine is Minas Tirith, which is built on the mountain. However, the model of the Holy White City has not been completed. prototype.

In contrast, Helm's Deep has been rebuilt by Weta Workshop. As soon as you walk into the valley, you can see the horn fort and the deep creek wall full of primitive texture at the bottom of the valley.

Of course, the two seem far from the grandeur and grandeur described in the novel. After all, this is a movie, and the budget of the crew is limited. Duke can't be as crazy as James Cameron to build a one-to-one model. .

Although Helm's Deep is not as cumbersome to build as Roth Lorien, and the architectural style of the horn fort is simple and practical, without too many cumbersome decorations like elves, it took Weta Workshop more than half a year to complete the holy For the location of Helm Valley, even Duke has visited more than ten times for field inspections and filming inspections.

Weta Studio has built two different scale models for the Clarion Fort. The first is a one-to-four scale model, which is built against the valley, supported by steel and wood, and covered with high-density polystyrene. board, and engraved with a water press, and then use a plasterer to spray plaster on the surface, and finally paint...

This kind of treatment makes the texture of the city wall perfectly reflect the vicissitudes of life and the ancient atmosphere.

However, except for some of the sites used for standing and filming wars, in order to save costs, most of the other places are only in shape, especially the surface of the horn castle wall wrapped outside the support frame, which is definitely not as strong as it looks. Even the outer walls of Helm's Deep can be destroyed with a fingernail.

Most of the Shenxi Walls are scaled down models of one to four. The crew just built a section of the city wall in the same proportion, also to save costs. The height of the city wall is sufficient, but the thickness is seriously insufficient. The most important part of this section of the city wall is the inward staircase. So that Legolas can be cool and handsome.

Then there is another one-to-35 model, which is mainly used for shooting long shots and adding backgrounds.

The crew was stationed on the outskirts of the valley. Duke went to see the extras and the male models right away. Needless to say, the male models were naturally the elf troops who supported human beings, and the extras were almost all tall and strong men. , they played the strong orc army created by Saruman.

The two sides who are really fighting in front of the camera are all played by special stuntmen. The most important role of these people is to act as a background painting.

After watching these extras, Duke walked into Helm's Deep. Today, due to time constraints, he will only do some preparatory work and will not be shooting on the spot. John Schwartzman, Hannah Serena, Jimmy Carter and Bill Morris are the heads of different functions of the crew. also followed.

After passing through the city gate of the Horn Fort, Duke walked to the top of the city and stood on a podium, overlooking the entire valley from a height. Although it was only a one-to-four model, the fortress was still huge enough.

Just a staff member who is always by your side. Remind Duke and others not to touch all standing walls, as that is standard tofu dregs work.

"Hannah..." Duke pointed to the location of the city gate in the front left, "Place the blue screen on the left side of the passage."

Then, he said to the other side, "Bill, put the bow and arrow launcher you made at the junction of the Deep Creek Wall and the Clarion Fort."

In this battle, there are a lot of shots of ten thousand arrows being fired. In order to highlight the authenticity, the crew specially made several bow and arrow transmitters, which can launch hundreds of soft arrows with stewed heads at one time.

"John," he called out to the director of photography at last, pointing to the city gate. "I need a lot of side panorama attacking the city gate. You find the right place to set up the camera and shoot with a wide-angle lens."

Duke is just a director, the most important job. It is to coordinate the various functional departments of the crew.

As he says, movies are never the product of the birth of individual heroism. It is the work of a large number of talented people working together.

A few people circled around the horn castle and the deep creek wall, and discussed a lot of matters in the shooting. They didn't return to the crew station until half-afternoon.

Although it is the Nth time to see the shooting location. But neither Duke nor John Schwartzman have any relaxation at all.

In particular, the director Duke, who is about to start filming one of the most important scenes in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy tomorrow, has met with key actors such as Ian McLean, Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom. , communicated with them about their respective roles, and then went to the props and costumes group to check the final preparations of various props and costumes.

In this war, the races that appeared were very mixed. The weapons and armor alone included the leather armor and chain armor of the soldiers of Rohan, the full body plate armor of the strong orcs, the exquisite armor of the elves, etc. No one can go wrong. .

Especially the costume team, they have to get up in the early morning tomorrow, and together with the makeup team, make up for the actor who plays the strong orc, an ordinary stuntman becomes a terrifying strong orc in front of the camera, and it takes at least six hours!

After watching it on the set, it got dark and Duke returned to his trailer, only to find that Ivanka Trump had also arrived on set.

"Didn't you say you want to celebrate New Year's in New York?"

Walking into the outer room of the large trailer, Duke sat opposite Ivanka, "Why did you come back so soon?"

"It's a bit boring in New York, every day is a different party." Ivanka seemed to have a headache. "You were already working hard for your future when I was so old, and my peers in New York..."

She said helplessly, "Most of them only eat, drink, and have fun. After staying with them for a long time, I think I will also fall, so I might as well go back to work."

Tina Fey still stayed in Los Angeles to handle some affairs in the Duke's studio, and Duke was also inseparable from a trusted assistant. Ivanka Trump's return to New Zealand was also in line with his needs.

Afterwards, the crew kicked off the battle of Helm's Deep. This quiet valley became a place of hustle and bustle. Not only did shouts and roars appear frequently, but even the tragic howls of frequent death occasionally sounded.

However, during the filming, Duke found that the mountains on both sides of the valley were not particularly strong, so he specially purchased a batch of hard hats from Wellington for some crew members to wear when they approached the mountain for filming.

Such a large-scale war scene has always been Duke's housekeeping skills, and the filming has been progressing smoothly. It was not until the strong orc rushed to the front of the horn castle that he encountered the biggest difficulty. (To be continued ~^~)

PS: This is the last update in July, thank you for your continued support! It's just that something happened at night, and it's going to be updated automatically. I have been insisting on three shifts throughout July, which is really not easy for a part-time writer, and the manuscript is almost reduced to single digits. If there are two shifts in August, please forgive me! All the friends in the group know that I will get married at the end of September. There are a lot of things going on during this time. We will insist on working hard to update! Finally, at the end of the month, ask for a monthly pass!