Made in Hollywood

Firing the stills photographer is just a trivial matter for Duke. In the past, his crew did not have a dedicated stills photographer. The well-known still photographers in the film circle, but practice has once again proved that those who can handle independent films may not be qualified for positions in commercial films.

After the stills photographer named Jack left the crew, Duke again handed over the work to John Schwartzman's team.

In fact, the stills are to let the potential viewers of the movie see "Wow, there is something I like in this movie, I want to watch it!" to achieve this goal. Stills artists generally do not have this function to judge what content is interesting to the audience and newsworthy. Therefore, there must be some rigid regulations for the work of stills artists.

Before the filming started the next day, Duke specially called John Schwartzman over.

"John, the promotion of this film is different from before." Duke looked at the director of photography standing opposite him, and said bluntly, "While we pay attention to the news of the stills, we must also take into account the principle of confidentiality."

"I understand." John Schwartzman nodded.

Duke also said, "I only have four requirements for stills. First, no less than 3-5 stills can be used for each scene; second, no less than 10 stills can be used every day; third, The total working hours shall not be less than 80% of the filming time of the crew, and no less than 300 stills after retouching may be used; fourth, the still photos must be in a horizontal orientation, which meets the requirements of news photos.”

These are all quantitative requirements. Each scene, or important scene, must have 3-5 stills that can be used. Because sometimes when filming, there are actors with bad expressions for a moment, and there is room for selection, but there must be stills for key scenes.

John Schwartzman is an old man who follows Duke, so he naturally understands what he means, "Don't worry, Duke. I will keep an eye on these jobs."

Later, John Schwartzman found a very ordinary camera assistant to take care of this work. Compared to the Jack who was fired by Duke, he was famous in the independent film circle. This person can be said to be unknown. newcomer.

This kind of thing is not uncommon in Hollywood.

The producer asked to find a stills photographer, of course he would find someone who is very good at stills shooting, but sometimes, the filming starts. The producer talked about the work with the stills artist, and suddenly found that the stills artist was far away from his request, and almost half of the photos could not be used.

At this time, the producer will be very surprised and very angry. I feel that the stills artist is careless, and the stills artist is also very angry, thinking that his work has not been respected accordingly...

In fact, it's easy to say, just like Duke and the stills artist. Everyone's understanding of the movie may have a big deviation.

Many stills artists from the independent film circle sometimes regard themselves as photographers who create works. This is absolutely unacceptable, a stills photographer is not a photographer who takes artistic photos, but a stills photographer is more like a news photographer.

And that's it. In fact, the stills artist should not be managed by the film crew, but should be managed by the publicity team and marketing department.

Unlike art photography, stills are largely for film marketing efforts and are one of the most powerful tools for film marketing.

In the film circle, the crew is usually understood as "tasting".

The so-called "materials" such as stills, posters, and trailers are the communication tools of the movie, that is, the audience does not know what a movie is like, what it is about, and its quality. By looking at these materials, they can have a preliminary understanding and impression. If you are interested, you can learn more about it, or just watch it, and you will make a purchase.

The crew wanted to make the stills of the film arouse the desire of the viewer and feel that it was just right for him.

Of course, the quality of the sampled food is exactly the same as that of the genuine product, except that the sampled food is a specialty dish of a restaurant. In fact, there is a marketing concept here, which is that the movie should attract audiences who like this kind of movie, not that if you are a Chinese restaurant, you must take out a sample of Western food for tasting, and customers who are satisfied with the tasting, go in and order It is not the western food they want to eat, but the audience who like to eat Chinese food will not even enter after seeing the western food you try here. This is because the marketing must conform to the characteristics of the product, not to deceive people.

Movie stills and other materials are as important as the first impression of a stranger. The quality of the movie, important content, and the performance of the actors will leave the audience with the most authentic first impression in the stills, which largely determines Whether the audience is interested in watching.

Sometimes this first image is a poster or a trailer, but in this era of image reading, there are certain restrictions on viewing videos. Posters and stills are the most widely spread, least restrictive, and most utilized picture forms. In fact, Compared with posters, stills are more popular. This is why audiences will often see a foreign movie poster at a glance, even if they don’t know the foreign language, they will recognize the movie.

A poster is an advertising picture of a movie, and sometimes it can represent the movie, its main content, style, temperament, etc. However, there is another very big difference between stills and posters, that is, posters can be post-produced and can be "made out of nothing". Can.

That's why Duke put so much emphasis on stills during the filming phase.

Stills must be newsworthy. Among the three materials, posters, trailers, and stills, posters and trailers can be "made", that is, they can be "secondary creations", but stills are basically not allowed. Stills Very similar to news pictures, but not the same as news pictures. The biggest function of the stills is actually to introduce the movie, and the release of the stills is basically in the various news of the movie, or the official release of the stills, so the biggest exposure of the stills is through the news, so the requirements of the news pictures must basically match. For example, it cannot be oblique, crooked, heavy PS, spliced, or "fake".

Since there is no way to post-produce the stills, the stills are basically synchronized with the filming, and the stills will be handed over to the marketing staff when the filming is over. If there are any problems, there is basically no room for maneuver, so Hollywood When marketing, we often encounter problems such as unqualified stills, poor shooting quality, insufficient quantity, and missing key stills.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is a larger-scale movie than its predecessor, and Duke isn't going to take any of George Lucas's advice, but instead plans to go back and make a new trilogy.

It was crucial that Duke wanted the film to be shot away from the prequel aesthetic and as a continuation of the original trilogy, with The Force Awakens having the purity of the first, but in Appropriately, but also with the drama, beauty and shadows of The Empire Strikes Back, he wanted the image quality to feel believable based on the IMAX film and locations.

The production's art department also went back to its roots, looking for inspiration, adhering to Duke's proposed "analog" film look and feel, filming the scene using Hannah Serena designed and built practical sets, some will also use actual monitors , and flesh out some scenes with CG holograms.

These scenes usually feature 2D drive angles rather than green screen special effects scene extensions.

When the filming came to an end, Duke called together the core crew members such as Anna Prinz, Hannah Serena and John Schwartzman, and emphasized the precautions during filming again.

Several people surrounded the director's monitor, and Duke stood in the center.

"We know how to make the image fade away, let the background stay away naturally, and avoid unnecessary criticism." Duke's voice is clear and loud, "Thinking about the design with depth of field helps, and I require the texture and surface of the scene to be extremely high. Tolerance..."

Having said that, he looked at John Schwartzman, "The shots shot in IMAX must have the style of the original trilogy."

John Schwartzman is full of confidence, "The two IMAX cameras of the Death Star and the Millennium Falcon are equipped with Panavision's special anamorphic lenses, and I have designed many retro shooting methods based on them."

As he spoke, he walked to the director's monitor, pressed the broadcast button, and a previously shot shot appeared on the monitor.

As the few people around him stood in front of the monitors, John Schwartzman explained of the scene, "These shots will have a late 70s film feel, while retaining some of the modern qualities we know and love. ...I wanted to keep the high contrast of that era, so I had Panavision add a lens coating. On the other hand, they also make the lenses feel softer."

Some films in the 1970s used filters to get a softer look, John Schwartzman was working as a camera assistant in the UK at the time and he was "very aware" that putting a stocking in front of and behind the lens could help counteract some of the film's shortcoming.

Therefore, in the preliminary preparations, John Schwartzman asked people to prepare a large number of Dior 10# stockings, almost bought out the stockings in the Dior store in Los Angeles, and did a lot of field tests.

The small meeting didn't last long. When the meeting ended, Duke asked Tina Fey to give everyone an IPAD.

Duke maintains a digital booklet on an iPad that allows everyone to see the qualities each lens needs and its unique look.

In the past, photographers would spend a lot of time matching lenses because of color temperature, contrast, and other variables. Now, with advances in technology, computer previews can handle these issues.

So, if the colors from different lenses don't match up, what might have been a big problem in the past, now that Duke is prepared, it's no longer a problem.

Star Wars has a large number of fans, including many celebrities. During the filming process, many Hollywood stars participated in guest appearances, such as Charlize Theron. (to be continued ~^~)

PS:  Ask for monthly and recommendation tickets!