Chapter 322: The end of the torment

Jennifer Love Hewitt takes drugs before filming? Although Duke is a workaholic, he is not really crazy, and the other party is showing his attitude to him as a director.

However, Jennifer Love Hewitt's efforts are indeed worthy of recognition. Her outstanding performance has not only been recognized by Duke, but also recognized by the entire crew.

In front of the camera, the daughter played by Jennifer Love Hewitt clashes with her police father played by Liam Neeson.

Do you remember to take care of me now?

In the room, she stood crookedly, as if she was venting her dissatisfaction with her father in this way, Don't you only have work in your eyes? L.A.P.D, huh... They are your family, right? The police who maintain justice? You can't even keep my mother...

Having said this, she suddenly gave Liam Neeson an angry look, turned and walked towards the room, a necklace with a cross was thrown behind her back.

Liam Neeson watched her daughter's back disappear, but she didn't know how to communicate with her, and she didn't know that her daughter had started taking drugs.

The door slammed shut.

Great!

Duke's rare words of approval, Jenny, Liam, well done, excellent!

Filming continued over time, Duke found that Jennifer Love Hewitt was much more malleable than Kate Beckinsale, but it was really hard for a youth idol to transform, let alone an idol singer She made her debut, even when Britney Spears wanted to leave the road of being a youth idol, she hit her head and bleed.

Jennifer Love Hewitt was talented and willing to work hard, but Duke remembered very well that she died very quickly. It can only be said that in Hollywood sometimes opportunities are really very, very important.

Maybe if she meets a suitable character like Juno did to Ellen Page, she will soar into the sky, and if she doesn't, she may sink.

Of course, if the film is successful, maybe her path will change.

Time to enter the end of November. Duke began to lead the film crew on location in Wellington. The film didn't need too many location shots. He had already sent Anna Prinz back to Los Angeles to shoot the real big panorama.

It is difficult to distinguish a city by relying on the close-up lens without signs in the city, but the panoramic lens is clear at a glance.

While the film fits the plot of the North Hollywood shooting no more than fifty percent at best, it turns the panorama of Los Angeles into Wellington. Duke still wouldn't make such a low-level mistake.

The shooting time on the streets of Wellington was not long. In just over a week, the crew returned to the studio to prepare for the most critical and final climax. That crazy shootout.

The open-air studio not far to the west of the main studio has been set up by the set and props team to look like the Los Angeles branch of Bank of America and part of Laurier Valley Boulevard through sets and models. Abandoned cars that were re-dressed were also dragged to where they should have appeared. If you only look at the close-up, it looks like the morning of the Bank of America robbery.

It was a battle involving nearly a hundred police officers, hundreds of members of the public, and dozens of journalists and videographers. As well as a big scene involving hundreds of various cars, in which the police and criminals fired more than 1,500 bullets, 14 people were injured, and 2 people died. It was one of the craziest bank robberies in the history of Los Angeles and even the United States.

However, for Duke, who has helmed the realistic war scenes of Saving Private Ryan, such a big scene is not difficult.

In fact, the overall shooting of the film is not difficult. The most difficult thing is the editing in the later stage. How does he cut the completed footage into a just right three-line narrative.

The film wouldn't have made sense to Duke if it wasn't for the need to hone a three-line narrative.

The shooting of the entire gunfight scene was cut into countless small pieces by Duke, then carried out separately, and finally connected together by editing. This is the simplest and most time-saving and labor-saving shooting method. The investment in the film itself is limited, even if Warner Bros. Out of confidence in Duke, an additional investment of $2 million was added later, bringing the production cost of the entire film to $10 million, but the fact that Duke invested more than $50 million at every turn made an earth-shattering scene. For the director, if you don't plan ahead, it's almost inevitable for the crew to overspend.

Although the filming has only been going on for more than a month, which is a lot faster than the original plan, Duke still wants to end the filming as soon as possible, because he is currently enduring a kind of torture.

While filming was in progress, Duke had to go through the preparations for The Lord of the Rings throughout.

Unlike the filming of The Matrix, the Lord of the Rings trilogy only stayed in the preparation of plans and paper designs, and now the preliminary preparations for The Lord of the Rings have entered a critical stage of full implementation, even if they are not responsible for any specific items. The final review of props, sets, actors, makeup, special effects, costumes and location, etc. is an extremely tedious job.

This is not an audit that stayed on paper before, but an audit that needs to go to check the real thing in person, otherwise it will be discovered that the props and location do not meet the requirements when shooting...

If he had completely handed over the preparatory work for The Lord of the Rings to someone else, this would have to happen.

Duke was not alone in the torment, but also his director of photography John Schwartzman and art director Hannah Serena, who were indispensable professions around the director when examining scenes and props .

If this situation continues for too long, Duke believes that the nerves of the team will be broken. After all, people are not machines. Even if he, the director, can endure the fatigue and pressure of preparing or shooting movies at the same time, others may not.

Fortunately, this realistic shootout wasn't too difficult for Duke and the entire team to shoot.

Jason Statham and Gerard Butler, who play two gangsters, are going to suffer, while Larry Phillips and Emile Matasalinu were armed to the teeth when they robbed the Bank of America. The top and bottom are wrapped with at least two layers of Kevlar material, and the single-person load even exceeds the load of the SEAL team. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is two bloated humanoid monsters.

Although Jason Statham and Gerard Butler don't have to carry such a terrifying weight, they will definitely be padded to match the shape of a gangster. It's summer in Wellington now, even if the wraps are breathable Layers of material with excellent sex, feel absolutely uncomfortable.

The only good thing is that the summer in Wellington is not too hot. If it is shot on the streets of Southern California in summer, it will be wonderful.

Even so, every hour or so of filming, Duke would stop and let Jason Statham and Gerard Butler remove their thick gear and let them breathe, although this would slow down the filming, but once the actors If something goes wrong, more time will be wasted.

Since the shooting of the shootout for three days, noise has inevitably become the theme of the set, and many cars have been turned into hornet's nests.

Taking advantage of the break, Duke called Liam Neeson over.

Did I make a mistake? he asked when he came over.

No, you did a good job. Duke looked at the suit on him. For the next scene, Liam, be careful, rescuing the wounded is always ahead of everything.

Liam Neeson nodded knowingly, I understand.

In addition to the last shootout, Duke's script can be said to have largely been separated from this event, but the shootout is not just a shootout, it must show the brilliance of human nature, and the brilliance must be placed on the Los Angeles police.

On the surface, the two gangsters and nearly 100 police officers were almost powerless to fight back. It seemed that the Los Angeles police had lost all face, and it must have been the focus of criticism from the public and the media afterwards.

The fact is not the case. The Los Angeles police later received unanimous praise. Not to mention the huge gap in firepower between the two sides, the fact that many Los Angeles police officers were injured by covering ordinary citizens is enough to cover up some disgraceful aspects.

At the end of the development of the film, the Los Angeles police who represent the justice side are not biased. Do they want to defend the gangsters who are shooting wildly at everyone?

Some directors can indeed do this, but with Duke's status and status as a director today, absolutely not.

Therefore, in the last shootout, the L.A.P.Ds must be tenacious, brave, persistent, heroes who defeated fire with willpower, and at the end of the film, they will also enjoy the treatment of all Hollywood heroes.

The sound of gunshots, broken glass, screams of panic, and howls of pain became the sounds that would be heard almost every day on the set for the next week. Accompanying these sounds, the number of remaining shots decreased rapidly. , the filming of the film is coming to an end.

On December 18, as the SWAT team led by Don Cheadle surrounded Jason Statham and shot him down, the crew finally ushered in Duke's voice that the filming was over.

It took just over a month and a half for Duke to complete the shooting of the new film, much faster than planned, but the tiredness on the faces of him and DP John Schwartzman could not be concealed. A holiday is a necessary choice.

But Duke can't leave New Zealand for the time being. Even if he is resting, he has to stay in Wellington. The crew will shut down the party and he will attend, but he is exhausted physically and mentally. There is enough space for him to rest quietly on a large sandy beach.

Instructing Anna Prinz to send the film that was shot today to the bank vault, Duke left the set, walked back to his office, and called Tina Fey, who was back in Los Angeles again, and she brought the negotiation with Google. and The Matrix from the global market and other information. (To be continued ~^~)

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