Made in Hollywood

For Duke, satisfying ordinary movie fans and audiences is far more than anything else, and this is also the most basic criterion for his filming and production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a screen sci-fi epic about friendship, faith and loyalty opened its first chapter. 37 years later, its seventh story is about to set sail, and this side is called Planet The banner of The Great War was also handed over to the new generation of film industry workers who grew up with its legend to work together to complete it.

Returning to Los Angeles from San Diego, Duke plunged into the huge sound stage at the Hughes Aircraft Factory to start filming the few remaining shots.

Too few people,

Standing on the innermost high platform of the studio, Duke looked at the densely packed stormtroopers below, and said to Anna Prinz, Are there any extras?

Here will be a shot of a general of the First Order giving a speech. The scene set by Hannah Serena is based on the situation when Hitler gave a speech to the Nazi SS during World War II, which is also following the Star Wars It is not difficult for those who have watched the original Star Wars trilogy to find that the uniforms of the Imperial Army are very much like Nazi uniforms.

As for the Sith Emperor, no matter how you look at it, he is the incarnation of Adolf Hitler.

To a certain extent, Duke still uses this hidden setting, and he will not have any concerns. In the Western world and even the whole world, anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler can be said to be the most basic political correctness and value orientation one.

It is true that there are quite a few people in this world who sympathize with and even admire Nazis and Hitler, but few people would be so stupid as to directly publicize such things, unless he is as stupid as Lars von Trier.

The Danish director has always had a problem with his head. He not only thinks that he is the God of the film industry, but even the God of all mankind. From time to time, some amazing words are thrown out to attract attention and gain attention.

For example, the so-called dogma95 declaration, not to mention the other directors he requested, even he himself has never done it.

But often walking by the river, there are always wet shoes, this director with a problematic head. Naturally, it also messes up its own hype.

In 2011, Lars von Trier brought his new film Melancholia to the main competition unit of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. His lack of concealment shocked the whole of Europe.

The usually quiet director blurted out, I have always been proud of my Jewish identity; then I met Suzanne Bier, a Danish director whose work A Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language that year. I was a little upset after that. Then I found out that I was actually a Nazi. My family is from Germany, which made me very excited. What else can I say? I understand Adolf? Hitler, even I feel sorry for him.

This is not over yet. Facing the media in the room, Lars von Trier was still talking nonsense. I'm a Nazi.

Not to mention others, even the leading actors of Melancholia Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg were shocked, as if the person sitting next to them was not the film director they knew at all.

In the end, Lars von Trier was directly expelled from the Cannes Film Festival and France.

Anti-Nazi can be said to be the most basic principles. In something like a movie or something, sympathizing with the Nazis. It's just asking for death.

As for Star Wars, although it has never been directly expressed, anyone with a discerning eye can understand that the villain who is whipped by the bright side is the cosmic version of the Nazis.

Due to insufficient number of extras. Duke turned around on the high platform, and said to the back, Tina, let everyone else in the crew not participate in the filming dress up as Stormtroopers, and those who came to visit the crew...

This situation is normal, and it is not surprising that other crew members make temporary guest appearances in Hollywood in scenes that require a large number of people. Duke did the same thing when filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The rest of the crew who were not directly involved in the filming work all put on stormtrooper costumes, even Daisy Ridley and Daniel Wu were no exception. This finally made up enough stormtrooper camps in front of the green screen. In the remaining long-range shots The stormtroopers can be added through post-CG.

Compared to the nearly one-day busy preparation work, the shooting seemed too smooth. After repeating it only three times, Duke announced that the shot had passed.

In the follow-up shooting, Duke still maintained enough caution and focus. How to capture the essence of the old version of Star Wars was not difficult for Duke. The real thorny issue was how to create a new chapter with the personality of the times.

People born after 1990 and 2000 have become the main force in the film market. They don’t know about Darth Vader’s entanglement with Luke Skywalker, names such as lightsaber and Darth Vader, and even “I am Your father stalks have attached more meanings of cultural symbols, rather than symbols that only Star Wars fans are keen on.

As a screenwriter, director and producer, Duke must ensure that even if the generation did not grow up with Star Wars, it will not be a problem to understand Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

After all, the real protagonists of Star Wars: The Force Awakens are the two rookie actors who made their debut in mainstream Hollywood commercial blockbusters - Daisy Ridley and Daniel Wu.

To get these two roles, in the words of the media, they are absolutely lucky, but the audition process they went through was also painful, long and deceptive, because the Star Wars signboard was too loud. During the audition, Du Ke even created a fake script for actors to audition for reasons of confidentiality.

After being selected as the leading role, the burden on these new actors has not been relieved at all. Star Wars: The Force Awakens also requires the actors to face real guns and live ammunition during the performance. The two protagonists have to run in the desert fully armed to avoid explosions , Duke will never deny the professionalism and special effects production of the entire team.

Of course, the work of the director Duke is also quite heavy.

For Duke, one of the most important things about Star Wars is that it's not just any one simple thing, and in fact that's why he chose the film so much.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not only an epic masterpiece, but also incredibly detailed and moving; it is serious and meticulous in some ways, but it is also funny and hilarious; conflicts of interest while being genuinely funny and warm and romantic at the same time.

It can be said that this story has it all. This is a story about friendship, about trust, about devotion, about loyalty, about believing in yourself, all these strengths unite us tightly.

What Duke has to do is to use its existing materials and characters to create a new story, and it does not require the audience to have seen Star Wars before. The audience will see Han Solo in the movie, but watch this movie Movies They don't need to know him before.

If fans have seen Han Solo in the first few films, they may watch his performance from a different angle.

The other protagonists of this movie are all debuts, and the audience can follow their eyes and see the world in this movie together.

In the mainstream movie market in this world, some people only know Star Wars from games; some people only know one or two episodes in cartoons; Haven't seen it, but everyone knows something about Skywalker and Lightsaber, even if not everyone has seen the series.

There are also people in many places who have never seen these movies at all, so Duke knows that making such a movie requires a sense of visual shock, an eye-catching action plot, and a feeling of confrontation between light and darkness.

These are eternal themes.

Star Wars itself, the first film in the series, is so straightforward in many ways that some might argue that many elements of it are outdated today because they are so simple.

But it's still a beautiful, funny, touching, and sweet story about underprivileged grassroots people -- people who aren't elite, powerless, and would never have thought they'd be capable of standing up to the biggest evil forces.

There are huge mysteries in it, there are still many unsolved problems, and there are still many things that need Duke to lead the whole team to explore. , but it doesn't matter, because even if you don't need to know anything, it is enough to be attracted by it.

It already has all the elements that the audience can think of for an epic movie-tense story, fierce battles, dramatic conflicts, magnificent scenes, it has it all.

But for Duke, the key to the success of the film is that the audience should like and care about the characters in the play. Only then does its voyage become meaningful.

Duke's goal is to make the audience want to see the story that happened on it.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens needed to be epic and emotional while also delivering stunning special effects.

Since formally forming a team, Duke and his collaborators have made some incredibly good films.

When the time entered the second half of July, Duke successfully completed all the filming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and immediately transferred to post-production.

This time is different from the past, the production of special effects is less than that, for the emotional effect, Duke used a lot of real scene shooting.

The live-action footage is equally as good, with so many characters and scenes, you might not believe they were live-action, but they are.

In post-production, a lot of times Duke uses CGI to remove things, not to add things, such as removing mechanical operators, steel wires, protruding controls, or other things like that.

While busy with post-production work, Duke still has an important task of receiving media from China. (to be continued ~^~)