Movie Master

When City of God was finished, October in the southern hemisphere had quietly passed away. When Lance arrived in Rio de Janeiro, he was still stepping on the tail of winter, but when he left, the footsteps of the scorching summer were already driving away the lazy pace.

In a blink of an eye, Lance stayed in Rio de Janeiro for nearly five months. Although it was expected from the beginning that the shooting of City of God would be very difficult, the real situation far exceeded Lance's expectations and even lost control. Even with Donald's help, the shoot was still trembling and stumbling.

As the shooting progressed, the gangsters near the City of God became more and more restless, especially the series of reports of the Brazil Globo, which almost focused the attention of the whole of Brazil, which made them have to shrink their policies and try to do as much as possible. Concentrate your whereabouts and avoid being caught on the cusp of such a storm, then things will be difficult to end. Therefore, the major gangster forces around the slums began to move around. Some people supported the filming of the crew to show their true appearance; some people hoped to expel the crew and restore the previous order.

The containment and tension between the big forces is filled with invisible gunpowder. Although Stealing Chicken Man/Nu/Er stands on the side of the City of God and has become the biggest protection force of the crew, but facing the aggressiveness of other forces , Man/Nuer is also a little overwhelmed, he has to cheer up to deal with the opponent, even fight.

In October, two large-scale gun battles broke out successively, causing the production crew to be completely shut down. In the end, they were still concerned about the power of public opinion led by the news media, so they temporarily ceased fire, so that the crew had the opportunity to continue all work. But that's only part of it.

Compared with the big forces, what is really annoying is the continuous harassment of scattered forces.

In fact, the so-called scattered forces are not forces at all. It may be that a dozen children gather together to do some petty theft; These forces are not qualitative, have no fixed team, and are not controlled by big forces such as Stealing Chicken Man/Nur/Er, so their appearance is characterized by suddenness, mobility and uncertainty. , could not find a suitable method.

These scattered forces are obviously aiming at the City of God. In their eyes, this is an inexhaustible treasury. As long as there is a shortage, they can rob it and solve their problems soon. dilemma. Therefore, the City of God is like the only garden within a radius of ten miles, and almost all bees and butterflies flock here to collect honey.

But the fact is that the crew of City of God is also poor. The budget of 3 million has already been spent quickly, and this budget also includes follow-up publicity expenses-in other words, if the budget is overrun in Rio de Janeiro, then the subsequent plans will be found in the new The investment must be stopped before.

As a last resort, Lance had to discuss with Man/Nuer again, broke the previously signed agreement, disrupted all the fixed daily shooting procedures, and then changed the shooting location, changing the shooting time and location at any time, and even changed the The means of transportation, even sometimes in the middle of the shooting, suddenly moved the equipment collectively to shift positions and continue shooting.

All these changes have almost doubled the difficulty of filming. Every day, the crew seems to be fighting guerrilla warfare, playing hide-and-seek with those scattered forces. To make matters worse, from time to time, they would be surrounded by those big forces, and they would always be threatened by bright guns and knives. The whole filming process was completely dancing on the tip of the knife.

Even with the full police vigilance, the filming process was still frightening. When Lance announced the finishing, everyone in the crew cheered and celebrated. The filming, which lasted for more than two months, was, without exaggeration, a nightmare. Now, the nightmare is finally over, and of course everyone is celebrating.

Lance, if you knew from the very beginning that the filming of this film was so difficult, would you still have decided to film this film? Percy looked carefully at Lance's expression, but did not look at that face. I saw too many emotions on the Internet, as if all of them were covered under the thick eyelashes.

City of God has experienced too many ups and downs during the filming process, and they are all life-threatening disasters. Any mistake may lead to irreparable consequences-maybe the film is ruined, maybe a Lives are ruined. It's unimaginable, but Lance almost relied on his own strength to lead the entire crew to the end. Even Percy, looking back now, still has lingering fears.

Lance didn't speak immediately, but quietly looked at the children who were laughing happily and making fun in front of him. After a long time, Lance said in a low voice, Yes. It was concise and clear, but crisp and clear, without any wavering , without any hesitation, without any hesitation.

Percy was stunned, a little surprised by Lance's answer, but after thinking about it, it was reasonable, it seemed that there was no other possibility except this answer. Perhaps, before asking the question, Percy already knew the answer, but Lance affirmed his idea with a more certain gesture.

The corner of Percy's mouth couldn't help showing a faint smile, and then the smile couldn't be controlled, and the sound overflowed after a puff, but he quickly retracted it and regained his serious expression, What's next? You plan to edit the movie yourself ?

I don't intend to add more burdens to myself. Lance said with a chuckle, Besides, the editors' union will definitely not want to see me.

Editing is a vital part of the filmmaking industry. To put it simply, the director uses the lens to tell the story, but the use of the lens is limited, and the connection must be completed through editing, so the work of the editor was born-they use editing to splice the story. An excellent editor can turn decay into magic, and the influence of editing style on film style is also obvious.

At the Oscars, the ultimate award is the best film, where all the heroes compete; in addition, the best film editing award in the technical department is called the small best film, which is the overall strength of a work. It is an important proof that in the long history of Oscar, the vast majority of the winners of the best picture are also the winners of the best editing award.

In fact, at the beginning of the film's birth, the director's part-time job was to edit, because the film itself was created by the director, and he had the clearest and most accurate understanding of the connection of shots. However, as time progressed, the profession of editor was gradually separated, because there are still differences between editors and directors.

Editors are more objective than directors, because they do not participate in the shooting, so they are the calmest in the creative process. Their accurate and keen insight and decisive decision-making play a vital role in the success or failure of the film. The editor must learn to stay out of it, to treat everything as a play, and to treat each scene as a scene only, so as to achieve the best effect.

In many cases, directors are often unwilling to give up, and hope that the shots will be longer and longer, but the editor must be firm in his own ideas, and boldly cut out all the extra shots, so that the film can achieve the best effect.

The relationship between the editor and the director is not only mutual cooperation, but also mutual opposition. The collision of creative ideas and sparks of thought often makes the relationship between the two very sensitive.

With the establishment of a large film company, in order to reduce the power of the director and ensure the effect of the final product of the film, the company supported the separation of the work of the editor and the director, and then held the right of editing in their hands to control the quality of the film; at the same time, the American editor The establishment of the division union has prevented the monopoly position of directors. Now in Hollywood, directors are prohibited from working as part-time editors-he can participate in the editing process, but the editing work must be done by professional editors.

It is precisely because of this that there is a difference between the director's cut version and the official version of the movie, and at the same time, the film industry also has a difference between the first cut and the final cut. These are important battlegrounds for power struggles between studios and directors.

Only big directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can hold the final editing rights in their hands. Even so, the film company still has the final decision-if the final editing version is still not satisfactory, they You can ask the director to rework; a small number of directors who have achieved certain results can get the rights to the first cut, and then pray that the version they edited can satisfy the film company, otherwise the initiative will not be in their hands afterwards.

In the long history of film, Once Upon a Time in America ​​is the most famous work that the film company held the final editing rights and was completely destroyed. As for the director Sergio-Leone (Sergio-Leone) finally died in depression. It was not until more than ten years later that the director's cut version was rediscovered, which shocked the whole world. This work is also considered the greatest failure in Hollywood history.

It can be said that editing is one of the crucial links for the success of a movie. Finishing, just means the beginning of another job. This is especially true for City of God, where shooting can only be said to take up 50% of the role, and the remaining 50% must be completed by editing.

Fortunately, since City of God is an independent work, and it is invested and produced by Lance's own company Chaos Films, the editing part is much simpler. There is no power struggle between the company and the director.

I have already contacted the editor, an old friend, I asked him to spare the most recent time and devote himself to my work. I can start working when I go back to Los Angeles. Lance is no longer the first This is the first time I have made a movie, so the whole process is well planned and planned early. He let out a sigh of relief, Now the problem is not editing, but distribution.

Percy also fell silent, the release of City of God, which is even a more difficult task than filming. One nightmare has just ended, is another one about to begin?