Hearing Brian de Palma's instructions, the staff picked out a copy of the several boxes of "Lola Run" samples and put it into the viewer, pressed play, and everyone looked at the big screen on the wall.

On the screen, after the board, the first thing that appears in the picture is an empty shot.

In the fixed-point upward shooting perspective, bright golden sunlight is projected through the window with two half-open bamboo curtains.

Under the strong light, the patterns on the bamboo curtains, the Barbie dolls in the corners, the withered bouquets on the windowsills, all the elements give a sense of quiet and perfect harmony.

The judging criteria for the quality of movie lenses are basically whether they are excellent or not in several elements such as composition, color, and camera movement.

The lens in front of you is clearly of an impeccable level in composition, color and use of light.

There is no outsider in the studio who doesn't understand movies, so although I didn't see the actors' performances for the first time, it was just such a simple empty shot, and everyone couldn't help but secretly praise in their hearts: beautiful.

The fixed-point space, which was about 5 seconds long, lasted three times.

Immediately after that, the second lens remains empty.

However, this time it is no longer a fixed point, but a slow forward push shot.

In the picture, Lola and her boyfriend are pictured, with a red card in the shape of a radial heart, and the clutter on the table, the lighting and composition are also excellent.

Then, the third shot, although it is still empty, the picture begins to move.

Lola's green plaid trousers are on the left, the black beer bottle is on the right, and in the center is a small turtle crawling slowly. Compared to the first two empty shots, this shot is more interesting and conveys a vague mood of restlessness

Everyone also realized at this time that this should be a continuous set of empty shots.

However, the three shots, three completely different compositions, all of which are full of imagination and show the creator's profound aesthetic skills.

After a set of empty shots, Laura herself finally appears in the frame.

Anyone in the studio who was exposed to the film for the first time was slightly surprised to see Laura's intense color style of fiery red hair, blue tank top and green trousers, an avant-garde image that is almost a cartoon character is still rare in Hollywood movies. However, due to the perfect set of empty shots just now, these people can't help but regard this alternative as an innovation.

The samples printed from the original negatives are naturally silent.

The silent picture continued to play for more than two minutes, and everyone in the viewing room also reacted differently.

Ron Macmillan, the producer of "Lola Run", was completely relieved at this time. After so many years in Hollywood, Ron can still easily judge the quality of the dailies in front of him, and Simon's shots are countless times stronger than the best-case scenario he has ever imagined.

Well, it is obvious that Simon's directing style, which is different from that of other directors in the past few days of filming, is not at all tricky, this is a young man with a very high talent for filmmaking.

Kathryn Bigelow had seen Simon's talents more than once, so she had enough confidence in Simon from the beginning to just enjoy the dailies with everyone.

David Giller's mind only flashed a thought, he really didn't mistake the little guy.

As for Brian de Palma.

In the whole room, he should be the one with the highest professional quality.

Robert Redford and Kathryn Bigelow have some previous directing experience, but both have little experience in this area.

Due to his professionalism, Brian de Palma was more and more surprised as the dailies were played.

After Simon gave up his collaboration with Orion, Brian De Palma did not retract his promise to be the executive producer of "Lola Run", and he really admired Simon as a young man.

However, Brian de Palma was not without worries.

In the film and television industry, the phenomenon of screenwriters turning directors is very common, but this is often a gradual process.

Simon's screenwriting credentials had just caught the attention of Hollywood, and he couldn't wait to specialize in directing, which Brian De Palma thought was definitely not a wise choice.

Therefore, despite the promises, Brian de Palma will not allow his name to appear in the film's subtitle list in the future if the future of "Lola Run" is too miserable.

But now, Brian de Palma has let go of his worries.

The first empty shot on the screen gave Brian de Palma a very high rating.

From a purely technical point of view, a strong backlit scene, if not handled well, there will be flaws such as flare and fogging in the picture, but Simon's lens does not find these problems at all.

If only this one shot is perfect, it's nothing. The series of backlit shots of Lola then standing in front of the window and talking on the phone appear impeccable in all aspects of the technical angle, which is very rare.

Moreover, Brian de Palma is also very positive about Simon's warm yellow tone for the film, which can be said to be the easiest shade to feel relaxed and comfortable, and this color scheme also seems more cinematic.

In addition, in the sample film from a four-and-a-half-minute length film in front of him, the use of various shooting techniques also shows Simon's excellent ability to manage shots. In particular, the last shot in the dail, where Lola rushes out of the room and turns all the way to her mother's bedroom and then to the TV again, is a fantastical trajectory.

However.

All of this was not the most surprising to Brian de Palma.

As soon as the four-and-a-half-minute demo was finished, Brian De Palma immediately asked Ron Macmillan, who was sitting on the other side, with some uncertainty: "Ron, has this version of the demo been colored?"

In the film era, the lenses that were printed through the initial negative were different in terms of color and exposure due to various differences in lighting, scenery, and even the quality of the film itself in each scene during the shooting process. Therefore, after a film is edited, the dailies must also be graded one by one by a professional colorist, set a special color scheme for each shot, and then handed over to the processing factory personnel to process one by one according to the corresponding plan.

Moreover, most movies generally have to go through at least three color matching to achieve the screen effect that the audience finally sees.

It's not hard to imagine what a complicated process color matching can be for a film with thousands of shots. However, even in the digital age many years later, no film can escape the complex color matching process.

But.

Just now.

Brian de Palma found that in the four-and-a-half-minute sample shots of "Lola Run", there were not many obvious differences between different shots in terms of exposure and tone.

You must know that although they all belong to the same scene, the color, lighting, and other aspects of each shot in the sample are completely different. So, counting repetitions, it's a miracle that this uniformity of color and exposure can be achieved across more than twenty shots in total without color matching at all.

Ron Macmillan was stunned when he heard Brian de Palma's sudden question, and said with some doubts: "Mr. Parma, shouldn't the color scheme be a job to be done after the editing is done?"

Hearing the conversation between the two, David Giller, who was originally discussing with Robert Redford the camera movement technique of the last follow-up camera in the demo just now, also suddenly reacted, looked at the screen that had been darkened, and immediately turned to the staff next to the film watcher: "Quick, put the sample film just now." ”

The screen in the room soon lit up again.

Everyone, who was basically aware of what was going on, stared at the big screen on the wall.

Due to the divergence of attention, after the replay, everyone also found that there were still some color differences between the different shots of the dailies.

However, everyone has to admit that this difference is actually very small.

Even, if it weren't for the slapping at the beginning of each shot, the whole demo would feel basically like watching a movie in its format.

It is conceivable that if all the shots of the film can be up to the current level in the future, it will mean that after the editing is completed, the film may only need to go through a very simple color scheme once to achieve the perfect result.

Has there ever been such a situation in a regular commercial film in Hollywood that only needs one color matching to achieve the finished film?

That's right.

Appeared.

The name of that movie was The Godfather.

However, it was Gordon Willis, Hollywood's top cinematographer, who was proficient in both lighting and sets, who was in charge of the filming of "The Godfather" back then. Moreover, the reason why "The Godfather" will only be matched once is because of the excellent quality of the lens itself, in fact, it is also because it is forced to rush the construction schedule.

Now, a new film by a newcomer that costs only a few hundred thousand dollars to make, just by virtue of the quality of the sample shots, it can be felt that the film is likely to achieve the finished result with a simple color matching.

How can this not be said to be a miracle?

After four and a half minutes of sample film, David Giller immediately instructed the staff to play another few boxes of sample films.

More than twenty minutes later.

As the screen in the viewing room went dark again, everyone was silent for a moment.

Then, Robert Redford turned directly to Ron Macmillan, with a bit of obvious eagerness in his tone, and said: "Ron, this film, the cinematographer, the lighting designer, the set designer, all introduced to me, I must invite them to participate in my next film." ”

Hearing Robert Redford's words, David Giller and Brian de Palma also looked at Ron Macmillan at the same time.

Such an outstanding behind-the-scenes talent, they are also unwilling to miss it. Both of them were busy with "The Butterfly Effect" during this time, and they were not very clear about some matters of the crew of "Lola Run".

Ron Macmillan was stared at by the three bigwigs, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching.

Such a requirement.

It's a bit difficult.

The cinematographer is the director's own part-time job.

The set seems to have been made by the director himself.

As for the gaffer.

Well.

This one.

Who the hell is the gaffer?