After filming the aircraft carrier battle group footage, John immediately took the crew to the Bonneville Salt Marsh in Salt Lake City.

Here John will shoot the shot of Will Smith's pilot Steve shooting down an alien spaceship, pulling the aliens to the mysterious Area 51, and encountering an army of fleeing cars on the way.

And this shot John knew it would have a big impact on the audience, because the scenery here is so beautiful, the Bonneville Salt Marsh is a very salty salt lake, and in the summer, the surface of the lake will be thick with salt, and it will be white at a glance, and it is very hard, so it often hosts car and motorcycle endurance races.

After John and the crew arrived at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Barry, the prop master, and Larry, the set decorator, who had come to the Bonneville Salt Flats before him, immediately approached him to report to work.

"Fifty cars are ready, and the alien spaceship model is in place, ready to shoot. Barry, the prop master, had already come to the Bonneville Salt Marshes before the launch ceremony to start preparing the props needed for the shoot.

"Good work. John smiled slightly, seeing Barry's tanned face, he knew that the props team had a hard time in the Bonneville Salt Flats during this time, so he immediately ordered Sophia to provide everyone with more ice water and heatstroke medicine.

After Barry's debriefing, the set designer Larry began to report: "Boss! All the sets are done, the work here is over, I'm going to Edwards Air Force Base to set up the scene over there." ”

The scene at Edwards Air Force Base in the United States is the highlight, involving a lot of filming scenes, among which the mysterious Area 51 John is ready to be placed there, and the final Jedi Counterattack will also be held there, so Larry must go in advance to transform the vacated engine room into the interior of Area 51, as well as the deployment of dozens of fighters outside the field, and the maintenance of the hangar...... Wait, it's a big project, and it can't be done in a month. Of course, this is also a money-burning project, which cannot be done without more than one million, and the labor cost alone will cost 400,000.

The set cost involved in the whole movie is as high as 12 million US dollars, accounting for 15% of the total investment, which is not the place where the biggest expense, special effects and actors' salaries are the majority, special effects account for 40% of the total investment, 32 million, actors' salaries account for 30% of the total investment, 24 million, and the construction cost of the micromodel is 6 million, costumes and props are 4 million, all of which add up to a total of 78 million, so in fact, the remaining money for John's shooting is only 2 million.

The 2 million, John not only has to solve the food, drink, sleep and salary of hundreds of crew members for several months, but also solve the procurement and leasing of shooting equipment and items, the film alone costs 110,000, and the production of dubbing and editing in the later stage also costs money after filming, so 2 million is definitely not enough, and in the end, additional investment will be required, as for how much additional money will be added, it depends on whether John can save it.

And when the production is completed and released, John will have to invest 30 million in distribution fees, so the total investment of "Independence Day" needs at least 110 million US dollars, an absolute big investment, big production, and big marketing A-level commercial films, such movies Hollywood can't produce a few in a year, but this year there is a film with a larger investment than "Independence Day", that is, Universal Pictures' "Future Water World" , The investment of 170 million US dollars, plus the total investment of basically 200 million US dollars in distribution fees, is the largest investment in Hollywood this year, but it is a pity that its box office is really not competitive, only a little more than 200 million, and it has lost nearly 100 million according to the box office, which is simply a loss of vomiting blood.

However, what is even more interesting is that although Universal Pictures is John's company, John did not stop Universal from filming "Future Water World", and quietly watched the project and start filming of "Future Water World".

And John didn't stop it, in fact, because although "Future Water World" lost $100 million at the box office, Universal couldn't lose much money when the post-production income of broadcast rights and video tapes added up, and the most important thing is that although "Future Water World" lost money at the box office, the theme park made a lot of money, so what reason did John have to stop it? As long as the film can make money, whether it is from the box office, or from the surrounding area, or from the theme park, as long as it is real money and not counterfeit money. Didn't the great man say that a black cat and a white cat can catch mice, it is a good cat. So it doesn't matter if he loses money at the box office of his movie, as long as he can make money in the end.

Of course, if Universal is filming "Alien Battlefield", John will definitely stop it, it is a huge pit, with a loss of more than 200 million, and he may not be able to return to his original in this life, but this movie is Di Baobao's, it has nothing to do with John, he is happy to watch Di Baobao jump into the pit.

"Larry, the drama at Edwards Air Force Base is very important, and it's up to you to set up the scene, if you can't solve any problems, call me as soon as possible." John admonished Larry and agreed that Larry would set up the scene first.

After Larry left, John got acquainted with the crew, and let Zack Schneider and Sophia manage the convoy, mainly planning the driving route and changing the position of the vehicles.

In this scene, Will Smith is dragging aliens on the salt marshes, and later encounters a convoy of refugees passing by, and he takes them to Area 51.

And this scene focuses on showing the spectacular scene of thousands of cars walking on the salt marsh, John can't find thousands of cars, so the cost is not high, so he is ready to use the old method, just like the part of Forrest Gump's speech during the filming of "Forrest Gump", with a small number of people through different arrangements, plus the use of special effects in the later stage to form a panoramic shot, but the last time the people were arranged, this time it was a car.

Zack Schneider and Sophia gathered 50 car drivers together to explain their work, and quickly began to plan the starting route and location, which Zack Schneider was very experienced in doing and prepared all the work properly in an hour.

"Boss! We're ready to go. Sophia's voice came from the walkie-talkie, and John turned to look at Emmanuel who was standing on the high platform: "Is the camera ready?"

"Boss ready, ready to go. Emmanuel leaned on the camera and looked down at John in reply.

After listening to this, John got up from his chair and climbed up to the high platform to check the camera position, not that he didn't believe Emmanuel's level, but sometimes the director told the camera camera that the camera position posed by the photographer was not necessarily the shot the director wanted, so the director needed to check it before shooting to see if it was the shot he wanted.

After reviewing the cameras and making slight adjustments, John sat back on the monitor and instructed the recorder to play the board.

The difficulty of this scene is not very high, mainly because of the water grinding kung fu, it takes dozens of tosses back and forth, and it takes 2 days to complete, plus the post-production of special effects, it takes at least 5 days, it is really 2 seconds on stage, 5 days off stage.