A 500-meter-long street near the Santa Monica Highway in downtown Los Angeles has been cordoned off to outside vehicles, and a large amount of filming equipment has been unloaded from trucks since 8 a.m.

Nearby residents have also become accustomed to the stationing of film crews, this is Los Angeles, countless movie crews start up every day, and this road is not too prosperous, but it is between high-rise buildings, so many crews will shoot here.

But this time there are obviously more onlookers, not only because this movie includes two well-known superstars Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, but also because of the director Eric, many living directors have seen, but there are few young directors who have achieved great achievements before the age of nineteen, so it is not surprising that people have aroused strong curiosity.

The crowd of onlookers near the street is mixed with a lot of paparazzi with cameras on their chests, hoping to take some valuable photos, even if they can't shoot some exciting news such as accidents on the crew, but if you can shoot a few close-ups of the leading actors, it will be worth the day's wait.

"The extras are all in place, aren't they?" said Eric as he watched as the camera crew mounted cameras on the front of the car, and asked his assistant.

"Fifty people, all of them have come, Royce asked me to ask you, do you want to start preparing?"

"According to the plan, let the group performers familiarize themselves with their positions first, and then we will shoot a few street scenes. ”

"Well," Alan replied, "by the way, the people from the community agency said that we had to open this street for an hour at noon, and the reason they gave was that there would be a lot of people at that time, and we needed to get through this street." ”

Eric rubbed the corners of his forehead in distress, this is purely nothing to do, noon is not the time to get off work, how much can the flow of people increase. But he also didn't want to deal too much with these difficult agencies, and the crew needed to eat at noon anyway: "Reply to them, no problem, we will stop filming and let the streets out of the hour from 12 to 1 o'clock at noon." ”

After Alan left, Eric turned his attention to several taxis, all three of which had the same license plate number, just so that there would be no such detail in the shot, and once the shooting was complete, all three cars would change back to their original license plates.

Of the three cars, one did not require any processing, with the photographer shooting on the passenger seat, while the other two had cameras mounted outside the windows on the front hood and rear seats.

Today will be filmed the scene where Sean drives for the first time and wants to send Andy to the police station, and this scene in the script is less than two minutes, but according to Eric's calculations, after the complete shooting, the accumulated footage will be nearly an hour, so today's day, if you can finish filming this scene, it will be smooth.

After all the camera mounts in the taxi were ready, Eric picked up the walkie-talkie and began to give orders to everyone in the crew, and Cruise and Hanks, who had been staying in the trailer, got out of the car at this time, and the paparazzi who had been waiting nearby for a long time began to press the shutter frantically, the two were not dressed in much special, Cruise was dressed in black casual clothes, while Hanks was dressed like a courier, wearing a peaked cap and a plain white work suit.

After a brief re-admonition from Eric, the two of them got into the first unmodified taxi, the first of which was to shoot the exterior of the taxi driving down the street.

Eric walked behind the wireless monitor and looked at the screen that was less than seven inches, and after making sure that the lens was in the right light, Eric reconfirmed to the camera: "Alan, have all the onlookers left the shooting area?"

"All left, and now there are our actors in front of the cameras in several cameras. Allen's voice rang over the intercom, mixed with the sound of sneering electricity.

Eric had to make sure that if a face that didn't belong to an actor appeared on the screen after the production was completed, it would be a big hilarious.

American group performances are also actors, and the price is very expensive, but Eric still can't shoot the real crowd into it, not to mention whether the real passers-by will cooperate with the camera lens, even if they do, then in the future, the film production will be completed, and once it is discovered that it appears on the movie screen, with the character of an American, it will not be properly produced. Lao Tzu is on the movie', they will only contact their lawyers and sue the film crew for reasons such as infringement of portrait rights, and if they are investigated, the compensation of $1.8 million is considered light, and if the movie is not good, they may be forced to go down the file halfway through the release, then it will be a big deal.

Therefore, although Eric confirmed it here, after the post-editing is completed, he will also organize manpower to conduct a detailed screening of the identities of the characters appearing in the footage to ensure that there are no 'outsiders' in the film who do not belong to the actors.

So, when you see a Hollywood movie in which the main character walks through a crowded street, then, don't doubt that even if there are hundreds or thousands of pedestrians in the shot, it must be an actor, and not a single real passerby.

After Hanks drove the taxi to familiarize himself with the road conditions several times, the day's tedious filming began with Eric's order.

Eric's eyes were glued to the monitor, watching the performance of the two people in the carriage, and the sound of the conversation between the two ringed in the headphones, although it was not too clear, but it was enough to hear clearly, this section must be re-dubbed later, but the original soundtrack of the movie also needs to be retained as a reference for dubbing.

It was already afternoon, and Eric couldn't remember how many times it was a recurring shot, but there were a lot of NG times anyway. At this time, Eric was standing, and the staff deliberately raised the monitor to the position in front of Eric's eyes, although he felt a little tired, Eric had to continue to insist.

Cruise and Hanks had plenty of breaks, and every hour of shooting, they both had a break, and the two people in the shot were still in good spirits and didn't feel tired at all.

But when they were resting, Eric had to arrange other shots, and he agreed with the community agency to shoot only one day today, so many shots had to accumulate enough footage in case there were problems in the later stage and they were making up for the shot.

In the shot, Andy slowly pulled down the zipper of his coat, pulled out the pistol, and casually asked, "Where to go?"

"The nearest police station. Sean glanced in the rearview mirror and watched calmly as Andy slowly screwed on the silencer.

Andy looked out the window and smiled, "You're alone?"

Sean shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "That's enough." ”

"You don't have a gun, aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

"You shot me," Sean said, turning his head to look at it, "The car will flip." ”

"Yes, it's dangerous," Andy's relaxed smile didn't change at all, and he slowly rolled down the window: "You can take me to the police station, even if you win." ”

A pistol with a silencer poked out of the window, and Andy pulled the trigger without hesitation.

At this point, Eric shouted to stop, the taxi stopped, Cruise and Hanks got out of the car at the same time, and Nichol, who was in the passenger seat, came out with a camera on his shoulder.

After the three of them left the taxi, the crew quickly stepped forward and drove the taxi back to its original location, and many prop vehicles on the road also turned around and returned to the starting point in an orderly manner, waiting for the start of filming again.

Eric told the three of them about the flaws in the shot, and instructed them to take precautions when shooting again, and when they were back in place, Cruise and Hanks returned to the taxi, and Nichol followed the camera to get in again.

Soon, another shooting began.

is a movie without much depth, a 72-hour battle between a policeman and a robber, when promoting, it will definitely use sentences such as plot ups and downs, and in the eyes of ordinary audiences, it is indeed the case.

But for Eric, compared to those brain-burning blockbusters in memory, this movie doesn't have any plot that needs to be thought about, it's just a cool commercial film. Therefore, when filming, the acting requirements for the two leading actors are not too high, especially the location scenes of this movie, which basically do not require too much acting skills, and the strength of Cruise and Hanks can be easily controlled.

During the month from mid-April to mid-May, the crew spent most of their time running around the streets of downtown Los Angeles, sometimes staying on one street for two or three days, and sometimes completing all the shots in half a day. All in all, the process can only be described as boring.

After a few days in England with the crew, Jeffrey returned to Los Angeles and soon flew to the crew in New York. As for Firefly's employees, except for the security guards who stayed at the company's headquarters and a few clerks who were responsible for sending and receiving emails and handling daily affairs, everyone else basically followed Eric's crew. If you ignore the horror profits that Firefly films make, the studio is no different from many of the smaller independent studios in Los Angeles.

Although the filming of the location scene is very cumbersome, it has not encountered too many problems so far, the shooting progress is basically the same as the previously set shooting schedule, and it is expected that the filming will be officially closed around May 15th.

Colombia's market value has jumped to $3.5 billion because of the negotiations with the wealthy Sony consortium during this time, and the Japanese see Colombia's stock price rising day by day, and there is nothing they can do, this kind of huge merger and acquisition involving billions of dollars is absolutely impossible to complete without a year and a half, and the media estimates that if a qiē is negotiated, the contract will not be signed until September at the earliest, and even if the acquisition agreement is successfully signed in the end, the subsequent series of handovers will take several years.

Therefore, the box office results of the summer season have become the last time for Colombia to push up the stock price.

Warner originally had two major productions to be released, but because they were scheduled for July 7, Warner had to postpone the release of the original July until the end of the year.

In 1987, the box office of the first part was more than 60 million US dollars, which was considered a big hit, so the cost of the second part doubled this year, and if you want to recover the cost, the box office must reach at least 100 million US dollars.

So Colombia has become the only film giant in the summer file with two blockbuster release plans, and the other big production is zuò, which is also a long-awaited sequel for fans, the first one was released in 1984, five years ago, as for why Colombia suddenly launched this plan at the beginning of this year, the shooting schedule is almost the same, and its purpose is self-evident, after all, Colombia only has such a series of movies that can be handled.

"Eric, do you need to hire some more?"

In late April, Jeffrey completed a tour of the two crews and returned to Los Angeles, where the two met for the first time in half a month, in the Firefly's conference room, at 8 p.m., and during the day Eric came to the company at all.

At this time, Eric was looking at the text brought back by Jeffrey, and said without raising his head: "No, when it's done, I'll ask Jonathan and Martin to recommend some crew members to join Firefly." ”

"Okay, then, what about the TV series, the one you said...... Well, time is getting tighter, and Fox executives have contacted me and asked you to provide a script, and they are willing to help with the preliminary preparations. ”

Eric smiled, he had already made it clear to Barry Diller that there would be fireflies on their own, and Fawkes still didn't give up the idea of wanting to intervene. This is also understandable, after all, this is a sitcom, the cost of production is very low, if you can co-own the copyright with Firefly, if the TV series is successful, Fox can also prevent Eric from using it as a bargaining chip to pinch himself, and even if it fails, it is only a few million dollars investment, which is not painful for Fox.

"Reject them, you see, if they came to you instead of contacting me, it means that Fox knows my personality too. ”

Jeffrey hesitated, but then said, "Eric, you...... It's not good for you to do that. ”

Eric finally looked up, "Huh?"

"You...... It's too lonely to do anything, movies don't allow others to interfere, and TV series don't allow it, which doesn't work in Hollywood, even if it's a lot of small-budget movies, multiple investors will be introduced, sharing risks and sharing profits at the same time, this is the orthodox Hollywood survival rule, even if it's the six major film companies, although the competition is fierce, but there is also a phenomenon of cross-shareholding between each other. ”

"I see what you're trying to say," Eric scratched his head, "just...... Maybe it's not the time yet, I'll definitely share it with others in the future, but while I can still eat alone, of course, I have to eat a few more times, and when the others can't stand it anymore, I'm giving them some. ”

Jeffrey showed a helpless expression: "Okay, so when are we going to start preparing?"

"Starting tomorrow," Eric said, "I'm calling you here today to discuss this matter, and we have to start this project as much as possible, and I'm going to go there." ”

"Eric, do you mean the patch ads, even if Colombia agrees, it's not very worth it, and it might even cause disgust to the audience. ”

"It's not a roll," Eric denied, explaining to Jeffrey in detail the intent of a few shots.

"That's a good idea," Jeffrey nodded, then questioned, "but in less than two months, and you promised Fox to direct the first two episodes himself, do you think you'll be able to do that?"

Eric shook his head: "No, I don't need to shoot any episodes, all the ideas are in my head, we just need to do everything we can to determine the characters, finish the set, and shoot a few interesting sequences." ”

Jeffrey felt that this plan was very feasible, and he also saw that if the plan was successful, it would have an unexpected publicity effect.

"But, Eric, I don't have any experience in TV drama production, maybe you need an experienced TV drama production zuò person. ”

"As I said, I'm not going to let Fawkes meddle in this," Eric said, "So, Jeffrey, it's up to you to work a little harder." ”

Jeffrey showed a somewhat meaningless smile, with a little ridicule and ambiguity: "Actually, among the people you know, there is one who has done TV drama production." ”

Eric's thoughts turned, and soon the pretty face of the little stubborn girl and John Aniston who had met several times came to mind.

He ...... John should be from NBC, and his main focus is still on actors. Eric's first reaction was to resist, father-in-law and son-in-law, these two creatures are naturally repulsive.

Jeffrey said: "But he is always more experienced than me, I don't know anything about the production of TV dramas, if I have enough time, I can explore it slowly, but you still have such a tight time jam, so ......"

Eric pinched the paper in front of him and rubbed it a few times, before nodding slightly: "Then I'll try my best to contact him, if not, I still want you to go out." ”

Jeffrey nodded, "So, on the actor side?"

"Jenny's role has been decided," Eric said: "I need five more roles, I will go back at night and write down the requirements for the role, and I will hand it over to you tomorrow, and start casting as much as possible, this time the scope is not too large, otherwise it will be too troublesome to interview, at least there must be actors with acting experience, I think in this way, people who are willing to sign up will not think so much about the first few movies." ”

"It's not much," Jeffrey laughs, "TV dramas don't have the seductive power of movies." ”

It was not until nine o'clock in the evening that Eric left Firefly's office building, and asked John Aniston to be the producer, preferably through Aniston, so Eric headed for Aniston's residence.

When he arrived at the door of Aniston's apartment, Eric did not knock on the door, and found the spare key from the flower pot next to the door as usual, but spun it around the lock hole a few times, only to find that it was locked inside.

It can't be for himself, Eric thought with a wry smile, shoved the key into the pot, and knocked on the door.

"Who," I heard the girl answer, and a moment later, the door opened a crack, and Eric was about to push the door, only to find that there was an anti-theft chain strung between the cracks in the door, this thing was definitely new, look at the chain, shiny!

It's definitely for yourself.

Eric thought so in his heart, but his body put on a posture on the door frame that he thought he was pulling the wind, stared at Aniston, and asked in a very hippie tone: "Niu'er, you have been sleeping for a long night, and you need a strong man to comfort your lonely little soul?"

"Get out!" Aniston glared at Eric and slammed the door shut.