The story of "Casino Royale" itself is very simple, James Bond and the Phantom Party around a huge gambling capital of 150 million US dollars, the whole film consists of the airport crisis, the casino confrontation and the final battle of the three plots to form a complete and smooth story, even if it is the appearance of the angel trio, because of the first two parts of "Breaking Bad" as a foreshadowing, the film does not need to write more for the background of the trio, it is directly a hot and hot action scene. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

After years of personally directing a number of big-budget films, Eric is also increasingly able to grasp the key factors in the success of big-budget commercial films. One of the most important is that the story of the film should be simple and clear, which is actually in line with the high-concept film theory that emerged in the 80s.

The simpler the core story line, the more leeway the film director can play in the process of filming, the most classic case of which is Cameron's "Terminator", the whole story of the film is around T-800 sent by Skynet to assassinate Sarah. Connor unfolded without any complicated side plots, so Cameron was able to give full play to his cinematic talents, and the film eventually won $80 million at the global box office at a cost of 6 million, and made Cameron one of Hollywood's top directors in one fell swoop.

On the other hand, if a film wants to show the audience too much, the result is often that the director simply can't tell a complete story in two hours, and there are even more examples of failures for this reason in Hollywood.

In the screening room, MGM executives and the film's main creators were obviously very satisfied with the effect of the film.

Traditional 007 movies often have the shortcomings of fragmented stories, and the producers often stuff some plots that have nothing to do with the main line of the film, just to highlight the image of Bond's suave or heroic characters, so it also leads to most episodes full of loopholes. Casino Royale completely reverses this shortcoming while retaining the traditional 007 film style, and Bond no longer inexplicably appears at the military base of an unknown villain to wreak havoc, nor is he very abruptly called out of the bed of a hot girl by Mi6 to carry out a mission.

At the end of the screening, the lights came on, and there was a crisp applause in the screening room, knowing that Eric was not the kind of director who was rigid and self-serving, everyone began to speak freely in the screening room, expressing their various opinions on the film.

Although Eric is also very satisfied with the finished effect of "Casino Royale", he also knows the truth of the authorities' fans, because of the difference in personal ideas, the plot that may seem good to him seems very out of place in the eyes of others.

After more than an hour of discussion, Eric also roughly decided on a few revisions, intending to make a second revision of the film in the coming week.

According to the production and distribution schedule for Casino Royale, the film will be fully completed in March. During this period, the film will also conduct further internal test screenings, that is, like the closed test of the later online game, select some ordinary audiences, in the screening hall with a real-time monitoring system, there are special buttons on the armrests of the audience's seats, during the viewing process, if the audience is bored or disgusted with certain plots or certain shots, they can press the button at any time, and the production company will make further adjustments to the film according to the audience's real-time feedback. After that, it will enter the stage of grading, publicity, etc.

Of course, these processes are not fixed, and it all depends on the distribution of power among the film's investors, producers, and directors. If a director has absolute control over the production of the film, and neither the investor nor the producer can interfere, the director can of course edit the film exactly according to his own ideas. On the other hand, if the final editing power is firmly in the hands of the producer, the director is likely to be completely unable to intervene in the final cutting stage.

Of course, Eric has absolute control of "Casino Royale", only he wants to, he can edit the film exactly as he wants, but this is obviously unwise, even "Titanic", in fact, has also gone through the 'closed beta' stage, and Cameron has also modified part of the plot according to the audience's feedback.

After watching the sample film in the morning, discussing the revisions, and having lunch at Firefly Studios, everyone left, and MGM's headquarters had moved to Venice Beach, not far from Firefly Studios, near the original headquarters of Flower Pictures. Because Corklian sold all of MGM's studios as land, most of MGM's films that MGM needs to shoot in the studio are basically rented in Firefly Studios.

With MGM's revival, MGM's management also discussed plans to rebuild the studio, and Drew asked Eric for advice, but Eric vetoed it. In recent years, more and more films have begun to pursue live-action effects, especially big-budget films, unless they are special effects scenes, they are rarely shot in the studio, coupled with the gradual rise of tax rebate systems in various states in the United States and even overseas, Hollywood films will choose to shoot in Los Angeles in the future will be less and less, MGM built a studio at this time, which will only cause a fearless waste of resources.

Eric and Drew saw off the Blockley siblings together, and when the girl left the parking lot with him, Eric smiled and asked, "Didn't you have a job in the afternoon?"

Drew took two steps forward and grabbed Eric's arm affectionately, and said with a grin: "Yes, it's an audition for a movie, but I don't want to go for the time being, anyway, Amy and them are taking care of it." ”

"Heh," Eric said with a smile, "what kind of movie?"

"Xenomorph, a sci-fi horror film. ”

Eric nodded, not showing anything unusual, in memory, this film should be a work in 1995, but since many films are now produced in advance, it is not a strange thing that some movies are delayed for a year or two, and it is too common for Hollywood to prepare a film for ten or eight years.

When the girl said this, she seemed to be full of interest, and said: "It's the heroine who auditioned today, and I also let Natasha try it, but unfortunately the two of them are too stupid, they are like two logs in front of the camera, and they can't speak." ”

Eric turned his head to look at the twins who were quietly following behind the two, and Sister Natasha was also a little embarrassed to hear Drew's words, and when she saw Eric looking over, she lowered her head in unison.

Because Eric likes to use Ivanka as the mascot in his film, the girl also once said that she wanted the Natasha sisters to be the mascots in the Flower Pictures movie, but unfortunately, Eric has never seen twins appear in the camera once, it seems that there should be no such talent, but the girl herself, since she made a cameo in "Scream", she is now often haunted in various films.

Remembering that Natasha Hensg, the heroine of "Xenomorph" in the original time and space, happened to be in the Victoria's Secret Legion, Eric asked: "Since the audition is at MGM headquarters, it should be the last round, do you have any important candidates?"

Amy originally wanted Paulina Preskova to play the role, but the director didn't agree, so everyone had to choose again. ”

Eric remembered Priskova's face that resembled Audrey Hepburn, and if it were him, he wouldn't have agreed. The heroine of "Xenomorph" should be the type of actor with a cold temperament and a hot body like Natasha Hensquir, and Paulina Preskova's temperament is too elegant.

In addition to directing the Victoria's Secret show, Eric had no contact with Natasha Hensquich, and he didn't say anything more at this time, but said casually: "If the budget is enough, let Claudia try it." ”

Claudia Schiffer is more than enough to replace Natasha Hensquidge, and the temperament of the two is also very similar.

The girl shook her head: "After being invited, Claudia is reluctant to act, because there are a lot of dramas in the film, and the production budget is not much, so I plan to use a cheaper newcomer." ”

The two walked all the way, not meeting the office of Eric in the administrative center, but going to the office loft in the digital field, Cameron had already come over in the morning, but Eric was busy with the affairs of "Casino Royale", the two just took two pictures, and Eric didn't see Cameron during the lunch meal, and he didn't know if the other party was gone.

Walking into the main loft in the digital realm and asking the staff, Eric soon found Cameron in the lounge area, sitting at a table with Stan Winston, dancing and chatting about something.

The global success of "Titanic" has completely relieved Cameron of the original pressure, and he has been quite energetic in recent times.

Seeing Eric approaching, Cameron and Stan Winston stood up to greet them, and the four of them sat down at a long table, Eric told the twins to make coffee, but Cameron couldn't wait to say, "Eric, I didn't think you still had good things hidden here, and you didn't even tell me before." ”

Eric laughed, "You're more familiar with this place than you are at home, what can I hide from you." ”

As a film technology freak, Cameron as long as he appears in Firefly Studios, most of the time he comes to the digital field, even if he is not working, Cameron often comes to visit some special effects technology that has just been developed in the digital field, and the cooperation between the two sides has been very pleasant in recent years, in terms of technology, the support of Cameron films in the digital field can be said to be sparing, which also leads to Cameron not creating his own Light Storm Studio, in most cases, he just uses the resources of the digital field to realize his various ideas, which also makes the digital field benefit a lot。

Stan Winston saw Eric looking at him suspiciously, and explained, "Eric, it's the IMAX plus 3D screen we just installed. ”

Eric immediately understood that after accidentally noticing IMAX in New York last year, Eric had set up a technical team in the digital field to develop IMAX and polarized 3D technology in cooperation with IMAX in Canada.

Both of these technologies have been around for decades, but for various reasons, they have not been popularized in movies on a large scale, and now, with the financial and technical support of the digital field, related applications are being developed quickly. IMAX is also making the final public relations on the technology of converting ordinary film to IMAX film, and it is expected that the normal two-hour IMAX film will be realized next year, before that, IMAX films are only 40 minutes, and the conversion technology is not mature enough. Polarized 3D technology is even simpler, and in order to carry out various tests, the digital field has recently installed a large screen combining 3DIMAX in the cinema. That's what Cameron calls 'good stuff'.

For most of the past six months, Cameron has been busy with the production of "Titanic", coupled with the pressure on the cost and box office of the film, Cameron certainly has no intention of paying attention to new technologies in the digital field.

"These are some of the ideas that I came up with last year, you see, from silent films to sound films, from black and white films to color films, it took less than 30 years, and now, two or 30 years have passed, and there should always be some new changes in the film broadcast situation, so I will be optimistic about these two technologies. ”

Cameron was quite excited, and said, "Eric, you mean, you plan to promote 3D and IMAX on a large scale?"

Eric shook his head slightly, and said with a smile: "I think so, however, it always has to be taken step by step, you must have experienced it now, then you will definitely be able to find the difficulty of promoting these two technologies, 3D may be better, as long as the 3D projector is replaced, but for IMAX, most theaters in North America, want to replace the IMAX screen, it is obviously not too realistic." ”

After explosive development in recent years, the number of movie screens in North America has grown from more than 22,000 in the early nineties to more than 28,000 now. At the same time, the more developed the film industry, the more difficult it is to carry out reforms, the 28,000 screens in the United States are basically projection halls built according to the specifications of ordinary 2D screens, and most of the screening halls cannot accommodate IMAX screens with a length and width of tens of meters.

So, Eric's first step is just to start with the easier 3D.

As a movie maniac, Cameron has a more obvious idealism than Eric, hearing him say this, he was not discouraged, but said: "Eric, I believe that as long as you want to do it, you will definitely be able to succeed, so, don't you think, maybe we can try this technology on "Spider-Man", you think about Peter Parker on the huge IMAX screen, through the scene of high-rise buildings, oh, and add 3D, it must be very shocking." (To be continued.) )