Chapter 186 of the text volume is a short film

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Perhaps influenced by his own experience, Murphy has always believed that language is more convincing than action, and language without action support is just a cannon.

It is useless to try to convince Frank Miller to just find him and say how he will be, the other party is over fifty years old, not an uninformed person, far from being impressed by simple words.

Within AA, there is an analysis of Frank Miller, who believes that in addition to his talent for comic book creation, he is also a suspicious person.

In this world, nothing of value is at your fingertips, and in order to convince Frank Miller to get the basic conditions to start comic book rights negotiations with D, Murphy must prove to Frank Miller that he can turn the soul, the beauty and the black and white phantom of the original book into a movie.

How can it be proven? Murphy chose to start by shooting a short film-quality video about the comics, impressing Frank Miller with authentic and persuasive imagery.

After Murphy spoke to Bill Rothes, Bill Rothes gathered the likes of Fili Raschel, Helena Espora, Jack Watson, and David Robbie, who had worked with him, to experience the success of two films in quick succession, and these people also liked to continue to work with Murphy, just as Hollywood companies are always chasing successful directors, and they also tend to work with successful directors.

And the object of cooperation is still familiar people.

When these people received a call from Bill Rothes, they quickly agreed.

In addition to them, Murphy also needs an actress, because it is a real Yàn shooting, it is impossible to pay much, Bill Rothes found an actress who takes both the model and the actor route from the many contracted clients at the bottom of AA.

In addition, a small studio under the umbrella of the digital sector was contacted to create special effects for the filmed images.

Because this is a self-funded real shooting, all funds can only be paid by Stanton Studio for the time being, and with the current financial strength of Stanton Studio, there is no need to worry about the expenditure of up to 100,000 US dollars.

With that out of the way, Murphy gathered everyone into a conference room in AA for a communication session before filming.

"Filip,"

In the conference room, Murphy stood at the front of the long conference table, "You need a Sony H-950S camera for shooting, you are responsible for renting it, you can do it in one day." ”

"Okay." Fili-Raschel nodded.

"Also," Murphy added, "this picture should be very stylized, with bright colors in the black and white vision to point out emotions and feelings, and the tone of black and white is at the same time a binary division between morality and human nature, but it is also responsible for it through color, beyond the monotonous facetography!" ”

The two had already communicated on the phone before, and Fili Raschel had also read the comics, and none of this was a problem.

"Paul," Murphy continued, "contact a studio for green screen shooting. ”

One by one, he instructed, "Jack, the female character's costume and makeup should be bright red enough, and a nude dress should be prepared." Helen, you have to do your best to design a character background that matches the style of the comics......"

Finally, Murphy looked at the back of the left-hand side of the conference table, where Bill Rothes had hired an actress, a British actress who was born and raised in the United States.

He looked at the other man's long blonde hair, "Ruth, you need to cut your hair short!" If you have any objections......"

For many actresses, long hair is their second life, and Murphy is not sure if the other person will cut her hair to match the image in the comics, and if she is not happy, then change someone.

Sienna Miller, who was sitting there, had been silent, knowing that she was not qualified to speak among these people.

Now that the problem is on her own, Sienna Miller did not hesitate, "I can cut my hair at any time." ”

Although it is only a real project now, if the project can really be established, the female role she plays is very likely to become an important role in the feature film.

This is a great opportunity.

As for James Franco, who plays the male role, Murphy didn't say anything, with his current acting skills and the style of the film, coping with this kind of role is just trivial.

After the communication meeting, Murphy asked the financial department of Stanton Studios to allocate 100,000 dollars, temporarily for the expenses of this real project, with enough money to support, this temporary crew also ran at high speed, Filip Raschel got the camera rental in half a day, Paul Wilson negotiated the studio with Disney Studios, and Sienna Miller cut off her long hair accompanied by Jack Watson......

After Helena Espora took out the design drawings and modified them according to Murphy's request, the two of them went to the special effects studio in the small town of Venice and communicated with the special effects supervisor for a full day.

Murphy also prepared a continuous storyboard to serve as a reference for filming and actors' performances.

As a result of the original agreement, D wanted to transfer the film rights to Sin City, or invest in the filming himself, and Frank Miller agreed to be the most basic prerequisite, and in order to impress this notoriously stubborn guy, Murphy completed the short film entirely with the requirements of a full-fledged feature film.

After a week of preparation, all the work was in place, and Murphy's temporary crew was assembled at the Disney studios, and since it was only a one-day lease, the filming had to be completed as soon as possible.

In the morning, Helena Espora's team built a balcony of props and set up a green screen around the balcony, which will be used as a backdrop for the shoot.

As soon as lunch passed, the crew entered the on-site shooting stage.

There were only two actors in the whole scene, James Franco and Sienna Miller, and Murphy completely left the filming to Philip Raschel, who sat behind the director's monitor and watched the shooting in action.

Before the start of filming, Murphy deliberately walked into the venue to see Sienna Miller's makeup, as the only character in the film with strong chromaticity, the red she represents must be bright enough in the black and white world.

Sienna Miller cut her hair short, probably because of her makeup, her eyes looked particularly deep, and further down, her retro thick red lips looked like they had just been stained with blood, and the clothes on her body were also blood-red.

"I didn't ...... No problem, right? "Sienna Miller is a little unconfident.

Murphy nodded to her, "Relax, you're very good right now." ”

With that, he turned back to the director's monitor and said loudly, "Shoot will start in three minutes!" ”

Everyone on the temporary crew was doing the final checks, and James Franco and Sienna Miller also walked to their respective positions.

The shoot started on time, with Sienna Miller in a flamboyant red dress walking towards the edge of the balcony, and Filip Raschel gave a large close-up of the panorama from behind.

Seeing this close-up, Murphy immediately raised his right hand and shouted, "Stop! ”

Sienna Miller turned her head to look at Murphy, not understanding where she had made a mistake.

Murphy didn't care about the actors, and shouted to Jack Watson's makeup and costume team, "Jack, come here!" ”

Jack Watson immediately trotted all the way over, and Murphy didn't talk nonsense, and said directly, "The clothes are still not bright enough." ”

"This is the reddest dress I've ever seen...... Jack Watson scratched his head a little, "I'll have someone look for it again." ”

Murphy looked at the red dress on Sienna Miller again, shook his head, and said, "In this way, change the nude dress, and I will let the special effects studio solve the problem through the post-production special effects." ”

Jack Watson was just about to leave when he was stopped by Murphy again, "Jack, and red lips, also changed to nude." ”

Since the effect of costumes and makeup is not up to the mark, it is better to solve it with digital special effects, and Murphy is not a stubborn person who does not know how to be flexible, so he made a decision right away.

The shooting was not too smooth, Philip Raschel made two mistakes when shooting, after all, it was different from the previous style of photography, after he found his form, James Franco and Sienna Miller's performances also went wrong, fortunately it was a performance against a green screen, and they didn't need to show shocking acting skills, and when the sun outside turned to the west, Murphy announced the end of this shot that was only a few minutes old.

For a busy week, just for these few minutes, the preparation for the filming is far more time-consuming than the shooting itself, and it also consumes more of a director's energy.

The shoot was done in one day, but it was only the most basic footage, and Murphy personally sent this shot to the special effects studio in Venice, telling them to do their best.

If you want to do it, you have to pay enough fees, which is the simplest business rule.

After Murphy paid half of the money in advance, the studio set aside two teams to produce and render the shot and the background at the same time.

After waiting for a full ten days, it was not until mid-September that Murphy got the finished version of this shot, and he reviewed it for the first time, and the effect was basically satisfactory, and the picture was very much in line with the style of the original comics.

Then, he ran to the Death Star Mansion where AA was located and found Bill Rothes again.

"Bill, do everything you can to help me determine Frank Miller's itinerary," Murphy said straight as he walked into Bill Rothes' office, "I need to know if he's in New York or in Los Angeles." ”

Bill Rothes nodded, picked up the phone, dialed several numbers in a row, and waited patiently for a while, about fifteen minutes later, a call came back, he picked it up and said a few words, wrote down the name of the place in his notebook, and looked at Murphy after breaking it.

"Frank Miller was in Los Angeles all this time," he said, glancing down at his notebook, "and he's on vacation and doesn't want to be disturbed." ”

Murphy frowned slightly, and Bill Rothes added, "He'll be at a pie in Malibu tomorrow night, and I'll find a way to get you a ticket." (To be continued.) )