The lengthy filming process was quite grueling, and the post-production was not easy, and although there were very few scenes in "Chicago" that could have used special effects, after spending two full weeks editing a nearly five-hour first cut of the sample film, Duke and Mike? The entire post-production Zuò team led by Dawson has completely entered the turtle speed stage.

"Chicago" is in an era known as a miracle, an era of art, an era of spending, and an era of ridicule.

This era is also called the "Jazz Age", and Chicago in the Jazz Age, as the entertainment capital, is full of sensuality and news hype, the entertainment industry is developed, the old and the new are rapidly replaced, human nature is indifferent and despicable, and reporters are afraid that the world will not be chaotic.

The final film is to show the upside down of good and evil, black and white, and money supremacy in that society in gorgeous songs and dances and colorful and changing light and colors.

As a song and dance film, "Chicago" contains a large number of singing and dancing scenes, tango, jazz, blues, tap, ...... Want to intersperse weekday narratives and cabaret performances in the scheduling of a variety of scenes, and achieve a seamless flow, Duke and Mike? Dawson takes a lot of time and effort.

"The singing and dancing scenes are all expressions of the actors' inner feelings."

Standing in front of the workbench in the editing room, Duke said to Mike? Dawson and several editing assistants said, "So the singing and dancing scenes are mostly imagined by the heroine, and I asked the editing points to mostly step on the beat of the sound, and start with the actors' feelings, like the music recorded in the field, with a certain sense of rhythm!" ”

As a song and dance film, a large number of dance movements, body language and subtle facial expressions must be combined through reasonable shots to achieve a visual impact. The film's editing is meant to highlight the expressive power of the activity and to clarify the nature of the film as a whole, as well as every scene and shot.

The selection of action editing points with obvious rhythms can give the whole film a jazzy sense of jump.

In addition to editing, Duke also had to take someone to process the tone of the corresponding shot, so that the color and light of the set during shooting could better match the needs of the scene.

"Mike. Remove all the previous shots, and I asked for a close-up of the heroine's eyes at the beginning of the film! ”

Not to mention that this is a film invested by Duke independently, since "Independence Day", he can get the final editing rights of any directing project, and at the moment looking at Mike? Dawson took the assistant to work, while saying his request, "After that, I went directly to the No. 47 shot, darkened the background color, and accentuated the color of the title 'Chicago'!" I want a bright red neon sign to shine like a hanging signal light! ”

Although he got the best editing statuette. But Mike? Dawson did not object, but skillfully replaced and cut the footage according to Duke's request.

Looking at a busy Mike? Dawson and others, Duke believes that his team should also make some innovations in technology, for example, digital editing has become popular in recent years, which is far more time-saving and labor-saving than traditional editing methods.

It took a whole morning for the opening paragraph of the film to be completed, and the effect released met Duke's requirements. The film begins with a song and dance, starting with a close-up of the newspaperman's mouth. Instantly cut to a dizzying stage, the stage backdrop is a stark contrast and strong visual impact between the cold tones and the warm tones in the wine pool.

Then, after another switch of warm and cold colors, a fantasist emerges, Lockhee, and the actions of Lockey and the cheating man are integrated with the dance, music, and lyrics on the stage, forming a great auditory and visual impact.

At the beginning of the cut video. The camera cuts all the way to the dancefloor, accompanied by the band's playing, and the dance floor is constantly moving. From the number "5, 6, 7. Close-up of the 8" human mouth, then panning from the ceiling into the crowd, each shot assembly to the rhythm of the background music.

Duke's intention is very obvious, such a fast-paced camera processing, placed at the beginning of the film, can not only introduce the environment, but more importantly, set a bright and strong rhythm for the whole film, for the development of subsequent events, the shaping of characters has laid a psychological foundation in the hearts of the audience, so as to mobilize the audience's feelings, so that they can watch with peace of mind.

If the film comes up with a slow pace full of literary and artistic tones and various costumes, the market prospect of "Chicago" is basically over.

Although the professionalism of singing and dancing is limited, Duke is not inferior to any director in terms of controlling the overall production of the film, and when shooting, he fully considered the post-editing, and the exaggerated and absurd character changes in the shot, combined with the use of motion transitions, provided the perfect editing point for the post-production.

Perfect editing can realistically present the changes in the characters' emotions expected by the director, and select editing points according to the characters' external expressions and expressions such as joys, sorrows, and emotions in different situations, and pay attention to the exaggeration, rendering and in-depth portrayal of the characters' feelings.

The scene where Lockhee and the furniture salesman have an affair in the completed clip is edited in this way.

After Velma kills her sister, she sings and dances on the stage, while Lockhee, who is jealous and envious, tries to seduce a liar furniture salesman to get on the stage.

This segment is a staggered cut of two events, when Velma sings and dances on stage and raises her hands, the camera immediately switches to stealing. The man and woman in love made similar movements.

This kind of shot assembly can also be said to be a motion transition, and in the follow-up work, according to Duke's requirements, there are many editing techniques like this.

Duke wants to use the coherence of the singing and dancing movements and the strong visual impact of the movements, which is in line with the passionate and sporty characteristics of the whole film.

With the deepening of the post-production work, Duke found that if the film wanted to be more brilliant, it also needed to break through the limitations of rhythmic sound and better give the picture a sense of rhythm.

The rhythm editing point uses the lens is generally a lens without character language, which is based on the rhythm line of the development process of the event content, and flexibly handles the length and editing of the shot according to the emotion, atmosphere and picture modeling characteristics expressed by the content.

Duke successfully used it in the scene after Lockhee was put in a prison cell.

"Lockhee was imprisoned for murder, starved and cold, and helpless in the dark, and she began to cry softly, and then she was awakened by the sound of water droplets."

Because of Mike? Dawson has something to do temporarily, Anna? Prinz strongly fought for it, and Duke took her to the editing room, and the other party was one of his important assistants in the work, and Duke patiently explained and taught her some of the reasons and experience of editing.

He pointed to the monitor screen and said in detail to the assistant director, "At this time, the picture switches to the feet of the prison guards, stepping on the iron walkway in the prison with their feet, and the picture of water droplets and the footsteps of the warning intersect with each other, forming a rhythmic echo in the sound and picture." Then another prisoner appeared, tapping his finger on the windowsill, lighting a match, and the six different prisoners took turns to make short speeches, and the sound recorded on the spot was very rhythmic, and the picture was also switched to the sound body. ”

Anna? Prinz clearly understood Duke's style and immediately understood the purpose of such an editing, saying, "In this way, not only can it bring a strong rhythmic impact to the audience auditory, but also a clear sense of rhythm visually, so as to create a rapid, tense atmosphere for this section and touch the audience's heart?" ”

"Exactly!" Duke nodded.

The assistant director is an important part of the director's control of the crew, Sophia? Coppola's departure is inevitable, Zach? It's also hard to say when Schneider will leave, and Duke is also interested in cultivating Anna? Prinz.

While cutting the assembled shots, Duke told her about the different editing logic of different scenes, "The fast-paced content tone of a single shot is reasonably combined, and a large number of residual effects can trigger the climax of the film one after another to achieve a gripping purpose." ”

In the film, the length of the shot has a significant impact on the surface and appeal of the picture, and the primary element of the art of editing is to determine the length of a shot, and a shot that is slightly longer or shorter can play a decisive role in the size of the picture effect.

The so-called "content tone" is a kind of psychological appeal development curve that theoretically involves the audience understanding the content of the picture and switching the camera. Illustrated is an approximate parabolic image of a function with its highest point, after which it is converted into a subtractive function.

The "accumulation effect" is based on the editing tone, and the development curve of the atmosphere created by the rapid switching of the camera to the audience is usually called the "editing tone", and the "accumulation effect" is the corresponding value in the ordinate of the curve.

In actual post-production, it is certainly impossible for Duke to quantify the effect of each shot, but when the shots accumulate to a certain number and convey a certain narrative message, the effect can be seen in the picture.

In Anna? In the next clip that Prinz participated in, from Lockhee to learn that his cellmate was hanged, and he was facing the beginning of the last trial, until Rossi was acquitted, the 20-minute court trial, the camera switching rhythm gradually accelerated, the content tone accumulated layer by layer, and finally reached a peak of residual effect.

As Lockhee was frustrated by not having a reporter to interview him, the switch between the shots slowly eased and calmed the previous tension.

In addition, Duke uses some cuts and plugging to create a circular narrative.

Usually, the construction of a movie scene needs to be completed by a set of shots, and it is impossible to be flat and direct in the dynamic process, so it is necessary to add some decorative content to make the scene more vivid and rich, or better show the characters, or highlight the feelings and emotions.

The use of cutting and insertion techniques greatly expands the spatio-temporal relationship of the film, such as the unfolding of the events between the two protagonists at the beginning of the film, Locks and Velma, which belongs to the application of this technique.

In short, such a gorgeous and ironic song and dance film is inseparable from a sophisticated post-production zuò. (To be continued......) R1292