Before the official establishment of the big ship project, in James? No one knows how long Cameron has been thinking about it in his head, but in late October this year, three and a half years after the film was established, the production was finally completed, not counting the expenses invested in publicity one after another, and the production cost alone cost 200 million US dollars!

Even fifteen years later, this is a very scary production cost.

As the film dragged on and on, the tyrants on the set kept bouncing tickets, and the idea of the producers who invested heavily in it was eager to recoup their costs can be imagined.

The most important thing is that everyone in the industry and outside the industry is laughing at the big ship, thinking that it must sink, especially the film critics, when they learn that there is $50 million in funds from Duke, they continue to cynicist and simply take him and James? Cameron described it as Hollywood's biggest fool ever.

Or even Roger? Albert and Siskel Watching a Movie", every recent episode of the show routinely mocked the two, and named the film "The Doomed Titanic"!

Although there is no doubt about the ability of the top management of Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, otherwise they would not sit in such a high position, but people will always be affected by the external environment, and they have not lost the idea of watching this film in their hearts, according to the information obtained by Duke, Twentieth Century Fox is ready to file for bankruptcy protection after the failure of the film.

After the completion of "Titanic", Duke flew back to Los Angeles to participate in the internal preview held by Fox and Paramount, and then completely relieved.

There is a little difference between the big ship and the past, mainly in terms of details, but this is normal, after all, a director's shooting and editing today and tomorrow's shooting and editing will be different, but what remains unchanged is the quality of the film, Duke believes that even if the publicity of the film is not in place as it once was, the possibility of the rise of this film is still infinite!

And with his $50 million investment in it, Duke naturally won't see the promotion of the film go the old way.

In fact, in terms of publicity, just like in the previous life, the cynicism of the media and film critics, coupled with a huge investment of 200 million US dollars, the popularity of the film is not a problem at all, and the most important thing to do in publicity is how to spread a good audience reputation as quickly as possible after the film is released or test-screened.

The once big ship has fully proved that audience word-of-mouth can easily overturn the bias of film critics.

The other is the theater issue, Duke met with Shelly one after another? Lansing and Townsend? Rothman, asking them to strive for the largest number of theaters possible, although he claimed to be optimistic about this film, which can make the high-level on both sides pay a lot of attention, but empty words have never been convincing, Duke simply declared that he is willing to bear the publicity and distribution costs of the film according to the investment ratio!

Over the past few years, Duke has proven his grasp of the market for commercial films, and his active participation in the promotion and distribution has also increased the confidence of Paramount and Fox, both sides of course want the film to be a big hit, and then stepped up contact with the North American theater alliance to compete for the most theater numbers.

Before the release of the film, two or three auditions must be held for the media, ordinary fans and representatives of the theater line, and use the means that can be used to feedback the audience's real feelings.

The last one is the premiere, because the Japanese side is willing to shell out a sponsorship, plus James? Cameron is a standard Japanese culture lover, and Paramount and Fox wanted to hold the film's world premiere in Tokyo.

"We've got to put the premiere in North America!"

Facing Shelly? Lansing and Townsend? At Rothman's time, Duke was more like the director of the film, and to this point, in fact, James? Cameron's voice has been reduced infinitely, and he himself can't say anything more, the fate of this film is actually no longer in his hands, "Invite as many stars as possible to the premiere, don't forget that this is the premiere of an unprecedented blockbuster zuò!" ”

While the North American distribution rights are in the hands of Paramount Pictures, Shelly? Lansing or with Townsend? Rothman discussed it, and when Duke returned to Sydney, he received a call from them that the premiere of the film would be in Los Angeles! And the film will be released in the United Kingdom and the United States at the same time!

What Duke mentioned is just the most conventional means of publicity, and the film does not need any surprising alternative publicity methods, but the executives of Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, because of the eagerness to recoup their investment, are actually a little unbalanced, and Duke is just sounding the alarm bell for them, making them calm and calm, and when it comes to the actual publicity operation, he is far worse than the professionals of the two film companies.

Just when Duke returned to Sydney's Fox set to continue filming, a series of good news was reported to him by two film companies, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox are no longer independent production companies, and they have the support of huge media groups behind them, as long as they have enough attention and rational minds, they can mobilize a large number of resources without too much effort.

By early November, after the film was held three preview sessions in succession, the media's opinion of the film suddenly changed, and many viewers' opinions were revealed, and the film was praised by a considerable number of viewers as 'unprecedented super exciting'!

Representatives of the theater chain were of course an integral part of the preview meeting, and the North American Theater Alliance then reached an agreement with the publisher Paramount that "Titanic" would land in North America with a super-scale of 3,100 theaters.

Due to the huge investment in the film, Duke also stood up for the film, and was interviewed by the Fox TV family channel for this purpose.

"Yes, I've seen the film, I can't describe it, I don't think it's too much to put all the words I have on it that have to do with praise! I know there are people who mock it because of prejudice, but the facts will prove how ignorant these people's ridicule is! When the film is released, everyone will find that a new era has arrived! Film history will be divided into before "Titanic" and after "Titanic"! ”

Now everything is ready, only to be released, unless the end of the world comes, no force will stop the big ship from cleaving the wind and waves!

However, before witnessing the glory of the big ship, Duke first had to complete the final filming of "The Matrix".

When the middle of November arrived, after 70 days of filming, "The Matrix" was only the last and most technically difficult scene - bullet time!

How is bullet time filmed? In the past, Duke had seen quite a lot of information, and there were discrepancies in the statements of each information, he was not a blind follower, and he would not rashly use those who knew that the Internet would not be reliable to shoot, which is why he was responsible for building yì, and then John? Schwarzmann and the professionals from ILM designed the solution and experimented with different solutions to find the most suitable type.

"Duke, someone's coming to visit your class."

As soon as he was busy for a while, Duke heard the assistant's words and couldn't help but turn his head to see that it was a short and thin girl with a brown ponytail, much darker than when we met more than a month ago.

"Hi, Duke." She greeted with a smile.

"Hello, Nat."

Stuffing the coffee cup in his hand to the assistant, Duke asked curiously, "Why did it suddenly turn black?" ”

"The crew went to the desert area to go on location." Natalie rubbed her face slightly, "The sun over there is poisonous, but don't you think it's healthier that way?" ”

She looked at the busy set behind Duke and asked embarrassedly, "Did you disturb you?" ”

"It's okay." Duke shook his head, took the initiative to take the two cups of coffee from the assistant, handed one of them to Natalie, and led her to the temporary resting place, "I just finished a busy time and am resting. ”

The two sat at a table, and Natalie's curious eyes kept sweeping over the set, "I heard this is your last scene?" Why are there so many cameras and camcorders? ”

"There's going to be a special scene." Duke briefly explained the concept of bullet time, and then said, "ILM's special effects artists design the action and then shoot it with a regular camera. We scan the footage into a computer and use a specially designed laser-guided tracking system to map out the camera movement trajectory to capture the final scene. ”

"Then, we put a large number of cameras in the action path, each camera takes only one still photo, which is scanned into a computer, which uses this information to generate a coherent movement in the middle of the action, and finally connects a series of images into a complete shot scene with a computer effect, faster or slower." ”

"It's complicated and magical." Natalie shook her head, "I still don't understand. ”

"You're sitting here and watching."

After drinking the coffee in the cup, Duke stood up, "It's not amazing to shoot." ”

There's nothing magical about the shooting, because enough trials have been done beforehand, Keanu in a wig? When Reeves stood in front of the camera and completed the iron-plated bridge-like action, it didn't look surprising to the naked eye, but after a lot of Blue Screen shooting in Star Wars, Natalie knew very well that the increasingly advanced post-production technology would make many impossible possibilities.

Just in case, Duke deliberately shot many times to gather enough footage, and when the shoot was over, even if it was a tightrope, Keanu? Reeves was still a little tired because he had done too much iron bridges.

"I announce!"

Standing on a green screen surrounded by cameras, Duke exclaimed, "The Matrix filming is officially over!" ”

As usual, there was a sparse round of applause, and Duke added, "I have a private island in Fiji, and our shutdown party will be held there!" ”

After saying that, he left the filming location, walked back to the rest area, looked at Natalie, who seemed to be in a trance, and tentatively invited, "Nat, can I invite you to join our pie?" I've already invited quite a few members of the Star Wars crew to participate. ”R1152