Chapter 196： Producer-Centric

In Hollywood, the film crew has always been based on the producer, which is commonly known as the "producer-centered system" in the industry.

But France is not Hollywood, so they don't believe so much in this regard.

In some production crews, it is often seen that the director is also the producer. Luc Besson likes to do this too.

And Lehmann, as a director, naturally speaks from the director's standpoint. Because he feels the same way, he is not willing to intervene in the director's work.

Basically, the shooting of "The Saw" was controlled by Wen Ziren in one hand.

But Hollywood can raise such a system, naturally there are people's reasons.

For example, when the director was shooting himself, he didn't shoot according to the plan. If no one could limit it, it would be a disaster for the crew and the movie.

In the history of film, there have been countless cases and lessons that told those film companies that if the film was made according to the director's idea, no amount of money would be enough to compensate.

Frankly speaking, such supervision is definitely not harmful, but blindly restricting the director's creative space will definitely not do any good.

You must know that the director has become a filmmaking machine, is such a work really still the so-called "seventh great art"?

There is no spirituality, it is better to say that it is the product of batch production and streamlined production on the industrial production line.

Speaking of the producer-centered system, I have to mention its grandfather, Alvin Sahlberg, who once helmed Universal and MGM, and was the first producer in Hollywood history.

In 1917, Europe was battling for the "World War I", the Republic of China was only five years old, and the last symbol of the dynasty era, Aisin Gioro Puyi, abdicated again.

When the whole world is like porridge that is getting more and more boiling, the United States is still singing and dancing peacefully, and is not disturbed by the international turmoil.

But at that time, the center of gravity of the American film industry was still New York on the east coast.

At the time, Alvin Sahlberg had just landed a $15-a-month job as a secretary in the New York office of Universal Pictures.

Slowly, while the company's qualifications rose steadily, he entered a film crew "Carousel" as a producer.

This is a project invested by Warner itself.

At that time, the great director Stroheim also liked to mess around during filming—it wasn’t a big deal at the time, just didn’t shoot according to the script. Many directors did this when they had new ideas. The "King of Sunglasses" in the mainland can even write the script on the spot and then shoot it. Although in Hollywood, he didn't even have the premise of getting a chance.

Is the consequence of doing so a budget overrun?

It's a pity that Stroheim is not James Cameron, and he didn't learn the skills of others. With such an overrun, Alvin Saulberg quit and went directly to Warner executives, saying that he would fire the director and let him An irresponsible director, get out.

Warner executives are naturally very concerned. You said that more than half of the film was shot, and suddenly the director kicked out, then the project is not finished yet, otherwise, it will be over if you endure it and give some investment - this was also at that time. The idea of most studios.

But Alvin Sahlberg is obviously capable, and he directly said that he can handle the rest, but such a director cannot stay.

Later, Stroheim was fired directly.

After the "Merry-go-round" incident, Alvin Salberg was more and more reused by Warner, and others were unambiguous. He directly dominated and established the status of the producer-centered system in Hollywood, and defined the system's The core idea - control the budget, complete the film.

At that time, such an idea was a good word for those film companies, that is, investors, and it was from their point of view.

Then what's not to agree to?

As a result, such distribution of crew power was quickly accepted by the film industry and became a rule in a sense.

After all, is business return the first thing that investors consider?

What artistic pursuits, what themes are created, what character depths are all set aside.

Following this concept, producers also pay more attention to the type of film, the market response of the actors, the commerciality of the content theme, and even more emphasis on the visual and auditory senses of the audience, and pay more attention to the rhythm and fluency of the story, etc. the elements of.

Everything they pay attention to is not based on personal aesthetic preferences, not even for the movie itself, but market requirements, market trends, and movie viewing trends of specific groups of people. It's purposeful filming.

I can't say whether this system is good or bad, but there must be an inevitable contradiction with the director's philosophy.

As for Lehmann, he certainly does not like this system of finger-pointing and filming.

But producers do need to have.

After all, a qualified producer can indeed save a lot of trouble for the filming crew.

In a nutshell, I can understand the market better than the director, the fashion better than the audience, and the capital better than the investors.

Los Angeles, Warner Studios Studio Three.

Wen Ziren looked at the scene just shot, and then used the director's monitor to call it up and watch it several times, and then nodded with satisfaction.

Naturally, Lehmann doesn't care about his filming work, as long as he can control his proportions, he can do whatever he wants.

And he didn't live up to Lyman's advice to him that night.

After the filming returned to the right track, the filming atmosphere of the crew also became better visible to the naked eye.

The progress is going well, and he is also happy.

"Okay, let's go, get ready for the next one."

Even the voice of shouting was filled with joy and confidence.

Putting the megaphone aside, he picked up the shooting plan and continued to figure it out.

Seriously, Wen Ziren is really attentive to filming.

A group of people are also watching.

He may be in the same mood now as when Lehmann was filming Buried Alive for the first time, always full of energy.

If it weren't for the fact that Lehmann had several years of experience on the set in his previous life, he might have been just as foolish as he was.

For the first time, you can't be too demanding.

What's more, the budget of the crew is sufficient. If it is really the pitiful $1.2 million in the previous life, I believe that he is forced to be in a hurry and will not have any new ideas. UU Reading

When Lehmann was filming Buried Alive, didn't he often worry about money?

I only thought about how to do it smoothly, so I naturally didn't have the heart to think about the motives and logic of the characters.

Looking back and looking at that work, Lehmann can also find a lot of points for improvement.

Human, there must be a process of improvement.

Lehman believes that after Wen Ziren makes more films, he will become more mature after gaining experience.

After all, people's talents are there, and their shooting skills and aesthetic concepts are also unique.

At the very least, Lyman doubted that he would have done better than him if he had been filmed for Saw.

Those ingenious murder mechanisms and clues are quite admirable.

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