Chapter 92： Pentagon's proposal

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"Get out of California and blast the entire United States!"

Starting from the second day, the media under Warner and Fox launched a massive pre-publicity campaign for "Independence Day". The slogan called out by Fox TV quickly became one of the popular words in North America. .

"The young Duke Rosenberg director is full of creativity and destructiveness. After "Life and Death" destroyed Santa Monica and "Breakthrough Island" bombed San Francisco and Alcatraz, he finally decided to leave California. , In the new movie "Independence Day" locked the entire United States, perhaps the entire North American continent will be sunk in his endless explosion..."

Sitting on a bench on the campus, Irene put down the newspaper in her hand and asked Anna next to him, "Where is this madman going to bomb? The White House? Statue of Liberty? Or the Empire State Building?"

"Hey, why didn't the newspaper mention the release time of the film?" Irene closed the newspaper dissatisfied.

"Can you be smarter, Miss Lauder?" Anna moved her buttocks and deliberately stretched her distance. "The film is called "Independence Day" and it must be released on Independence Day holiday."

"That's right." Irene nodded, "There will be no shortage of movies to watch in July next year."

"Are you sure that there will be time then?" Anna pushed her with her shoulders, "After this semester, we will have an internship. You should go back to Lauder Group for an internship, right?"

"Yes, my mother asked me to go back to work in the family company." Irene sighed and asked, "What about you, Anna, what are your plans? Go to Broadway or enter Hollywood?"

"I haven't figured it out yet." Anna seemed to be thinking.

"Why don't it." Irene made a nonsense suggestion, "Don't you like Duke Rosenberg's movies very much? Just go to him, at least you can be an assistant director?"

"Hollywood is not as simple as you think."

Compared to Irene, who was born well, Anna has a more realistic look. She didn't mention this aspect again, and simply changed the topic, "Eileen, have you noticed that Duke Rosenberg seems to have entered a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?" Irene didn't understand, shook her head.

"Yes, his first two films have achieved great commercial success, especially "Break into Death Island", which now has more than 355.6 million US dollars, has exceeded the global box office of "Speed ​​of Life"."

As a top student of the New York University Film Production Institute, Anna can still analyze some of her own experience, "His explosions, car chases, and visually impactful shots are indeed very attractive, but! These are pure senses. Excitement! It is easy to cause aesthetic fatigue! Now Duke's idea is obviously to use bigger, more exciting explosion scenes to attract people. Perhaps "Independence Day" will still succeed, but this kind of success cannot be sustained for long. "

Originally from a family of luxury goods, Irene naturally understood the impact of aesthetic fatigue. After thinking about it, she finally nodded slowly.

"So, Duke must be transformed?" she asked.

"I think it is true."

This is a private conversation between friends, Anna does not conceal her random thoughts, "If "Independence Day" just maintains the attendance and influence of his first two films, then the market may still accommodate him in the next same film. If the "Independence Day" is a big hit, then his next film must change his mind. You can no longer simply use explosions and visual impact as a selling point, but should focus on the story itself and emotional conflict. Otherwise, ..."

She shrugged.

"Oh, Anna." Allen exclaimed, "You really should be a professional film critic."

"Professional film critics? They are a group of men without real male functions..."

Even if it's just a student who is still studying filmmaking, Anna's words are still full of disdain, "I want to instruct real men how to do. Love!"

Hearing what her friend said was funny, Irene couldn't help laughing, and then went to hug Anna, "I am so happy to be with you, I can't bear to part with you."

"Me too." Anna patted her on the back, "I will always remember that we watched movies together, laughed together, and cried together."

Duke, who is as far away as Los Angeles, would not know that a pair of fans in New York were worrying about his future. The preparation of "Independence Day" was more complicated than the previous two movies.

"Hanson, I have seen the sketch you drew."

In the Independence Day studio, Duke took a stack of drawings. He just called in the heads of the special effects, art and painting departments, and said quickly and concisely, "The appearance of aliens is too simple and friendly!"

"Listen to my description!"

Although there are the same words in the script, Duke deliberately emphasized it, and it will definitely attract more attention, "They come from the red dwarf Grace Galaxy 25 light-years away, organic life forms, like locusts, multi-tentacles, flat skulls, The body is fragile and has no vocal cord structure."

"In terms of weapons, super-large luxury mothership, large laser column launcher, green protective cover, small spaceship!"

"In short, I want the audience to see aliens at first glance, and they will feel disgusting, annoying, and disgusting, and they will think they are a group of locust-like predators!"

Seeing these people in charge nodded solemnly, Duke waved his hand to tell them to leave and re-draw samples of aliens and motherships.

There was an aggressive knock on the door, and Sophia Coppola walked in, without any nonsense, and said directly, "Warner and Fox have temporarily set a $25 million publicity budget for the film. If the final production cost can be controlled at 9,000 Within ten thousand U.S. dollars, they will invest another 10 million U.S. dollars depending on the response after the film is released."

Duke nodded and said, "Go on."

"The prop set is leased to the interior of the White House. We don't need to re-produce it, so we can save a fortune."

This is good news. Sophia did not stop. "The producer has decided to advertise during the Super Bowl next year. Also, ibm, Coca-Cola and Cadillac have decided to sponsor the filming of the film. You'd better consider where they appear as soon as possible. The studio yelled at them."

"Let's go and see how Zach's work is."

After Sophia finished speaking, Duke took the lead to push the door and leave the office, and went directly to the office of Zach Schneider, who led his assistant to make the scene script.

Commercial films require a clear plot structure, not procrastinating. The story outline of "Independence Day" is very simple-aliens want to destroy mankind, human beings fight back, and finally win-the film script is designed around the crowd contacting the counterattack.

First, a mysterious spaceship flies to the earth. Second, the government found that the Department of Defense and the White House have taken countermeasures. Third, the frustrated scientific genius played chess with his father to relieve boredom and found alien signals. Fourth, the Vietnam War pilots who had been captured by aliens to do experiments, spent the whole day drinking to dissolve their sorrows, working in a mess. Fifth, excellent air force pilots do not despise his girlfriend because she is a stripper with a child, and finally come together.

This series of events has no direct connection at the beginning. Each event seems to be unrelated, but in fact none of them are wasteful. In the end, they all have an irreplaceable role. With the attack of aliens, these events will eventually tangled together.

Although this is a typical, cross-narrative technique, often used in movies, it is indeed plain and unremarkable, but it is enough to tell the story clearly.

I asked Zach Schneider to find suitable commercial insertion scenes. Duke reviewed some of the scripts they made, returned to the office, and continued to think about film production.

For commercial films to succeed, it is not enough to just tell the story clearly. The most effective and powerful weapon is sensationalism! The so-called emotion of course refers to emotions!

Whether it’s a line or speech, action or explosive scenes, it’s after all to stimulate the audience’s resonance, so that most of the audience who enter the theater feel refreshed and relaxed, instead of making the audience feel confused after watching a literary movie. , That is to take the initiative to drive most of the audience out.

Explosions and actions are shots that Duke is now good at shooting. In addition to these, the film has one of the most basic sensational methods. Just like "Life and Death" and "Courage to Death Island", good will eventually overcome evil. !

It is arguably the most basic law of commercial film that requires the power of "goodness" to finally win!

Many people may ask, why have seen so many movies and rarely or never have the bad guys won? This is not because the filmmakers are kind-hearted and afraid that the audience will learn from it badly, but because of commercial profit considerations, they cannot put the ending of "bad guys victory" before the audience.

No one can deny that most mainstream audiences cannot accept the victory of the bad guys.

Although the movie is only a virtual world, the public still likes to see the evil of the bad guys finally overcome by justice, and the bad guys get the severe punishment they deserve, just as the audience will not accept that Mickey Mouse has become an all-evil murderer and Donald Duck has become a robber. Commit the same.

Moreover, mainstream society also needs this kind of movies that are actually full of fairy tales, subconsciously reminding people that they are not living in a society full of dangers.

The preliminary preparations were trivial and repetitive. Although Duke didn’t need to do it himself, as a director in control of the overall situation, he and the two production managers had to approve every job. He basically didn’t spend the whole afternoon, and finally got there. After get off work, I received a call from the Pentagon Hollywood Liaison Office.

"What? Dissatisfied with the script?" Duke's eyebrows beat. "Want to remove Area 51 and change the ending of the final battle?"

"No, no, General Joseph, it must be a civilian, not a president or a member of the army, who destroys the weapons of the alien spacecraft!" Duque specifically emphasized, "This is a plot I designed after careful consideration."

"Tomorrow? The Pentagon representative will arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow?" Hearing the name mentioned on the phone, Duke was a little relieved, "Tomorrow I will have a detailed discussion with Lieutenant Colonel Renjo."

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