Hollywood Road

Just after Thanksgiving, Murphy announced the main poster of "Dark City" on his Twitter and Facebook at the same time. Chris Dan was standing under a gloomy sky, behind which was Manhattan with gunpowder. But the world financial center no longer looks prosperous, but rather cold and dilapidated.

In the following days, the official posters of Magician and Jay Rachel were also released one after another, which caused quite a strong response among movie fans.

However, Murphy has not paid attention to these for the time being, and the post-production work of "Dark City" is quite busy.

It took a long time. Murphy and Jody Griffith finally finished the first cut of the second version of the film. This version lasted more than 240 minutes, which is one hundred and fifty minutes away from Murphy's request. The length of about minutes is far away, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the next fine cutting.

A wonderful film is the result of careful editing.

And as the number of times to watch movies and shots in the editing increases, Murphy can also discover the shortcomings of some of the ideas previously planned. Film production is always like this, and the original idea may not be the best.

As soon as the finishing work started, he was ready to adjust the first shot at the beginning of the film.

"Jody, adjust the first shot."

Standing in front of the monitor, Murphy looked at the playback clip and said to his editor, "I want the first shot to be aimed at the protagonist!"

"Chris Dan?" Jody Griffith asked puzzledly, "or is it a magician?"

"The role of James!" Murphy said without hesitation, "The magician is the hero of this film."

Jody Griffith nodded and adjusted the lens by himself. According to Murphy’s request, the first lens of the film was replaced with the back of James Franco, and the picture was from far to near, and the last one was about Freeze frame at about 0.5 seconds.

Although the audience will not know that this is a magician when watching the film, they will definitely realize it later.

The opening shot is aimed at the protagonist, which can shorten the distance between the audience and the movie for the first time, allowing the audience and the protagonist to face each other at the beginning, and strengthen the audience's sense of substitution with the movie.

In addition, aiming the camera at the protagonist is also conducive to the natural unfolding of the movie's story, leading the whole story.

Murphy uses an almost still shot to show the male protagonist played by James Franco, and deliberately put the protagonist on the left side of the frame in the editing composition, adding the uniqueness in the vague black and white light and shadow. The back figure can highlight the recklessness of the characters and set the dark and crazy tone for the film.

Just like the opening shot, as long as Murphy thinks the effect may be better, he will adjust the rough cut version without hesitation.

In addition to editing, Murphy's other job is to process some special effects shots of the film.

In this film, he added a large number of blasting scenes. For specific purposes, most of the special effects rely on traditional methods and post-editing, instead of using the more common CG production today.

When shooting, many shots were done through real models. For example, in the car chase shot in Manhattan, New York, in addition to the live shooting, some difficult shots that are difficult to achieve use the now-outdated model special effects technology. , Making the stunt cost very high, but it looks very real and shocking.

This is also one of the reasons why Murphyken uses this backward technology to produce. From the perspective of the finished special effects, "Dark City" can be said to be impeccable. The scene of the magician bombing the hospital is outside of the on-site shooting. Murphy also asked the special effects team to model a 1:80 hospital to make up for some of the explosions and places that were not taken care of during shooting.

This kind of traditional special effects production can also make the audience feel the shock of the film. Murphy used many close-up shots to describe the villain of the magician in this film, even surpassing the real protagonist Chris Dann. , Is to make the image of the evil, twisted and crazy clown be remembered by the audience.

In recent years, no matter whether it is in North America or overseas regions, there have been very few roles similar to magicians appear on the screen. Murphy pays special attention to the shaping of this role when he is fine-cutting. The use of a large number of close-ups will make the audience more interesting. With a sense of oppression, I further felt the evil aura exuded by the role of magician.

Of course, Murphy's consistent editing style will inevitably make the film no urine, using a tight and compact rhythm, coupled with a perfect image to create a box office miracle.

There are a lot of scene changes in this play, and a lot of light is used. Murphy will not ignore Chris Dan. After all, this is the male protagonist. In all his shots, as long as he appears as a dark nightcrawler, K Reese Dan is a man who needs a shadow to set off.

As for music, I have to say that Hans Zimmer is a master of commercial soundtracks. More and more samples of the soundtrack have been sent to his studio in the Fox Tower. The vigorous horn sound and the compact rhythm create a kind of darkness. And stalwart atmosphere.

These all made Murphy quite satisfied.

And Hans Zimmer is not only a master of soundtracks, but also a good understanding of business operations.

"Being the soundtrack of "The Dark City" and being able to work with a great and talented director like Murphy Stanton is a kind of incomparable enjoyment and happiness, and it is also my great honor. He is the kind of person who is willing to listen to others’ opinions, welcome A wise director of various observations."

Facing the reporter’s interview, Hans Zimmer did not hesitate to praise his words, “We work together and want to make a great movie together. We all want to be shocked and surprised, but have a strong connection with the audience. Resonance is also what we pursue. No matter how grand the production scene is, Murphy's biggest concern is the story itself. As long as you have watched his previous films, everyone can appreciate his good intentions."

Facts have proved that spending a lot of money to hire Hans Zimmer is totally worth the money.

In December, when the finishing cut was almost finished, Murphy considered making the first trailer for "Dark City". Hans Zimmer also came to the Fox Tower studio again to assist him in completing this part of the work. .

According to the contract signed by the two parties, Hans Zimmer needs to configure a sufficiently good soundtrack for the trailer.

This is also a very important job in the production of the trailer.

In fact, all commercial directors understand that whether commercial movie trailers can be attractive or not, music weight will account for more than 30%.

A piece of music with a fanciful melody and rich rhythm changes can be said to be the core of an action movie trailer. No matter how good the trailer editing skills, if the music is mediocre, the trailer will also appear mediocre; the music is of high quality and the song editing is good, so cut it It doesn't matter if it's a little rough.

Music is the most intuitive "feeling" thing. Two minutes of music contains a huge flow of emotions. You don't need to say a word. Together, the music can make the audience feel "excited", "moved", "love", and "disillusioned". Philosophy, religion, tension, fear, repression, and other emotions, these abstract themes can be subdivided into countless concrete images.

In the two minutes of the trailer, only sporadic "information" can be shown in the screen and dialogue.

So, the soundtrack of the trailer is quite critical.

The soundtrack is important, and editing cannot be ignored. After Hans Zimmer completed the arrangement of the trailer, Murphy deliberately made the editing of ordinary shots not on the rhythm, but only on the rhythm of the important shots according to the music.

Why is it so? All the shots are tempo, the first is very stupid, the second looks like a MV, and the third is the most important. Every shot is on the rhythm, which is very cool. When it comes to a brilliant lens or a lens that should be enhanced , And then it’s not so cool when you press on the rhythm point, and the effect will not come out.

Another point, Murphy’s overall grasp of the trailer, will be lower before the climax of the camera, be quiet after the climax, and then have a higher climax. For example, before the gun is exploded, he will stop the music and quiet the whole sound. Say something or something, then shoot or explode again.

The purpose of this is to make the **** appear higher and more powerful, and to create contrast through the energy difference, and to strengthen the effect of the trailer.

As the post-production of the film is completed step by step, and the release time in May 2013 is getting closer and closer, 20th Century Fox’s promotion of "Dark City" is becoming more and more intensive, and related posters and behind-the-scenes shooting anecdotes continue. In the release, key creatives such as Murphy, Margot Robbie, and James Franco also frequently appeared in the media to create topics that could attract movie fans.

At the same time, the ‘viral marketing’ on the Internet has never been relaxed.

On Thanksgiving Day, the official website of the film and Murphy's Twitter account launched a crossword puzzle game for all people. The game requires netizens to click on the note on the webpage, find the letters through the city name and clues displayed on the note, and then take a photo of it and upload it to this website. When the 49 letters distributed in 21 cities in the United States are all found, Can spell a complete sentence.

This novel online and offline interactive activity immediately attracted many netizens to participate. Soon, the sentence "The way to survive in this world is lawlessness" was spelled out, and "Dark City" was also in the first wave. Gained a reputation in interactive marketing.

The enthusiastic response of the event also accumulated experience and confidence for the next offline activities of 20th Century Fox. Soon they planned the magician imitation contest, the global gift hunt, and the lighting ceremony of the Chris Dann supporter building. Other activities have also achieved good results.

According to the comments on the "Hollywood Reporter", "Dark City" successfully maximized its publicity effect through the combination of online and offline activities, providing an excellent example for the viral marketing of other films in the future.

Such propaganda also attracted the attention of countless people, such as Archbishop Marquez Costello.