Hollywood Road

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Whether as a director or Murphy's part-time producer, if you are not good at dealing with people, then it is not suitable for this industry.

As a producer, Murphy needs to connect with all kinds of people; as a director, he needs to communicate and cooperate with actors and film crews.

Compared with the director’s job, coordinating the crew and the logistics are equally important and tricky. He certainly lacks sufficient experience or skills in this regard. What’s even more difficult is that interpersonal skills cannot usually be imparted to someone who is trying to do it immediately. The filmmaker.

This requires Murphy to rely on practice to change yourself, to enrich yourself, and to become mature.

In addition, there are also some clerical and financial tasks that Murphy has to deal with.

Paperwork needs to be sorted and labeled for later use. This includes the production of resources, legal documents, checks and accounting books, authorization agreements, contracts, licenses, copyrights, photos, and so on. For this purpose, most production companies have secretaries, accountants and office staff to handle these "back-end" matters.

In large production companies, these employees belong to the production department. They study expenses every day, analyze customer information, etc., so that the film crew may be prepared in advance when problems arise.

For low-cost productions like Murphy, the producer is either the top organizer, or he finds a dedicated person to perform this position, and he must be diligent and professional.

Strictly speaking, the financial officer hired by Murphy was definitely not qualified, so he asked the accountant from the time of "Fruit Hard Candy" to lead this part of the work and be directly responsible to him.

In addition, Murphy can only carry some important paperwork by himself. Even if it is in Los Angeles, the documents and all text procedures during the filming process are also vital to the filming and legal protection of the film. If he ignores this aspect Importance, then the project is likely to encounter some unimaginable problems.

Then there are actors rehearsing. Murphy knows the importance of rehearsal. He will not rush to shoot. He deliberately cleaned up the side bedroom on the second floor and gave it to the two men James Franco and Seth Rogen. The protagonist goes to rehearse.

Many movies are not rehearsed before shooting. Sometimes this is because the actors are "big names" and they think that rehearsing is not good for them; sometimes, the director thinks this is not a good way, and the actors lose their spontaneity.

But such a plasma horror film does not require an explosive performance by the actors, and the investment of funds also determines that the filming must strive for a quick decision, with a patterned rehearsal. Murphy thinks it is more suitable for his crew.

In addition to telling the actors, Murphy has also done little to communicate and collaborate with other departments.

He and the photographer Philip Raschel and the lighting engineer David Robbie visited the warehouse where the scene was set up several times, and he designed some filming methods and lighting methods in advance. He asked Philip Rasher to Er and David Robbie respectively provided the crew with a list of the required photographic equipment and lighting equipment, and commissioned them immediately after the equipment was rented in place to minimize the situation encountered during the previous shooting.

On the other hand, Murphy asked the various departments of art, setting, props, cosmetics, and clothing to submit design plans according to his plan. All staff must reach a consensus on the aesthetic style of the film and unify the creative ideas.

The art director Helena Espola is responsible for setting up the scenes. Because the warehouse is large enough, the crew cannot fully use it. Murphy asked that the scenes should not be too many, nor too scattered, and the distance between each scene should not be too long. , In order to facilitate centralized shooting.

Prop designer Baker Klebert also submitted a list of required props to Murphy, and Paul Wilson coordinated to purchase, lease, and make props.

Jack Watson, who is in charge of the makeup department, has been designing the actor's makeup according to Murphy's ideas. Paul Wilson will also be responsible for purchasing the headgear and wigs he needs.

It is no exaggeration to say that all the clues are weighed on Murphy alone. The heavy work and heavy pressure also made him feel the importance of a full-time producer and several professional associate directors.

Paul Wilson is serious and responsible, but lacks experience and needs time to train and train.

At the end of the preparation stage, Murphy found that he was thinking and ignoring one more thing, and forgot to find a professional live sound engineer.

The simple shooting of "Fruit Candies" and almost all the sound effects in the later stage led to this negligence.

Fortunately, it was discovered early enough that sound recording is not a rare career in Hollywood. It is not too late to find one. Murphy called Bill Rossis. After only two days, the agent helped. The crew contacted the right candidate, and after some detailed discussions, the two parties signed a contract, and the sound engineer would formally join the crew one week before filming started.

Get the sound engineer, Murphy, along with Bill Rossis and photographer Philip Raschel, went to a company in Hollywood to see photographic equipment. He paid more attention to this aspect than others.

Murphy is not an admirer of equipment doctrine, and does not think that new technology is necessarily suitable for all films. The key to the shooting effect of photographic equipment is to meet his shooting requirements. Photographic equipment is an indispensable equipment for a film, and it is also the quality of the film. It’s a guarantee, but it’s not decisive, so it’s important to choose practical and effective equipment.

He still chose Sony’s 35MM camera. The difference is that Murphy rented three cameras this time, one portable and two large cameras that need to be erected.

When negotiating prices, Bill Rossis showed Murphy the advantage of having a full-time agent.

Companies that rent equipment are generally unwilling to lower their cost standards, but Bill Rossis borrowed the name of CAA and found a discount on the rental time. For the same price, Murphy could only rent for half a month, but he reached an agreement with the other party. A one-month lease contract directly reduced the rental expenses of photographic equipment by 50%.

In addition, Bill Rossis also requires the leasing company to be equipped with professional maintenance personnel.

"Important, high-value equipment, leasing companies will generally be equipped with special crews for full maintenance to ensure the safety of the equipment and supervise the correct use, cleaning and custody of the equipment." When he walked out of the rental equipment company, Bill Rossis He said to Murphy, "The crew is usually sent by the equipment company. You can also ask them to do some additional things, such as focusing and pushing the track. Generally they will not refuse."

The salary of these people will be included in the rental fee, which means that the crew will at least have one more professional labor.

Think about the leasing situation during the previous filming, and then look at the leasing contract reached by Bill Rossis. Murphy thinks that he and Jessica Chastain are just two idiots.

This also made Murphy understand that the water in this line is equally deep, and that he is indeed a young bird.