Hollywood Road

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Whether as a director or as a part-time producer for Murphy, if you are not good at dealing with people, then you are 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.

Coordinating the crew and logistics is equally as important and tricky as the directing job itself, and he certainly lacks sufficient experience or skills in this area. What's more difficult is that interpersonal skills are usually not immediately imparted by others to someone trying to do it. People who make movies.

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

In addition, there are some clerical and financial aspects that Murphy has to handle.

Paperwork that needs to be organized and labeled for later use includes production resources, legal documents, checks and accounting books, releases, contracts, licenses, copyrights, photographs, and more. For this purpose, most production companies have secretaries, accountants and office staff to handle these "backstage" things.

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

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

Strictly speaking, the financial staff hired by Murphy must not be qualified, so he hired the accountant from "Hard Candy" to lead this part of the work and be directly responsible to him.

In addition, some important paperwork Murphy can only carry on his own. Even if this is in Los Angeles, the documents and all textual procedures during the shooting process are crucial to the filming and legal protection of the film. If he ignores this aspect importance, then the project is likely to encounter some unimaginable difficulties.

Then there is the rehearsal of the actors. Murphy knows the importance of rehearsal. He will not rush to shoot. He deliberately packed the side bedroom on the second floor and handed it over to James Franco and Seth Rogen. The protagonist goes to rehearse.

Many films are shot without rehearsals. Sometimes it's because the actors are "big names" and they don't think rehearsing will do them any good; other times, the director doesn't think it's a good idea and the actors lose their spontaneity.

But this kind of plasma horror film does not require the explosive performance of the actors, and the investment also determines that the filming must be quick and fast, with patterned rehearsals. Murphy thinks it is more suitable for his crew.

In addition to speaking to the actors, Murphy also did a lot of communication and collaboration with other departments.

He went to the warehouse where the scene was set up several times with photographer Phil Rascher and lighting engineer David Robbie, and made some advance designs for the shooting techniques and lighting methods of some scenes. He asked Phil Rascher to Bill and David Robbie provided the crew with a list of the required photographic equipment and lighting equipment, and adjusted the equipment immediately after the rental equipment was in place, so as to minimize the problems encountered during the last shooting.

On the other hand, Murphy required art, setting, props, make-up, and costume departments to submit design proposals according to his plan. All staff members must reach a consensus on the aesthetic style of the film and unify their creative ideas.

Art director Helena Espora is responsible for the layout of the scenes. Due to the large enough warehouse area, it is impossible for the crew to fully use it. Murphy asked that the scenes should not be too many or scattered, and the distance between each scene should not be too long , to facilitate concentrated shooting.

Prop master Baker Kleibert also submitted a list of required props to Murphy, and Paul Wilson collaborated in the purchase, lease, and production of props.

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

It is no exaggeration to say that Murphy is burdened with all kinds of thoughts. The heavy workload and heavy pressure also made him feel the importance of a full-time producer and several professional assistant directors.

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

At the later stage of the preparation, Murphy found that he had been thinking too much, and he had neglected one more thing, forgetting to find a professional on-site sound engineer.

The succinct shooting of "Hard Candy" and the sound effects in post-production almost all led to this negligence.

Fortunately, it was discovered early enough. Sound engineers are not a rare job 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 a detailed discussion, the two parties signed a contract, and the sound engineer will officially join the crew one week before the filming starts.

After getting the sound engineer, Murphy went to a company in Hollywood to look at the camera equipment together with Bill Rossis and photographer Fili Raschel. Compared with others, he paid more attention to this aspect.

Murphy is not an admirer of equipmentism, and does not think that new technologies are necessarily suitable for all films. The key to the shooting effect of photographic equipment is to meet his shooting requirements. A guarantee, but it is not decisive, so it is necessary to choose equipment practically and effectively.

He still chose Sony's 35MM camera. Unlike the previous time, Murphy rented three cameras this time, one portable and two large cameras that needed to be erected.

While negotiating the price, Bill Rosses showed Murphy the benefits of having a full-time agent.

Companies that rent equipment are generally unwilling to lower the fee standard, but Bill Rossis borrowed the name of CAA to find a discount on the rental time. At the same price, Murphy can only rent for half a month, but he reached an agreement with the other party. The one-month rental contract directly reduced the rental expenses of photographic equipment by 50%.

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

"Important and high-value equipment, leasing companies generally have dedicated staff to maintain the whole process with the crew to ensure the safety of the equipment, supervise the correct use, cleaning and storage of the equipment." When leaving the leasing equipment company, Bill Rossis Then he said to Murphy, "The crew members are usually sent by the equipment company, and you can also ask them to do some extra things, such as follow the focus and push the track. Generally, they will not refuse."

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

Considering the rental situation during the previous filming, and then looking at the lease agreement that Bill Rothes negotiated, Murphy felt that he and Jessica Chastain were two fools at all.

This also made Murphy understand that the water in this industry is equally deep, and he is indeed still a fledgling.

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