Made in Hollywood

The preparatory work lasted for two years. The Lord of the Rings Studio and the entire crew paid a lot of effort for this. The greatest benefit of careful preparation was the smoothness of the shooting. Ten days before the start, the shooting was still bumpy. After a while, when Duke adjusted the state of the crew, the shooting immediately became smooth.

Fighting scenes, leading actors and stunt doubles have all undergone rigorous training for a long time. Even Orlando Bloom's archery poses are beautiful and standard.

For the stand-in scene, the crew found four dwarf stand-ins for The Hobbit, and also specially made silicone headgear for Frodo and others. As long as it is not a close-up of the front, the four stand-ins can be easily completed by wearing the headgear.

The silicone headgear is extremely realistic, and if it is seen at night, the timid will definitely be scared half to death.

After ten days of filming in the studio and the open-air studio, the crew left downtown Wellington and started shooting on location. This crew was too large, not only with dozens of large trailers and hundreds of actors, but also with nearly a hundred war horses. Everywhere is the focus of the crowd.

The first stop of the film crew's location was near the Ruapehu volcano in the central and southern parts of the North Island of New Zealand. This intermittent volcano is the prototype of the Doomsday volcano selected by Duke. In addition to shooting the volcano, the crew will be in the wilderness near the volcano. Stationed for a period of time and filmed some actors riding a horse.

However, at this point, Duke has decided to split the crew.

Standing outside the crew station, Duke looked at Mount Ruapehu in the distance. This black volcano that exudes evil and death in the film is now extraordinarily majestic against the blue sky of New Zealand. , especially the white snow on the top of the mountain, looks very charming.

"Zach..."

Looking back from a distance, Duke looked at Zach Snyder on his left. "You're still working with Ben Watts, and you're best at using light and colour to get New Zealand at its most beautiful."

Zach Snyder nodded, but added, "Duke, I need a helicopter."

"The helicopter will arrive in the afternoon." Duke looked at the time. "Go and prepare."

Zach Snyder will take away a considerable part of the crew, including Ben Watts, an important member of the film crew. In fact, this is also the director of photography that Duke has prepared for him in the future. The two worked together as early as the filming of "The Matrix". Completed all exterior shots.

As the first assistant director, Zach? Snyder's temporary task is to shoot the original ecological landscape of New Zealand with the people of Weta Studio. Gather assets for special effects compositing scenes.

"Ana, you're going to the North Island Zoo with sound designer David Farmer."

Turning around, Duke said to Anna Prinz, "The crew is in touch, you go there and record the animals. Kangaroos, tigers, sea lions, cows, horses and lions, and wolves, I need them all night. A different call from the day. You have a whole week to record more."

"I see."

Anna Prinz walked towards her trailer. Getting ready to go to the zoo.

The crew has just camped here and cannot film for the time being. Due to the large number of horses accompanying, the crew inevitably attracted animal protection organizations in New Zealand. Although these people are not as difficult as their North American counterparts, they are not easy to deal with.

stand right here. Looking at the wasteland in the distance, Duke thought about the animal protection organization that he hated the most. The crew must send someone special to deal with them. Such people should not be too heavy, otherwise those guys must think they are great.

But people need to be savvy enough and not afraid of the pressure they exert.

Thinking of this, Duke had a suitable candidate, turned around and beckoned to the back, Tina Fey and Ivanka Trump came over at the same time.

Duke made a face Tina Fei could understand and said to Ivanka Trump, "Evie, what's your biggest purpose in coming to New Zealand?"

"The flowers in the greenhouse will wither in the wind and rain..."

Ivanka Trump said something inexplicably first, and then Ivanka Trump replied to Duke's words, "Hone and exercise my abilities."

"There's a really good opportunity right now."

Turning his head, Duke looked into the distance again, "I need someone to communicate with animal protection organizations, those people are more difficult to deal with."

"I'm willing to do it." Ivanka responded without hesitation.

"Tina."

Raising his hand, Duke gestured back, and Tina Fey left with Ivanka, explaining some basic precautions to her.

According to the requirements of the animal protection organization, the horses in the crew must not work more than three hours a day, and the horses have a rest every half an hour, and a long rest every one and a half hours...

If the crew shoots at this rhythm, it will drag on for at least half a year just for scenes with horses.

These guys who love animals more than humans have never thought about things from the standpoint of humans.

The requirements of the crew are not high, only five to six hours of horse work every day, including Duke, the crew has never thought of cruelty to animals.

Fortunately, there are no real Orcs or Ogres in this world, otherwise it would be troublesome if the Orcs and Ogres Association protested.

Shaking his head and dispelling these unreliable thoughts, Duke turned to thinking about the shooting of tomorrow. The scenes here are relatively scattered, and the main shooting is the scene that combines people and horses.

One afternoon plus one night, the crew set up camp here, and preliminarily regulated the shooting location, where it did not meet Duke's requirements, or added sets, or added green screens, and added suitable backgrounds during post-production.

The sun just rose the next day, and the entire crew began to run at high speed. The cranes, cameras, set props, and horse weapons were all transported to the first shooting location. The set crew relied on the boom of the crane to move at the fastest speed in the main camera position. On the opposite side and at a forty-five-degree angle, green screens were arranged respectively.

Duke walked past the camera positions, checked the layout of the camera positions, and walked over to a horse trainer.

"How's Bill doing?"

The horse trainer was leading a snow-white horse. The horse was very docile and stood quietly beside the trainer.

"The state is very good." The trainer gently rubbed the horse's neck.

Walking up to the trainer, Duke stood side by side with him, pointing to the main camera position and saying, "After I shout start, keep Bill at a forty-five-degree angle to the green screen and run over there."

With the assurance of the trainer, Duke left here and returned to the director's monitor.

This is just a shot with Gandalf, and it's not too difficult. The specially domesticated horse ran three times in front of the green screen, and Duke announced it was complete.

Then Ian McLean in white clothes and white robes and white hair came on stage. First, he staged a scene of summoning the horse king, and then he made out with Bill. Whether it was for the old actor Ian McLean or the filming of the crew, it was not difficult. big.

The work had only lasted for an hour when a representative of the animal rights group wanted to come over and protest to Duke about keeping the horses working continuously for too long.

Bill's owner and the trainer were standing there, they had no objection to the intensity of the work, and Duke didn't bother to pay attention to these people, leaving them to an assistant director and Ivanka Trump to deal with, take care of themselves continue shooting.

"Turn around!" Duke yelled.

"I protest..."

Although the sound reached his ears, Duke didn't even look at it, and the crew quickly moved to the 'Plain Plain' not far from here to shoot the scene where Gandalf and Pippin rode to Minas Tirith on horseback.

In addition to the crane, green screen, etc., a new piece of equipment was added to the shooting - a prop horse!

Of course, the prop horse that is driven by the linkage can't run, it can only make bumps in place, and it only has a horseback and a small head, which is specially prepared for Ian McLean and Billy Boyd's stand-ins horse.

"Duke, ride it."

Billy Boyd was not short. He patted the prop horse and said to this side, "Gandalf will never make it to Minas Tirith."

"I'm getting old, Billy."

Ian McLean walked over with the wizard's staff, "If I ride a real horse, the bones will fall apart. If I had the riding skills of Viggo, I would choose a real horse."

Duke looked up from the director's chair and yelled, "Billy, we're going to start shooting."

Billy Boyd, who, despite his fondness for jokes, was the one who knew the occasion, left the set immediately, his midget double wearing a silicone headgear, and assisted by the crew, mounted the white prop horse .

Duke gave an order, and the shooting began. The picture on the monitor was a close-up of Ian McLean. Of course, the horse would not show the whole picture.

The prop horse was bumped down, and the close-up of Ian McLean was very sporty. It lasted for about a minute, Duke called to stop, the prop horse was dragged aside, and the crew moved forward a little to continue filming the scene. .

However, Ian McLean's stunt double is the one who will play again. This is a panoramic shot. The stuntman is just a trifle to run wildly. Duke called NG twice, but it was because the camera track was laid a little bit. The problem caused the lens to shift a bit after John Schwartzman's main camera moved.

This is the most typical way of filming in Hollywood. Not every actor is a riding expert like Viggo Mortensen. Most actors need to use stunt doubles in their circus. , Most of the horses galloping in the panoramic shot are stunt performers. In the close-up shots, when the horses only show one back, they are basically the actors themselves.

Cinema is a visual art, but also an art of deception.

As the filming gradually deepened, more and more horses joined the filming, and the circus of the big scene followed. (To be continued ~^~)

PS:  I was so tired yesterday, and I woke up feeling uncomfortable today, ask for a monthly ticket and a recommendation ticket