Vol 2 Chapter 366: Tofu Project

Just after Christmas, Duke left the island. After arriving in Brisbane, he asked someone to send Scarlett Johansson back to North America. Although he only stayed on the island for a little more than a day, he had already noticed it. If some problems are not carefully controlled, they may turn to the worst.
Perhaps affected by the divorce of his parents, Scarlett Johansson mentioned more than once in his conversation that monogamy is completely against human nature...
Duke is very clear that he is not a good person, let alone a gentleman, and he also likes and beautiful women. He has always been chasing fresh and beautiful excitement, but he also has his own bottom line. Since entering Hollywood, he has not really touched any future. As an adult woman, he also knows that his control in this area is the same as that of most men, which is extremely limited.
Therefore, some things are not the best way to deal with it. After all, Scarlett Johansson is not sixteen years old.
And once this kind of thing breaks through the bottom line, with his self-control ability in this area, it may be difficult to maintain the bottom line in the future.
The reason why people are different from beasts is undoubtedly one of them.
Throwing these things aside for the time being, Duke returned directly to New Zealand. The shooting of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has just reached RMB ▼, and a lot of work is waiting for him.
Three days later, the crew regrouped in Wellington. Duke first convened the main members of the team and held a brief meeting to determine the specific progress of each aspect and prepare for the next filming.
After Zach Schneider left the crew to prepare for the "The Matrix" sequel, the crew could only move forward from the original three-way parallel to Duke and Anna Prinz's two shooting, and the progress was a little slower than before.
"I have finished most of Eowyn's scenes."
After the financial officer said about the current account expenditures, Anna Prinz mentioned her aspect of the filming, "Most of Isla Fischer's play has been completed. Only the final game against the Angmar Witch King and A few shots of Minas Tirith."
The actress recommended by Cate Blanchett was never seen by Duke since the audition, and most of her scenes were filmed by Anna Prinz.
Duke nodded, flipped through his schedule, and said. "Anna, in the next stage, you will film Faramir and Frodo, Sam and Gollum's scenes. In terms of motion capture, please refer to Andy Serkins' opinions."
As Anna Prinz shot more scenes, Duke gradually gained confidence in her and began to give her some important scenes.
He turned to the production manager again, "Charles, when will the extras I want be available?"
"When we arrive in the valley of Nelson. You will see." Charles Rowan only took a two-day break for Christmas, and has already contacted a large number of extras. "The male models who played the elves have also arrived in Nelson."
Richard Taylor took the initiative to speak, "Weta Studio is ready, just waiting for the shooting."
Duke's next filming is the Battle of the Helm Valley, a famous fortress in Luohan Kingdom. Like other props in "The Lord of the Rings", there is no ready-to-use template. They are all newly created based on the description of the novel. The location special effects of Saint Helm Valley and Baicheng Minas Tirith were outsourced to Weta Studios.
The next day, the crew was divided into two again. Actors such as Ilya Wood and Andy Serkins stayed on the set in Wellington and followed Anna Prinz to film, while Duke led the team to a small town near Nelson. A mine. Prepare to shoot the location scene of the Battle of the Helm Valley.
To the west of the mine is a valley formed by mining, which is the prototype of the Holy Helm Valley, and to the south of the mine is Minas Tirith built on the mountain, but the model of the city of Saint White has not been completed yet. It's just a prototype for the time being.
In contrast, Saint Helm Valley has been rebuilt by Weta Studio. Once you walk into Taniguchi, you can see the horn fort and deep stream wall full of primitive texture at the bottom of the valley.
Of course, the two seem to be far less magnificent than those described in the novel. After all, they are shooting a movie, and the budget of the crew is also limited. Duke cannot be as crazy as James Cameron to build a one-to-one model. .
Although the St. Helm Valley is not as cumbersome as Lothlorien’s construction, the architectural style of the Horn Fort is also simple and practical, and there are not many cumbersome decorations like elves, but it took more than half a year for the Weta Workshop to complete the holy Helmet Valley was built on location, and even Duke has been here more than ten times for field inspections and shooting inspections.
Weta Studio built a total of two models of different scales for the Horn Castle. The first is a one-to-four scale model. It is built on the valley, supported by steel and wood, and laid high-density polystyrene on it. Then use a plaster machine to spray plaster on the surface, and finally paint...
This treatment makes the texture of the city wall perfectly reflect the vicissitudes of life and ancient atmosphere.
However, with the exception of some sites used for standing people and shooting wars, most of the other places are out of shape in order to save costs, especially the surface of the horn fort wall wrapped outside the support frame, which is definitely not as strong as it looks. You can even destroy the outer walls of the Valley of the Helm with your fingernails.
Most of the Deep Creek Wall is also a one-to-four scaled down model. The crew only built a section of the city wall of the same proportion, also to save costs. The wall is high enough but the thickness is seriously insufficient. The most important part of this section of the city wall is the inward stairs. So that Legolas can be handsome and cool.
Then there is another one to thirty-five model, which is mainly used to shoot distant scenes and add backgrounds.
The crew is stationed on the outskirts of the valley. Duke went to see the extras and male models for the first time. Needless to say, the male models are naturally acting as the elves supporting humans, and the extras are almost all tall men. , They played the strong orc army created by Saruman.
The two parties who really fought in front of the camera were both performed by special stunt actors. The most important role of these people is to act as background pictures.
After watching these extras, Duke walked into the Valley of the Helm. Today, due to time constraints, he will only do some preparations and will not shoot on the spot. John Schwarzman, Hannah Serena, Jimmy? Carter and Bill Morris are the heads of different functions of the crew. Also followed.
Passing through the gate of the horn fort, Duke walked to the top of the city, standing on a podium, overlooking the entire valley from a high altitude. Although it was only a one-to-four model, the fortress still seemed large enough.
Just a staff member is always there. Remind Duke and others not to touch all the standing walls, because that is a standard tofu project.
"Hannah..." Duke pointed to the location of the city gate on the left front, "Place the blue screen on the left side of the passage."
Then he said to the other side, "Bill, put the bow and arrow transmitter you made at the junction of Deep Creek Wall and Horn Fort."
In this battle, there are a large number of shots of ten thousand arrows. In order to highlight the authenticity, the crew deliberately produced a number of bow and arrow transmitters. Can fire hundreds of stewed head soft arrows at once.
"John," he finally called the director of photography over, still pointing to the city gate, "I need a lot of side panoramic shots to attack the city gate. You find a suitable place to set up a camera and use a wide-angle lens to shoot."
Duke is just a director, and the most important task is to coordinate the various functional departments of the crew.
Just like he said. Movies have never been the product of individual heroism, but the work of a large number of outstanding talents.
Several people circled around the horn fort and deep creek wall. Discussed a lot of matters in the shooting, and did not return to the crew station until mid-afternoon.
Although it was the nth time I saw the shooting location, neither Duke nor John Schwarzman had any relaxation at all.
Especially the director Duke. Tomorrow is about to start filming one of the most important parts of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. He also met with major actors such as Ian McLean, Vigo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom, and exchanged ideas with them. Then go to the props and costume group to check the final preparations of various props and costumes.
In this war. The races on the scene are very mixed. The weapons and armors alone include the leather armor and chain armor of the Lohan soldiers, the full-body plate armor of the strong orcs, the exquisite armor of the elves, and so on. Nothing can be wrong.
Especially the costume team, they must get up in the early hours of tomorrow morning, and together with the makeup team, dress up the actor playing the strong orc. It takes at least six hours for an ordinary stuntman to become a terrifying orc in front of the camera!
It was only after I watched it roughly in the crew, it was dark, and Duke returned to his trailer, only to find that Ivanka Trump had also rushed to the crew.
"Didn't you say you want to celebrate the New Year in New York?"
Walking into the outer room of this large trailer, Duke sat opposite Ivanka, "Why did you come back so soon?"
"It's a bit boring in New York. Every day is a different party." Ivanka seemed to have a headache. "You are already working hard for your future when I am my age, and my peers in New York..."
She said helplessly, "Most of them only eat, drink and have fun. After staying with them for a long time, I think I will also fall, it is better to return to work.
Tina Fei still stayed in Los Angeles to deal with some affairs of the Duke's studio, and Duke could not do without a trusted assistant. Ivanka Trump's return to New Zealand also met his needs.
Afterwards, the crew opened the prelude to the Battle of Saint Helm Valley. This quiet valley became a place of hustle and bustle. Not only did shouts and roars often appear, but even the frequent and terrible howls occasionally sound.
But during the filming process, Duke found that the mountains on both sides of the valley were not particularly strong, so he deliberately bought a batch of helmets from Wellington to prepare some crew members to wear them when they approached the mountains to shoot.
War scenes like this kind of big scenes have always been Duke's housekeeping skills. The shooting progress has been very smooth. It was not until the strong orcs rushed to the gate of the horn castle that they encountered the greatest difficulty. (To be continued...)
ps: This is the last update in July, thank you for your continued support! It's just that something happens at night and it will be updated automatically.
I have been insisting on three shifts throughout July. This is really not easy for a part-time writer, and the manuscript is almost reduced to single digits. If two shifts occur in August, please forgive me! The friends in the group know that I will get married at the end of September. There are so many things during this period. We will continue to work hard to update!
Finally, the end of the month, ask for a monthly pass!