"Damn, how are you going to edit? Orson Welles has passed away, and there is no way to communicate with him about his original intention... How do you ensure that the editing is the effect he wanted?"

Walter Murch and Ronald sat together and carefully read the original copy of "The Last Day" and compared it with Orson Welles's detailed editing comments. Walter Murch was a little stupid.

.

Of course, he was very willing to do this job of repairing masterpieces that had been edited out by great directors in history, but Orson Welles's opinions were very specific and he did not mention any of his own editing logic and ideas.

Among the fifty-eight opinions, one reads like this:

"Menzies' face was weirdly distorted because of the wrong use of a wide-angle lens. There was no point in making the audience uncomfortable in this way. The scene would still work without this weird close-up."

"I don't understand. Orson Welles used a lot of wide-angle lenses in this movie. In fact, this was probably Hollywood's earliest attempt to use a handheld mini-camera. Why did he say that the wide-angle lens of this lens is not good?"

Walter Murch's head is about to explode. This is an excellent opportunity to understand the thinking of Orson Welles, a pioneering genius. However, there are only instructions without explanations behind them. If he was still alive, Luo

It would be great if Nader went and asked each one.

"Fuxk, I didn't have these original materials at the time. All I saw were the versions that were randomly edited by Universal. I had no idea what he was talking about. If only I had the original footage at that time, I could have asked him one by one."

Ronald was also very depressed. He pointed to the first comment in the editing comments and said, "Orson Welles's first comment said that the soundtrack for the first three minutes and twenty seconds is unnecessary, and the subtitles should be found elsewhere.

Playing it back, it can be seen that he is very aware that Universal's bad editing ruined the suspense of the opening time bomb. Let's follow his advice and go through it all first, and then look at the effect. Maybe we can see what the intention is..."

"I have no choice but to do this first, but in these original films, there is only a part of the opening without subtitles. I need your computer special effects team to complete the processing of this transition section, otherwise the audience will definitely see a jump in the image style at the editing point.

"Now..." Walter Murch knew about Ronald's special effects team and also made a request.

"Of course you can, but their processing must use disk or optical disk storage, not film or tape. You have to communicate with them a lot during editing..."

"This... I'm thinking, can I use computer editing software to process it? In this way, all I have to do to exchange with them is find someone to carry the CD back and forth."

"Believe me, that thing is just a piece of shit..." Ronald cursed the computer editing software he tried.

"I have tried Avid's editing software before, but it doesn't seem to have the problems you mentioned? I used it to cut two commercials, and it looked pretty good..."

"Avid? Is this a new company? I don't use theirs. If you think it's good, then try it. But I tell you, you must buy a big monitor. The 21-inch one last time had to be cut into

Four displays, my eyes are almost blind... Forget it, I will buy the largest Sony one for you. Where do you want to edit? At home? Yes, I will send the complete set of equipment to your home in San Francisco...

…”

The two sat down again and watched the Universal edit again. While watching, Ronald looked at Orson Welles's handling from a director's perspective.

This guy is really a genius.

Everyone praises the three-minute long moving shot that shows off the audience's skills at the beginning, but there is another long shot at the end. It takes 10 minutes to shoot a whole roll of film, and the ten pages of the script are shot in one shot. It is the director's dazzling to the director.

Skilled.

If you weren't also a director, it would be difficult to find out that this shot is shot to the end. The whole process is very reasonable, and the average audience will not realize that this is a long shot.

In addition, the heroine Janet Leigh broke her left arm on the third day while filming this movie. She shot the entire movie wearing a plaster.

So basically all the frontal close-up shots of her are holding a piece of clothing, or bending her arms to make gestures to cover up. This is the result of the full cooperation between the director, makeup, and costumes. To be honest, Ronald felt that he would definitely not be able to do it.

This effect must be achieved by changing the heroine.

But Orson Welles was so good that if you hadn't known in advance that Janet Leigh's hand was broken, you wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The phone rang in the screening room.

Ronald picked it up and listened, and it turned out that it was a call from Francis Coppola. He was going to have a vote-seeking party for "400 Years of Mystery", so of course he invited Ronald to attend and support the scene.

"Ha, I'll go right away. Walter Murch is also here. I'll come with him then..."

"Walter...I haven't seen you for a long time..."

Coppola's party was also quite large, and The 400-year-old's box office was very good. His unpaid debts for The Godfather III will probably be filled up soon. While he was in a good mood, he expressed his gratitude to the publisher.

The marketing requirements are also relatively consistent, and this time we also invited some old friends, Martin Scorsese, Spielberg, and George Lucas to come with us.

"Ronald, it's very important. Everything you do is very important." Another purpose of Scorsese's visit was to discuss with Ronald the re-release of old films by Akira Kurosawa and others. Martin Scorsese

Seth is a long-time movie fan. He heard that Ronald bought Voyager and the Criterion Collection with his own money, and wanted to restore the original appearance of the old movies so that fans can see the original classics. He was so excited that he began to speak incoherently.

"How is the effect of the new envelope cropping format?" The second person came was Spielberg. He was most concerned about the effect of classic movies when viewed on a TV. He himself also collected thousands of movies at home.

Make a copy and show it to your family on a projector.

Ronald told him that the effect was certainly better than those crude ones, but due to the limitations of the TV screen size, it was still far behind the screen.

"Can this restoration be re-edited?" George Lucas, who came last, was most concerned about whether his early films could be re-edited. He was also like Orson Welles back then, THX1138,

and American Grace were brutally murdered by film producers. After Star Wars became famous, they gradually bought back the rights to these films. Now that the video tapes are released, it would be best if they could restore their original editing ideas.

"Of course, Walter will help me re-edit an old movie and see how it turns out..."

Ronald waved to Walter Murch, who was chatting with Coppola over there. These people started out by shooting Roger Corman-style B-movies and later became several major figures in the New Hollywood movement.

Go-getters. Back then, they also frankly criticized each other's works and gave each other a lot of opinions on the final editing.

When we reunited this time, it felt like we were back to the past.

"Hey, Walter, Ronald said you were re-editing a classic movie, whose it is?" George Lucas asked directly, and he also wanted to ask about some technical details of the re-editing.

"What you don't expect is Orson Welles's The Last Lady..." Walter Murch said proudly.

"Oh, Shxt!" Scorsese, who is most familiar with these old movies, exclaimed.

"Where did you edit it?" Spielberg also asked him. There will be many problems that need to be solved when re-editing this kind of old movie.

"It's just started, I'm preparing to edit..."

"No matter where you edit, don't cut the first three minutes..."

"Three minutes and twenty seconds"

Everyone is a connoisseur and a lover of old movies, and they mentioned the classic long opening shot as soon as they opened their mouths.

"Isn't this a coincidence? The first thing I have to re-cut is the opening three minutes and twenty seconds..."

As soon as Walter Murch said these words, everyone at the scene fell silent. After confirming that he was not joking, no one knew what to say.

What happened to Walter Murch that he wanted to change the opening scene of Orson Welles's most classic movie?

"No, what Walter meant was to remove the opening subtitles and music, and then re-live it with sound to enhance the sense of scene and suspense..."

When Ronald saw that everyone had misunderstood, he immediately explained that it was not about changing the lens, but about changing the things that damaged the lens.

"Oh, I was shocked. When I heard him say that, I thought you wanted to teach Jesus how to write the Bible..." Scorsese was really shocked.

"You may not believe it, but this was Orson Welles's original intention. A few years before his death, Orson gave Ronald the memorandum of opinions he wrote for the editing of this film. He said that he would have the opportunity in the future.

If so, I hope I can cut it again.”

"Forehead……"

As soon as Walter Murch said this, several big directors fell silent again. Why does this sound so much like a movie script?

Finally, Francis Coppola broke the silence, "God, when you say that, it's like Jesus sent you a fax asking you to rewrite the Bible according to His ideas..."

Several people laughed and said that Ronald's job is very meaningful. If the restoration effect is good this time, he will also let him do the restoration and distribution work for the old movies that they have the copyright in the future.

In fact, due to the popularity of video tapes, major studios are setting up internal departments to try to restore old movies and re-release them. However, due to technical and cost reasons, they are not doing well.

If a movie fan director like Ronald takes the lead, then the restoration must have high standards and strict requirements. When the time comes to outsource it to him, the cost will definitely be low and the quality will be good. Hey, there are not many good people in Hollywood who don't care about profits.

After attending the party, Ronald went home to spend time with his family. Now he doesn't have to go to such canvassing parties and after-party parties if he doesn't want to.

In the evening, he met Christopher Kane again. He had just returned from the other side of the Pacific and brought many stunning photos and videos to Ronald.

"They are very cooperative there. If I ask for anything, someone will coordinate and implement it. But there is one thing that is not so good. When I go to places outside big cities, I will still be watched by many people, and they all call me a foreigner..."

Ronald flipped through the photos, and it can be said that the cooperation there this time is very high. There are many giant pandas in the breeding base that can be photographed. Christopher Kane and his family all took photos with the giant panda.

This time, with the leader's words, the coordination between the film department and the local government was very good. In addition, Ronald had to pay the base a sum of foreign exchange for filming expenses, and he could promote Chinese culture. This was very good for them.

Achievements that can be included in the year-end report.

The Panda Base also selected several healthy giant pandas with good-looking coats and two giant panda cubs as candidates for the protagonists in the movie "The Adventures of Pandas". One is relatively quiet and can be used for static close-ups, and the other is lively.

Can shoot action scenes.

"Panda, Panda..." Ronald's son was also very interested in this cute animal. Looking at the video of the innocent panda sliding down the slide, he kept turning back to ask his father to watch it together.

"shxt, there is no footage of your child playing with the giant panda in your video, is there? Come on, Diane, stop the video recorder. Otherwise, little Roger will definitely make a scene and play with the panda. We only have Washington in America.

There are two at the National Zoo in DC, and we have to wait in line for a long time to see them. We will be in trouble if they clamor to hold the giant pandas and play with them."

"Good guy, hurry up..." Diane also hurriedly pressed the remote control and took out other toys to coax his son for a long time before Roger gave up the idea of ​​holding a real giant panda.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This thing is a weapon of mass destruction among children. If you have hugged a giant panda, but I have not, then the trouble will be endless.

After finally coaxing the children, Ronald also sent Christopher Kane away. He said that the film could be given the green light and the preliminary preparations began.

However, the child's desire to see pandas cannot be given up for a while. This cute animal is more attractive than a pet. Little Roger could not forget the giant panda for several days after that. Sometimes, he could not forget it alone.

Will mutter to himself Panda, Panda...

Diane felt that the child was too young for frequent long-distance flights. Ronald was so annoyed that he had no choice but to come up with the idea of ​​​​Mr. Counselor.

"Mr. Counselor, do you think it's possible to give two giant pandas to the zoo on the west coast? Now children on the east coast of America can see giant pandas. The children on the west coast are so pitiful..."
To be continued...