"Did you see that earring piercing?" Gale Hurd came to the screening room Ronald rented today to watch the daily dailies with him.
"I saw it. It was worn by my stepmother Doris. The filming in the past two days should actually be the two scenes before and after, but she wore two different earrings." Ronald nodded and whispered to Gail.
The small crew's recordkeeping skills were not high and they forgot this detail.
"But I don't plan to reshoot it. Cinema audiences may not notice these details. If I reshoot it, the budget will exceed the budget again."
"You are the director, you have the final say." Gale stopped talking.
There was no night scene today. After watching the daily dailies in the evening, Ronald had no shooting tasks. Gale drove Ronald to the studio where Jim Cameron was.
Working more than ten hours a day, Gale was afraid that Ronald would get into an accident while driving, so he came to pick him up to see the progress of the special effects photography.
"Jim" Ronald took a nap in the car. After arriving at the special effects photography studio, he regained some energy and asked, "How are the special effects of the comet done?"
"Ronald, you're here." Cameron was fiddling with the mechanical equipment in front of him, several steel wires and guide rails, with a miniature camera on them. When he saw Ronald coming, he stood up quickly.
I wiped my hands on my overalls.
"This mobile control photography system will accurately repeat the movement trajectory of each camera. It is a good thing Lucas invented for filming 'Star Wars'. In this way, we only shoot one special effect each time, and then use a special effects printer to print each shot.
The film was composited together.”
Ronald was busy filming himself, and the special effects of the opening scene were left to Cameron.
He taught himself all the special effects photography courses in his library, and he designed a plan to capture a shot of a comet approaching the earth without spending too much money.
The special effects camera faces the comet model and takes three shots.
The first time was that the comet model moved in a fixed orbit.
The second time, a light model was used to replace the comet, moving in the same orbit. More than halfway through, it began to emit a dazzling dark red light.
The last one is a model of the Earth at a specific location, spinning around its axis.
During these three shootings, the trajectory of the model and the trajectory of the camera will be repeated exactly. When combined together, it is a world-destroying comet that returns to the solar system from afar. When it reaches the side of the rotating earth, it begins to emit dark light.
Red death light.
"Thank you, Jim. You two are still looking for financing for 'Terminator', and I would like to trouble you to shoot this special effects shot for me." After Ronald saw the progress of the filming, he hugged Cameron and patted him hard.
back to show thanks.
"It's nothing. It only takes two days in total. But after this shot, if you need the special effects for the title of the film, then you have to find a special effects subtitle machine to do it. This thing is very expensive and will cost you a few seconds.
The price is tens of thousands of dollars or more," Cameron said.
"There is no way. I want the title to have a sci-fi effect, with dark red three-dimensional fonts, so as to give the audience a hint that this is a science fiction movie."
Cameron was in charge of the special effects, so he didn’t have to worry about it. Ronald moved to the streets the next day.
The morning shooting was of the two sisters taking out their father's weapons and starting to practice shooting, preparing to deal with zombies. Ronald applied for two days of closed shooting time, and on the first day he focused on shooting street shootings and motorcycle stunts.
Finish.
"This is a mac-10 submachine gun. In the shot of you raising the gun and shooting, I will discharge the empty ammunition."
The producers specially invited firearms experts to explain the knowledge of firearms to Kelly Maroney and Catherine Mary Stuart.
"Hold it with one hand, turn on the safety, and then hold down the trigger. He fires Balabem pistol bullets. The design of the entire gun has a relatively balanced center of gravity, low recoil, and can be easily operated by women and children."
Ronald looked at the firearms expert and whispered to the producer, "Didn't you agree to get an Uzi submachine gun? Why did you change it to this kind?"
"Ronnie, I'm sorry. Several major manufacturers are currently filming gun battle movies, and most of the Uzi submachine guns have been borrowed by them. I finally found this firearms expert. He said that the mac-10 is similar to the Uzi submachine gun. Anyway, the audience
Not many people know the difference.”
"It doesn't matter, I just think the Uzi submachine gun looks better."
"Steady, load, and fire." The firearms expert gave the final demonstration to the two female protagonists. The two tried firing a few rounds.
"Okay, we're ready to start shooting."
Regina, played by Catherine Mary Stuart, is more like a tomboy. She has practiced a lot of firearms with her father, who is an officer. But her sister, Samantha, played by Kelly Maroney, does not shoot much. This plot
Mainly, the older sister teaches the younger sister to protect herself.
"action!"
There was no one at Bunker Mountain in the morning. After the area was cleared, an unoccupied area was used for shooting shooting scenes.
Regina handed the loaded mac-10 submachine gun to her sister Samantha. Samantha squatted with her legs half-crouched, held the submachine gun tightly with both hands, and pulled the trigger.
"Bang bang bang bang...bang bang..."
Kelly Maroney fired a shot, a puff of smoke came out of the gun, and then it jammed.
"Cut! Damn it," Ronald cursed, "Where's the firearms expert? What's going on?"
The budget was already tight, but a good lens was wasted because the bullet jammed.
"It's jammed, director. This is the weakness of the mac-10 submachine gun. It was originally a mini submachine gun with a modified pistol design. Because the shooting was shooting blank ammunition, the recoil distance after the ammunition was fired was sometimes not enough.
Causing jamming.”
"I don't understand these, how can I not get stuck?"
"Two solutions are to use real bullets, or when firing, don't pull the trigger all at once, fire a few rounds, then release the trigger, and fire a few more rounds."
Ronald glanced at him sideways, "Do you think my actor can shoot short bursts like a soldier? Or are you not afraid of dying and standing diagonally across from a submachine gun loaded with real bullets to be a camera operator?"
Ronald glanced at the producer again, and he shrugged and said there was nothing he could do if he didn't have enough money.
"Just give it a try, Kelly. If it jams again, just pull the bolt to eject it, and continue acting. Don't stop."
"Okay, Ronald. I'm getting familiar with it." Kelly Maroney is not tall, and she is small and exquisite. It is really difficult for her to shoot a submachine gun.
"Okay, clear the scene, record? Camera? Action!"
"Bang bang bang bang..." The mac-10 submachine gun jammed again as expected. Kelly Maroney pulled the bolt, "bang bang bang..." and it jammed again.
"Cut! cut!" Ronald quickly stopped filming.
"Holy shit, can't you think of something?" Ronald exhaled and greeted the producer and firearms expert.
"There's nothing you can do, director. Why don't you borrow an Uzi submachine gun? That thing is much more reliable." The firearms expert put his hands on it, but he had no choice. The mac-10 made by the British was originally a cheap weapon.
In addition, blank ammunition was used for movie shooting, and the performance was really poor.
Ronald took the shooting schedule from his assistant. There were many motorcycle scenes to be shot in the afternoon, and there was no time for reshoots.
"No matter, Kelly, Katherine." He called the two leading ladies forward.
"I know you often shoot daytime soap operas and you all have the ability to improvise. This mac-10 often freezes. During this filming, if something goes wrong again, you just have to adapt to the situation. I can't do this for this
The drama can't drag on any longer."
"Okay, director. No problem, director." Catherine and Kelly nodded in agreement and went to prepare.
Samantha, played by Kelly Maroney, is still wearing the same style of cheerleading uniform, with her long legs spread apart under the short skirt, showing a horse stance. Then she pulls the trigger.
"Bang bang bang bang...bang bang..." It got stuck.
Samantha handed the submachine gun to Catherine's hand and said, "Here."
Regina took the gun from her sister and handed her the other one.
Ronald secretly exclaimed that it was wonderful that the older sister was training the younger sister, so it was normal for the gun to jam and be handed to the older sister.
Samantha turned on the safety and kept firing.
"Bang bang bang..." It got stuck again.
"Awesome!" Kelly Maroney uttered a sarcastic line that she improvised. "See, that's the problem. If Dad was here, he would get it for us.
Two Uzis.”
Regina, played by Catherine Mary Stuart, covers her ears with one hand and holds a submachine gun in the other, "but that car doesn't know the difference between the two guns."
"Cut!" Ronald yelled. The improvisation of the two soap opera actors was really good. They made the jammed accident go away.
"Okay, let's do the next shot and bring that broken car over."
Ronald directed the driver to drive over a dilapidated second-hand car and parked it on the side of the road.
"It's up to you now. I'm going to beat that car to pieces."
The firearms expert put on sunglasses and earmuffs. Then he checked the firearm again.
"action!"
"Bang bang bang...bang bang...bang bang bang"
The firearms expert fired several bursts, and the explosion point was installed on the door of the broken car, and a parallel bullet hole appeared. Then the hubs of the two wheels were also blown out, and they fell to the ground with a clang.
"cut!"
The whole tempo was perfect, and Ronald stopped filming and announced that the gun part was complete.
The filming continued in the afternoon with Regina, played by Catherine Mary Stuart, driving her motorcycle home after coming out of the cinema and killing the zombies.
The stunt double, Debbie Evans, is about the same figure as her. She puts on a costume and a wig, and she can't tell that she is a stunt double in the distance.
"Let's try it again!" Ronald picked up the electric horn and shouted to Debbie Evans in the distance.
Debbie Evans can do a handstand on a motorcycle, but Regina is just a tomboy, so she just needs to make normal driving movements.
"Ronald, this is very simple, why don't you let me go on my own?" Catherine Mary Stuart came over and asked him.
"The first principle is that if a stunt double can shoot the action, let the stunt double shoot it. I don't want you to sprain your ankle and have to rest for two weeks or something."
"OK", Catherine stood aside obediently and watched how the stunt double performed.
"action!"
Only the back of Debbie Evans appears in the movie shot. The large fans on both sides blow out a burst of smoke. In the dark red filter, Regina rides her motorcycle farther and farther away.
In the deserted city, in the dark red field of vision, bursts of human ashes burned by the comet's radiation floated by. The whole picture presented a strange beauty, with a sense of apocalyptic cruelty.
"cut!"
"Bring the pickup truck over here." Ronald wasted no time and wanted to complete as many shots as possible within the scheduled shooting time.
"It's your turn, Catherine."
The motorcycle that Debbie Evans was riding was loaded into a large pickup truck, and Catherine Mary Stewart climbed onto the pickup truck to ride on it. The camera was fixed opposite her, taking a close-up of her.
"Move the car." Ronald ordered from the car following him.
The pickup truck started to move slowly.
"Sound, camera, action!"
Catherine sat on the motionless motorcycle, holding the handlebars with both hands, and her long hair was blown by the electric fan, pretending to be riding a motorcycle.
The pickup truck below started to move, and the street scenes on both sides continued to recede. There were no flaws in the narrow viewfinder captured by the camera.
"Cut! Let's do another one," Ronald shouted from the car next to him.