Capítulo 160: Commercial Assembly Line
Although Clark's words were spoken in passing, they also aroused Levi's other thoughts. In fact, during this period of time, he was more concerned about the production of the X-Men than the release of 'The Truman Show.'
This is not because the X-Men are better than 'The Truman Show' in his opinion, but because this is also the biggest business of Enigma Company now.
Although it is also the day when 'The Truman Show' and 'The Notebook' are released, The former is Levi's movie, which has received a lot of attention. The latter is also a very popular movie released this year and has even been dubbed the best romantic comedy by some people. However, post-release of the movie publicity matters are mainly in the charge of the publishing company.
What Levi needs to do is to provide them with some must-use filming highlights and interviews and let the actors participate in different degrees of publicity. These tasks are not terribly complicated, especially for a well-reviewed movie; they are even less of a problem.
'The Truman Show' has been well-received, and it has the appeal of Jim Carrey. The opening screens have exceeded 3,000 worldwide. Even the distribution company will not allow this kind of movie to fail. For the rest, Levi didn't have to worry about it too much.
Compared to those things, he needs to devote more energy now to his work as an X-Men producer. With an investment of more than 70 million, this film is an unprecedented large-scale production of Enigma Company. Moreover, this film involves the intervention of investors, producers, distributors, original copyright owners, etc. The work of coordinating all these people needs to be done by Levi.
Levi originally thought he would stop filming and become a producer to take a break, but who knew that coordinating these aspects would not be easy. Because everyone wants this movie to succeed, all elements are involved in the film's production, making Levi anxious.
Mentioning these, Levi also has a bit of a headache.
"Clark, the media, as well as the film's follow-up promotion and contact, you can do it for me. You are also an assistant director; the actors know you, so you can contact them. The pre-production work is very urgent. I have to take more responsibility for things over there; maybe I can't help much here."
Levi is not the movie director, so Clark naturally doesn't have to be an assistant director anymore. Levi also hopes that he can help him with the promotion of the movie while he prepares for the new film.
Levi's explanation, Clark nodded and agreed. He also knew that this was the first time that Enigma Company had raised such a large amount of money to shoot a movie, and they had to do their job well so that it would be easier to obtain financing in the future. And the entertainment company is willing to give such a large investment to Enigma to let Enigma make a movie. In addition to the fact that the content of this movie is the X-Men, which has a large audience base, Levi's name is also an important aspect.
For this film, the entertainment company made a large-scale investment. The reasons are various. They have inspected the basic conditions for the Enigma Company to shoot this movie and believe it can sell money.
First, comic movies are very influential. It can be said that their stories are already equivalent to the effect of a star joining, and there is no need to worry about box office and publicity.
Secondly, in terms of the picture, Levi himself had no film to shoot anyway, so he directly transferred his production team. His film crew was well-managed, and there would not be too many problems.
The rest is the scenes and special effects. Levi had already established contact with the prop company and had a special effects company in his own hands. In addition, he played Heroes for nearly a year. With a preliminary understanding of the special effects that the audience loves, with these things, Enigma Company can make the movie well.
Of course, it would be better if Levi is willing to be the director himself... In fact, X-Men can also be considered a soft sci-fi work and can be handed over to some big directors to shoot. But the entertainment company also knows that shooting this kind of movie really means a double-edged sword and few real big directors are willing.
Commercial blockbusters are different from ordinary literary films. Most literary and artistic films have very little investment. Even if they invest by themselves, many people can produce them. But commercial blockbusters require a lot of investment and involve many aspects. When filming a commercial blockbuster, the director, assistant directors, associate directors, script supervisor, executive producer, co-producers... A movie has many managers, and each person has a different division of labor, but the director has to manage all of them.
Want to revise the script? You have to ask the screenwriter about this. The director first contacts the screenwriter, and if the screenwriter agrees, he has to notify the screenwriters union and then contact the original author of the comic. After the original author agrees, he then has to contact the Writers Association to change the script.
If the on-site shooting of the film is not progressing fast enough or the equipment is not enough, the opinion of the assistant directors has to be considered.
If there is a need to add more or fewer scenes to the actors or want to add or subtract roles, then the agency must be contacted.
If the production progress has become faster or slower, the publicity company has to be contacted.
If there is a need for a new set, the producers have to be contacted.
Is it too expensive to spend on filming, and is it possible to overrun? The co-producers are responsible for these things.
How did the filming end up, and how was it edited? This is not under the director's control; there is an executive producer above the director's head.
With such a division, the director's power basically only remains to shoot movies, control the rhythm, control the screen, design the actors' movements, and control the actors' performance.
Moreover, in this process, the shooting has to be discussed with the photographer, and the composition of the picture has to be done by a professional art director.
What the director needs to do is to try to shoot enough after the characters, scenes, script, and art style have been determined. A good picture, mastering the rhythm and changes of the movie, makes the film look good.
In literary films, directors can have more room to play and even consider how to express their own ideas. Compared to that, it is impossible for commercial films to give directors room to play.
The shooting of a commercial film is ultimately an assembly line operation. Everyone is responsible for a part. What everyone needs to do is to make their piece perfect. There is no need to think about things like free play. Unless it is a very top director, the director is just a link in the assembly line.
In fact, this is also an important reason why commercial films are not as good as art films in the eyes of critics: art films express the thoughts of the director, and the director is telling a story. Whether good or bad, it must be the interpretation of the director's thoughts. But commercial films do not necessarily express someone's thoughts.
Take this movie as an example. Marvel has been watching the script closely. Not only did Stan Lee come to participate in the discussion, but they also recruited people from the Writers Guild of America and the Screenwriters Guild to discuss how to make the film.
There is little room for play.
There are even certain rules for the character image, character setting, storyline direction, and overall style of the movie. Captain America has to be pro-military, the Hulk has to be anti-government, Spider-Man has to be a low-level society, and Iron Man has to be a hero, a playboy hero.
This kind of movie does not allow the director to play independently. Any famous prominent director will not be too interested in making this kind of movie with an assembly line. Big directors like to explain something about themselves; who wants to be a worker on the assembly line?
Of course, Levi was unwilling, and the entertainment company was not surprised by this. Fortunately, the director of a commercial film itself is not particularly important.
In fact, most commercial films, especially superhero films, do not pay much attention to the issue of director selection. In Levi's memory, the most typical one is Sam Raimi, the director of the Spider-Man trilogy. Before shooting Spider-Man, he only filmed some heavy-duty horror films. Although Spider-Man has become the most popular hero movie in history, he went to shoot other films after finishing the trilogy but still couldn't even get the right to edit.
And others are similar.
Tim Burton only had two live-action films before he made Batman. Jon Favreau just made a mess of Jumanji 2 before taking over Iron Man.
However, these films still choose to use them.
It is because of the success or failure of a superhero movie that the director can not decide too much: they are just a link. Unless one is at Michael Bay's level and can benefit commercial films. Otherwise, it doesn't matter who the director of a commercial movie is.
A commercial film aims to make money, but if it wants to make a box office, special effects are one aspect, scenes are another, and audience recognition is another. With these aspects, the movie can be forgiven if the story is weaker or even if the plot is unreasonable.
In these aspects, the role of the director is smaller than that of the producer: a film director can decide how to make a film, but he cannot choose how much to spend and who to use. How much should a movie invest in special effects production? How much should be invested in scene setup? Which star should be found to shoot to gain the audience's recognition? These aspects all involve money, and the amount involved is not small. As a director, it is difficult to make a decision. It must be decided by the producer.
A producer who formulates the idea and style of the film is very important for commercial films.
The entertainment company believed Levi could do the job: his reputation and experience made them believe he could be a good producer.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
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Scott DePaepe
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