Hollywood Road

After David Ellison’s loan was in place, Stanton Studio injected capital into the Ice and Fire Studio, which was established together with Twentieth Century Fox. The first funding for Twentieth Century Fox was also in place, "A Song of Ice and Fire: Power". "Game of the Game" was officially established, and preparations for this fantasy series have also been announced.

Of course, the preparatory work has already begun. Murphy and George Martin have been polishing the script more than a year ago.

At the same time, Murphy also issued a convening order to his team. Although he didn't quite understand that he suddenly changed to directing a TV series instead of making a movie, everyone responded positively.

After long-term cooperation, they also discovered that following Murphy, whether it is fame or fortune, is at your fingertips.

Working with familiar people will undoubtedly reduce a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Because of investment, "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" is divided into two parts. Stanton Studio is led by Murphy, and Twentieth Century Fox is solely in charge of Carla Faith.

This can also ensure that the work of the crew can be carried out in the predetermined direction to the greatest extent.

Murphy and Carla Fiss will also create some friction in their work, but they will not affect the personal relationship between the two. The two people with the most power in the crew can cooperate sincerely, and the conflicts between the following people will be reduced accordingly.

And 20th Century Fox was more involved in production and distribution, and it was Murphy's team that was actually used for actual preparation and shooting.

The heads of the various departments of the team have not changed, but people such as Philip Raschel and Helena Espola are very clear that they must keep up with Murphy’s progress, otherwise they can only be eliminated, so right The respective personnel in charge have undergone certain adjustments.

For example, Philip Raschel’s filming team fired a photographer who had participated in the shooting of "The Lost Love" and "Deadpool", and publicly recruited three new photographers, the main photographer of the entire photography team. The division reached five in order to meet the filming needs of A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones.

Helena Espola’s art and set team is no exception. Murphy has never filmed a fantasy-like subject in the past, and many of her team don’t have much work experience in this area, so recruiting new staff is a must s Choice.

There is also David Robbie's makeup, clothing and styling department. They not only need to recruit new staff, but also study some of the characteristics of European medieval costumes, and then combine the descriptions in George Martin's book to design that meets Murphy's requirements. Costumes and character styles and so on.

In this process, many old employees who have worked with Murphy several times have left this big team, and more new people have joined it, and voicing the old and accepting new books is one of the most effective ways to maintain competitiveness.

The fierce competition in Hollywood, even outsiders have heard of, these are normal and natural replacements. While Murphy competes with other people and projects in the market, he must also have a good atmosphere of competition within the team.

It’s just an ideal situation and it’s not suitable for the fiercely competitive Hollywood.

"A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" is a drama, a work full of fantasy elements, the crystallization of everyone's cooperation, and it is also a giant that relies heavily on location, design and photography to make the illusion come true. Because of its huge "physique", it needs the cooperation of many people.

Murphy has always been aware of this. To complete such an epic TV series, a close cooperation team is essential.

Before deciding to shoot digitally, the preparatory work for the first season was in full swing. After Murphy and Philip Raschel tested it, the crew chose the Sony F35 as the shooting camera.

The reason for choosing this digital high-definition camera is that, in addition to the German-made Alexa digital camera that has not yet appeared in this era, it is also because the Sony F35 can show the clothing and materials in front of the lens.

Frankly speaking, Murphy was very impressed with the Alexa high-definition digital cinema camera produced by the German ARRI company. Unfortunately, it will take a few more years for this camera to come out.

Since Fox obtained a tax rebate of up to 6 million U.S. dollars from Northern Ireland in the 20th century, Murphy did not hesitate to set the main filming base of the series in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, after investigating with Kara Fitch. Especially, at the same time, it is basically certain that the scene of Westeros will be filmed in Belfast.

In addition, several location inspection teams headed by Paul Wilson were also dispatched in advance to find suitable location shooting locations in Europe and the United States.

The crew has more than one shooting team. At that time, Paul Wilson and Seth Rogen, who has already been determined to enter the crew, will also be in charge of a shooting team to shoot some side stories, which can also effectively improve The efficiency of the crew.

After several cooperations and long-term work together, Murphy still has sufficient confidence in Seth Rogen and Paul Wilson.

Of course, he also solemnly warned Seth Rogen that the crew does not need too many humorous shots.

This is also a good opportunity to train Seth Logan. In film production, no matter what kind of theoretical study, more practical operating experience is required.

"In recent years, a large number of popular dramas have been born in North America, but fantasy series have never appeared on prime time TV series schedules."

A huge conference room in the Fox Tower was crowded with people. They all looked at the front. Murphy stood in front of them and talked, "Our "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" can fill this Blank, this will be a work that includes swords, dragons, and magic."

This is a preparatory meeting for the crew. Except for the actors who have not yet been determined, the heads of all departments have come to Twentieth Century Fox to participate in this meeting.

Since there is really no experience of great success in fantasy TV series in the past, these guys who have followed Murphy for a long time, although they choose to continue to cooperate with him, they will inevitably play drums in their hearts.

Murphy convened this meeting mainly to expound some conceptual points and strengthen the confidence of his team.

If the people on the team do not believe that the fantasy series they have filmed can be successful, it will definitely affect the actual work effect.

As the producer representing the Fox of the 20th Century, Carla Faith sat at the left hand side of the conference table, but did not say much, and completely handed the stage to Murphy.

She knows exactly what time she is and what she should do.

"In terms of the incredible popularity of fantasy themes such as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the "Harry Potter" series, the fantasy series are the most successful film and television themes."

Standing at the forefront of the conference table, Murphy is holding the table with both hands, looking confident and full of momentum, "But there has never been a fantasy series in the past. If anyone dares to try it, it must be us! We are A team capable of shooting any black subject!"

"A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" has a typical dark wind, whether it is the color of the picture or the direction of the plot.

This is also an important reason why Murphy chose this series. He is best at this style.

"But fantasy subjects often mean high production costs."

Murphy never thought of shooting some messy content to fool the audience, it would easily defeat the appeal he has accumulated over the years, but the production cost is also a problem he needs to consider, and he must come up with a practical solution. "High production costs are usually one of the reasons why fantasy series cannot be released. When we film "Game of Thrones", we will pay more attention to the development of characters, characters and plots, and avoid those large-scale war scenes."

Large-scale war scenes cost a lot of money. After all, this is not a summer commercial film, but a TV series that pays more attention to the plot. In addition, it is the first season. Instead of spending money on war scenes, it is better to further polish the plot.

In fact, the full-scale outbreak of the war in the original book did not begin to appear until after the first volume.

Murphy straightened up, walked back and forth twice, and said, "This is not a story of tens of thousands of orcs crossing the prairie like "Lord of the Rings", because ("Lord of the Rings") the most expensive production is those The shaping of non-human creatures. In the filming of the first season of "Game of Thrones," there were not many such creatures."

Without those fantasy creatures, the cost of expensive CG production can undoubtedly be saved.

If it is just an ordinary director, Murphy would definitely require the producer to continue to invest more, but he is not. In addition to the director and producer, he is also one of the main investors in this series, and must consider the issue of return on investment.

The investment of tens of millions of dollars is definitely not a small sum for Murphy. Once the investment fails miserably, even the current one will hurt his muscles and bones.

After all these years of struggle, he is nothing more than a net worth amassing tens of millions of dollars.

"We are not shooting films that tend to be teenagers like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy!"

Even if he is an avid fan of this series, Murphy cannot deny that the "Lord of the Rings" series has a somewhat naive style, which is definitely not suitable for "Game of Thrones". "We shot a work that was watched by an adult audience. My ideal finished series is luxurious, bloody, dark, weird, and sometimes even surprisingly sweet. Malice and kindness are intertwined, just as unpredictable as life."

His voice became louder and louder, "I want the audience to watch this series for various reasons, such as: plot tension, death and hope, ice wolves of fate, fantasy elements and fantasy space, family disputes, rights Temptation, deviant sex, cruel violence."

Murphy's eyes swept across everyone in the conference room, and he said, "The most important point! You have to keep in mind the core concept and ultimate definition of the series."