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Back in Los Angeles, after a short break of three days, Murphy came to a post-production studio in Century City by 20th Century Fox, and began the post-production work on "Inglourious Basterds".

Post-production also requires the coordination of multiple departments and teams, and the basis of all this is undoubtedly editing. It is no exaggeration to say that Murphy and even any director's shooting is for editing.

This time, it is still Jody Griffith's editing team that is co-editing with Murphy.

Before editing, to be precise, as early as when writing the script, Murphy already had a very clear idea. Quentin Tarantino’s movies would use many tricks in editing, especially the famous chapter body. Although Murphy is not the kind of director who relies on traditional editing, he is different from Quentin Tarantino. This film will inevitably not use chapter style. He will use parallel montage extensively in editing, that is to say, "Shameless Bastard" "The final film will be presented in a multi-line narrative situation.

This post-production, all work will be carried out around editing, and Murphy has also made meticulous preparations for this.

Some people say, "The best editing is one where you can't find the traces of the editing."

This is really the biggest misunderstanding of editing. It should be said that the editing that is invisible to the public is the editing that "the general audience has no barriers to receiving information", but it is not the best editing. After more than 100 years of development, the editing has been There are many aesthetic standards and possibilities, and the connotation is very rich.

Of course, as a commercial film, and as far as possible to face the public fans, Murphy must maintain the smoothness of editing.

Editing that is not "to allow ordinary audiences to have no barriers to information acceptance" is not a gimmicky show-off technique, nor is it obscure.

To maintain a smooth editing acceptable to the public, the first thing is to determine the appropriate editing points for all shots.

The editing point is the transition point between the two shots, including sound or picture. Accurately grasping the editing point of the lens can ensure the smooth switching of the shots. Therefore, the choice of the editing point is the video of Murphy and Jody Griffith. Cutting the most important and basic work.

The editing points of all the shots of "Inglourious Basterds" can be simply divided into two categories: the first category is the screen editing point, the action editing point, the emotional editing point, and the rhythm editing point; the second category is the sound editing point, including dialogue and music. , Sound effect editing point.

In a film, most of the editing is carried out around the actions of the characters. The actions here do not refer to fighting, but the actions of the characters.

The action editing point is the continuity of the main body's actions. Of course, the action editing is also for clear narrative services, but it focuses more on the continuity of the action outside the lens. The continuity of the action can increase the fluency between the shots.

Murphy and Jody Griffith are very important for the choice of action editing points, which will directly affect the effect that can be achieved in the final film.

The rough cut of "Inglourious Basterds" was divided into two parts by Murphy and Jody Griffith.

The first step is to fight, which means to use the combination of some lenses to produce different kinds, giving people a different feeling.

Then the second step is to cut, specifically to control the rhythm, the rhythm and emotion of the whole film.

In film editing, rhythm is very important, but as far as Murphy uses in this film, everything still depends on the storyline and mood. He and Jody Griffith agree that control " The most important thing about the rhythm of "Shameless Bastard" is emotion. Whatever emotions need you to do, what kind of changes or processing you need to make.

During the editing process, Murphy hopes to maintain a more objective state as much as possible, and really regard herself as an audience, to really feel the various rhythms and details in the middle, whether the scene is good or not, and so on.

Whatever "Shameless Bastard" is suitable for, then he and Jody Griffith can cut it in any way so that the audience can enter the scene when watching it.

Relying on these, Murphy and Jody Griffith spent nearly half a month to get the rough cut. The next fine cut is more important and will directly determine the quality of the film.

As can be seen from the name, fine cut is far more complicated than rough cut.

Murphy has to make sure that the cut is tight enough, the editing is tight but the scene is not too short, which means that unnecessary pauses in the actor's dialogue need to be edited, the blank part in the middle of each sentence is shortened, and even the lengthy and unimportant dialogue can be subtracted.

Most movie viewers generally spend less than one hundred and fifty minutes attentively, which is equivalent to the length of a general mainstream commercial film. The rough cut version completed by Murphy and Jody Griffith takes more than three hundred minutes. It is compressed to about 120 minutes in fine cutting. If the film is two and a half hours or longer after fine cutting, then "major surgery" is required.

Unlike the previous editing, Murphy’s editing also uses temporary background music as an auxiliary.

This method can be used in special films such as "Inglourious Basterds", but it must not be used as a normal way of editing. Once you like temporary music in the editing, it is difficult to find a suitable soundtrack that feels good. Murphy is usually more willing Edit powerful movie scenes and make them perfect through proper editing. If a scene can stand on its own, then the soundtrack will be icing on the cake.

"Shameless Bastard" is just an exception in this regard.

In fine editing, there are many aspects that are difficult to take into account during rough editing. For example, the coordination of actions and pictures. Using actor gestures, props, sight or position is one of the editing methods. The best way is to let emotions flow naturally, or to cut To create a smooth narrative rhythm, technical editing is not the key.

The job of editing is to allow the audience to integrate into the plot.

In shooting, there are many pure action shots, and many action scenes, Murphy uses moving lenses to shoot, and these also need to be processed by fine cutting.

Moving the camera is the main way to shoot action scenes. Murphy used an orbit camera, a rotating arm camera, a camera stabilizer and a Steadicam. The action scenes in the film must present a tense atmosphere. He and Jody Griffith When the shots are in motion, Si makes an edit to ensure that the shots are in motion one by one.

The action scenes cut out in this way are more compact, making the audience dizzy.

In this shooting, some shots Murphy used pure single-lens shooting, but this was only a part, and most of the other scenes continued his usual style, shooting with multiple cameras and multiple angles.

Multi-angle shots are edited into the film and cannot be mechanically cut back to the same angle or re-read the same series of lens positions used not long ago.

Of course, there are only two angles in a dialogue scene between Lieutenant Aldor and Colonel Hans, and it is difficult to avoid repeated editing.

When switching scenes with such a multi-angle lens, it also needs to be dealt with. Murphy is always a group of three, at least 1.5 to 2 seconds can be longer.

For example, when Sosanna enters Goebbels’s banquet hall and looks around the scene, Murphy edits the viewpoint shots in a group of three, which can intuitively show the entire scene that the protagonist sees to the audience, imitating the real world and making the audience feel Immersive.

In these multi-angle shots, the actor’s eyes are the focus of the editing. The actors draw attention with their faces on TV, in movies and on stage, but the most important thing is the actor’s eyes. When editing intense dialogue scenes, Murphy pays great attention to the eyes of the actors. Do they convey the appropriate emotions? How did the actors react to the play? The performance of the actors determines the editing in this regard.

Sometimes Murphy is more focused on conveying the main actors of the dialogue and cuts off the reactions of others.

This is to exclude some of the insignificant trivialities in the actor's performance.

Murphy likes a tight editing rhythm. This is obvious from the very beginning. Elimination is necessary to maintain the rhythm.

Most actors perform exaggerated performances. The actors will emphasize pauses, add more errors than the script requires, and stutter for a longer time. At this time, they need to be edited to restore the performance to normal and cut off. Lengthy action and dialogue make the movie real and not artificial.

Therefore, if an actor wants to get a performance award, the director and editor are also the key.

These methods and methods all serve to form a storyline for the film.

Some people say that there are three types of movies in the world: script type, shooting type, and editing type. Regardless of the type of editing, you must pay close attention to the context of the story. Don't be afraid to change the script or shooting content, as long as it is meaningful.

Murphy has been using screen shots to record the storyline visually, which can help Jody Griffith determine the most logical way to present the story to the audience.

Finally, Murphy asked Jody Griffith to make his own choice.

Although the two have worked together many times, they definitely have different views on some plots and shots, and the successful director also needs the assistance of an excellent editor, especially injecting some differences into it, and correcting mistakes that the director did not notice.

Movies have always been the product of teamwork. The director is only the helmsman. If there are problems in other links, it may also fail.

Having said that, is there anyone in this world who doesn't make subjective mistakes and doesn't notice it?

Directors like Murphy will not review every framing shot during post-production, but will modify it according to the version edited by Jody Griffith, regardless of whether he enjoys the actor's performance or not.

If he does appreciate the different performances of a certain actor, he will suggest to modify the editing or find a suitable part from the viewfinder. The more the edited scene feels refreshed and presents the most convincing effect, the more the director will recognize the editor’s skills.

In this regard, Murphy and Jody Griffith continued until late May, and then completed the first edition of the fine cut. Later, it will take a lot of time and energy to continue to repair, but Murphy will temporarily lay down work. , To participate in an extremely important premiere of Robert Downey Jr.