Hollywood Road

Ask for monthly and recommended tickets!

Although he grew up in an environment that ignores individuals and their motives, Murphy is very clear that the film must not be made in this way, especially this kind of film, if the protagonist does not even have a convincing motive, the final film is even If it can sell well, it will not become a classic, and it is impossible to achieve his purpose of highlighting style.

Even though Hollywood movies have created so many righteous roles, few movies can properly explore the three-dimensional aspect of the protagonist. This is especially true for commercial movies. How do Hollywood commercial movies shape roles?

For a good person, write a little side line of weakness, such as carelessness and impulse; for a bad person, write a little side line of strengths, such as elegance and empathy... Many so-called three-dimensional characters in commercial movies are shaped like this.

In fact, in Murphy's opinion, this kind of destruction of the rhythm of the story is a bit of a waste of money. This is of course better than the main melody film simply shaping the characters of the Gao Daquan, but it is not much wise.

A truly top-notch character, don’t be afraid of being written well, because the screenwriter does not simply organize the story to write his strengths and weaknesses, but put him in an equally truly top-notch story, letting him be subject to the antecedents of the story, Let him bear the consequences of the story.

Two words in one sentence: "motivation" and "cost".

This rule is common in all popular Hollywood movies. Why is "Superman Returns" repeatedly criticized? Because Superman is not controlled, committed, or paid in the story. He just does what he should do. So if this kind of old-school movie remake is still not innovated, it will appear dull and tasteless.

"Spider-Man 1" was criticized as stupid and naive, because the little spider just assumed the cost of losing his uncle in order to reflect "the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility". In fact, the plot of the uncle's death has nothing to do with the main story line.

On the other hand, the word of mouth of "Spider-Man 2" has risen, that is, because in the sequel, Spider-Man lost his ability and took responsibility, and made this the main emotional line of the story.

"Iron Man" created such a big surprise for the audience, but also because the screenwriter let Tony Stark's character determine the fate of the story, instead of using redundant stories to show Tony Stark's character, and Tony The reason why this chirpy person is so likable is because he paid a tragic price from the beginning, and the motive of revenge drove the audience to wait to help Tony himself.

Motivation and price are the magic weapon for the movie to conquer the audience and critics.

Therefore, Murphy will find a sufficient and nearly perfect motive for the protagonist to integrate into the whole film story, and will show the price that needs to be paid after the motive.

Yes, the motivation and cost should serve the whole story.

After entering Hollywood for so many years, Murphy has summed up a golden rule: bad movies must be bad from the beginning of the story.

The most fascinating part of the movie is how to tell the story so unstoppable.

Telling a good story is easy to say, and it seems not difficult to do it, but there are not many Hollywood movies that can tell a good story. Murphy intends to abandon the traditional narrative model of Hollywood genre films that has been tried and tested for decades, and boldly learn from American dramas. Narrative rhythm.

What should the traditional Hollywood narrative look like?

In fact, anyone who has studied the suspense setting of Hollywood movies a little, basically knows the routines of Hollywood movies.

To put it simply, an American screenwriter and producer named Sidfield Field has written in many books—most of which have become compulsory textbooks for film screenwriters—summarizing what a mature commercial screenplay should be under the Hollywood system. It has the basic structure: the first act of establishment, the second act of confrontation, and the third act of ending; in the part that is about to end the establishment of a scene, there is plot point I; in the part of the confrontation that is about to end, there is plot point II; I and Plot II, respectively, are the two most critical plot points in the narrative process of the script. Their task is to turn the plot to the next scene. The form of expression is "an event, which "hooks" the action and turns it to another. one direction".

This is indeed the simplest and most effective model Murphy has ever seen. The essence of Hollywood is the production line. A successful model is summed up after countless successful or failed market cases. Once it is effective, Hollywood has never shy away from repeating it. Use it over and over again.

Murphy does not dare to say that all Hollywood scripts are written in accordance with Sidfield’s teaching materials, but most commercial films and even the best literary films can see the great effect of this model, and most movie fans have always Enjoying the pleasure brought by this mode.

For example, "Iron Man", the movie that put Robert Downey Jr. on the throne of a superstar, is a typical example of this.

The first act of the film is the establishment, which is to show Tony Stark's genius career and luxurious life; plot point I is Tony Stark being caught by terrorists; the second act is confrontation, he uses Iron Man One equipment Successfully escaped, after returning to the United States, he changed his mistakes, withstood the pressure to close the military factory, and concentrated on researching, testing, and upgrading the Iron Man 2 and 3; plot point II was the discovery that the long-term partner turned out to be the real behind-the-scenes ; The third act is the ending. Tony defeated the evil iron monster and also defeated himself.

The reason why "Iron Man", including the stories of other existing Marvel movies, is so fascinating, is because it is arranged in such a pattern.

Murphy has carefully studied it, and it is not difficult to find that plot points I and II, where Sidfield repeatedly emphasized their importance, did play a key role in "Iron Man": plot point I allowed Tony Stark to re-behave, and Plot Point II contributed a big boss to the whole story, and they all performed an excellent job of reversing the direction of the story.

This film only arranges three action scenes throughout the film, with a number of literary plays in between, telling the story logic, clarifying the relationship between the characters, without setting up any big suspense, saving time and effort.

To be precise, almost all of Marvel's movies are products of the typical Syd-Field model.

Therefore, when Marvel movies are watched too much, there is often a feeling that Marvel movies are all carved out of the same mold, and they are constantly repeating the road that has been taken.

But no one can deny the success of Marvel, just as there can be no denying the important role of the Syd-Field model in Hollywood films' occupation of the global market.

All of Marvel's films can be said to be excellent works, but none of them are recognized as super classics. Perhaps this is the difference between the so-called excellent works and peerless classics.

For example, "Iron Man" is a premium product made on the Hollywood production line, and it is still a long way from the super classic.

Now Murphy is already a first-line director in Hollywood, and he does not lack the support of box office performance. Naturally, he wants to seek more, so he ignores the consideration of this general model, but organizes contradictions and conflicts from clues, and learns from some American screenwriters in this regard. It's not a bad practice.

The screenwriters of American dramas are thinking about the density of conflict creation and resolution. They don’t think much about the rhythm of the drama. Murphy planned the same. This new series will start from the first minute to the last minute. Constantly creating conflicts, resolving conflicts, creating larger conflicts, and resolving larger conflicts... until the butterfly effect is finally produced, which evolves into a war and social storm that spreads across New York.

It took nearly ten days for Murphy to get the framework content such as the personality, themes, and outlines. It also took time to continue to adjust. The specific script writing may not be until after the Oscars.

However, he is not in a hurry. If you want to create a classic series, it will be so easy. Repeated polishing is a necessary process. The phrase on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, "I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry", is very suitable to describe the current situation. jobs.

The progress of the new project script was very slow. Murphy was thinking and revising, and almost all of his time was spent on it. It was not until the 20th century Fox informed that "The Wolf of Wall Street" was about to be relegated from North America, and he slightly shifted his attention. .

After nearly twenty weeks of screenings, "The Wolf of Wall Street" was basically unable to generate box office from the North American theaters. Although considering the Oscars, Twentieth Century Fox can pay a certain amount of income to make this film in Los Angeles and After the Oscars were shown in a few theaters in New York, Murphy and Twentieth Century Fox knew that the film had already received enough nominations and it was basically impossible to win heavyweight awards, and they did not do this anymore. Rather than wasting resources, it’s better to move from North America to the public relations effort, and follow the effects of the Oscar period to launch DVD and online paid versions.

In March, "The Wolf of Wall Street" was officially off the North American theaters, and the North American box office finally stopped at a figure of 241.68 million U.S. dollars.

Although it did not exceed the US$250 million mark, this figure was enough to ensure that "The Wolf of Wall Street" broke into the top ten of the 2009 North American box office annual rankings.

For such a film on Wall Street, it can be said to be a very proud achievement.

Twentieth Century Fox executives also received news from Bill Rossis that Murphy was preparing for a brand new series. After the "Wolf of Wall Street" was downgraded from North America, he immediately notified Murphy, the North American box office. His 20% share will be paid in place within the next month.

Later, Twentieth Century Fox released the DVD of "The Wolf of Wall Street", but now that the DVD is gradually sinking, the sales can only be said to be relatively average. The discs of each version only sold less than 3.5 million sets in the first week. .

Compared with DVD, the pay-on-demand and online rental of films has increased by nearly 50% compared with the previous "Shameless Bastard". This can also be said to be a trend in the offline development of the film industry in the future.

In the subsequent Oscars, Murphy and "The Wolf of Wall Street" won nothing, and Catherine Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker" became the biggest winners.

One weekend after the Oscars, North America ushered in the most heavyweight movie ever released in March-"Batman vs. Superman".