Legendary Hollywood Director

Making a movie is not an easy task, and Lehmann is well aware of the need to be well-prepared, especially when it comes to funding.

So, the next day he showed up again on time at the coffee shop where he had an appointment with Christopher Lambert.

When we met yesterday, he made some new demands as an investor: such as increasing the investment budget to 500,000 euros and taking 50 percent of the proceeds.

For Lehman, who was holding the empty-glove and white wolf approach, there was absolutely no reason to refuse. He was coy for a while, and pretended to be reluctant to agree to the investor's new conditions. So, he came here today to sign a contract.

Thank you for your support, Mr Lambert.

In the cafe, in the presence of a lawyer, Ryman signed his name and pressed his thumbprint.

You're welcome, this is what I should do.

...

It was only at this point that Lehmann finally got a start-up fund for the movie, so when saying goodbye to each other, he also shook hands with Christopher Lambert, This will be a pleasant cooperation.

Lambert also responded with a smile: I think so too.

After speaking, he took the lawyer out of the cafe.

Lyman looked at his back, shrugged, relieved his inner excitement, and left the cafe after he calmed down a little.

On the way, he went to a Swiss bank. Sure enough, he found that there was an extra 500,000 euros in the newly opened account. Christopher Lambert didn't bother him.

All the way back home, Lyman sat on the bed in the bedroom and began to think about what to do with the money.

First of all, the money must not be fully invested in the filming of the film, at least about 50,000 euros must be kept.

After all, making movies is risky, even if he has a lot of memories about movies in later generations, it doesn't mean it's absolutely reliable. In case of failure, the money left behind will also prevent him from getting into trouble immediately.

Lehman still has lingering fears from the days he just passed over. He finally managed to pull in the investment, but of course he couldn't put all the pressure on it.

As a sane person, this 50,000 euros is the way he left for himself.

There is no guarantee that his first film will be recognized by the film market.

He has experience, yes, but most of it is in TV series, making movies, this is the first time in my life.

The predecessor was not counted, and Lehmann didn't take that movie as his own at all.

Then, there is only 450,000 euros left to invest in the film project.

There is not much money, so I have to think about the design of the script content. As for the script written by his predecessor, which was used to fool investment, he directly tossed it aside. With ambiguous, pornographic, story frameworks, only Europe likes to play this set, and Lehmann doesn't like this tone.

What is the difference between a literary genre film and a pornographic film?

Letting go of his mind, Lyman began to recall the excellent works he had watched in his previous life, trying to find a movie suitable for his situation.

There is very little capital investment, so it must be produced at a low cost, and the lower the cost, the better. After all, Lehmann is a novice, and he doesn’t know what will happen when shooting, so he needs to set aside a budget accordingly. Prevent possible problems.

Then the scene transition, the number of actors, the camera position, and the behind-the-scenes staff must all be taken into account.

After such a screening, there are not too many movies.

In the past two years, there was an atypical and successful route such as Blair Witch. The production cost was only 60,000 US dollars, but it easily won hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office in North America. However, this method is not suitable for Lehman, that film. A large part of the success of the film is due to the amazing amount of money that the distribution company has invested in publicity.

Marketing costs are in the tens of millions of dollars. If Lyman had that much money, he wouldn't have to think about films like Blair Witch.

Of course, he does not have a distribution company willing to take over the distribution work. Whether it can be released or not is still a matter of choice.

Therefore, films such as Smart-Ghost Recording that focus on similar properties will not work either.

So, what good options are there?

Lehman turned his head, and after a long time, the name of a movie came to mind.

Buried Alive!

There is only one character who really needs to spend the lens to portray, and the other characters are all tricks.

The scene is easier to manage. More than 80% of the plot takes place in a closed coffin. There is no need for too many scene transformations. It can be easily done with a small amount of money and a few more coffins suitable for shooting.

There are also behind-the-scenes filming teams, which also need to be looked for.

It is impossible for Lehmann to part-time directing, photography, lighting, makeup, props and a series of jobs, even if he wants to, it seems that his strength is not allowed.

At least his make-up is very crap, let alone controlling photography and lighting at the same time.

Therefore, it is necessary to find a suitable and inexpensive photographer who can light up better. If not, find another lighting engineer to help.

This money can not be saved, the quality of those shooting work can be directly related to the quality of the footage.

And Buried Alive as a horror movie, the sense of camera is very important.

In the same way, a makeup artist is also needed. If the unmodified actor is directly shot on the camera, the high-resolution camera will infinitely magnify a seemingly insignificant defect, and there are still some pictures of wounds in it. All need the help of a makeup artist.

Thinking of this, Lehmann found that the 450,000 euros that he had thought before was a little nervous. It would take a lot of money to build a shooting team, not to mention the post-production of the film. Music, editing and other work also need a lot of money to get it done.

He should also plan how to save money, otherwise, the money seems a bit reluctant.

This is a very realistic society. If you want others to work, you always have to give them a corresponding reward.

So how can we pull out a professional production team with less money? Lyman couldn't help but bow his head to think.

By the way, intern.

Lehman's mind flashed across the conditions that the lady said about applying for an art job that day.

Interns don't need to give money. Wouldn't it be better to find interns yourself?

There are still many schools in the Cannes area that are related to film and television production. After graduation, most of the students must start from the most basic ones.

Just like Lehman in the previous life, he started as a field assistant on the set.

It's a really good way to solve a problem, and Lehmann is very pleased with his quick thinking skills.

In this way, the expenditure on the staff behind the scenes can be greatly reduced, and the funds will not be too tight.

Regarding the issue of filming and production, Ryman thought about it for an entire afternoon before thinking about it completely.

No one can guarantee the success of a movie, but you can't go wrong with adequate preparation. With reasonable production thinking, it can also reduce the possibility of film failure.

Do you want to make a movie, or you don't want to make a movie. If you want to make a movie, you must figure out all the problems that may occur, and try to solve them in advance. Even if the investment is small, you can't slack off the work in this area.

For dinner, Lehmann went to a nearby restaurant to eat, a local speciality buckwheat cake, a roast beef rib, the portion is very large, completely enough to eat, the taste is also very good, the total cost of 42 euros. After all, he is also a person with a huge sum of money on his body, and it is really unreasonable to buckle his stomach, and Leiman doesn't want to eat bread and drink cold water. Be nice to yourself, no need to frugal on this.

After returning home, Lehman took out a notebook, carefully recorded the ideas he thought about in the afternoon, and wrote a plan by the way.

After completing these preliminary preparations, Lehmann began to write the script.

Although it is said that among the elements of a film, the script is relatively low-ranking, and many directors will not describe the shooting according to the plot design above the script, or even completely deviate from the script creation, but no matter how it is said, this is also a Fundamentals of filmmaking.

Moreover, with the script, it is also possible to better conceive the work of splitting shots and the formulation of the shooting plan, which can be used to refer to the actor, so that he can understand roughly what kind of story is to be told, and it can also be convenient for him to bring into the role. In short, there are many benefits, especially for a new director like Lehmann.

He first wrote the script outline, and everything about the film revolves around the protagonist alone. The story is very simple. It tells the plot design of a construction contractor from the United States who was attacked while working in Iraq and woke up to find himself in a coffin, buried alive and trying to escape.

Since the scenes of the whole work are roughly shot inside the coffin, few other pictures are involved.

And such a bold setting: starting from the coffin and ending with the coffin also means that the world outside the coffin and the relationship between the characters are all completed by the protagonist's lines, which also puts all the plot promotion on the protagonist. .

Therefore, this film has very high requirements for the main actors - in a streamlined space, the information of the incident is completely filled with expressions, actions, and language, how to show what happened synchronously inside and outside the entire coffin, and the explosive power and infection of the storyline. How to restore the original background of the relationship between characters in a critical situation is a test of the starring's acting skills.

In fact, there are very few works of this type of one-man show, because it is very difficult to tell the content of the film so that it is not so boring. A single scene for a long time, with the main actor appearing alone, can easily make the audience's mind tired.

How to deal with this aspect is also what Lehmann needs to pay attention to as a director.