Hollywood Production

Chapter 23 - Danger and excitement

 "You seem to be under a lot of pressure?" Naomi Watts asked tentatively.

After drinking the glass of wine, Duke shrugged and didn't answer her question. Instead, he asked her casually, "How about you? Why didn't you develop in Australia first? Instead, you came to Hollywood, a more competitive environment?"

"I came to Los Angeles at the end of last year for a friend's bachelorette party," she said as she took two glasses of whiskey from the bartender and placed them in front of herself and Duke. "I wanted to see if there was a chance I could make it in the movies, my friend Nicole also helped me a little. This is my third movie role, but the first one with lines."

"Perhaps you've heard of her." Naomi Watts raised a glass to Duke again. "my classmate from drama school, Nicole Kidman..."

"It turned out to be Mrs. Cruise."

Taking a sip of the wine, Duke nodded, but stopped talking. Using friends to raise your identity is a common method in this circle.

After Naomi Watts drank all the wine in her glass, she returned to the crowd. Whith Duke's thoughtful eyes looking at her back.

"Are you interested in her?" Sofia Coppola asked him in a monotone nasal voice, as she pulled up a high chair and sat next to him. "Then take the initiative."

"Love is just a childish game." Duke turned his head to give her an angry look. "You really think I would be distracted by this kind of thing?"

It took him two lifetimes of accumulation to get the rare opportunity. As long as "Speed​​​" has not been completed, he will never distract his energy.

If we were to use the right words to describe Duke right now, they would be "workaholic!"

After a brief day of rest, the busy shooting work starts again. Fortunately, the main exterior shooting locations are in the Santa Monica in the Greater Los Angeles area, and the crew is also spared from long-distance travel.

"Speed" Studios rented out a portion of the uncompleted Santa Monica Freeway leading to Long Beach as their primary shooting location, as well as hundreds of used cars from three different rental car companies. They even managed to secure rare advertising sponsorships; one car manufacturer provided the production with four free buses.

The value is not particularly high, but it can always save some money.

Moreover, Universal Studios also showed their profound side, as they had already contacted the Los Angeles County Police Department. The police were very interested in this distinctive Los Angeles police propaganda film and would participate in the whole process of the exterior shots.

This is considered normal in North America, and government offices, the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA, Washington authorities, and even some large city public departments, all have special offices or liaison offices that deal with Hollywood, and often participate in the filming of Hollywood movies to promote their positive image.

"Speed" is so in line with the needs of the Los Angeles police that in addition to sending a SWAT team to serve as a background picture, they also provide a variety of equipment including police helicopters, without charging for fuel. and other fees.

This could save the production crew a lot of money.

The next ten days were spent mostly surrounded by collisions and noise, with several of the main actors completely receded to the background and most of their time spent in front of the camera being mugged, with the stuntmen and their vehicles being the real stars in front of the camera.

Shooting such a scene, it is inevitable that someone will be injured. Don't say a few stuntmen with minor injuries. Even the director, Duke, was also scratched by flying car fragments during a shoot.

Fortunately, it's just a superficial wound, so a band-aid will suffice and it won't affect work at all.

The bright sun was shining on the ground, and on the originally empty road, dozens of cars of various styles stopped. The props team was busy changing the road signs, and the stunt team installed three cars on the catapult according to Duke's requirements and adjusted the appropriate ejection angle.

Duke was standing by the side of the road, discussing the next shoot with the director of photography Croz, when the assistant director rushes over.

"Duke, are you going to install the wireless camera in the car again?" He directly raised the question, "In the past week, you have destroyed three expensive wireless cameras in car collisions and explosions!"

Duke turned around and looked at him. "My decision won't change!"

Having said that, he no longer paid attention to the assistant director, but headed directly towards the director's camera.

"Arrogant bastard ..." Crone watched Duque's back and said to the photography director, "The movie will be destroyed in his hands!"

"It's a question for the producers to judge whether the movie will be destroy him." Cruz obviously doesn't want to get involved in the power struggle, "I just do my job OK!"