Hollywood Production - Chapter 18

“Apart from being younger, you still look very much like a director.”

Hearing the monotone nasal voice, Duke turned his head to look at Sofia Coppola, who was standing beside him, but he said nothing in response.

After the adjustment was made, Duke signaled for the assistant director to start the scene.

Duke focuses intently on the footage from the camera, ignoring all distractions. The security guard in the picture approaches Dennis from the side, and the camera catches a glimpse of the maintenance order in Dennis hand.

“This is?”

Duke frowned and shouted directly, “Stop!”

He strode over to Dennis Hooper grabbed the repair order and scanned it quickly. It was full of letters in a jumble that even God might not be able to understand.

“Props!” Duke’s voice was not loud, but it was very loud, “I want a fake repair order, not this!”

He gestured to the props manager to come over, and the other party hurried over. Without waiting for him to explain anything, Duke said directly, “You have ten minutes to solve it!”

Duke’s words did not carry any emotional overtones, completely business like.

This is not his team, and it will not be his team in the future. There is only a working relationship between them. Whoever has a flaw in his work will be responsible for it.

Sitting in his seat, Duke rubbed his forehead. The first time he called a stop, it could be said that his inexperience caused the problem. This time, it was because the props team was careless… or incompetent.

“Need something to drink?”

The temporary assistant assigned to him by the crew suddenly said, “Coffee or black tea?”

“I don’t need it for now.” Duke shook his head and looked around curiously, “Sophia, why did you join the crew?”

“I need money, money that will allow me to live in Europe for a while.”

“After filming ‘Alien 3,’ I called Uncle Lucas and came here,” Sofia Coppola said directly. “Don’t forget that I’ve worked as a temporary assistant for David Finch, I can be considered your senior.”

“You’re going to Europe?” Duke thought about it for a bit, but he couldn’t remember anything about it. He only knew some of the experiences that Sofia Coppola had after 2000.

“Mom helped me get in touch with Karl Lagerfeld.”

“I really want to intern at Chanel next year,” Sofia said longingly, “Karl Lagerfeld has promised to reserve a spot for me.”

It can be seen from Sofia Coppola happy expression that she was very happy about working at Chanel, and perhaps her trip to Europe, is also related to her performance in “The Godfather 3” that was vilified by film critics.

Duke certainly wouldn’t bring up this topic, he wouldn’t make a woman relive her trauma.

The filming resumed quickly and the props team produced another repair order in less than 10 minutes. No matter if these people doubt Duke or not, professionalism is still there. Taking money to do things is the most basic thing in Hollywood and if they can’t even do this, these people won’t have the qualifications and status they have now.

However, the shooting still didn’t go well. The crew had to make constant adjustments to the venue and camera position. On the one hand, the crew was just starting work. On the other hand, Duke lacked enough experience. It took a full two and a half hours. to finish filming the first shot.

Duke is not an all-powerful genius, despite his hard work and experience in his previous life. He makes mistakes and needs to adjust to the rhythm of his crew.

All of this takes time.

Duke needs to communicate with the different types of workers on the set, as well as the actors. The long shooting time in the morning has exhausted the older Dennis Hooper, and he also made some small complaints through his assistant.

“The assistant to Dennis Hooper have made a request.”

During the intermission, Sofia Coppola conveyed to Duke in a timely manner, “He said that Mr. Hooper has been too busy with work recently and and isn’t feeling well. He hope that we will shot the extras scenes to give him a break.”

“Looks like I made another inexperienced mistake again.”

Muttering softly, Duke waved to the curious Sofia Coppola, indicating that he understand.

This is a very simple mistake, but it was ignored by Duke. He is a rookie director. With some famous actors in the crew, they are bound to be dissatisfied.

There are many actors in Hollywood with different quirks. If you are a great director, the problems that come up during shooting can be easily handled. However, if you are a new director like him, you have to be careful in many aspects. Even though Dennis Hooper is an old actor with a little fame, he can still have a bad temper.

The people who work on the set will never get along unless the person in charge can control everyone and make them do what they want.

Duke knows what he wants and is willing to do what it takes to get it, even if it means making some compromises and ignoring dissenting voices. He doesn’t have the ability or qualifications to fully control the crew, though.

After changing the shooting plan and moving more extras to the front, it took Duke a whole week to sort things out. However, after more than a week of collisions and contradictions, the crew’s performance started running smoothly.