Chapter 47: There Is a Problem

"This is a film set, Nami."

Duke knew exactly who had come. Without even looking up, he said, "I don't think you have any scenes today, do you?"

"I just wanted to have lunch with you."

When Duke finally looked over, Naomi Watts wore just the right expression. Paired with her slender figure, she easily evoked a sense of delicate vulnerability.

"Let's go."

Without another word, Duke led the way out of the soundstage and headed toward his trailer. Naomi Watts followed closely at his side.

Lunch was decent, if not lavish, but Duke had no time to chat with Naomi. Zack Snyder, John Schwartzman, and Hannah Serena had all joined him in his trailer. Along with assistant director Sofia Coppola, the group spent the entire meal discussing the afternoon's shoot.

"The insurance company requires stunt doubles for all high-risk action sequences."

To maintain her slim figure, Sofia ate only a bit of vegetable salad before finishing her lunch. She pulled out the schedule to go over a few key points. "They vetoed both of Christopher's explosion scenes, and the action sequences Nicolas was going to perform himself have to be canceled too."

"Do as they ask," Duke said, swallowing a bite of beef. "We don't have time to haggle with a third party. If a shot can use a stunt double, use one. Also, Sofia, have the funds for the explosions been allocated yet?"

"The money arrived this morning."

Hearing Sofia's confirmation, Duke nodded in relief. He then looked across at Zack Snyder. "Joss William's pyrotechnics team will join the crew this afternoon. Show them around and get them familiarized."

Throughout the entire lunch, they spoke of absolutely nothing else. The conversation revolved strictly around the shoot and related production matters. Naomi Watts sat beside Duke, slowly eating a fruit salad, finding no opportunity to interject. She was a complete outsider here, entirely ignored.

They were a team, and she was on the outside.

It was the only feeling Naomi Watts had—she simply did not fit in with this group.

"Once you know what you want, you will naturally find the path to reach your goal. You will find a way. You will focus your energy, and you will endure everything, because you crave that destination, because you know that achieving your goal requires absolute focus!"

Suddenly, she remembered the words Duke had once told her. Those words were the perfect portrait of the team sitting before her. They craved their goal, they hungered for success, and they were incredibly focused!

She glanced at Duke beside her again. His attention wasn't on her at all. It seemed that ever since the cameras started rolling, he had eyes only for this movie. Everything else could be tossed aside for now...

"I'm finished," she said softly, leaning in a little closer to Duke. "I have things to do this afternoon, so I'll be going."

"John, for the medium shots, the camera..."

Hearing her voice, Duke turned to glance at Naomi Watts. He merely gave a slight nod before seamlessly picking up his conversation. "...can use a mixed upward angle to create a first-person perspective, increasing the sense of realism for the audience."

Aside from Sofia Coppola, who sat on Duke's other side, no one even looked at Naomi Watts as she stood up and left.

When lunch ended, Zack Snyder and the others left the trailer first. Duke drank a cup of coffee before heading toward the outdoor production area at Warner Studios with Sofia.

"You just hurt a woman."

Walking along the asphalt road winding between the soundstages, Sofia suddenly spoke up. "Miss Watts had a lonely look in her eyes when she left."

"Are you sure?" Duke turned to look at her, and Sofia shrugged. "Well, she wasn't very happy."

She pursed her lips. "Duke, you really aren't suitable boyfriend material."

"I'm not her boyfriend, either." Duke didn't take it to heart, casually changing the subject. "Have you contacted the military consultant yet?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Lenho arrived this morning." Sofia stopped pressing the trivial matter and shifted back into work mode. "He has been leading his people around the outdoor set all day, surveying the location to design appropriate tactical movements."

The afternoon shoot soon got underway. They were filming the scene where General Hummel led his team in a raid on the armory. Although the script set the scene at night, various constraints prompted Duke to film it during the day. He planned to swap out the background colors in post-production.

Many night scenes in Hollywood films were actually shot during the daytime and relied on post-production to adjust the background.

This didn't require advanced CGI; it was easily achieved with standard in-camera effects.

Heavy "rain" poured down from the water cannons. The Hummer drove up to the sentry post, and two guards stepped out to stop General Hummel's convoy...

Sitting behind the monitor, Duke kept his eyes glued to the scene unfolding before him. Beside him, Lieutenant Colonel Lenho suddenly took a step forward.

"There is a problem," he said quietly to Duke, who immediately shouted, "Cut!"

The rain stopped, and the set reverted to the dry California climate.

Duke played back the footage they had just shot. Lieutenant Colonel Lenho pointed at the assault rifles slung across the two guards' chests. "Having their muzzles pointed upward is a severe tactical error."

Seeing Duke gesture for him to continue, he explained, "It's not wartime, and it is raining. According to US Military regulations, all soldiers must carry their weapons with the barrels pointing down to prevent accidental misfires and keep water out."

These were minor details that were incredibly easy to overlook; only a military professional would have noticed them. Duke certainly wouldn't have spotted the mistake himself. He immediately had the military consultant instruct the actors to adjust, doing his best to avoid repeating such basic military errors in the future.

Due to the limitations of Alcatraz Island's architecture and terrain, aside from some car chase and landscape sequences, the film didn't require many on-location shots. Most of the movie would be filmed on constructed sets within the soundstages and outdoor production areas of Warner Studios. Furthermore, under the supervision of the third-party completion guarantor, the leading actors rarely performed their own stunts for the action scenes.

The third-party insurance company not only provided a completion bond for the film but also held the life and health insurance for the lead actors. If they got injured, the insurance company would be on the hook for a massive payout.

Although Hollywood's completion guarantee system wasn't favorable to directors, Duke had never entertained the idea of fighting the entire Hollywood machine on his own. Doing so would only leave him battered and bloody. All he could do was maintain smooth communication and eliminate disagreements between the two sides as much as possible. This wasn't some awards-bait film where the leads absolutely had to do their own stunts anyway. Whenever a stunt double could be used, Duke would never insist otherwise. Risking injuries to his leads and delaying the shoot would cost far more than it was worth.

Because he habitually planned from a worst-case scenario perspective, the actual pace of the subsequent filming went slightly faster than scheduled. According to Duke's estimates, barring any major accidents, The Rock would wrap up all principal photography before February of next year.

Unlike the silent and unheralded production of Speed, the filming of The Rock was accompanied by an unrelenting promotional campaign from Warner Brothers. Every now and then, they would release a mix of true and fabricated news about the film. Pictures of the three male leads would sporadically pop up in newspapers and magazines—some even provided directly by the crew as behind-the-scenes set photos—just to remind the public that this movie was currently in the works.

According to the schedule, most of the dramatic dialogue scenes were filmed first. This was one of Duke's weaker areas. Frankly speaking, the structure of Speed had masked his flaws in storytelling, and The Rock could also cover for him to some extent. However, he couldn't rely on that forever. Duke wasn't just making movies for the sake of making them. Chasing success was one thing, but accumulating knowledge and learning from the process was equally important.

For scenes like Mason and Womack's balcony confrontation, Mason meeting his daughter, or Goodspeed's emotional exchanges with his girlfriend, Duke would put himself in each character's shoes before calling action. During filming, he would shoot multiple takes from various angles, and afterward, he would study the footage privately, doing his utmost to fix his biggest shortcomings as quickly as possible.

"You should find a film with intense emotional conflicts and frequent character interactions," Sofia had once advised him in private. "That's the only way you'll truly hone your skills. If you spend every day buried in car chases, explosions, and fight scenes, your achievements will be limited to just that."

Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. Sofia stayed with the crew to learn and plan for her own future. From Duke, she could learn his mastery of kinetic camerawork and visual impact. And in return, through their conversations, Duke could absorb some of the cinematic insights she had spent over a decade accumulating.

In the film industry, both of them were just setting out on the road, fumbling and fighting their way toward success.

As time slipped into December, the crew began shooting the action sequences. For several of the soundstage zones at Warner Studios, being ravaged by Duke's pyrotechnics became a daily occurrence. The massive explosions that occasionally boomed could sometimes be heard all the way at the Warner Building at the front of the studio lot.

When shooting explosive action scenes, stunt double injuries were inevitable. Despite the Screen Actors Guild's strict regulations on the matter, if someone accidentally got hurt, no one would make a fuss to the union. Issues were generally resolved internally by the crew.

"Scene fifty-five, take twenty-two..."

Duke, wearing his baseball cap backward, shouted into the megaphone, "Action!"

Just as he sat down, a booming explosion erupted. In the shot, a stuntman charged out of the minecart tracks and threw himself to the side, dodging the "grenade" that Goodspeed had tossed back.

Perhaps caught by the blast wave, another stuntman fell off the tracks after taking only two steps. The drop wasn't high, and there were safety mats in place below, but the moment he landed on the mat, he let out a scream of pain...