Chapter 93: Recruitment Commercial

"Step out of California and level all of America!"

Starting the next day, the media outlets under Warner and Fox launched a massive preliminary promotional campaign for Independence Day. This particular slogan, championed by Fox Television, quickly became a catchphrase across North America.

"The young director Duke Rosenberg is brimming with creativity and a thirst for destruction. After destroying Santa Monica in Speed and blowing up San Francisco and Alcatraz Island in The Rock, he has finally decided to step out of California and target the entire country in his new film, Independence Day. Perhaps the entire North American Continent will sink beneath his endless explosions..."

Sitting on a campus bench, Aerin set down her newspaper and looked at Anna beside her. "What is this madman going to blow up? The White House? The Statue of Liberty? Or the Empire State Building?"

"Why hasn't any paper mentioned a release date?" Aerin grumbled, folding the newspaper away.

"Could you use your brain a little, Miss Lauder?" Anna shifted on the bench, deliberately scooting a bit further away. "The film is called Independence Day. It's obviously going to be released over the Independence Day holiday."

"Good point," Aerin nodded. "We won't be short of a movie to watch next July."

"Are you sure you'll even have the time?" Anna nudged her shoulder. "After this semester, we'll be starting our internships. You'll probably be heading back to the Lauder Group, right?"

"Yeah, my mom wants me back at the family company." Aerin sighed. "What about you, Anna? What are your plans? Are you heading to Broadway, or marching straight into Hollywood?"

"I haven't decided yet," Anna said, looking thoughtful.

"How about this," Aerin offered, tossing out a random suggestion. "Don't you love Duke Rosenberg's movies too? Why not just go work for him? At the very least, you could be an assistant director, right?"

"Hollywood isn't as simple as you think."

Compared to Aerin and her affluent upbringing, Anna was much more grounded in reality. Dropping the subject entirely, she changed the topic. "Aerin, have you noticed that Duke Rosenberg seems to be heading down the wrong path?"

"The wrong path?" Aerin shook her head in confusion.

"Exactly. His first two films achieved massive commercial success. Especially The Rock—its current box office of over 355.6 million dollars has already surpassed Speed's global gross."

As a top student at the New York University Film Production Institute, Anna was more than capable of forming her own analytical insights. "His explosions, car chases, and visually striking shots are definitely compelling. But they are pure sensory stimulation! That makes it very easy to trigger audience fatigue. Right now, Duke's plan is clearly to attract people with even bigger, more frequent, and more intense explosions. Independence Day might still be a hit, but that kind of success isn't sustainable in the long run."

Coming from a family built on luxury goods, Aerin naturally understood the impact of audience fatigue. After thinking it over, she slowly nodded.

"So you're saying Duke has to change his style?" she asked.

"I really think he does."

It was a private conversation between friends, so Anna made no effort to hide her speculative thoughts. "If Independence Day just maintains the attendance numbers and cultural impact of his first two films, the market might still stomach another movie in the exact same vein. But if it becomes a massive blockbuster, he absolutely has to rethink his approach for his next project. He can't keep relying solely on explosions and visual spectacle as his main selling points. He needs to put a lot more work into the story itself and the emotional conflicts. Otherwise..."

She shrugged.

"Oh, Anna," Aerin praised. "You really ought to be a professional film critic."

"A professional film critic? They're just a bunch of impotent men..."

Even as a student still studying film production, Anna's voice dripped with absolute disdain. "...who insist on trying to teach real men how to fuck!"

Amused by her friend's colorful language, Aerin couldn't help but laugh. She leaned over and gave Anna a hug. "I always have so much fun with you. I really don't want us to graduate and split up."

"Me too," Anna said, patting her back. "I'll always remember us watching movies, laughing, and crying together."

Far away in Los Angeles, Duke had no idea that a pair of fans in New York were currently fretting over his future. The prep work for Independence Day was already proving far more complicated than either of his first two films.

"Hansen, I've looked over the sketches you drew up."

In the Independence Day Studio, Duke held a stack of draft artwork. Having just gathered the department heads for special effects, art, and illustration, he spoke quickly and to the point. "The aliens look far too simple and friendly!"

"Listen closely to my description!"

Though the exact same words were in the script, Duke made a point of emphasizing them aloud to ensure everyone grasped their importance. "They come from the red dwarf Grace Star System, twenty-five light-years away. They are organic life forms. Locust-like in shape, multi-tentacled, with flat skulls, fragile bodies, and absolutely no vocal cord structure."

"As for their technology, they have an ultra-massive mothership, large-scale laser pillar emitters, green energy shields, and smaller tactical spaceships!"

"In short, the moment the audience lays eyes on these aliens, I want them to feel disgusted, repulsed, and sickened! I want them to instantly recognize them as a swarm of locust-like predators!"

Seeing the department heads nod solemnly, Duke waved them off, sending them back to draft new concept art for the aliens and the mothership.

A sharp knock rang out on the door. Sofia Coppola walked in and got straight to the point without any small talk. "Warner and Fox have tentatively locked in a 25 million dollar promotional budget for the film. If you can keep the final production costs under 90 million, they'll inject another 10 million depending on the film's initial reception after release."

Duke nodded. "Go on."

"The props department managed to lease an existing White House interior set. We won't have to build one from scratch, which saves us a solid chunk of change."

That was good news. Sofia didn't pause. "The producers have also decided to air a commercial during next year's Super Bowl. Furthermore, IBM, Coca-Cola, and Cadillac have all officially signed on as sponsors for the shoot. You need to figure out exactly which scenes their products will appear in as soon as possible, so the studio can quote them a final price."

"Let's go see how Zack and his team are doing."

Once Sofia finished her report, Duke pushed the door open and led the way out. They headed straight for the office where Zack Snyder was guiding his assistants in drafting the scene storyboards.

Commercial films demanded a clear, straightforward plot structure with absolutely no dragging. The premise of Independence Day was incredibly simple: aliens arrive to destroy humanity, humanity rises up to fight back, and humanity ultimately wins. Consequently, the film's shot list and storyboards were designed entirely around connecting the various groups of people leading that counterattack.

First, a mysterious spacecraft flies toward Earth. Second, the government detects it, prompting the Department of Defense and the White House to take countermeasures. Third, a romantically frustrated scientific genius plays chess with his father to kill time and ends up discovering the alien signal. Fourth, a Vietnam War pilot who claims he was once abducted and experimented on by aliens drinks his days away, his work life a complete disaster. Fifth, an elite Air Force pilot remains devoted to his girlfriend even though she's a single mother working as a stripper, and they ultimately end up together.

In the beginning, this series of events lacked any direct connection. Every storyline seemed unrelated, but in reality, not a single one was wasted. By the climax of the film, every single character would play an irreplaceable role. As the alien invasion unfolded, these separate threads would inevitably weave together.

While this cross-cutting narrative structure was highly typical and used constantly in cinema—making it rather unexceptional in its own right—it was more than enough to clearly tell the story.

After explicitly instructing Zack Snyder to find natural insertion points for the product placements and reviewing a few of their completed storyboards, Duke returned to his own office to continue tackling the broader challenges of production.

For a commercial blockbuster to truly succeed, simply telling a clear story was far from enough. Its most potent and effective weapon was evoking emotion! And that meant getting the audience truly invested.

Whether it was a rousing speech or a massive action and explosion sequence, the ultimate goal was to resonate with the audience. It had to make the vast majority of theatergoers feel thrilled and completely satisfied—not leave them utterly bewildered the way arthouse films often did. Doing that was essentially driving the mainstream audience away on purpose.

Explosions and action were exactly the kinds of sequences Duke excelled at shooting. But beyond the spectacle, the film relied on the most fundamental emotional hook of all—just like in Speed and The Rock, good must ultimately triumph over evil!

Ensuring that the forces of "good" emerged victorious could easily be called the most foundational rule of commercial cinema.

Many people might wonder why, out of the thousands of films they've watched, they rarely—if ever—see the bad guys win. It wasn't because filmmakers possessed hearts of gold and worried about corrupting the audience. It was purely a calculation of commercial returns. They simply couldn't afford to slap the audience with an ending where the villains came out on top.

No one could deny it: the vast majority of mainstream audiences would never accept a story where evil triumphed.

Even though movies were nothing more than a fictional world, the public craved seeing the villain's wickedness crushed by justice. They wanted the bad guys to receive the severe punishment they deserved. It was the same reason audiences would never accept Mickey Mouse turning into a bloodthirsty murderer, or Donald Duck becoming an armed robber.

Furthermore, mainstream society actively needed these essentially fairy-tale-like films to subconsciously reassure people that the world they lived in wasn't actually fraught with peril.

Pre-production was a tedious, repetitive grind. While Duke didn't have to draft everything by hand, as the director overseeing the entire project, every single element ultimately required final approval from him and the two production managers. He hadn't had a moment of rest the entire afternoon. Just as it was finally time to clock out, he received a call from the Pentagon Hollywood Liaison Office.

"What do you mean, you're not satisfied with the script?" Duke's brow twitched. "You want me to cut Area 51 entirely and change the ending of the final battle?"

"No, no, no, General Joseph. The person who destroys the alien mothership's main weapon absolutely must be a civilian. It cannot be the President or a member of the military!" Duke emphasized forcefully. "That is a plot point I designed after very careful consideration."

"Tomorrow? The Pentagon's representative will arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow?" Hearing the specific name mentioned over the phone, Duke breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Alright, I'll have a detailed discussion with Lieutenant Colonel Lenho tomorrow."