u/dauid
I think what made the first one work was that it was a smaller, more personal and somewhat grounded story which was a bit different from a lot of other superhero movies.
For the sequel there was a desire for a bigger movie with lots of spectacle which turned out to be not very different from a lot of other superhero movies.
Here’s what happened; originally there was an additional scene at the end where the antagonist came back, showing that the suicide/sacrifice wasn’t a solution. Test audiences absolutely hated that part.
So we chopped off the last 5 minutes of the film. Literally just faded out five minutes earlier. That was the only change and the test scores went up 30 points!
It was really educational to see how a bad final scene could ruin everything that people enjoyed before it.
The downside of course was that the film now could be interpreted as suicide being a solution which was very unfortunate and definitely not the intention.
Do you mean dialogue recorded as ADR afterwards rather than on set? For ADR don’t place the mic right by the mouth, record as if recorded on set where the mic would be at a distance outside the frame. Then you need to add reverb and EQ it to match the space. If it’s a large room for example there would be more reverb, in a car very little.
You only mention camera related things but working with actors is like the number one thing. There’s so much to directing, both on and off set, and I’d say all parts can absolutely be taught. You don’t necessarily have to go to school and be taught though, you can learn from doing and experimenting.
Taste and intuition is something else though. But even there I think it’s possible to teach someone to be more intuitive and find their voice and creativity.
Everything seen on screen is legally cleared. The legal department also many times play it extra safe so while certain things could be possible they might still want to avoid it.
Certain companies also have their own rules like I’ve heard that Apple doesn’t allow bad guys using iPhones.
And then there are internal studio rules like if you make a movie with Sony you can only display Sony electronics. If a phone is called an iPhone in the script you have to change the script. My last movie was with Sony and we had some older electronics like CRT TVs and could only find a limited amount of Sonys. For the rest we had to cover up or digitally remove the brand.
A standing set means another production can’t shoot. It’s very common on big productions to tear down sets while shooting so you can build the rest of the sets. Stage space can be hard to come by.
And if you’ve ever been on a set you’ll know that it’s nothing at all like being in a real location. Sets are something very temporary that will only look good in certain angles and lights. You wouldn’t keep the lights up either since they’re expensive rentals.
If you’re rich enough to pay for the stage space, the light rental, all the legal stuff, etc then you’re rich enough to just build an actual replica of whatever movie location you want and keep it permanently.
