Nowadays, only simple and popular comrcial movies can truly beco hits. Inception is far more than just a guaranteed-quality production that can easily sell well. Besides Duke’s consistent good fortune and the market appeal of actors like Leonardo, the cultural transformation driven by the rise of the internet and video ga culture is also an undeniable factor.
This was also the key point Duke emphasized when proposing marketing strategies to Warner Bros: using internet terminals to craft clever promotional tactics that guide the audience’s attitude toward the film, turning them into active participants.
In other words, viewers, having been deeply imrsed in virtual online societies and role-playing video gas, can easily place themselves as participants in the movie’s story, engaging intensely in the film’s aning production. Specifically for Inception, this is reflected in how, after release, fans enthusiastically interpret the plot from their own perspectives, while fan communities and fandom culture gather, amplifying Inception’s montum wave after wave.
Compared to any kind of deep aning or decoding, this is truly Inception’s secret weapon involving the audience, making it neither too difficult or too highbrow, nor too simple or crude. Just like the scene where Cobb asks Ariadne to design the maze, the adjustnts must be just right.
As for video gas, it’s even easier to understand. If, after two hours, so viewers say, "This is just like a video ga," then the film has basically succeeded.
Duke paid close attention to this aspect during filming and post-production.
In so ways, Cobb is like Neo trapped inside the Matrix empire. Once entering dream or virtual realities, it’s an endless loop. No matter how you explain it, the film becos a black party full of "false as true" and "nonexistent as existent."
Precisely because it’s a dream, anything goes, which also gave Duke an excellent opportunity to create visual spectacles.
Inception can to so extent be called the "dream-stealing version" of The Matrix. Now with video gas widespread, fans are even more entertained and receptive to the story of Inception.
After finishing filming in Paris, Duke led the crew away from Europe to the Whistler Mountain ski resort in Canada to shoot the fortress attack scenes.
Frankly, the latter half of the film is the key to Inception’s success.
Inception’s biggest highlight lies in the puzzle of the four-layer dream within a dream in the second half. Christopher Nolan once set different perceptions of ti between dream layers, making viewers hold their breath watching a minibus plunge off a bridge the innermost being Cobb eting his deceased wife at the dream’s edge, followed by the snowy mountain gunfight, then the fight inside the gravity-shifting building, and only then the minibus falling. Each level must be traversed simultaneously.
Thus, whether the bomb explodes at the last mont beca the audience’s main concern. The seemingly boring dream ga was transford by Nolan into an action blockbuster, which is the real focus of Inception’s success.
As for the spinning top "last minute trick," that’s just a standard Hollywood trope.
And after so many dream-within-dream layers, how it ends whether or not it can be explained clearly why Cobb wakes up in the cabin, whether he’s still dreaming, and whether his wife’s theory about reality and dreams being indistinguishable is correct — when the film ends, these questions remain and must remain.
Tracing back, "what is real" is an eternal philosophical dilemma. Heidegger once said, "The being for whom being is a question is always my being."
Following this phenonological philosophy tinged with solipsism, as long as perception is completely real, then it is real if Neo never woke up in the pod, the virtual world would be real to him, just like Neo’s world. As long as the perceptual system does not alarm, questioning the truth of the world is aningless.
For the audience, these questions’ greatest aning is that after watching, they will relentlessly seek the truth, trying to convince others with their own version of the truth, rewatching the movie repeatedly to find evidence proving their truth is the truth!
That’s the greatest use of setting these question marks.
Whether the creator is Duke or Christopher Nolan, this aspect must be the sa.
The ski resort scenes were one of Duke’s major modifications. Almost everyone knows action scenes are Nolan’s weakness; Duke had a professional team led by Jimmy Carter redesign the entire action sequence, which matched his style better.
In fact, just like filming The Dark Knight, all of Inception’s action scenes were redone by Duke. Even if Leonardo DiCaprio and Jas Franco’s action scenes were sowhat poor, there were corresponding stunt doubles.
Filming at Whistler Mountain continued until mid-January. Charlize Theron’s scenes finished earliest since her screen ti was limited.
Before leaving the ski resort, Charlize Theron sought out Duke.
"Do you have ti now?"
Entering Duke’s room, Charlize Theron glanced at Scarlett, who was studying the script, and said to Duke, "Can we go out for a walk?"
Duke nodded at Scarlett, then took a down coat from the hanger, put it on, and wore a knit hat, before leaving the hotel room with Charlize Theron.
The weather outside was a bit gloomy with occasional snowflakes falling. Because of the cold and low air pressure, they didn’t walk far, only strolling slowly toward a less crowded spot in the hotel’s small plaza.
The heavy leather boots crushed the fallen snowflakes on the bluestone ground. Charlize Theron put her hands in her pockets and said, "I just received news that I’ve been nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress."
"Congratulations." Duke had already heard the news.
Charlize Theron stopped walking and looked at Duke. "How do you want to thank you?"
Duke naturally understood the aning behind her words. After thinking for a mont, he said, "If you have ti when the NFL season starts next year, attend my team’s opening ga ceremony."
The Oakland Raiders team he bought had moved to Los Angeles and officially renad the Los Angeles Raiders. It was already January 2010, and the Super Bowl was imminent. After signing contracts with Tom Brady, Marshawn Lynch, and others, the team was still in a rebuilding phase and hadn’t made the playoffs.
According to the team manager Duke hired, the poor performance was partly because Duke had never attended a ga since buying the team.
So Duke planned to pay more attention to the team next season, since NFL teams are quite profitable.
Without hesitation, Charlize Theron agreed, "I’ll definitely have ti."
As they spoke, the two continued walking forward, and the topic shifted to that year’s Oscars. Duke could tell from Charlize’s words that she clearly understood that just getting the nomination was already a victory, and the chances of winning the Best Actress Oscar for the role of Furiosa were almost infinitesimal.
Aside from Best Actress Fury Road didn’t receive any heavyweight Oscar nominations; the rest were technical awards like Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Art Direction.
It was obvious that apart from the outstanding performance contributed by Charlize Theron, the Academy did not want to give Fury Road any other recognition.
However, in various dia and audience awards, Fury Road was the biggest winner among films released last year.
In the annual Top Ten Films of 2010 selected by the Arican Film Institute, The Hollywood Reporter, Empire magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Tis, and many other dia outlets, Fury Road not only appeared on the list but consistently ranked first!
In online public votes, Fury Road also won almost all the titles for Best Film of the Year.
With all this, whether the Academy and the Oscars recognized it or not was not important to Duke at all.
Moreover, this was actually a good thing; if he had used up all his goodwill this year, it would inevitably affect his upcoming plans.
The schedule for this plan was very tight because it had to consider next year’s Oscars. Duke had already asked Nancy Josephson to submit the initial draft and rough plan of the script for review by Warner Brothers’ committee. Once Inception was released, all efforts would shift fully to that project.
In the current shoot, the scenes involving Scarlett only had a passing shot left. She was also reading the script for that project.
Duke knew very well that ti was tight, but after last year’s Cannes Film Festival, he already had a plan.
And he didn’t want to invest too much ti in an Oscar film. The few compressed months were just right for preparing and producing The Avengers, which was far more important to him than the Oscar statuette.
Duke and Charlize Theron gradually reached the edge of the small square, and the conversation returned from the Oscars back to the movie itself.
"By the way..." Charlize seed to recall sothing, "The latest Hollywood Black List of scripts has co out. Are you interested in any of them?"
"No." Duke shook his head directly, "I have no interest in any scripts or projects on the list."
In today’s Hollywood, with frequent sequels, remakes, and reboots, original quality scripts, to so extent, were indeed a guarantee of good works. The Black List might not be a ’best’ list, but the scripts did have certain quality.
Most scripts on the Black List were not for big-budget films but scripts that struck at the emotional core of characters in other words, mostly small-budget, low-investnt, and low-production scripts.
This simply did not et Duke’s needs.
....
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