The staff member, hearing Brian De Palma's instructions, casually picked one of the several copies of 'Run Lola Run' dailies and loaded it into the viewing machine.
He pressed play, and everyone looked at the large screen on the wall.
On the screen, after the clapperboard, the first thing that appeared was an empty shot.
From a fixed, low-angle perspective, bright golden sunlight streamed in through a window adorned with two half-open bamboo blinds.
Under the strong light, the patterns on the bamboo blinds, the Barbie doll in the corner, and the withered bouquet on the windowsill all contributed to a sense of serene and perfect harmony.
The quality of a film shot is primarily judged by the excellence of elements such as composition, colour, and camera movement.
The shot before them clearly achieved an impeccable standard in terms of composition, colour, and lighting.
There wasn't a single outsider in the screening room who didn't understand film. Therefore, even without seeing the actors' performances immediately, everyone secretly exclaimed, "Beautiful," at just this simple empty shot.
The fixed empty shot, lasting approximately 5 seconds, was repeated three times.
Immediately after, the second shot was still an empty one.
However, this time it was not a fixed shot but a slow push-in.
In the frame, Lola and her boyfriend's photo, a red card with a radiating heart shape, and scattered clutter on the table all exhibited excellent lighting and composition.
Subsequently, the third shot, though still an empty one, began to show movement.
Lola's green plaid pant leg was on the left, a black beer bottle on the right, and a small turtle slowly crawling in the middle.
Compared to the first two empty shots, this one appeared more interesting, subtly conveying a sense of restless agitation.
Everyone now realized that this should be a continuous sequence of empty shots.
However, the three shots, with three completely different compositions, were all full of imagination, demonstrating the creator's profound aesthetic foundation.
After a series of empty shots, Lola herself finally appeared in the frame.
Seeing Lola's intense colour scheme, fiery red hair, a blue vest, and green pants, those in the screening room who were seeing the film for the first time were slightly surprised.
This avant-garde image, almost like a cartoon character, was quite rare in Hollywood films.
However, thanks to the perfect series of empty shots that preceded it, these individuals unconsciously regarded this unconventional style as innovative.
The dailies, printed from the original negatives, naturally had no sound.
The silent footage continued to play for over two minutes, and the reactions of those in the screening room varied.
Ron McMillan, the producer of 'Run Lola Run', was now completely relieved. Having been in Hollywood for so many years, Ron could easily judge the quality of the dailies before him.
The shots Simon filmed were countless times better than his wildest dreams.
Therefore, it was evident that Simon's directing style during these first few days of filming, which differed from other directors, was not at all a pretence.
This was a young man with exceptionally high filmmaking talent.
Kathryn Bigelow had seen Simon display various extraordinary talents on more than one occasion, so she had sufficient confidence in Simon from the beginning.
At this moment, she was simply enjoying the dailies with everyone else.
A thought flashed through David Giler's mind: he had indeed not misjudged that young man.
As for Brian De Palma...
He was likely the one with the highest professional expertise in the entire room.
Although Robert Redford and Kathryn Bigelow had some directing experience, their qualifications in this area were quite shallow compared to Brians.
Due to his professionalism, as the dailies played, Brian De Palma grew increasingly surprised.
After Simon abandoned the collaboration with Orion, Brian De Palma did not retract his promise to serve as the executive producer for 'Run Lola Run'; he genuinely admired this young man.
However, Brian De Palma was not without his concerns.
In the film and television industry, the phenomenon of screenwriters transitioning to directors is very common, but this is often a gradual process.
Simon's screenwriting talent had only just begun to attract Hollywood's attention, and he was already eager to become a director.
Brian De Palma had believed this to be an unwise choice.
Therefore, even though he had made a promise, if the final cut of 'Run Lola Run' turned out to be too unbearable, Brian De Palma would under no circumstances allow his name to appear in the film's credits.
But now, Brian De Palma had completely let go of his initial worries.
The very first empty shot on the screen prompted Brian De Palma to give it a very high evaluation.
From a purely technical perspective, a strong backlit scene, if not handled well, can result in flaws like glare and haziness in the picture.
However, no such issues were found in Simon's shots.
If only this one shot had achieved near perfection, it wouldn't be much to boast about.
However, the subsequent series of backlit shots of Lola standing by the window making a call appeared impeccable from all technical angles, which was truly remarkable.
Moreover, Brian De Palma also highly approved of the warm yellow-dominant tone Simon had chosen for the film.
Warm yellow can be said to be one of the easiest tones to make people feel relaxed and comfortable, and this colour scheme also appeared to have a more cinematic quality.
In addition, in the dailies from a four and a half minute film reel, the use of various shooting techniques also demonstrated Simon's excellent camera staging abilities.
In particular, the final shot in the dailies, tracking Lola as she rushes out of the room, turns towards her mother's bedroom, and then turns again towards the TV screen, had truly imaginative camera movement.
However...
All of this was not what surprised Brian De Palma the most.
As soon as the four-and-a-half-minute dailies finished playing, Brian De Palma immediately asked Ron McMillan, who was sitting on the other side, with a hint of uncertainty, "Ron, has this version of the dailies already been colour-corrected?"
In the era of film, dailies printed from original negatives would show different results in terms of colour exposure and other aspects for each shot, due to variations in lighting, set design, and even the quality of the film stock itself during shooting.
Therefore, after a film was edited, the dailies had to be individually colour-corrected by a professional colourist for each shot, with a specific colour scheme set for each, and then handed over to the printing plant staff for processing according to the corresponding scheme.
Moreover, most films typically undergo at least three rounds of colour correction to achieve the final screen effect that audiences see.
It's not hard to imagine how complex the colour correction process would be for a film that often has thousands of shots.
However, even in the digital age many years later, no film can escape the intricate colour correction process.
But just now...
Brian De Palma noticed that in the four and a half minute dailies of 'Run Lola Run', there was surprisingly little noticeable difference in exposure, tone, and other aspects between different shots.
It's important to remember that although they belonged to the same scene, the colour, lighting, and other aspects of each shot in the dailies were completely different.
Therefore, even counting repetitions, achieving such uniformity in colour and exposure across more than twenty shots, without any colour correction, was nothing short of a miracle.
Ron McMillan, surprised by Brian De Palma's sudden question, paused for a moment and asked somewhat confusedly, "Mr. De Palma, shouldn't colour correction be done after editing is complete?"
Hearing their conversation, David Giler, who had been discussing the camera movement technique of the last tracking shot in the dailies with Robert Redford, suddenly realized something.
He glanced at the now dark screen and immediately turned to the staff member by the viewing machine: "Quick, play the reel again".
The screen in the room quickly lit up again.
Everyone, who had basically realized what was happening, fixed their gaze on the large screen on the wall.
With their attention shifted, after a second playback, everyone also noticed that there were still some colour differences between the different shots in the dailies.
However, everyone also had to admit that this difference was actually very small.
If it weren't for the clapperboard at the beginning of each shot, the entire segment of dailies would feel almost indistinguishable from watching a finished film.
It's conceivable that if all the shots in the film could achieve the current standard, it would mean that after editing is completed, the film might only require a very simple colour correction to achieve a perfect finished product effect.
Had there ever been a case in mainstream Hollywood commercial films where only one colour correction was needed to achieve a finished film?
Yes…There had been one.
The name of that film was 'The Godfather'.
However, the person responsible for shooting 'The Godfather' back then was Gordon Willis, a top Hollywood cinematographer who was proficient in both lighting and set design.
Moreover, the reason 'The Godfather' only underwent one colour correction, apart from the excellent quality of the shots themselves, was also due to the pressure of a forced tight schedule.
Now, a new film by a newcomer, with a production budget of only a few hundred thousand dollars, could, based solely on the quality of its dailies, make people feel that it might only need one simple colour correction to achieve a finished film effect.
How could this not be called a miracle?
After the four and a half minute dailies finished, David Giler immediately instructed the staff to play the other reels of dailies.
Twenty-plus minutes later...
As the screen in the screening room darkened again, everyone fell silent for a moment.
Then, Robert Redford turned directly to Ron McMillan, his voice clearly urgent, and said, "Ron, for this film, introduce me to the cinematographer, the gaffer, and the production designer, all of them. I absolutely must invite them to participate in my next film".
Hearing Robert Redford's words, David Giler and Brian De Palma also looked at Ron McMillan simultaneously.
They, too, were unwilling to miss out on such excellent behind the scenes talent. Both of them had been busy with 'The Butterfly Effect' during this period and were not very clear about some matters concerning the 'Run Lola Run' crew.
Ron McMillan, being stared at by the three bigwigs, couldn't help but twitch his lips.
Such a request...is a bit difficult.
The cinematographer was the director himself.
The set design, it seemed, was also done by the director himself.
As for the gaffer...
Hmm...
This...
Who was the gaffer, anyway?