Chapter 101: I'm Not Blind Yet

"Let's stop here for now," Murphy said, putting down the pen and notebook as he stood up from the chair in front of the monitor. He addressed Jody Griffiths and the others, "Take a fifteen-minute break."

The post-production team, including Jody Griffiths and Paul Wilson, also stood up from their workstations. Some walked around, while others stood by the window gazing into the distance, each finding their own way to relax.

Kerry Mulligan, who had been waiting in the corner, immediately came over with a large paper bag when she saw Murphy pause. Ignoring the looks from others, she pulled out some fruit and handed it to him, "Have a banana."

She had bought it on her way from acting class.

Murphy took it and glanced around at the others. Kerry Mulligan stood opposite him, placing the paper bag on the table, just blinking at him.

"Kerry..." Murphy signaled with his eyes.

"Huh?" Kerry Mulligan was momentarily confused, "What's up?"

Noticing Murphy's glance toward Jody Griffiths, she quickly understood, grabbed the paper bag, and walked over, saying as she went, "You all must be tired, right? I have some fruit here."

Paul Wilson took a banana, smiled, and thanked her. He wasn't surprised by the relationship development between the boss and Kerry Mulligan. Anyone observant in the crew had already noticed that Kerry Mulligan liked the boss very much.

Like Paul Wilson, no one thought it strange for Murphy and Kerry Mulligan to get together.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly, and Murphy clapped his hands forcefully, "Let's get back to work!"

With more experience, better equipment, and having worked together before, Murphy and Jody Griffiths had developed a good understanding, making this post-production editing work much faster than the last time. After spending three days reviewing all the footage, they completed the first step of rough editing in less than four days.

After color correction with Da Vinci Resolve and some other post-production processes, they had now entered the fine editing stage. Murphy and Jody Griffiths became more cautious, replaying each edited segment, discussing it, and making appropriate adjustments primarily based on Murphy's opinion.

Fine editing is a creative task that requires the editor to have a montage mindset and master montage language, creating the best visual narrative effects through editing. After the rough editing is completed, what remains for the editor is essentially a pile of raw materials. A good editor can create pleasing visual effects from this.

As in the previous post-production, Murphy, as the director overseeing everything, couldn't master all tasks. More often, he articulated his requirements, and Jody Griffiths executed them.

Besides these, Murphy also had to work in another production room with the crew's sound engineer, Hart Colby, on sound effects.

Even though almost all scenes were shot with live sound recording, some shots did not meet Murphy's standards. When the synchronized audio couldn't be fully used, supplementary recording was necessary.

These tasks weren't too troublesome. Meeting Murphy had already significantly altered James Franco's life trajectory. According to Seth Rogen, after filming, James Franco would seize any chance to have "father-daughter dates" with Lily Collins and hadn't taken on new work, so he was available for recording anytime.

Seth Rogen and the others were even more available, often finishing a role without knowing where the next one would be.

"Finally done!" James Franco set aside his script in the recording studio and sat down to rest. Murphy listened to the playback of the recording on the monitor and nodded to Hart Colby, signaling approval. Then he walked over to James Franco.

"Honestly, I really admire you!" James Franco gave him a thumbs-up when Murphy sat beside him. "That tough girl, Kerry Mulligan, was so easily won over by you."

Murphy shrugged, having heard such comments before and not bothering to explain. Some things happened unintentionally, and he had no experience in dating or chasing girls.

"Where's Seth?" he changed the topic, "Haven't seen him around these days."

Since post-production started, Seth Rogen still came to help whenever he was free, more to learn than anything, seemingly having ambitions beyond just acting.

"He's taking accent lessons." James Franco seemed unhappy with the topic shift, making a deliberate gesture, "You two already..."

He mimed an action with his hands.

Murphy gave him the middle finger and didn't answer, instead asking, "And you? How far have you gotten?"

"Me?" James Franco looked puzzled, as if not understanding Murphy's question.

"Don't play dumb," Murphy pointed to his eyes, "I'm not blind."

James Franco wasn't embarrassed at being found out. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Jill Kortan is going to the UK soon, and Lily's summer vacation is coming up. I'm planning to rent a boat and take her on a vacation at sea."

Murphy couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up, "I should say I'm the one who's impressed."

James Franco spread his hands, made a funny face, and stood up, "I'm off. Call me if you need anything."

After recording the actors' voices, they had to edit the dialogue, align and replace the live sound and the re-recorded lines, and add sound effects. The supplementary scenes couldn't just have dialogue without action sound effects. Hart Colby would recreate the action sounds in the scenes through various means.

Then they would edit the sound effects, aligning the sound effects and action sounds.

Finally, there was environmental sound processing, essential for recreating the scene, creating a sense of space and environment.

Environmental sound processing also included handling ambient noise, crucial for smoothing out the noise levels between different shots, helping the audience overlook the edits between scenes.

Simply put, in a very quiet space, there is still sound—the vibration of the air itself.

After completing these, they added the music. Due to budget constraints, Murphy didn't use original scores, continuing the approach used in "Hard Candy."

This team was very efficient. Despite encountering some difficulties along the way, Murphy still completed all post-production a week ahead of schedule, proving the importance of a good team for a film.

With the film completed, finding a suitable distributor became Murphy's most important task.

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