The renowned Captain Jack Sparrow was one of the films that introduced Gilbert to this genre in his previous life.
It was this film series that allowed Johnny Depp to maintain his A-list status in Hollywood while establishing his unique persona and style.
Of course, this story had no original source material; it was purely derived from the concept of pirate ships.
The initial goal was actually to promote Disneyland, but Disney had not expected the film to become a massive box office success, which led to the production of numerous sequels.
When Robert Iger mentioned pirate ships, Gilbert's mind immediately recalled this film series.
However, Gilbert did not mention it to Robert Iger—he simply kept a plan in mind. His current focus remained on The Lord of the Rings, and he had no time to produce other films.
Although Gilbert could have easily handed the project over to someone else, just like Fast & Furious or The Little Wizard, he had never personally worked on this type of film before. He wanted to direct one himself to see how it would turn out.
If he were to direct it personally, the schedule would likely have to be pushed to 2002, when he would finally have the time to work on this film. If all went according to plan, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would be premiering by then.
During discussions with Robert Iger, he also mentioned Michael Eisner, who hoped the film would be an exciting and thrilling action movie.
Gilbert, however, assured him that the film would bring Michael Eisner an enormous surprise.
Indeed, post-production is crucial to completing a film, and editing is one of the most important aspects.
Aside from being on set directing, Gilbert spent the rest of his time in the Beijing editing room, working with Mehdi to complete the editing process.
Gilbert had shot an enormous amount of footage. Even though he had a reference from the previous film, the raw footage for the first movie alone totaled over a million feet.
With such a vast amount of raw footage, not only did Gilbert and Mehdi work on the editing, but they also had a team of more than twenty assistant editors helping them.
For the Chinese crew, they believed they had a thorough understanding of Hollywood's filming and production process, including pre-production and on-set shooting.
However, when it came to post-production, most of them paid little attention to it.
In their minds, since the film had already been shot and there was so much footage, editing seemed like a simple task anyone could do.
But in reality, if the post-production work was not handled properly, it could be disastrous for the film. That was why Gilbert placed such great importance on post-production.
That being said, the Chinese crew deeply admired Gilbert's energy—balancing post-production work while continuing to film the sequels.
It seemed that to become a top Hollywood director, one not only had to master every aspect of filmmaking and be knowledgeable about every process but also needed to have a strong body and immense stamina.
Although the Chinese crew did not participate in the post-production process, a couple of them worked as assistants, allowing them to indirectly observe how Hollywood films were edited.
To handle the editing workload, the editing team prepared Avid storage drives with a total capacity of 150MB, along with six Avid editing machines, as the trilogy was an unprecedented large-scale production.
The scale of the editing work was so massive that Mehdi couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment, saying he had never seen so much footage in an editing room before.
Typically, the ratio of discarded to used footage is around 12 or 15 to 1. Even with the original film as a reference, the first film in this series had a staggering ratio of 50 to 1, meaning an extraordinary amount of footage had been shot.
In some scenes, there were often seven or eight different camera units shooting at the same time.
With so many camera crews, cinematographer John Schwartzman found his workload significantly increased—to the point where even he lost track of how many units there were.
The high-intensity work even helped John Schwartzman shed some weight from his increasingly heavy frame—an unexpected bonus.
The sheer number of camera units kept the editors overwhelmed, as there was simply too much footage to sift through.
Editing was not just done in the studio. Sometimes, the editors had to carry their equipment and follow Gilbert as he traveled across China.
The footage shot each day was immediately processed and edited.
Once specific scenes were completed, they would return to Beijing to continue their work while waiting for Gilbert to come back.
For a regular film, the initial rough cut was already quite long. Watching the raw footage could be exhilarating at times and exhausting at others.
But the director had no choice—he had to review all the footage to understand what had been shot and check for any focus issues.
Likewise, he needed to observe the actors' performances and assess the overall pacing of the film. These were critical elements a director needed to be aware of during production.
However, for The Lord of the Rings, this task was particularly challenging because so many units were filming simultaneously.
There was an overwhelming amount of footage, yet Gilbert had to go through all of it to see exactly what had been captured.
The editing team spent around three and a half to four hours each day reviewing footage. After a full day of shooting, Gilbert would still sit down and go through all of it.
He was so busy that he barely had time for Anne Hathaway.
At times, the raw footage delivered to the editing room amounted to as much as 50,000 feet—equivalent to eight hours of uncut material.
Usually, only Gilbert and Mehdi remained fully alert until the very end.
Everyone else struggled. After four hours of watching, Gilbert would start to hear the sounds of snoring all around him—loud and rhythmic, almost hypnotic.
Because of this, the crew greatly admired Gilbert.
Even after exhausting days of filming, he could still tackle so much post-production work, seemingly unfazed.
At first, Charles Roven was diligent about sitting through the footage with Gilbert every day. But after a while, he admitted he couldn't handle it anymore.
Due to the high-intensity workload, Charles Roven vented to Gilbert:
"One day, I completely lost it. I was watching the scene where the Ringwraiths were chasing Arwen on horseback.
That scene is actually quite short—probably only five or six minutes at most.
But when we watched the raw footage, there were multiple takes of them galloping in circles.
After finishing one reel, I asked how much more footage there was. I thought I had seen it all, but I was wrong—there were eight more reels, some even longer than the previous ones.
Eight reels—all for that one scene!
That day, after watching it all, I suddenly wanted to go home.
I felt like I couldn't do this job anymore.
I just wanted to cry..."
What else could Gilbert say? He could only give Charles Roven a big hug. If anyone in the production team had it the hardest, aside from himself, it would be the two producers, Kane and Charles.
As long as the department heads managed their own tasks properly, things wouldn't be too problematic.
However, the two producers had an overwhelming workload, handling everything from production logistics, financial audits, pre-production, filming, post-production, and negotiations with local authorities.
To create the best possible working environment for Gilbert, the two producers probably wished they had eight livers to handle the stress.
For Gilbert, it was still manageable because he was young. But for the two producers, who were both over fifty, it was impossible to maintain the same level of energy they once had.
Fortunately, this grueling schedule wouldn't last much longer. In just a few more months, all filming for the project would finally be completed.
Charles Roven's suggestion to take a break during Christmas was an excellent idea. Without that holiday to relieve some of the pressure, the entire crew would have collapsed from exhaustion.
The people working with Gilbert were among the best talents in Hollywood.
Yet, even they had never been part of a project of this scale before. Just like Gilbert, they made some mistakes in the beginning.
However, as production progressed and experience accumulated, the initial errors became less frequent.
Gilbert joked that after finishing The Lord of the Rings, they might as well head to the moon because, after completing this project, there would be nothing they couldn't achieve.
Aside from all the post-production editing, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had already launched its marketing campaign.
Last year, Gilbert had been absent from the summer blockbuster season, but this year, he was coming in full force, and people could sense something different.
Starting in February, Victoria's Secret held several fashion shows, including one called the Elven Show. The Elven lingerie collection was a key collaboration between The Lord of the Rings and Victoria's Secret, forming part of the film's merchandise strategy.
The most expensive piece in the collection was the Evenstar Nightgown, which was given to Anne Hathaway. She took time off to return to North America for the show, wearing the Evenstar Nightgown and leaving the audience in awe.
Although Anne Hathaway wasn't a professional model, her height and figure met the standards of a Victoria's Secret Angel.
When she appeared on the runway in the Evenstar Nightgown, she became the center of attention.
Ultimately, the Evenstar Nightgown was auctioned off, with numerous wealthy bidders vying for it. In the end, New York real estate tycoon Donald secured it for a staggering $3 million.
In a later interview, Donald claimed to be a devoted fan of Gilbert's work and even promised to display promotional banners for The Lord of the Rings on his Donald Tower free of charge.
For a businessman as shrewd as Donald, he never made a deal that didn't benefit him. While he called it a "free" promotion, the hidden advantages were substantial.
First and foremost, Donald garnered significant attention.
On his talk show, he showcased the Evenstar Nightgown and, right then and there, gifted it to Britney Spears, who had appeared on the show to promote her latest project.
Britney was caught completely off guard—she hadn't expected Donald to be so generous. In a daze, she accepted the nightgown without fully processing what had just happened.
Donald also planned to invite the Lord of the Rings cast to his show, especially Gilbert—his attendance was a must.
He was well ahead of the curve, recognizing that Gilbert was currently the biggest trending figure in America.
Beyond the Elven Show at Victoria's Secret, The Lord of the Rings also made a massive investment in promoting itself at the Super Bowl.
It had become an industry norm for summer blockbusters to debut their trailers at the Super Bowl each year.
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