As the world's most powerful film factory, Hollywood might not make movies as quickly as those fast-gun filmmakers on Hong Kong Island, but no matter what, it would never pull off the absurdity of taking years to shoot a single film.
Not to mention that filming aboard a battleship could not go on indefinitely.
As an active-duty battleship, the USS Missouri had training and exercise assignments as well as regular maintenance schedules. Neither kind of military task was suitable for carrying out while civilians were aboard.
Yet a considerable portion of the entire film took place on the ship. Aside from some explosion and destruction shots filmed on sets built in studios, one could imagine how tight the shooting schedule was.
The major cast members were rushed off their feet, and even background actors like Henry might have to film all day long.
Sometimes they ran through a certain passageway, then, for the next shot, ran back from the other end of that same passageway. Sometimes only their footsteps were filmed; other times, their full bodies were in frame.
If someone missed their mark and the assistant director handling the transition shots called NG, they had to reset and run through it again, wasting even more time.
And those were only background shots, where the image did not need much refinement. When the leads appeared, bad lighting, an unflattering angle, or even the slightest Flaws could all be grounds for an NG and a reshoot.
All of it made Henry realize that compared with a true big-budget production, those small, slapdash low-budget projects were nothing.
Fortunately, Old Black's team of chefs gave Henry, who had never been this busy in his life, enough comfort for the soul.
With a Cordon Bleu chef around, Henry could not understand how these Americans