In the full week before Christmas, Duke spent his time making adjustments within Marvel Comics, holding several separate meetings with members of the Creative Committee and Kevin Feige. Moreover, during the new shareholders' meeting, he also took on the position of Chairman of the Board of Marvel Group.
Duke's attitude was very clear — the Creative Committee would not be dissolved.
He was indeed striving to keep Kevin Feige, but if the latter insisted on disbanding the Creative Committee in order to seize more power that rightfully did not belong to him, Duke wouldn't mind accepting Kevin Feige's resignation.
Just as Duke had said before, Hollywood would continue to operate perfectly fine even without himself or James Cameron — let alone Kevin Feige.
Fortunately, Kevin Feige wasn't a fool or an egomaniac, and he didn't make any overly irrational moves.
Duke would never break the balance of power within Marvel. After their conversation, during the new board meeting, Kevin Feige's annual salary and stock dividend were both increased to a certain degree, while the Creative Committee's interference with Marvel Studios was appropriately reduced. Any recommendations they submitted had to first be reviewed and approved by Duke before they could be implemented.
Of course, this was limited solely to Marvel's film productions. The Creative Committee's supervisory authority remained intact.
The internal conflict within Marvel was temporarily quelled. Duke stayed in New York to spend Christmas with his mother, and afterward, he hurried back to Los Angeles. There were less than six months left before The Avengers was set to premiere, and post-production needed to begin as soon as possible.
Aside from bringing Mike Dawson's editing team into Warner Bros. Studios, Duke's main focus was still on the visual effects production handled by Industrial Light & Magic.
Film visual effects production is a complex and monumental task. It's hard to say that a single factor alone can determine its success. Just as one cannot rank the importance of the brain, heart, or lungs in the human body — for without any one of them, a person cannot survive.
Funding, schedules, talent, workflow, communication, and design all collectively determine the fate of a film's visual effects. If a movie's effects turn out excellent, it means that every step of the process worked smoothly together; if they're poor, then at least one part of the process went wrong.
As everyone knows, producing film effects burns through an enormous amount of money. But specifically, where does all that money go? How much does a movie need to spend to create satisfying effects?
There are many expenses in visual effects production, but the largest proportion always goes to labor costs. For a major Hollywood blockbuster like The Avengers, Duke had to mobilize a team of over a thousand people during post-production. Not only Industrial Light & Magic, but also over a dozen — sometimes even twenty or more — VFX companies and studios, much like in other big-budget films, each responsible for different sequences. Many of these people were highly experienced animators, compositors, and technicians — their pay certainly wasn't cheap.
Within The Avengers' budget, roughly fifty percent was spent on visual effects. The salaries of Duke, the actors, and other crew members accounted for about thirty-five percent, while the remaining fifteen percent was spent on filming costs.
To put it simply, this movie wasn't just selling its stars — it was selling its visual effects.
The scale of a film's investment directly determines the quality of its effects. This is a truth that doesn't change anywhere in the world.
For example, Duke still remembered how the online series The Lost Tomb once sparked heated debate among netizens for its "five-cent special effects." The show claimed that each episode had a production cost exceeding ten million RMB, yet audiences still found the effects "so bad they couldn't be worse."
If we assume the producers weren't exaggerating the budget and actually spent the money they claimed, even so, three episodes already amounted to the runtime of a full movie. But a film with a 30 million RMB budget isn't considered a large-scale production — not even on the other side of the Pacific.
For a work like The Lost Tomb, which relies heavily on visual spectacle as its main selling point, such an investment was a mere drop in the bucket. Who could possibly expect 30 million RMB to deliver top-tier effects?
It's a simple truth, yet not one that everyone can accept.
Visual effects production is a highly industrialized field. A well-optimized workflow can yield twice the results with half the effort — but such a process is never built overnight; it must be refined repeatedly through real-world practice.
Although the general workflow of VFX production is similar across the board, the differences in execution are often significant. However, the leading Hollywood VFX teams today are extremely mature and meticulous in every respect. They possess highly developed industrial pipelines, and whether in post-production management or technical ability, they are remarkably advanced.
Among them, the most outstanding example was undoubtedly Industrial Light & Magic — now firmly under Duke's wing.
In the early days, Hollywood's VFX companies weren't particularly focused on workflows. Industrial Light & Magic spent years studying the issue, eventually establishing a system that became the industry standard. Now, every company wishes to adopt ILM's workflow model.
ILM's work is continuous and systematic from development to review, communication, and finalization each stage follows a strict procedural structure.
This was one of the main reasons Duke, throughout his two decades in Hollywood, always preferred Industrial Light & Magic as his first-choice effects collaborator.
In Duke's film crews, the VFX teams were always considered vital members. From the very beginning, he never separated the visual effects team from the rest of the production.
Any project requiring large-scale collaboration naturally demands communication — and this applies not only to filmmaking but to any field.
However, because of the inherent technical barriers in VFX, many film crews tend to separate pre-production and filming from post-production effects, leaving them with little overlap — a fatal mistake in visual effects work. To achieve outstanding results, the VFX team must maintain close communication with the production team from the moment a film project begins.
Before production even starts, Duke ensures that every VFX company involved fully understands what they'll be creating.
The VFX supervisors from Industrial Light & Magic first hold in-depth discussions in the director's studio with Duke, editor Mike Dawson, and assistant director Anna Prinz, confirming Duke's vision and all shot requirements.
After that, they communicate the specific production details to other VFX studios responsible for individual sequences. For key scenes, Duke first approves rough visual concept images to confirm environments, positions, and key elements. Once the concept is finalized, the VFX team creates preliminary animated shots for further confirmation, and only after approval do they proceed to produce the final rendered shots.
Of course, different directors hold different attitudes toward visual effects production.
Directors like Duke and Steven Spielberg generally don't interfere too much with the details of VFX production. They simply make it clear what they want, and once the visual effects team understands the goal, they can accurately produce the images and shots desired.
On the other hand, directors such as James Cameron are deeply involved in the process. They like to see different versions, stay updated on progress, and this, too, is a very good form of communication.
However, there are also some directors who know very little about visual effects. They cannot accurately describe the final image they wish to present, or they don't pay enough attention to the VFX process, rarely cooperating consciously during pre-production and shooting. As a result, the quality of the effects is difficult to guarantee, and repeated revisions inevitably increase production costs.
Aside from the main film, Duke also maintained constant communication with his team regarding the film's end credits.
Just like the movie itself, Duke wanted the ending sequence to incorporate various elements, allowing each character to make an appearance while also highlighting their defining traits.
Ideally, there should be no live-action footage. Instead, the most iconic items associated with each character would appear one by one — such as Iron Man's helmet, Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield, and Hawkeye's bow and arrows.
However, to achieve this without breaking the narrative continuity was somewhat difficult. Characters like the Hulk and Black Widow, for instance, had few recognizable props that could be used.
Bringing together key members of the post-production team — including the heads of Industrial Light & Magic's VFX division — Duke brainstormed collectively and found some good solutions.
They decided to include Nick Fury's gun holster and Black Widow's pistols in the ending sequence. During actual production, the staff also added her belt.
The Hulk was the most challenging character in this regard, since he had no costume, no armor, and no weapon.
Therefore, Duke decided to focus on Bruce Banner before his transformation. Professor Banner's glasses, laboratory, and clothing were all added to the ending montage.
Duke hoped this closing sequence would not only be eye-catching but also linger in the audience's minds after the film ended.
The crew worked hard to guide the audience's attention seamlessly from one image to another, allowing them to see a dazzling array of visuals. To achieve an effect that went beyond visuals alone, the characters and the story needed to feel even more vivid and engaging.
As the release date of The Avengers drew closer, Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. ramped up their promotional campaign step by step. By mid-January, Duke had already completed a 30-second commercial that was scheduled to air during the Super Bowl halftime in February.
In addition, several of the film's actors appeared at that month's Sundance Film Festival — particularly Robert Downey Jr., whose presence, along with his on-screen car, effortlessly stole the spotlight from all the independent films. The gemstone-red Acura sports car, valued at nine million U.S. dollars, dazzled the crowd, blinding fans and devouring camera film from all directions.
The appearance later sparked massive online discussion.
Duke remained busy at Warner Bros. Studios until just before the Super Bowl. When the 46th Super Bowl finally arrived, he left Los Angeles and flew directly to Indianapolis to watch the game in person.
His Los Angeles Raiders had defeated the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship, making it to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year.
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