director of the millennium

Chapter 151 Invitation from the Golden Rooster, poaching Xiantao Digital?

Don't ask, asking is the main support.

In the afternoon of discussing with director Kai Ge, the three sentences that Wu Yuan said the most were:

"Great idea!"

"I also think so!"

"I see no problem!"

Of course, he is not completely fishing, and from time to time he will follow Chen Kaige's thinking and discuss some detailed designs with him.

This made Director Kego very comfortable.

This is the partner he is satisfied with.

Jiang Wen's kind of director who said something to himself, he would answer back, and a director who can fight on the set is really inhuman!
After discussing with Wu Yuan all afternoon, Director Kaigo, who spoke freely, was extremely satisfied and had more ideas about the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

It's just that when he wanted to drag Wu Yuan into a long talk all night and fall asleep, Wu Yuan smiled and rejected him.

"Director Kai Ge, I'm really sorry. I still have editing work for a movie and preparatory work for another movie."

"I'm in a hurry, so I have to go back to the company to edit the film."

"I still agree with your proposal."

"We can start working on the planning for the opening ceremony first, and then we can find time to discuss it more."

Such an important project as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games cannot be discussed in two or three times.

Wu Yuan has already made plans for a long-term war with director Kai Ge, but he still sticks to his rules of fishing.

Director Kego's opinions are all supported, and Director Kego's ideas are all agreed.

As long as this is done, the cooperative team of the two of them will probably be on the same track as the original one, and they will not be able to compete.

It's not that he doesn't want to work hard, it's that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is really of great significance. Wu Yuan really dare not mess around with his small body. The expectations of 12 billion people are really not a joke.

Director Zhang Yimou's version is already perfect enough. He can't mess around just because he has memories of the future.

"That's right." Before leaving, Wu Yuan stopped and asked again: "Director Kai Ge, when do you plan to start your "The Promise"?"

"My "Painted Skin" will be officially launched in two months."

"The special effects team in Hollywood has been found."

Speaking of his blockbuster, Chen Kaige also calmed down from the excitement of the Olympic opening ceremony.

"'The Promise' is still in preparation. This film has cost me a lot of effort, and there are many investors supporting it. It will be a joint venture between Japan, South Korea and China, and Hong Kong Island will also participate."

"It's really not easy to prepare for such a big project. It's also the first time I've made a movie with such a high investment and mobilized so many people."

"How much is the investment?" Wu Yuan frowned and asked.

"4000 million!" Chen Kaige stretched out four fingers, with an uncontrollable pride on his face: "U.S. dollars!"

"1000 million more than "Heroes"!"

Wu Yuan was happy.

With the blending of Hong Kong capital, the water of 4000 million US dollars is very large.

When the actual shooting time comes, even including subsequent publicity expenses, I'm afraid it will only cost 3000 million U.S. dollars.

"Old Chen is very ambitious this time. The Promise is aimed at Oscars." Chen Hong, who was standing next to him, also supported her husband.

Well, it seems that starting from "The Promise", domestic directors began to pursue the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, right?
Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows, still with that bright smile.

"Then I wish Director Kai Ge every success and become the first mainland director to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film." Wu Yuanyan wished insincerely.

Well, no one in China has ever won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

"The Undertaker" was not sent to the Oscars that year.

To be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, officials from each country and region need to submit their lists to the Oscars, rather than private candidates.

After Wu Yuan won the Berlin Best Director Award that year, the General Administration did not send "The Embalmer" to the Oscars.

The main reason is that at the beginning of the millennium, everyone did not pay attention to the Oscars on the other side of the ocean.

The Oscar is an award that only belongs to North America. Only films released on a large scale in North America can participate in the selection of Oscars. Films released in other countries can only compete for the best foreign language film award.

At that time, mainland China focused on the three major European films, and the General Administration rarely sent films to the Oscars.

It wasn't until the past two years, when the relationship between the two countries continued to heat up after joining the WTO, that the General Administration began to attach importance to Oscars, and directors from the mainland also began to pursue Oscars.

This made the award that was originally a regional film festival in North America become an international film award in China, and even became the highest hall.

The three major European film festivals that truly have international influence and have been held for seven or eighty years have gradually fallen to the second echelon in China.

But it doesn't matter, Wu Yuan can enjoy himself in Hollywood.

Although the goal of "Love" is to be submitted to Cannes, it can also be sent to the Oscars to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

To be honest, Wu Yuan would rather go to the Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

As long as this thing is willing to spend money, it can still be publicized. It is not as difficult as the best picture and best director.

Directors from other countries want to compete with Wu Yuan, who is already in Hollywood, for this award?
That difficulty is not generally high.

It's just because he can do public relations that he has never liked Oscar.

As an ambitious and pursuing director, of course he would not like this kind of award with many unspoken rules, preferring the more fair European top three.

But mentioning these art awards, Wu Yuan, who bid farewell to Chen Kaige and returned to the company to edit "Love", received an invitation for an award within a few days.

The organizing committee of the China Film Golden Rooster Awards sent him an invitation letter, inviting him to participate in this year's 24th China Golden Rooster Awards.

On the evening of September 9, the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony was held in Yinchuan.

On August 8, the shortlist for this year's Golden Rooster Awards has been announced.

Although the organizing committee was a little dissatisfied with Wu Yuan because he did not attend the Golden Rooster Awards in person last time because he failed to make an appointment for "The Executioner" last time, they could not really turn a blind eye to "Your Name", which had a box office of 1.4 million in the mainland.

In the shortlist, "Your Name" was shortlisted for three awards, namely Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

One can imagine that it is unlikely that the grand prize will be awarded to Wu Yuan.

He has the memory of later generations, but he knows that even Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" only won the consolation Best Art Award at this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

But Wu Yuan really doesn’t want to go either.

Wu Yuan's absence once before has made some leaders dissatisfied, thinking that he is not gregarious and ununited.

You know, in mainland China, at the moment, the evaluation of "not being gregarious and not united" is quite serious.Even without watching Zhang Yimou, he knew that he would not win the award, so he also went to join in the show.

For the mainland film industry, the Golden Rooster Awards are not just an ordinary awards ceremony, there are many special meanings behind it.

Wu Yuan still agreed and will attend this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

It is not required that "Your Name" can get a big cake, but it must be the same as Director Yimou, and go back with a consoling best photography award, right?
As long as I don't care, I won't be disappointed.

This is Wu Yuan's attitude towards the Golden Rooster Award.

Now the right to speak of the golden rooster is in the hands of a group of old men, and mountain-topism is prevalent, and he has never had any expectations for the golden rooster.

Only the top three in Europe are Wu Yuan's goals!

In this way, while editing "Love", Wu Yuan began to prepare for the crew of "Painted Skin".

The actors of "Painted Skin" have basically been confirmed.

The male and female protagonists Wang Sheng and Xiao Wei are played by Chen Kun and Zhou Xun, Zeng Li as Pei Rong, Zhang Guorong as Pang Yong, Xia Bing or Sun Lilai, and the five leading actors gather together.

Among the remaining supporting roles, Xiao Wei's invisible assistant Xiao Yi, that is, the lizard spirit, is played by Yuan Hong, which can be regarded as fulfilling the cooperation contract between the Light and Shadow Age and the Tang Dynasty.

The rest of the character actors are veteran actors and golden supporting roles from the mainland.

The schedules of all the actors have been adjusted, and they will officially enter the group and start the show on September 9.

Weta Digital, which is far away across the ocean, also sent a team to China to do preliminary special effects design work for "Painted Skin 1".

Originally, Wu Yuan contacted his old partner Industrial Light & Magic.

But it's a pity that Industrial Light and Magic really can't schedule it, and they will have to do the special effects for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" later.

Wu Yuan had no choice but to find Weta Digital, which was on the same level as Industrial Light & Magic.

In the movie, the transformation of the fox demon, digging out the heart, sticking the painted skin, and the most important special effects fighting scenes all require Weta Digital to model according to the faces of the protagonists, and then create suitable special effects according to the height and shape template.

So although the crew officially started on the 11th, several leading actors with special effects scenes came to the Huairou Film and Television Base five days in advance to gather, and were fiddled with by a group of foreigners.

Wu Yuan also took time to check the situation.

The current level of special effects in Hollywood is indeed a level that even domestic fans can't match. Wu Yuan remembers that in his dream, he waited until around 2012 at least before he saw such a production crew in the mainland who made face modeling for actors.

Before 2012, the so-called special effects movies did not have such detailed special effects at all, and they were completely "map-type" special effects.

The technological gap is indeed a chasm.

The idea of ​​becoming a domestic special effects company that had appeared in my mind before was put on the agenda again by Wu Yuan.

When observing Weta Digital's employees doing special effects design in the early stage, Wu Yuan once chatted with them, and roughly inquired about how much Weta Digital's computers and special effects equipment cost.

If you don't ask, you don't know. If you ask, you will be shocked.

Weta Digital's existing equipment alone is worth more than US$1 million, and they plan to add more than US$1 million in equipment in the next five years!
In other words, if you want to obtain a special effects company with one-tenth of the current productivity of Weta Digital, you need to invest at least more than 1000 million US dollars.

And to open a special effects company, you don’t just have to have the equipment, you also need a group of people who can use the equipment.

Employees like Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital are basically trained by themselves, and the most cutting-edge film special effects technology is in the hands of core employees.

Outsiders want to learn, but there is no place to learn.

Running a special effects company is really not a simple matter. In analogy, it is like the chip manufacturing industry in the computer industry, which is the most cutting-edge field.

Even in 2020, when Guo Fan made "The Wandering Earth" and "The Wandering Earth 2", not all the special effects companies he hired were domestic companies. Half of the special effects had to be assigned to foreign companies.

There are so many special effects companies in the mainland, they can't afford the post-production of a blockbuster special effects movie.

Many technologies are not mastered in the mainland, and some top Hollywood teams must be used to handle the production, which can be regarded as a technical barrier.

Now that Wu Yuan wants to be a special effects company, he must first find a special effects team that can support the company, and then think about buying equipment.

But where to find this team is really a worrying problem.

"Director Wu, do you want to do the special effects for the movie yourself?" Zhang Guorong came up and asked with a half-smile.

He had long noticed that Wu Yuan looked at the people at Weta Digital in a wrong way, and after listening to his questions, he immediately guessed what he was thinking, and even guessed what was bothering him.

"Director Wu, Huaxia actually has a lot of special effects talents."

Zhang Guorong smiled and hugged Wu Yuan's shoulders: "You can go to Xiantao Digital in Hong Kong Island to recruit people."

"Now Xiantao Digital's special effects are really good, and there are many elites. I heard that their company has more than 100 employees who specialize in special effects."

"If you go dig a dozen of them, won't you be able to set up a stall."

"Xiantao Digital." Wu Yuan murmured.

I remembered.

The special effects production company of "Kung Fu Soccer" and "Kung Fu"!

Later, "The Promise" was also contracted by this company to produce special effects!
Count down to 1998.

That year, Hong Kong Island released a film adapted from the comic book of the same name: "The Wind and Cloud Dominate the World".

Xiantao Digital Company was established specifically for the shooting and production of this film.

At that time, the newly established Xiantao Digital boldly learned the special effects technology of Hollywood!
They used special effects technologies such as full virtual characters, green background synthesis, and particle rendering in "The Wind and Cloud", which is the first time in a Hong Kong island film.

This film also became the special effects benchmark for subsequent Hong Kong films.

So far, the special effects company that was originally established just to make a movie has embarked on a broad road.

In "Kung Fu Football" in 2001, many scenes that seemed to be shot in real life were actually produced by special effects, and what looked like special effects were actually shot in real life.Also produced by Hong Kong Xiantao Digital Company.

For "Kung Fu" in 2004, the special effects were still produced by Xiantao Digital.

The number of special effects in "Kung Fu" is quite staggering. It is said that if all of these special effects were done by one person, it would take 35 hours, or [-] years.

Xantao Digital was able to complete the special effects for "Kung Fu" within a few months, which shows that this company has trained a large number of special effects artists.

Xiantao Digital is now at its peak, with strong military strength, but it is also a good time to recruit people!
Because after "The Promise", the glory period of Xiantao Digital will be over. Because the equipment is old, the boss is not willing to spend money, and cannot keep up with the ever-changing special effects technology in Hollywood, and it will gradually be eliminated by the market in the next few years.

I don’t know where these Xantao Digital special effects artists went.

It is estimated that a large number of people went north to join the new special effects companies that have sprung up in the mainland, and have become nutrients for the growth of special effects technology in the mainland.

Since sooner or later you will come to the mainland to develop, it is better to come earlier.

Wu Yuan chuckled, reached out and patted Zhang Guorong on the back: "Leslie, it has to be you."

"Thank you for your suggestion, I will act as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)