After all of them were reborn, who would still be an actor?

Chapter 237 What Shinkai Makoto? There is only Li Haicheng in the future!

Li Mingyang refused at first, but Zhang Zhao showed him a documentary about Industrial Light & Magic.

He decided to follow the trend of the times and increase investment in the special effects industry.

In 2010, the level of special effects production in Hollywood was rapidly evolving, far beyond his imagination...

Even virtual shoots are making an appearance.

After watching the documentary, Li Mingyang not only saw the gap between China and foreign countries, but also realized that the spring has come for special effects, a money-losing business.

In fact, the domestic investment in special effects has always been very low. Even when we entered the era of green screen standing output, all kinds of explosive special effects emerged in an endless stream.

The proportion of special effects investment in the total investment is still not high, and 10% is considered by conscientious producers.

But the quality of the special effects far exceeds that of previous years, from light pollution to visual shock.

Movie special effects is actually an industry that relies on software. As more and more magical software is developed, the way of producing special effects becomes simpler and simpler.

For example, machine learning technology, data-driven model technology, facial behavior coding system, behavior clustering system, facial expression programming...

It can be said that the emergence of each software is an iteration of special effects.

In particular, the behavior cluster system makes the battle scene of thousands of people more realistic and simpler. There is no need to adjust them one by one, and data templates can be automatically generated randomly with one click.

It takes special effects production into another realm.

In the past, special effects companies had very low profits, generally around 5% to 10%.

This is mainly due to rendering speed, which depends on computer hardware.

After this year, computer hardware iteration has reached a bottleneck and progress has been slow.

Hardware upgrades are no longer the key, software development is king.

The quality of special effects will undergo crazy iterations this year, and efficiency will increase dramatically.

The special effects that cost 10 million this year may only cost 2 or 3 million next year.

In 2010, the special effects for the movie cost tens of millions and took three or four months to produce.

More than a decade later, a special effects artist and a few computers could easily complete it in a week.

As long as the speed is fast enough, the special effects company can make considerable profits.

If we only consider efficiency and quality, green screen shooting is not the most exaggerated...

In the era of virtual shooting, a small team of five people will be able to complete the shooting of various scene spaces.

Tunnel car chases, polar treks, jungle adventures, interstellar travel...the LED display screen can present them in real time, meeting the director's shooting needs to the greatest extent and changing scenes in seconds according to the design of the script.

Relying on game engine real-time rendering and LED camera tracking technology,
The actors only need to perform in accordance with the highly simulated scenes on the screen.

What you see is what you get!
Everyone can intuitively see the shooting environment and coordinate with the changes in on-site lighting, without the need for keying, and can directly produce films.

Shooting outdoor scenes indoors is not restricted by time, space, weather, light and shadow, and has more changes and infinite possibilities.

It greatly saves the time and energy consumed in transition.

Virtual shooting is a more advanced technology than green screen shooting.

But virtual shooting cannot completely replace green screen shooting.

Because virtual photoshoots are expensive…

In his previous life, after Li Mingyang left Penguin, he planned to apply virtual shooting to short dramas.

Speed ​​up efficiency, but after analyzing the cost-effectiveness... forget it.

Virtual photography has great limitations and is expensive.

The cost of a high-quality short drama is only a few hundred thousand yuan, so it is not worthy of virtual shooting.

Later, Li Mingyang switched to shooting with a green screen.

The indoor short plays that enrich the monotony and combine indoor and outdoor scenes make the script writing more imaginative and start a new journey.

It’s a pity that just when I had achieved some success, I went to attend a class reunion, but when I woke up, I found myself back to the time before liberation.

However, this also allowed him to master both traditional green screen shooting and more advanced virtual shooting.

……

It's past eleven o'clock in the evening.

Li Mingyang, Wu Zhikui and Dapeng came to the green screen studio on the eighth floor.

Debug the studio so that he can achieve the effect he wants smoothly tomorrow.

All eyes are on the plot of Your Name.

I think the acting skills of the leading actors and actresses are the most important...

In fact, it is totally wrong.

The best thing about Your Name is the storyboard.

So cool!
Animation is different from film. You only need to place the camera in front of the subject to create an image instantly.

Every stroke and every line in the animation work needs to be created by the creator himself from scratch.

Therefore, the time cost of creating animation is generally much higher than that of film.

The time cost is often recovered through secondary profits from peripheral products produced by character modeling.

Therefore, in the trend where character modeling is emphasized, Makoto Shinkai, as a creator who is good at landscapes, can be said to be a minority and an anomaly.

In the early days, he neglected character creation and always used realistic, detailed and beautiful scenes to conquer the audience.

For example, in 5 Centimeters per Second, there is the scattered cherry blossom rain and the quiet city covered with snow.

In the Garden of Words, there is the refreshing feeling of rain hitting the leaves on the pond surface, and the white clouds floating in the sky after the rain.

Use the character's environmental background, or symbols that reflect the changing seasons and the passage of time.

It connects to the inner world of the characters, creates resonance, and directly affects the narrative level.

For example, in 5 Centimeters per Second, when the hero and heroine separate due to the closing of the train door, several empty shot transitions are used, such as a bird flying away from a branch, an empty chair in the snow, and a flashing traffic light, to express the melancholy of parting.

In the early days, the numbness of Makoto Shinkai's characters was the most criticized.

It wasn't until Your Name came out that Makoto Shinkai finally found his own way and was completely sublimated.

He used a deconstruction approach to achieve a perfect fusion between characters and scenery.

The scene where Mitsuha witnesses the fall of the comet is a textbook storyboard. The camera first rotates 180 degrees from behind to the front at a low angle, then switches to Mitsuha's body, gradually approaches her face, and finally becomes a close-up of her pupils.

Guo Sanye's pupils saw the scenery reflected in them, that is, two shining comets streaking across the night sky, falling and separating one after another.

Until the pupil and the scenery inside the pupil gradually filled the entire picture. From beginning to end, Mitsuha's expression and body did not change at all.
The movement of the camera and the passing of the scenery in the pupils use a static-dynamic method to express the shock that Mitsuha feels when she witnesses the end of the world.

In the close-up of the pupil, it is no longer possible to tell whether it is a face or a landscape.

While the scenery becomes the face, the face also becomes part of the scenery.

Let the audience see it as a whole of scenery and characters.

Makoto Shinkai gave up his stubbornness, embraced the market, and completely changed his ways.

Not only has the content changed, but even the core storyboards of the animation have been completely transformed, which is shocking.

Your Name caused a sensation in Asia and was an epic sublimation of Makoto Shinkai.

"Your Name" carries the inheritance of a new generation of daily life animated films, from Hayao Miyazaki to Makoto Shinkai.

There are so many animators who make a living, but before Makoto Shinkai, no one deserves the title of "the second Hayao Miyazaki"...

However, this inheritance has ended.

What Shinkai Makoto? In the future there will only be Lee Hae-makoto!

……

The next day, nine o'clock in the morning.

Mingyang Entertainment's conference room.

"It seems that Jingtian won't be able to come, let's have a script meeting first." Li Mingyang glanced at Dapeng.

Dapeng picked up the complete script of Your Name and distributed it to the creators present.

The main actors of Your Name include Li Mingyang, Liu Shishi, Hu Ge, Qiao Shan, Peter Ho, Wang Kai, Shu Chang, Juan Juan, Li Xin...

There are many supporting roles, some of which haven’t even joined the crew yet.

Of course, supporting actors are not qualified to hold script meetings.

In addition to the actors, several key behind-the-scenes people also participated in the script meeting.

The most important among them is producer Gordon Chan, president of the Hong Kong Directors Association.

Some of the people present had read the complete script, while some had only read half of it.

After everyone flipped through the script for a while, Li Mingyang asked everyone to talk about their understanding of the script.

He picked up a pen and paper and started drawing a storyboard that only he could understand...

The script meeting lasted for a whole morning. Li Mingyang roughly understood everyone's understanding of the script and ended the meeting.

Let Dapeng arrange the green screen shooting in the afternoon, and let Wu Zhikui take all the actors for a walk around the location.

Finally, Qiao Shan was left alone.

Talk to him about Dali B&B.

Not long after the filming of Far Cry was completed, Li Mingyang asked Qiao Shan to fly to Dali and buy a homestay near Erhai Lake.

The shooting plan for Your Name is to first shoot on a green screen in the green screen studio in Hengdian.

Shooting and special effects start at the same time, otherwise the overall progress cannot be kept up.

Then we moved to Erhai Lake in Dali to shoot the village scenes.

Finally, we went to Hangzhou to shoot the city scenes.

The decoration of the B&B is nearing completion. Qiao Shan took out his notebook and showed Li Mingyang the photos.

After watching for a while, Li Mingyang patted Qiao Shan on the shoulder and said, "Qiaozi, you did a good job. You really have a talent for decoration."

I don't have any talent, I was forced to do it...

After working as a contractor for several months and having been through a lot of hard times, I finally got the hang of it!
Although he thought so in his heart, Qiao Shan said, "It was Director Li who gave me the opportunity, otherwise I wouldn't know that I have a talent for decoration."

“How much has it cost now?”

"More than 3.3 million, mainly 2.1 million for the purchase of the B&B. The interior decoration, as you said, was not a big deal, cost about 600,000. Labor is quite cheap there. The greening of the B&B's exterior, the expansion of the parking lot, and the infrastructure cost more than 500,000. Then there are the basic salaries of the employees."

"Well, build a small farm nearby and turn it into a farmhouse. Find a place to hold a bonfire party. Also, talk to the locals to see if you can build a horse ranch, a basketball court, or a football field."

"what!"

"Ah for what!"

"No, Director Li, you are going to build a resort!"

"Where will the money come from to build a resort? I'm just asking. Huace and Huayi have opened a door. I see that these film and television companies will all go to build resorts. I'm asking about the situation in advance."

Qiao Shan nodded, took out his cell phone and called someone local, turning on the speakerphone.

Li Mingyang listened for a while and found out that the local government encouraged cultural and tourism development, but it could not be developed anywhere and had to be in designated areas.

The B&B that Qiao Shan bought is a B&B cluster area and cannot be used to open a horse farm, build a golf course, or build a resort.

If they are interested, they can come and talk. The local government strongly supports it. As long as the local employment number is guaranteed, the tax exemption policy can be discussed in depth.

"Director Li, we can talk."

"If you follow their rules, you'll easily fall into a ditch. We'll give you an undeveloped area. Let's do this for now. Go back to Dali and take care of the B&B business."

"Director Li, you're taking your time... will you be able to make it in time?" Qiao Shan said.

"Why do I feel like you've been talking more and more recently?" Li Mingyang rolled his eyes at Qiao Shan.

Qiao Shan sighed for a while, then said, "Director Li! Your success or failure is not only related to you, but also to us... Sun Honglei is my senior in the Central Academy of Drama. He invited me to dinner a while ago. At the dinner table, he talked about filming with Jing Tian, ​​and he was so upset that he cried. It made my scalp numb!"

"It's not that you don't have acting skills, what's scary is that you don't listen to advice... She even thought there was something wrong with my senior brother's filming and asked him to do a certain way."

"this is too scary!"

"My senior brother asked me to advise you not to use Jing Tian. You will regret it."

"Anyone in the Central Academy of Drama is better than her..."

Li Mingyang felt very embarrassed when listening to this. Shuai Leilei was just speaking from his heart!
"Actually, I have an actress I like, but she didn't come."

(End of this chapter)