China Entertainment Times

Chapter 518 The movie with the best IMAX effect (please subscribe for the first update!)
After the filming of "Interstellar", sci-fi movies will be suspended, unless the subsequent special effects technology can enable a special effects team of more than 1500 people to show an incomparably real, vast space and aliens in about a year, compressing the film cycle in two. Within a year, otherwise the cycle would be too long.

It runs through the whole film, not just one or two shots, and it doesn't repeat those few backgrounds.

"Edge of Tomorrow" was actually shot, and the scene was on the earth, while "The Martian" had special effects on the ground of Mars and the starry sky.

"Interstellar" also does not have too complicated special effects.

After finalizing the first draft, Tang An was not in a hurry to continue writing the script. There was another key problem before him.

Nolan used 70mm film IMAX to shoot at the beginning. In the end, there are basically no films in China that use 70mm film.

In fact, even if you shoot with 70mm film, there are only digital IMAX, ordinary digital, 35mm film version, and several versions in China.

As for the 70mm film IMAX, there are only 5 screens in China.

There are not many film IMAXs in the world, and IMAX Corporation is promoting IMAX digitalization around the world, with lower costs.

The Huaguo giant screen developed by China Film Digital is also a digital giant screen.

Even if you look at the world, less than 70% of cinemas have 3mm film IMAX projection equipment.

No matter how good the filming is, it is useless, and the screening conditions cannot keep up.

However, there is still some gap between the 70mm film and the 35mm film, even if they are projected on the digital MAX and the giant screen.

After all, the quality of the film source is higher, so it will be better.

However, the playback equipment does not meet the requirements and cannot 100% show the effect of the movie.

What the heck is the trade off, or using a digital shoot.

"The Martian" was shot with a 4K digital camera, and now it seems that the United States has developed a 6K digital camera.

The 35mm film is 4K, and the post-production is almost 3.5K.

Even if the post-production of "The Martian" is extremely fine, it is only 4K, but ordinary audiences can hardly tell the difference.

The finished film shot by a 6K digital camera can reach 4K after post-compression, which is clearer than 35MM film.

However, there are not many domestic 4K digital projection equipment, and it is still futile.

70mm film IMAX is the best choice, but there are no cameras, there are only 5 in the world, and whether they can be rented is a problem.

Even with the same equipment and screen, the projected effects are different, which may be caused by the lens of the projector, the bulb, and other aspects.

Not only the equipment is considered, but also whether the film itself is suitable or not.

Different movies have different requirements for the picture. Most of "The Martian" was shot digitally, and some were shot on film.

There are too many problems, and there is a choice between 3D and 2D. Tang An can't make a decision alone. Today, he brought Xiao Yang, the art director of Tiangong Yicai, Ye Jintian, the art director of the crew, and the leaders of the lighting and photography teams. Room researched.

Although there is no shot script, everyone here is professional. After reading the entire first draft of the script, you can know the overall style of the movie.

Ye Jintian first said, "Tang Dong, the background of this film is in the apocalypse. The overall picture style in the early stage should be relatively dark. Even if you rent a 6K digital camera, the effect will not be much better than the 35mm film."

Photographer Zhang Li nodded, "Lao Ye is right, there are still differences between digital images and analog images."

Tang An asked, "Is it possible to achieve a similar effect by adjusting the overall ambient light and adjusting the light in the later stage?"

Xiao Yang shook his head, "Indoors, it will take a few more months to get close, but only to a close degree, but outdoors is almost impossible, unless the outdoor scenes are all in the studio with a blue screen."

"That rules out digital cameras."

Since it really didn't work, Tang An didn't bother anymore, and immediately made a decision.

If you shoot a blockbuster film like "Transformers", there is almost no difference between digital and film.

Although the ground of Mars in "The Martian" is earthy yellow, in order to make the whole film feel positive to the audience and not make the audience feel pessimistic, the overall color tone is relatively bright.

The post-apocalyptic background of "Interstellar", the exterior scene is also desolate, and the overall tone is gray.

The imaging of a digital camera is a digital image, and the film is an analog image, just like the difference between an LCD TV and a large desktop color TV.

The color tone of the desktop large color TV is richer and more delicate than that of the LCD TV.

"For film, I will go to Fox and Columbia to see if I can rent a 70mm IMAX camera. Probably more than one-third of the shots will use 70mm film. Lao Zhang will have a hard time."

The cost of "Interstellar" itself is not very high, and the use of 70mm film is also within the affordable range.

Although the IMAX camera is extremely heavy, there will definitely be a lot of shoulder-to-shoulder shooting in the movie, and he, the chief photographer, will definitely become one of the most tiring people on the crew.

But Zhang Li didn't care, it was all work.

Next came the issue of 3D and 2D. After unanimous discussion, 3D shooting was abandoned.

The reason for choosing film is the same, the current 3D technology is not very mature, and there are more shots with dark light at the beginning, and if 3D is used, the picture will be even darker.

Moreover, the original film lasted for 170 minutes. Maybe some viewers will feel dizzy, and the loss outweighs the gain.

Even if Tang An compresses the plot, the reduction of 15 minutes is already the limit.

There are many examples in Hollywood where the film hit the street because the film was too long and the producer forced the director to reduce the time.

The high-profile blockbuster "Kingdom of Heaven" in 2005 was brutally murdered because of Fox's intervention. This level of work by the great director Ridley Scott was cut by Fox for 50 minutes.

The original film after Ridley Scott was streamlined was 192 minutes, but it was cut to 144 minutes by Fox.

If 50 minutes are missing, the plot will be impossible to watch, and it will be like a dog.

Of course, Fox can't be blamed. It is impossible for any studio to allow the set to reach 192 minutes.

Ridley Scott can't fight Fox, his arm can't twist his thigh, even if he is one of the producers.

The "King Kong" filmed by Peter Jackson was also nearly 190 minutes long. In addition to being the producer himself, his wife is also the producer.

There is also a producer who is the screenwriter of the film and also the screenwriter of the "Lord of the Rings" series.

The producers are all Peter Jackson's gang, so they can be so capricious.

The same is true for Nolan, his wife is a professional producer, otherwise "Inception" and "The Dark Knight" can be shot in 70mm IMAX?

The producers of "Inception" are Nolan and his wife.

70mm film IMAX is expensive to shoot, and the projection equipment is expensive. A 120-minute copy alone costs 800 catties, and it costs 30 yuan to make a copy. Generally, projectionists need a month of professional training to show.

So the world has not had a real IMAX movie so far.

"Inception", "The Dark Knight", "Transformers 2", and "Mission: Impossible 4" are the only four films that have been shot on 70mm film IMAX.

However, the duration of IMAX is only half an hour, half an hour, 15 minutes, and 15 minutes.

"Avatar" is a digital IMAX, which was converted into IMAX after being shot with a digital camera.

Nearly an hour of footage in Interstellar needed to be shot on 70mm, and the rest could be shot on 35mm.

Once it succeeds, it will be the best movie in IMAX in China and even in the world, bar none.

Although there are only two pieces of Beijing Huaguo Science and Technology Museum and Beijing Huaguo Film Museum, one piece of Chongqing Science and Technology Museum, one piece of Guangzhou Science Center, and one piece of Dongguan Wanda International Cinema, there are a total of 5 IMAX film screens in China.

These five screens are at least 27 meters high, which is much stronger than those digital IMAX screens in their early 20s, or even more than 10 meters high.

However, even if it is screened on an ordinary screen, the effect is far superior to that of ordinary movies due to the higher quality film source.

Of course, it's up to the person to decide what to do, and everything depends on the results of the shooting, and everything will be closed before the shooting is over.

PS: It’s a pity that this movie couldn’t be watched on the film IMAX screen. When it was first released, there were only two IMAX film screens left in China, one in Beijing and Guangzhou, and the other three were replaced with digital screens. I wanted to watch it in Guangzhou. Yes, no time to go.
(End of this chapter)