China Entertainment Times

Chapter 743 The Combination of Eastern Positive Energy and Western Hollywood Family Values
Tang An looked at the two plans in his hand, and there was no script at present.

The vast majority of projects start with a planning proposal. Even if you want to adapt a novel or turn a TV series into a movie, you must have a thorough and detailed plan.

Of course, the big directors who have already proved themselves are not included in this list. They just need to get a book out, and immediately there will be a lot of investors waving checks wanting to invest.

No matter what you shoot, as long as you reach a certain status, you can ignore all issues such as subject matter, genre, investment, and actors.

When Feng Xiaogang filmed "Assembly", Wang Zhongjun had no choice but to disagree. Now that he wants to film the story of the art troupe, Wang Zhongjun will still pay for it.

Not to mention filming the story of the art troupe, even if he filmed an autobiography of himself with realistic themes, someone would invest.

For other projects, it is necessary to conduct market research, consider all aspects such as cost, audience, and shooting difficulty, and then find someone to write the script, which is also very standardized.

Even if you receive a good script, you have to go through this procedure.

China Film is going to release these two sci-fi films, so it has naturally made some preparations.

Audiences don’t need to worry, with Tang An’s sci-fi trilogy now selling well, although there are still some money-making shams, domestic sci-fi films are no longer synonymous with bad films.

Moreover, although "The Three-Body Problem" has not yet won the Hugo Award, it is very famous in the field of science fiction, even if it is put on a national scale, it is also a small celebrity.

Each of the two planning proposals included a plot outline, which is still centered on the story, which is quite different from the novel.

In "The Three-Body Problem", the characters are not important. Many liberal arts students complained about the book's literariness, character description, and writing style. Even Liu himself said that the characters in the book are just tools to promote the development of the plot.

In movies, the plot follows the characters, and the development of the plot is caused by the actions of the characters.

Characters are the core of narrative, the core of contradictions and conflicts, and the basis of film modeling.

The characters in movies are visible, unlike novels that only appear on paper, and the two have different weights on characters.

A character in a novel can be just a code name, as long as the plot is exciting enough, but in a movie, that is absolutely impossible.

Focus on people, promote the plot, and then use the plot to enrich the characters and complement each other.

This will definitely make some fans of the original book dissatisfied, but there is no way, it can only cater to most audiences.

The same is true of "The Wandering Earth", which is roughly the story of the earth people working together and going through various hardships to escape the solar system and go wandering before the sun is destroyed.

There is nothing to be seen from a plot outline, and there are only a hundred words.

After reading it, Tang An put down two documents.

"Director Han, Director Jiao, the current market for domestic sci-fi films is still blank. These two projects are indeed feasible. As long as the filming is successful, the box office will definitely not be bad."

Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen looked at each other, showing a hint of joy, and asked, "Which one does Director Tang think is more suitable to shoot first?"

""The Wandering Earth", "The Three-Body Problem" is too difficult." Tang An said after a moment of pondering.

"Is there a technical problem?"

Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen frowned at the same time. According to their thinking, the more famous "Three-Body Problem" must be filmed first, and the story of the Three-Body Problem is even more shocking.

Tang An shook his head, "There are no major technical problems. The first film is heavy on the plot and there are not many sci-fi scenes. However, if "Three-Body" is not made into a simple popcorn movie, it will be more in-depth and express the original idea. , is a big problem. As for special effects scenes such as 4-dimensional space, sophon expansion, dimensionality reduction strike, and the destruction of the three-body planet, there is no technical problem. .”

Storytelling is a difficult problem for all films, how could Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen not know it.

There are many directors who can't tell a clear and smooth story, let alone "Three-Body Problem".

As for a pure popcorn movie, that's easy, but that's about it for this series.

What Han Sanping wanted was to make "The Three-Body Problem" into an epic blockbuster, just like "Lord of the Rings" in the United States, rather than a simple popcorn movie.

After discussing with Tang An again, Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen decided to make "The Wandering Earth" first to test the waters.

"Tang Dong, what do you think of the filming of "The Wandering Earth"? You are an expert in this field, so you need to give me some advice." Han Sanping laughed.

Tang An is the only director who has successfully made sci-fi films in China, and even Tang An is the only director who has made authentic sci-fi films. They have no experience in this area, so they can only ask Tang An for advice.

Tang An didn't hide his secrets, adjusted a more comfortable sitting position, leaned on the sofa, and said, "I have read the novel "The Wandering Earth". The original novel has a cold, depressing and even desperate atmosphere. Fate is both ironic and pitiful."

"The whole book is full of dark colors, the status of relatives is strangely low, human nature is gradually degraded, there is no grief in life and death, there is no hero who sacrificed his life, and there is even a popular rebellion, killing more than 5000 people in the engine control center Government officials and scientific researchers, these are not suitable for the big screen"

"First of all, we definitely can't make a dark movie, which is equivalent to driving the audience out of the movie theater. I think the theme should be a combination of Eastern positive energy and Western Hollywood family values, and write the script with this core."

Tang An Luoli talked a lot, and first set the tone of the movie.

Regardless of whether it is released during the Spring Festival or not, if a high-cost sci-fi blockbuster is shot in a dark direction, it is basically guaranteed to fail.

After all, this is not like a horror movie, and the cost is low.

Of course, if it was filmed as a dark wind, the word-of-mouth among some people would definitely be much higher, and the B grade would also be higher.

The film industry has always been like this, the more people don't like it, the more dark and dark it is than the warmer style.

These Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen also understand that, among other things, even if they shoot according to the style of the original work, they will definitely suffer a few scissors.

The positive energy of the East, that is, touching deeds such as sacrificing one's life for righteousness.

Western Hollywood family values, just like most Hollywood blockbusters with children, the main purpose of the main character is to save his own children, saving the world is incidental.

National sentiment and family sentiment.

Han Sanping also accepted Tang An's opinion. Family affection and sacrificing one's life for the country are factors that can move the audience.

The deeds of Qiu Shaoyun, Huang Jiguang, Wen Tianxiang, Yue Fei, etc. are all moving.

The tone of the movie has been set, and the script is definitely not good enough to ask Tang An to write it.

Tang An now has a big war movie in his hands, and Wu Ershan has a big production with an investment of 20 billion yuan. How dare Han Sanping ask Tang An to do it.

After talking about this, Han Sanping talked about special effects.

"Tang Dong, is Tiangong Yicai still free to take this sci-fi film?"

"If you don't leave it to the digital field, the digital field doesn't have much business in Hollywood, right?" Jiao Luofen suggested.

After all, the two of them still don't trust domestic special effects companies, even though Tiangong Yicai has produced several wonderful blockbuster films, the special effects are not bad at all.

Tang An didn't say anything either. This is the current situation of the domestic film industry. No matter how much domestic companies make, as long as they have a choice, the first goal of these film companies must be handed over to Hollywood, and no matter how bad they are, they will also be made by South Korean companies.

"Mr. Han, Mr. Jiao, you don't have to worry about special effects. Tiangong Yicai already has enough manpower after expansion, and part of Hollywood's business has been outsourced to other companies, and I bought Xuanyun in the first half of the year and became a shareholder. Kingsoft Cloud, on the basis of Xuanyun, cooperated with Kingsoft Cloud to develop a new cloud rendering farm, which greatly saved manpower, hardware costs, and time."

"As for the digital field, although there is still time, a lot of Hollywood business is done by domestic companies. Domestic film studios look for Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital more, and the digital field may not be as good as Tiangong Yicai. Charged at Hollywood prices, the cost was much higher."

Did Tiangong Yicai not do as well in the digital field?
When Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen heard what Tang An said, they thought he was just boasting. After all, the digital field was once the top special effects company in Hollywood.

Tang An also knew their worries. After all, most of the blockbuster films in the past few years were produced by the original crew of "Lord of the Rings" and "Avatar". It seemed that this meant that the special effects were well done.

Tang An explained, "Not to mention the digital field, even if it is handed over to Weta Digital, it will not be better than Tiangong Yicai."

As soon as these words were said, Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen couldn't believe it even more.

Weta Digital is the world's top special effects production company, and Tiangong Yicai is only a domestic company after all.

Tang An didn't wait for them to explain, and continued, "Let me give you an example, the "Lord of the Rings" series more than ten years ago, a milestone in the history of movie special effects, is top-notch even now."

"However, in terms of CG effects, there are still obvious traces of CG in some places, and the background of the big scenes is also a little blurred. In this respect, there is still a gap compared to many well-made blockbusters."

Tang An is taking the distance from "The Lord of the Rings" again, and it seems that he is still talking about the shortcomings, which makes Han Sanping even more confused.

That is "The Lord of the Rings", a monument in the history of Hollywood movies, an unsurpassable magical blockbuster.

Han Sanping suppressed the doubts in his heart, and continued to listen.

"Technology will always improve. The CG special effects of "Lord of the Rings" are still top-notch, but they are no longer top-notch. However, this movie, together with "Avatar", represents the pinnacle of movie special effects. Really powerful The place is in the physical effects, mostly with models and special effects make-up.”

"But it's also because of Peter Jackson and Weta Digital's full commitment. This is Peter Jackson's first blockbuster film, and it's also the first big project of the start-up Weta Digital. They can't afford to lose, and their investment in the film far exceeds any of the latter."

"To put it simply, Weta Digital has the ability to produce [-]% of the effect, but in order to gain fame, regardless of cost and time, we made the first big project "Lord of the Rings" to [-]% of the level, and then no matter what Whether it's "The Hobbit" or another company's project, Weta Digital's purpose is to make money, which means reducing costs to obtain greater benefits."

"Let's not talk about making [-]-point movies. Most of them are [-]-[-]% or [-]-[-]%. Really, every movie is made according to the standard of "Lord of the Rings". Weta Digital ten years ago It should be shut down."

"Tiangong Yicai may only have a strength of [-] or [-], but Dong Han and Jiao Dong, you can rest assured that I promise to give you an answer sheet with at least [-] points, and I will do my best to complete the special effects of this movie."

Technology is always improving. Today's technology is not comparable to that of 20 years ago, but technology is always used by people.

Weta Digital has never had a project like this since The Lord of the Rings.

The CG special effects of "The Hobbit" are a little stronger. This is an improvement in technology, but there is still a big difference overall.

The same director, the same special effects team, under the premise of technological progress, the effect is not so good.

"The Lord of the Rings" was Weta Digital's first blockbuster film at the beginning. In order to gain fame, we put in 120% of our efforts to make it. All kinds of props, extras, and scenery were all extremely strict, and only then did it achieve that effect.

Afterwards, when one became famous, it was time to make money. Naturally, it was impossible to work so hard.

For a job of 8000 million US dollars, it costs 9000 to [-] million for special effects, and it costs [-] million for the extraordinary.

Therefore, no matter how much money is spent on domestic films, it is useless. What is needed is that the special effects company be serious and responsible, and can use all the money given by the producer on special effects.

Otherwise, if you give a budget of [-] to [-] million yuan, the special effects company only spends [-] million yuan or [-] million yuan, and the rest is in your pocket, which is fine.

Domestic producers have not been taken advantage of once or twice.

In this regard, even Han Sanping and Jiao Luofen, who have worked in the film industry for decades, can't understand it. After all, how can those domestic officials who are smarter than ghosts be deceived by foreign businessmen time and time again.

Tang An also explained a big deal to them, making them accept that Tiangong Yicai and Jinshan Cloud Rendering Farm were responsible for the special effects production of "The Wandering Earth".

In one morning, the project can be regarded as finalized, and the two parties will invest together. Tang An will send a group of people to come over with China Film to make a budget plan together, and will also participate in the preparation process.

However, such things as pre-modeling and scripting cannot be completed in a short period of time. Even if the two major companies fully support it, it is impossible to start it in a year.

After talking about the business, Tang An also chatted with Han Sanping. It turned out that Jiao Lufen was not willing to be a decoration. Even if he couldn't get back the dominance of China Film, at least he had to make some achievements so that China Film would no longer be an empty space. Shell ornaments.

PS: The book that was promoted yesterday is called "Being a Big Boss From Now on". I typed an extra word before, so you can read it if you are interested.

(End of this chapter)