screen age

Chapter 312 Difficult but Shocking Shooting
The former "Apollo NO.13" is a classic in the history of film, and one of its very important aspects is that it uses the "vomiting comet" device used by the space agency to train astronauts to shoot the film content.

This "vomit comet" is refitted from a Boeing aircraft, and it can get close to 25 seconds of weightlessness during the falling process, but every weightlessness in this way is barely supported by rich and self-willed people , In the end, "Apollo NO.13" shot more than 600 times of weightlessness before finally finishing the film...

Of course, this may be a bit ridiculous in the eyes of some people, and they have to pay such a high price for a movie, but in fact, for more people, making a movie like this is actually a kind of True intentions can stand up to scrutiny no matter what.

However, in Chen Xi's "Gravity", he has found a solution to this problem, and that is to use a mechanical arm.

This kind of whimsy made the people who came from the special effects team feel great, and Chen Xi's method really surpassed what they had thought of before.

But it's not all...

Although they feel that the idea of ​​the light box is extremely troublesome, but from the perspective of the film industry, it has to be said that this is a real pioneering work.

By doing this, Chen Xi got rid of many things and allowed more things to be established.

... "Gravity" has officially started filming!
In fact, in many cases, it is the director who suffers the most from a movie. Even if the actors need to overcome various difficulties and obstacles, the real realization of many of these things still has to be placed on the director. From this perspective Say, "Gravity" is the same.

But sometimes, when some movies need to play with a lot of things, they have to put heavier tasks on the actors...

This is like one of Jackie Chan's successful movies after another. His hard work without a stand-in will add luster to the whole movie, but the pressure the actor himself bears in it is also quite terrifying.

It also seems to be Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible 5". In this movie, Tom Cruise, who is close to 60 years old, still has to stage a horrible scene like stealing a plane, although Cruise still made the final decision at the time. To perform, but the night before the performance he still suffered from insomnia.

After all, no matter how many safety measures are taken for this kind of scene, there is still no way to guarantee his absolute safety. Otherwise, if there are really safety measures, there will be no danger, and there will be a lot fewer dead people in this world .

... "Gravity" does not have a lot of dangerous shots, this is also determined by the shooting environment.

But there are quite a lot of places that require people to be very tired, very tired, and hard work, and it will even exceed the imagination of many people.

For example now.

"Do you think this is okay?"

Chen Xi asked Frank Zhao who was standing beside him.

Hearing this kind of name, it is obvious that he is an American of Chinese descent. This guy is about 40 years old now. In fact, Chen Xi really doesn’t like him. After all, this guy didn’t grow up in the United States, but he is now Completely American style, no one knows what his Chinese name is.

But this person's technology is really good, so from a pragmatic point of view, other ideas are actually unnecessary, as long as he can make the movie well.

He was sent by the special effects company, because the film "Gravity" involves a lot of CG production, and many things require countless post-productions to complete and realize, which requires more responses from the special effects company Come on, in order to better understand Chen Xi's thoughts, they specially sent someone to communicate with Chen Xi.

Thinking that this Frank Zhao is also a senior executive of their company, and they are all Chinese, so let him listen to Chen Xi's requests and ideas by Chen Xi's side.

Frank Zhao actually came here with a disdainful attitude at the beginning, or it can’t be described as disdainful, but he did come with a sense of coping. After all, in his impression, this Chinese director Most of them pretend to understand, and they want to use one penny to do ten yuan. The understanding of the industry is actually quite superficial, and some of them are easy to be fooled in the end.

He felt that Chen Xi was almost the same...

In the end, when he really came to China, he found out that he had made a big mistake. Although Chen Xi didn't know the special effects industry well, he did understand many things in the special effects industry. He knew exactly when to do something. What, I also know the price of some things and so on, there is basically no way to fool him.

And these are not the most important... The most important thing is that Chen Xi's creativity can only be described as awesome!

As soon as Frank Zhao thought of the idea of ​​his robotic arm and light box, he wanted to say genius to Chen Xi!
Yes, genius!
Chen Xi's genius-like creativity really makes "Gravity" different, and it will be a wonderful movie.

Although it was a hassle for their special effects people, but purely from a movie performance point of view, these are amazing!
Now Chen Xi was asking how the preparations he just made were going, woke Frank Zhao from his own thoughts, and then smiled at Chen Xi: "Not bad! The preparations you made are quite perfect. "

When Chen Xi heard his Mandarin with a perfect accent, she felt a little strange when she thought of this guy's name.

Frank Zhao continued to say to Chen Xi at this time: "Director Chen, I'm so relieved to see a director like you appearing in China."

Chen Xi couldn't help but said: "Thank you for your compliment, but Mr. Zhao, I remember you are an American now, right?"

Frank Zhao shook his head and smiled bitterly, and took a look at Chen Xi. Now the preparations here are almost ready, and the two of them have some time to chat, so Frank Zhao said to Chen Xi: "Yes, I am indeed an American citizen now... ..."

Chen Xi nodded and didn't say much. In fact, even though Chen Xi was a little angry on some issues occasionally, he didn't feel angry to this extent.

Frank Zhao opened the conversation, and then said to Chen Xi: "Many people say that I have almost forgotten China... Actually, I am ashamed to come back! I am also afraid that others will know my real name."

"Huh? What's the situation?" Chen Xi was a little surprised. Could there be some story behind this guy?
Frank Zhao said: "At the end of the 80s, when the reform and opening up were in full swing, I was at Shanghai Film Academy, and I studied traditional art and the like. Later, just in time for that year, many special effects outsourcing companies appeared in Guangnan. After all China had just opened up at that time, and the labor was very cheap! I went there, and I could earn more than 6000 yuan a month. You know, in those years, the income of more than 6000 yuan was already a wealthy class. After that, I was hired by a special effects company in the United States. Poached away, and then participated in the production of "Mulan"...but...ah, thinking about that time, I don't know what to say, I don't know whether I should regret it or be thankful..."

When Frank Zhao said this, Chen Xi understood what he meant.

Indeed, in those days, Hollywood was also taking advantage of China's cheap human resources for special effects. Many things were outsourced in China, and many outstanding Chinese animation personnel were poached.

At that time, Shanghai Film was the hardest hit area...

Most of the technicians in Shanghai Film Group have almost been scavenged!Shanghai Film has almost been dug up into an empty shell... In fact, it is not surprising why the film studio that once produced "Havoc in Heaven" and other classic movies drawn stroke by stroke, but after the new century can only There are some rotten things that have not been inherited.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Chinese animation used to be at the absolute top level in the world, and Chinese animation has many classic elements such as freehand blank space in traditional Chinese painting, which is unique in the world.The Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki was also deeply influenced by Chinese animation. Osamu Tezuka made "Astro Boy" because of "Princess Iron Fan". Later, Hayao Miyazaki insisted not to come to China, and a large part of the reason was also being rejected by Shanghai Film Studio. Many people defected to Hollywood, and it broke my heart to dismantle Shanghai Film into an empty shell.

The result is now...

However, after a short period of brilliance, these technicians, especially the production of "Mulan", made many of them more recognized in the world... It's a pity that the good times didn't last long. With the rise of [-]D animation, these technicians who are good at traditional Chinese painting Most of the people are beginning to face severe tests, and only one or two of them can re-adapt to the environment.

That's what Frank Zhao said.

Hearing this, Chen Xi didn't know what to say for a while, because this kind of thing is not black and white. Indeed, what they did may be really drastic from the perspective of the Chinese animation industry, but for them Personally speaking, there is nothing to blame for using the technology in hand to make a fortune.

Therefore, Chen Xi could only say: "I know, don't think too much, we will catch up again after all."

Indeed, in fact, the level of special effects production in China started from outsourcing companies in that era and has developed step by step to today. It is basically close to the world-class level. The outsourcing production of many Hollywood blockbusters is carried out in China. " shows this level of special effects very well.

Many people have the impression that Chinese special effects are particularly bad because of Chinese films... But in fact, Chinese special effects are often used to work for foreign films. For domestic films, the poor production of special effects is not because of the level, but because of the money given. That's it.

In this regard, Chen Xi will try her best to ask for the participation of a Chinese special effects team in "Gravity".

A little bit of what he can do is a little bit.

After Chen Xi and Frank expressed their emotions in their hearts, the shooting of the movie officially started.

Both Zhang Ziyi and Andy Lau are now sent to the robotic arm. In fact, although this robotic arm is more convenient for the director and the entire film production team, it is a kind of torture for the actors.

It is no exaggeration to say that the shots to be shot now are extremely important to "Gravity", and have their own influence on many things.

In later generations, at the beginning of "Gravity", an 18-minute space shot shocked everyone.Even the most picky and demanding movie fans will admire this long shot with extremely complicated camera movements, imaginative scene scheduling, and seamless CG production... This long shot has also become an important symbol of "Gravity" , in fact, this kind of long shot did not complete a spectacle subversion until the later "Birdman".

But such a long shot is quite troublesome to actually shoot, not to mention, it still needs special effects to complete. Originally, it is already very difficult to create a zero-gravity scene, but it is ten times more difficult to show a zero-gravity scene with a long shot .

Therefore, in Chen Xi's shooting plan, these 18 minutes are not really a long shot in one go, "It is made up of two long shots. The first shot is about 12 and a half minutes long, and then another long shot

Of course, even so, after Chen Xi adopted the original shooting method of "Gravity", this long shot still has undoubted originality.It uses the IRIS robotic arm to operate all the camera pans, all the timing of the actors' movements and the displacement of the camera's perspective, all of which are accurately calculated and arranged, which is a length that has never been achieved before in programming shots.

In order to show panoramas, close-ups, and action scenes one after another in a continuous long shot, you have to find a plan that can show various plots in a single shot at the same time. This is definitely the most difficult part.So it's quite difficult to combine zero-gravity and long shots... It also requires the cooperation of many people.

In fact, these things are already somewhat counterproductive to the development level of the Chinese film industry. Fortunately, Chen Xi has seen "Gravity" before, and Chen Xi has studied it several times before, and there are many things. They all have quite unique experience, but they are not very worried about this problem, as long as Chen Xi is present, it can be done.

Now the requirements for Zhang Ziyi and Andy Lau are really too high, not only their acting skills are required to show these things, but also the two of them are required to be prepared for the moment.

When they got on the mechanical arm, almost all the weight of their whole body was supported in a few places, and maintaining balance was a big problem, and they were quite tired...

In addition, because there are 180 million light bulbs in this huge LED light box, the temperature inside may be more uncomfortable than that in a sauna. In short, it is only a few tens of seconds, and Chen Xi can already feel a kind of warmth between two people. Not very supportive feeling.

(End of this chapter)