I really don't want to make bad movies!

The filming went incredibly smoothly.

Guo Hong and KIKI both observed from behind the monitor.

Although they weren't very professional, it was clear that Director Xia had chosen a very tricky camera position.

In their hazy understanding, all they could come up with was the concept of "camera presence."

I don't know if it's good or bad, but our own artists certainly don't look bad on camera.

Seeing this, the two were relieved.

New directors are easier to handle!

KIKI sneered inwardly. She had been delaying coming to the set for the past few days just to give the director a hard time.

Let these young directors know that the real control over a film crew never rests with the director, but with the producers and investors.

The previous generations of directors have such secure positions that they can't shake them off.

If we start by nurturing the new generation of directors, we can gradually erode the entire film market sooner or later.

The director circle is so small, with only a few dozen people coming and going. Whatever they film, that's what the audience can watch.

The two celebrity agents looked at each other across the set, seemingly able to read each other's minds.

If the quality of the artists cannot be cultivated, then lower the requirements of the directors. It's that simple!

"Click—"

Xia Ming picked up a megaphone and casually shouted something.

"Thank you everyone for your hard work, today's filming is finished!"

Is that all?

Wang Yuan and Ju Jingyi were both taken aback.

They wanted to check their shots, but found that Xia Ming had disappeared from the set.

……

Xia Ming returned to the filming location.

As originally planned, Group B was to build the interior of the alien spaceship here.

Xia Ming found the executive director and gave the order to stop the construction.

"Not going to build it?" The executive director was stunned.

Xia Ming waved his hand: "It's just two black stone slabs, one on top and one on the bottom. It would take a week to build them, so there's no need to build them."

The assistant director was a little embarrassed; with the director not present to supervise, he did indeed dawdle a bit every day.

But judging from the director's tone, he didn't seem angry.

"So what do we do now?"

"Let's go chat on set. The guys in logistics, settle your wages. There won't be any more major construction work going on."

"Is it all set up?"

The executive director looked up at the few rocks that were called "Alien Spaceship" but actually looked almost exactly like Squidward's house. How bizarre!

Subsequently, Xia Ming halted all the ongoing construction of the military base, the production of a scale model of the aircraft carrier, and the interior construction of the Memory Space.

These were all prepared for the script of Arrival, but they are no longer needed.

By stopping the construction of these sets, Xia Ming saved a sum of money on special effects production.

Without saying a word, he took a taxi from the film set to the entrance of the well-known Tiangong Visual Effects Company.

This is the special effects company that Yang Xianghua found for him, and they negotiated a generous discount.

This time, however, Xia Ming bypassed Yang Xianghua and contacted the person in charge of visual effects for "Arrival" directly.

Before the crew rebuilds next week, Xia Ming needs to make good use of the price negotiated by Yang Xianghua to specify the subsequent visual effects plan and shots.

Xia Ming had thought it through clearly: with those two celebrity studios involved, the movie couldn't be filmed normally.

This has nothing to do with objective factors such as script budget; they weren't there to make a movie at all.

Using excellent visual effects on them would be a complete waste.

If some casual fans see the top-notch special effects and, out of affection for the celebrities, adopt a neutral stance towards both stars, it would contradict Xia Ming's initial intentions.

Bad movies are Xia Ming's way of punishing them, but is there a way to prevent his own reputation from being ruined by them?

Have!

Director's cut!

Countless films throughout history have been ruined by production companies, only to have their reputations revived by director's cuts!

Going back, we can trace it back to Blade Runner; closer to home, we can find Justice League.

These films were mostly made in a state of chaos within the production team, with unclear editing rights. In the end, the production company took it upon itself to delete key narrative threads or supplementary character actions, making the film disorganized.

Generally, the director's cut expands on the content, making the characters more complete.

Xia Ming wanted to do the opposite, deleting all the scenes of the characters and only keeping the special effects.

Create a simple yet heartfelt special effects segment to satisfy Pacific Rim fans' yearning for giant mechs.

The time doesn't need to be too long; as long as it can depict a complete story, that's enough.

These kinds of stories all have the same theme: mechs fighting monsters. What the audience wants to see is not the plot.

All the long and short stories of the characters in the movie can't compare to a single second of the Dangerous Gipsy Danger kneeling down.

Xia Ming contacted Pan Ning, the person in charge of visual effects for "Arrival," via his mobile phone.

The other person quickly came out of the company, shook hands with Xia Ming and greeted him.

"Director Xia, it's an honor to meet you! My child loves watching the web series you direct."

Pan Ning has regular features and wears thick glasses, but his hair is sparse, which shows that he has been working late into the night to finish projects.

Xia Ming smiled and shook hands with him, then immediately asked, "How's the footage of the robot 'Wawa' that I asked you to make coming along?"

"Almost done. All the skeletons and joints are rigging, and all thirty motion modules are packaged up."

"That's right," Xia Ming said slowly, "The script has been slightly revised, and the shots need to be redesigned."

Pan Ning was a little surprised: "It's changed already? Are we still going to use Wawa's material?"

"Yes, of course we'll use it."

Xia Ming took out the script for "Atlantic Rim 2" and introduced it:

"The revised script is simpler: it's about aliens attacking Earth, Wawa discovering the crisis, and piloting a giant robot to defend against the invaders."

Pan Ning glanced at it briefly and was even more surprised: "Director Xia, although the story has become simpler and easier to understand, the number of shots has increased several times!"

"Originally, we only needed to create the image of the aliens, but now we also have to add models of large mechs."

He looked at Xia Ming with some skepticism: "Director Xia, that's not what I meant, but I still want to ask, is the budget manageable?"

"Producer Yang told me the special effects budget was at most ten million, I think?"

"No problem, I'll be the producer in a few days." Xia Ming flipped through a few pages of the script: "We won't have that many shots, about thirty minutes in total."

"So short? Aren't you a theatrical release?"

Pan Ning was puzzled, but did not ask any further questions.

Since Party A has made the request, he will change it accordingly.

"You're very experienced, could you give me an estimate of how much it would cost?"

"It depends on how detailed Director Xia wants it to be."

"At the level of Pacific Rim 1".

Pan Ning suddenly stopped and shook his head repeatedly: "Director Xia, are you kidding me? How could we possibly reach the level of Industrial Light & Magic?"

"Is it 50%?"

"Seven out of ten."

Xia Ming followed Pan Ning into the studio, next to which was a sizable rendering farm with thousands of servers running simultaneously, rendering day and night.

Pan Ning presented the completed Vawa lens to Xia Ming.

After reviewing the information, Xia Ming found that Pan Ning had indeed not exaggerated.

Although it's just a small robot, it has all the necessary details.

The screws on the robot, the dirt on the tracks, and the movement of the small joints are all made very realistically.

It has at least 70% of the industrial-grade Light & Magic level.

It seems that there are excellent visual effects companies in China, but the problem is that the clients didn't pay enough, or the money was embezzled along the way.

The two discussed it briefly in the office and decided that to create giant mechs like those in Pacific Rim 1, as well as tentacle-like aliens of the same size, the project team would need to be expanded to at least six hundred people.

After professional consideration of the camera angles and budget assessment, the entire segment is initially estimated to cost 46 million.

The estimated production cycle is six months.

Xia Ming provided a production plan, explicitly requiring the visual effects style to be closer to that of "Pacific Rim 1", and demanding that the mecha have a sense of weight, conform to the laws of physics, move slowly, and be full of inertia.

Professional tasks should be left to professionals. As the client, Xia Ming's job is to provide the correct design ideas and pay for them.

To ensure a stunning visual effect and to speed up production, Xia Ming added another six million to the budget, and had Pan Ning connect with the technical director of Industrial Light & Magic for international collaboration.

Once the model is finished, Xia Ming will come to discuss the storyboard.

The project's advance payment is 12 million, which will be used for initial operations and daily expenses.

After all the discussions were completed, Pan Ning personally escorted Xia Ming out of the company.

Before parting, Pan Ning added Xia Ming as a friend on WeChat.

"Director Xia, there aren't many directors these days who are willing to spend so much money on special effects like you."

"The domestic science fiction trend has really gone a bit astray. Everyone spends a lot of money to ensure the star effect, but no one wants to polish the special effects shots."

"That 'Bureau 849' before, I really, sigh."

Pan Ning, who has been in the industry for a long time, couldn't help but complain a bit.

To survive in China, they still need to take on outsourcing business from abroad.

Without large-scale projects and investments, it will be impossible to catch up with industry giants like Industrial Light & Magic in this lifetime.

He was thrilled to hear that a director was going to make a science fiction special effects movie and voluntarily lowered the price for the special effects production.

Thirty minutes of footage and a budget of fifty-two million dollars can hardly be considered a big production.

But it was a good start.

Pan Ning was very pleased that a young director like Xia Ming was willing to put effort into special effects.

Moreover, it was entirely created using special effects, rather than filming the actors' scenes on set and then creating composite shots based on the actors and the environment.

It not only saves more time, but also reduces the need to argue with actors.

Pan Ning knew the script, but he wasn't very familiar with the male actors; he had heard of the female actors, though.

The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 is quite famous, and he has seen some of its special effects scenes.

The actresses showed no reaction to the special effects, as if they had never been there at all.

As the sword flashed past, only the body reacted; the eyes did not follow the direction of the special effects at all.

Pan Ning wasn't enthusiastic about creating special effects for an actor like that.

After watching Xia Ming get into the car, Pan Ning returned to the company to continue working.

Xia Ming glanced at the time; it was nine o'clock in the evening.

Unsure whether Producer Ma was asleep, he still dialed Producer Ma's number.