The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 86 The Detail Maniac

Shen Qing immediately called Yang Mi to ask if the "Chinese Paladin 3" production team had contacted her.

"Yaoyao said their production team's pay was a bit low, only 100 million. Besides, didn't you get me the female lead role in 'Overheard'?"

1 million is not a low amount. The point is that Yang Mi starred in "The Shallows" and single-handedly carried the film's box office of 1.63 million. These days, the 100 million yuan box office club is still a remarkable achievement.

Yao Yao is Yang Mi's agent, Zhao Ruoyao. Shen Qing hadn't expected the "Overheard" connection to this. The entertainment industry is all about resource exchange. Shen Qing's film is a top-tier, highly anticipated project; why should Berna have the right to invest? There are plenty of companies in China wanting to invest; why should Berna get the opportunity? Does Berna have anything to offer in return?

Is Yang Mi really suitable for the role in "Overheard"? But the resources provided by Bernard were meant for Shen Qing, which is why she conveniently pushed Yang Mi aside.

The same logic applies to Enlight Media's decision to offer "All's Well, Ends Well 2010". China Film Group also offered Fan Bingbing the lead role in "Shaolin" and "Bodyguards and Assassins". Perhaps Fan Bingbing was originally a candidate being considered for these two projects. Han Sanping's suggestion at the time was actually a favor to Shen Qing.

However, "Overheard" is far less important to Yang Mi than "Chinese Paladin 3," and no one knows this better than Shen Qing.

"Call your agent Yao Yao right now and have her contact Cai Yinong from Tangren Media. Don't worry about the salary. Trust me, this drama is very important to you. If you can't adjust your schedule, you'd rather give up 'Overheard'."

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

Slender West Lake, the cast and crew of the TV series "The Dream of Red Mansions".

Yang Mi plays Qingwen. At this moment, she is wearing a red dress with a red feather on each side of her head. She is waiting for her scene. Next to her is Zhao Liying, who plays Xing Xiuyan, the niece of Madam Xing.

"Yaoyao, contact Ms. Cai Yinong immediately. 1 million it is. I'll take the role. It's just that their schedules need to be negotiated with the Dream of the Red Chamber production team."

The filming of "The Dream of Red Mansions" lasted for 17 months. Apart from extremely important characters such as Daiyu and Baoyu, it was impossible for all the cast and crew to be on set all the time. It was normal for them to be filming multiple projects at the same time, as long as they discussed it beforehand.

"The offer has reached 110 million? That's even better, it's settled then."

"It was his idea; he said this play is very important to me."

"Oh, who else could it be? It's Shen Qing! He said he'd rather not act in 'Overheard' than not film 'Chinese Paladin 3'."

"Alright, you should contact General Manager Cai right away."

After hanging up the phone, Yang Mi put away her phone and inadvertently saw Zhao Liying not far away. She turned and left without paying any attention.

Zhao Liying has a round and square face, which gives her a typical girl-next-door vibe, but she also has a somewhat rustic look. She would definitely be considered a beauty among ordinary people, but in the entertainment industry, she would look like she has the fate of a maid.

Girls, when they see other girls, they can't help but compare themselves to them. In short, seeing Zhao Liying, the movie queen, made Yang Mi feel a little proud.

After Yang Mi turned and left, Zhao Liying stood there lost in thought.

She had just clearly heard Shen Qing's name. From Yang Mi's few words, it seemed that Shen Qing wanted her to take on a role in a drama called "Chinese Paladin 3".

There's been a rumor circulating in the group lately that Shen Qing helped Yang Mi land a leading role in a big-budget Hong Kong production. Could it be the movie "Overheard" that was mentioned on the phone?

Shen Qing asks her to take on any role, and she obediently does so. Does that mean the rumors about Shen Qing and Yang Mi are true?

That makes sense, otherwise why would The Shallows have cast her?

He treats his woman very well.

They've been quite good to me.

The conference room of Magical Film Company.

The first important meeting after the production team was assembled.

Visual Effects Supervisor Timothy Webber, Action Director Gu Xuanzhao, Assistant Art Director Zhao Hai, Producer Vanessa

Producer Charles, Lighting Director Jing Chao, Cinematographer Jia Haijun, Assistant Director Zhang Fujian, Props Master Wang Ke,

Visual effects deputy director Chang Song, visual effects deputy director Xiao Yang, and others gathered together.

Soon after, Shen Qing, Han Sanping, Yu Dong, Wang Changtian, Chen Zhixi and others also came in.

After sitting down, Shen Qing opened her laptop and looked at the prop master, Wang Ke, saying, "I need to build a large box, about 6 meters high and 3 meters wide, where the actors will perform. The inner walls of the box will be entirely made of LED panels, each panel measuring 0.6 x 0.6 meters, with 4096 LEDs on each panel. It's somewhat like a kaleidoscope cube. The brightness and color of the LEDs will be controlled by a computer. Is that difficult?"

"It's difficult, but it can be overcome, though it will cost a lot of money," Wang Ke said after thinking for a moment.

Shen Qing nodded and explained to everyone, "There's a scene in the film where the main character does a rapid somersault in space—"

"Space is different from Earth. In space, there's no such thing as being upright or upside down, but on Earth, it's different. When an actor performs a somersault on Earth, the skin and muscles on their face are physically deformed due to Earth's gravity. So, we need the actor to remain still while the surrounding scenery moves. By displaying the scenery moving in the opposite direction on the inner wall of the LED screen, we can create the effect of the actor rolling."

Almost everyone in the conference room was stunned for a moment.

Shen Qing's explanation sounded plausible, but almost all the previous space tumbling scenes used mechanical arms and wires. Yet Shen Qing couldn't even tolerate the fleeting facial distortion during rapid tumbling, and wanted to build a light box with an LED inner wall that sounded extremely complicated.

With such meticulous attention to detail and extreme simulation of the real outer space environment, can the audience truly feel it? A fleeting shot of an actor tumbling over a cliffhanger may not even register the difference for such a brief moment of enhanced realism. Is all this effort really worthwhile?

"It's not just that reason; the more crucial factor is the extremely complex interplay of light and shadow in this shot."

Shen Qing looked at visual effects supervisor Timothy Webber and said in English, "When the astronauts flip in space, the positions of the sun, the earth, and other celestial bodies on the screen will change rapidly, and the light and shadow they project onto the characters will also be constantly changing. In addition, there is the reflected light from the astronauts' helmet visor. The complexity of these light and shadow changes is so great that the difficulty of post-production CG effects is almost certainly greater than building such an LED light box."

Visual effects supervisor Timothy Webber said, "Changing the surrounding scenery isn't difficult, nor is changing the ambient color and reflections on the actors' bodies and helmets. Matching the two precisely with CG alone is almost an impossible task. If there were more long takes, it would be a nightmare within a nightmare."

Shen Qing said to everyone, "If the actors were to perform the tumbling themselves, they would have to devote too much energy to dealing with the difficult physical movements, and their facial expressions would almost certainly be affected. That's why we have the surrounding scenery move, so the actors can focus on their performance."

Chen Zhixi, who had been an actress, quickly thought of another advantage. She said, "The real scene is displayed on the inner wall of the LED screen, so the actors are not performing without props or relying solely on their imagination in front of a green screen. This makes the performance much less difficult."

"The changes in the scenery on the inner wall of the LED screen form the precise coordinates for the later CG rendering, so that even the most complex changes in light and shadow can be perfectly reproduced," Visual Effects Supervisor Timothy Webber concluded.

"That's right, so this LED house must be built."

Shen Qing looked at the prop master Wang Ke again, and Wang Ke immediately expressed his determination to do his best to complete the production of this LED light box.

"The scenes where the actors are on the space station don't require rolling shots, so we'll use traditional wire work."

Shen Qing looked at the action director Gu Xuanzhao and said, "However, there need to be a lot of steel wires to help the actors perform levitation movements in a specific order, angle, and posture. To put it more bluntly, the actors need to be turned into puppets."

Gu Xuanzhao nodded: "Don't worry, director, this is our forte."

After the meeting ended, Han Sanping, Yu Dong, Wang Changtian, and others left, all feeling that the trip had been truly worthwhile and had been an eye-opener.

It turns out that making a top-tier sci-fi film is so complex, and there are so many things to consider.

No wonder China didn't have any good science fiction films in the past.

From another perspective, Shen Qing's ability to control the details of the film to such an extent suggests that the probability of success for "Gravity" is actually much higher than the others had previously anticipated.