Chapter 72 Movie Special Effects
Chapter 72 Movie Special Effects
It is said that "it is better to make than to buy" and "what others have is not as good as what I have".
So as early as two months ago, when Wang Hao, with the help of his connections, got in touch with Hualong Digital and arranged Zhang Yang to be responsible for communicating with the other party, he secretly told the person in charge of his special effects technology that if there was a chance, he could try swinging a hoe.
Now it seems that Zhang Yang listened to what he said and even achieved some results.
Sure enough, when Wu Qian led the two to the studio, Zhang Yang lowered his voice and explained to Wang Hao:
"Xiao Wu has been with Hualong for two years. He has good skills in computer special effects and is also very interested in science fiction movies.
I told him a little bit about your big plan, and Hualong Digital is also very bureaucratic, so Xiao Wu was not satisfied with his work, so he decided to leave."
Wang Hao nodded when he heard this, indicating that he understood. Of course, what satisfied him most was Zhang Yang's next sentence.
"Of course, I persuaded him to stay. After all, our company has just started, and there is not much room for him to display his talents. It is better to let Xiao Wu continue to stay in Hualong for a while and provide us with some convenience.
Anyway, I have already promised him that when our plan goes smoothly, I will bring him into the company."
"Okay, you can arrange this matter." Wang Hao agreed.
The three of them came to Hualong Digital's computer special effects studio together, and Wu Qian pointed to a device and showed it to Wang Hao.
"Brother Wang, this is a film scanner. We will scan the film into digital format, import it into the computer, and then use the Da Vinci system to adjust the color. Then we can start making special effects."
Wang Hao nodded to signal the other party to continue, and at the same time lowered his voice and asked Zhang Yang beside him.
"What does Hualong say about the price of the special effects production for our movie this time?"
Zhang Yang had already made relevant preparations, and immediately replied:
"I have already asked Mr. Luo, the person in charge here, about this. A standard digital intermediate film production usually costs about 50. If you add post-processing, special effects modeling and rendering, it is estimated to be less than 100 million."
"So expensive?!"
Wang Hao frowned.
When he contacted Hualong before, although they had a relationship, the specific film materials had not yet come out and the workload could not be calculated. Therefore, the person who contacted him at Hualong did not give a quote, but only said that they would give an internal price for the sake of his uncle Han.
Now it seems that even if it is the internal price, it is indeed a bit too much.
But it would be a bit too much to go to see Uncle Han again now.
After all, although the other party is very familiar with his grandfather, he is also the leader of Huaying Group and is responsible for the overall interests of the company.
It would be embarrassing to say that one harms the interests of the company for personal reasons.
Fortunately, Zhang Yang was a reliable person. When he saw Wang Hao's expression, he immediately understood what he was thinking and said with a smile:
"Don't be impatient, Mouse, I haven't finished yet.
The total investment in our film was less than 200 million, and spending one million on special effects was indeed a bit excessive.
So I went to Mr. Luo in the name of the movie channel and asked for an internal discount price for sister units, which reduced the production cost of the digital intermediate film to 26.
As for post-processing and special effects production, I asked Xiao Luo to classify the special effects shots that would be needed in our movie. We will leave those that are a little more difficult and require a lot of manpower to Hualong.
As for the remaining simple special effects, Xiao Wu, I, and several new interns hired by the company's special effects department can handle them ourselves.
If you calculate it this way, the cost of special effects is about 40 to 50. " "Is it okay for us to do it ourselves?"
Wang Hao was quite satisfied with the special effects production cost of more than 40 yuan, but he still asked one more question.
After all, the highlight of the movie "The Shallows", apart from the bikinis and thrilling plot, is the special effects.
If you create a 50-cent special effect because you are reluctant to spend money, you will be picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons.
In response to Wang Hao's inquiry, Zhang Yang did not pat his chest to make a promise, but greeted Wu Qian, then sat in front of the computer in the studio, opened a document in the computer with a very skilled posture, and played a video.
The video was taken at the seaside, and Wang Hao recognized it immediately. It was the Crescent Bay where they filmed "The Shallows".
At this moment, on the sea of Crescent Bay, the heroine Wang Zhi was leaning against a reef and gasping for breath. She looked back nervously, and suddenly, a shark opened its bloody mouth and jumped out from the sea behind Wang Zhi.
Wang Zhi subconsciously fell forward, but the shark fell on the reef and was stuck. It shook its head and tail, but it was unable to break free and could only watch Wang Zhi escape.
Zhang Yang waited until the video was finished, then pointed at the screen and said:
“This video is what I made with what we filmed and other footage.”
Wang Hao was stunned when he heard this. Although he noticed that there were faint traces of special effects on the shark just now, he did not expect that this video was made by Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang directly clicked on the document, pointed at the file screen, and gave him a demonstration on the spot, rendering the prop shark they used for filming into a real and vivid shark.
Wang Hao finished watching Zhang Yang's demonstration and listened to his explanation. Although he was not very proficient in computer special effects, he basically understood it. He said in surprise, "Is it that simple?"
Zhang Yang smiled and said:
“The principle of computer special effects is actually not difficult. Many people who have a basic knowledge in this area can easily get started with it after a little learning.
The key is to be patient, and beyond that it takes a lot of manpower and energy.
Fortunately, we use a model plus special effects production mode, without green screen shooting and 3D modeling. We only need to complete the digital conversion, adjust the color, and then render it to eliminate the discordant areas.
This saves a lot of time and energy.
In addition, "The Shallows" is not a theatrical movie, it is only broadcast on TV, and the picture resolution does not need to be that high.
Generally speaking, the larger the special effects picture is, the more time it takes to render. For example, in the movie "Titanic", it took half an hour to render one frame just for the special effects.
One second of footage is at least 24 frames, and it takes more than ten hours just to render the special effects.
So according to Xiao Wu, Hollywood no longer uses separate computers for rendering special effects, but instead uses rendering farms!"
"It seems that we still have a big gap with Hollywood in terms of film special effects technology."
Wang Hao sighed, and Zhang Yang nodded when he heard it.
“Yes, I used to think I knew something about special effects, but after studying at Hualong for a while, I realized that I only had a basic understanding, let alone those cutting-edge technologies.
We still have a long way to go if we want to make science fiction epics like Hollywood does.”
(End of this chapter)