Chapter 104: Give up the easy and choose the difficult
Chapter 104: Give up the easy and choose the difficult
After the wrap party of "Fatal Call", Wang Hao and his Galaxy Interactive Entertainment Co., Ltd. ushered in a more intense and busy post-production work.
This includes post-production special effects processing, color grading, editing, music composition, adding subtitles and other tasks.
Wang Hao was very concerned about this. On the second day after the wrap party, even though his head still ached slightly due to being drunk, he still came to the company early in the morning.
Of course, their workplace has changed now. The three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment opposite the Beijing Film Academy has now completely become their company's employee dormitory. As for the new office location, Wang Hao placed it outside the Third Ring Road and close to the Fourth Ring Road.
The venue here is larger and there are more rooms. Not only do the employees of Galaxy Interactive Entertainment have their own desks, but Galaxy Special Effects also has its own computer room.
Yes, after returning to Shangjing, Wang Hao established a new special effects production company, and the legal representative of the company was Zhang Yang.
This special effects company is not large, with less than ten employees, most of whom are young people who have a certain interest in science fiction movies and movie special effects.
In addition to Zhang Yang and Wu Qian, who was poached from Hualong Digital, the company's technical backbone also includes Wu Qian's former colleague who works here part-time, and a handcraft expert named Jian Yongchang, who was recruited by Zhang Yang from his original model-playing circle.
This great man who graduated from the Department of Aircraft Design of Beihang University is very good at model design and production, especially the design and production of aviation models. Even if he does not work, the sale of his homemade models alone is enough for him to support himself in Shangjing.
The reason why he was willing to join Wang Hao's team was that after listening to Zhang Yang's bragging, he became very interested in Wang Hao's so-called science fiction movie universe plan.
Especially the third stage of the science fiction movie universe, which involves the universe and the starry sky, there must be many parts related to aerospace and aircraft, which happens to be his interest.
Therefore, it was only natural for me to temporarily become a prop maker in their company on a part-time basis.
When Wang Hao arrived at the new company's office and pushed open the door, he saw that the newly established Galaxy Special Effects Studio was already a busy scene.
In fact, long before this, when Wang Hao and his team went to Shanghai to shoot, the special effects studio had already started the preliminary special effects design work.
This part of special effects work is very important in the early stages of film production. It is necessary to determine which parts of the film's footage may require special effects and what special effects methods should be used.
Only with this design, when using the camera to shoot in the formal film shooting stage, can we reasonably control the shooting method and leave enough room for the later special effects production.
For example, in the adventure blockbuster King Kong that is about to be released, the gorilla was created using computer special effects, so when filming the scenes where the actors and the gorilla interact, it is necessary to leave space in the camera for the gorilla to perform.
Otherwise, if there is not enough space and the gorilla cannot be accommodated, it will be troublesome.
Only by designing special effects in advance can the director know what kind of pictures he needs and make reserve plans during the shooting process. In this way, in the post-production stage, the special effects team can organize and synthesize the real shots and the prepared special effects pictures on the computer to produce the desired picture effect.
On this point, many Chinese directors have not actually figured it out, or they simply don't have this concept at all.
When they make a movie, they either consider the special effects after the filming is completed, or they package it all up to foreign special effects teams.
Like when Guo Fan was shooting "The Wandering Earth", he spent a year or even two years conceiving and designing special effects in advance, looking up information to make a setting set, writing a film chronicle, and making up to 200 pages of slides, more than 8400 pages of storyboards, and scripts covering the walls...
If you have the time, you can find two comedians to put together a crosstalk movie, which is both convenient and time-saving. It is better to make money without doing anything. Fortunately, Wang Hao did not have such an idea in his mind, and neither did his employees.
These young people, with their love for science fiction films and their anticipation for Chinese science fiction films, have invested their time and experience into them.
When the materials shot in Shanghai came out more than a month ago, they almost started working on the special effects processing simultaneously in order to save time so as to catch up with the Lunar New Year holiday and make the movie "Fatal Call" a success.
So now, even though there is only a month and a half left until the end of the year, the special effects of "The Call" have been completed for the most part, close to three quarters.
"When will this special effect be completely finished? How many finished materials are there now? Which ones can be used?"
Wang Hao stood next to Zhang Yang, watching the employees busy at work and asked softly.
The movie will be released in a month and a half. According to the plan, they have to cut a trailer first to carry out the early promotional work.
Zhang Yang pondered for a moment, made a rough estimate in his mind, and then said:
“As for the special effects, it should be finished in half a month, don’t worry, it will definitely not delay the release of the movie.
As for the materials that can be used, take a look first..."
He pulled Wang Hao to the computer and explained while playing the processed material clips for him.
In fact, as a science fiction film that contains elements such as suspense and action, "The Call" does not use as many special effects as imagined.
Most of the gunfight action scenes still rely on props and stunt actors.
The scenes that really took the most time to process were the street scenes of the Lujiazui Financial District at the beginning and end of the film.
Here, due to the age, the famous "Lujiazui three-piece set" in later generations actually only has one and a half.
Among them, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai is still standing normally. Although the Shanghai World Financial Center started construction in early 1997, the project was once suspended due to the impact of the financial crisis. It was not until 2003 that the construction officially resumed. If you want to top it out, you have to wait until 2008 at least.
So when Wang Hao and his team were shooting on the streets of Lujiazui, the Shanghai World Financial Center was actually only half of its building.
As for the Shanghai Center Building, which has a total height of 632 meters and is known as the tallest building in China, there is still no sign of it. Construction will not start until 2008 and it will not be put into formal operation until 2017.
Generally speaking, at times like this, using special effects to remove that half of the Shanghai World Financial Center building would be a time-saving and labor-saving task.
But Wang Hao chose the most difficult option, which was to use 3D modeling special effects to bring the architectural wonder that people would only be able to see after 2017 to the big screen in 2005.
(End of this chapter)