Chapter 237: What Xin Haicheng, the only future is Li Haicheng!
Li Mingyang refused at first, but after Zhang Zhao showed him a documentary about Industrial Light and Magic.
He decided to follow the trajectory of the times and increase his investment in the special effects industry.
In 2010, the level of special effects production in Hollywood was rapidly iterating, far beyond his imagination...
Even virtual shooting appeared.
After watching the documentary, Li Mingyang not only saw the gap between domestic and foreign countries, but also made him realize that spring is coming for special effects, a money-losing thing.
Domestic investment in special effects has always been very low. Even after entering the era of green screen output, various explosive special effects emerged in endlessly.
The proportion of special effects investment in the total investment is still not high, and 10% belongs to conscientious producers.
But the quality of the special effects is far superior to previous years, from light pollution to visual shock.
Movie special effects is actually an industry that relies on software. As more and more magical software are developed, the production methods of special effects become easier and simpler.
For example, machine learning technology, data-driven model technology, facial behavior coding system, behavior clustering system, facial expression programming...
It can be said that the emergence of every software is an iteration of special effects.
Especially the behavior cluster system makes the battle scene with thousands of people more realistic and simpler. There is no need to adjust one by one. Data templates are randomly and automatically generated with one click.
Bringing special effects production into another realm.
In the past, the profits of special effects companies were very low, usually around 5% to 10%.
This is mainly due to rendering speed, which relies on computer hardware.
After this year, computer hardware iterations reached a bottleneck and progress was slow.
Hardware upgrade is no longer the key, software development is the way to go.
The quality of special effects will usher in crazy iterations this year, and efficiency will soar.
The special effects that cost 10 million this year may only cost 2 to 3 million next year.
In 2010, it cost tens of millions and took three or four months to produce special effects for the movie.
More than ten years later, a special effects artist and several computers can easily complete it in a week.
As long as you start fast enough, the profits of the special effects company are very considerable.
If we only look at efficiency and quality, green screen shooting is actually not the most exaggerated...
In the era of virtual shooting, a small team of five people can complete various scene spaces. Shoot.
Tunnel car chases, polar treks, jungle adventures, interstellar travel...the LED display screen can all be presented in real time, meeting the director's shooting needs to the greatest extent, and changing scenes instantly according to the design of the script.
Relying on real-time rendering of game engines and LED camera tracking technology,
actors only need to perform in conjunction with the high-simulation scenes on the screen.
What you see is what you get!
Everyone can intuitively see the shooting environment and match the changes in on-site lighting. There is no need to key out the image and the film can be released directly.
Shooting indoors and outdoors is not bound by time, space, weather, light and shadow, and has more changes and infinite possibilities.
Greatly saves the time and energy consumed in transition.
Virtual shooting is a more advanced technology than green screen shooting.
But virtual shooting cannot completely replace green screen shooting.
Because virtual filming is expensive…
After Li Mingyang left Penguin in his previous life, he planned to apply virtual shooting to short plays.
Speed up efficiency, but after analyzing the cost-effectiveness... let's forget it.
Virtual shooting has great limitations and is expensive.
The cost of a high-quality short play is only hundreds of thousands, and it is not worthy of virtual filming.
Later, Li Mingyang switched to green screen shooting.
Rich and monotonous indoor short plays, combining indoor and outdoor scenes, make script creation more unconstrained and start a new journey.
It’s a pity that I just got some grades and went to attend a class reunion. When I woke up, I was back before liberation.
However, this also allowed him to master both traditional green screen shooting and more advanced virtual shooting.
……
It’s past eleven o’clock in the evening.
Li Mingyang, Wu Zhikui, and Dapeng came to the green screen studio on the eighth floor.
Debug the studio so that he can successfully achieve the effect he wants tomorrow.
Everyone’s eyes are on the plot of Your Name.
I think the acting skills of the male and female protagonists are the most important...
Actually, I am completely wrong.
The most awesome thing about your name is the storyboard.
So cool!
Animation is different from movies. You only need to place the camera in front of the subject to create an image instantly.
Every stroke and stroke in the animation work needs to be created by the creator himself from scratch.
So the creation time cost of general animation is much higher than that of movies.
The consumption of time costs is often recovered through secondary profits through the peripheral products produced by the character modeling.
So under the trend of emphasis on character modeling, Shinkai Makoto, as a creator who is good at landscapes, can be said to be one of the few and outliers.
In his early days, he ignored character creation and always used realistic, detailed and beautiful scenes to conquer the audience.
For example, in Five Centimeters Per Second, the scattered cherry blossoms rain, and the city is silently covered with snow.
In the Garden of Words and Leaves, you can feel the refreshing feeling of rain hitting the leaves on the pond, and the white clouds floating after the rain on a sunny day.
Use the environmental background of the characters, or symbols that reflect seasonal changes and the passage of time.
It is connected to the inner world of the characters, resonates, and directly affects the narrative level.
For example, in Five Centimeters Per Second, when the male and female protagonists separate after the train closes the door, they use several empty shots such as birds flying away from the branches, empty chairs in the snow, flashing traffic lights, etc. to express the parting moment. of melancholy.
In the early days, the numbness of Xin Haicheng's character creation was the most complained about.
It wasn’t until your name came out that Xin Haicheng finally found his own way and completely sublimated.
He uses a deconstructive approach to achieve a perfect fusion between characters and landscapes.
The scene of Sanye witnessing the fall of the comet is simply a textbook storyboard. The camera first rotates 180 degrees from behind to the front at a low angle, then switches to Mitsuha's body, gradually approaches the face, and finally becomes a close-up of the pupils.
Looking through Sanye's pupils, you can see the scenery reflected in it, that is, two shining comets piercing the night sky, falling and separating one after another.
Until the pupils and the scenery in them gradually fill the whole picture. From beginning to end, Sanye’s expression and body did not change at all,
The movement of the camera and the passing of the scenery in the eyes are used to express Mitsuha's shock when she witnesses the end of the world.
Under the close-up of the pupils, it is no longer clear whether this is a face or a scenery.
When the scenery becomes the face, the face also becomes part of the scenery.
Let the audience see the landscape and characters as a whole.
Xin Haicheng, who gave up his stubbornness and embraced the market, completely changed his mind.
Not only has the content changed, but even the core storyboards of the animation have been completely changed, which is shocking.
Your Name is a sensation in Asia and is an epic sublimation of Makoto Shinkai.
"Your Name" carries the inheritance of the new generation of animated films from the small life, from Hayao Miyazaki to Makoto Shinkai.
There were so many animators in my childhood, but before Makoto Shinkai, no one was worthy of the title of 'Miyazaki Hayao Second'...
However, this legacy has ended.
What Xin Haicheng, there is only Li Haicheng in the future!
……
The next day, nine o’clock in the morning.
Mingyang Entertainment’s conference room.
"It seems that Jing Tian won't be able to arrive. Let's have a script meeting first." Li Mingyang glanced at Dapeng.
Dapeng picked up the complete script of Your Name and distributed it to the main creators present.
The main actors of Your Name include Li Mingyang, Liu Shishi, Hu Ge, Qiao Shan, Peter Ho, Wang Kai, Shu Chang, Juan Juan, Li Yan...
There are many supporting roles, some of which have not even been cast yet. Group.
Of course, supporting actors are not qualified to hold script meetings.
In addition to the actors, several major behind-the-scenes participants also participated in the script meeting.
The most important among them is producer Chen Jiashang, president of the Hong Kong Directors Association.
Some people present have read the complete script, and some have only read half of it.
After everyone read it for a while, Li Mingyang asked everyone to talk about their understanding of the script.
And he picked up a pen and paper and drew a storyboard, which only he could understand...
The script meeting lasted all morning, and Li Mingyang roughly understood it. Once everyone understood the script, the script meeting ended.
Let Dapeng arrange the afternoon green screen shooting, and let Wu Zhikui take all the actors for a walk around the location.
Qiao Shan was left alone in the end.
Talk to him about the Dali B&B.
Not long after the Far Cry crew finished filming, Li Mingyang asked Qiao Shan to fly to Dali and buy a B&B near Erhai Lake.
The filming plan for Your Name is to first shoot with a green screen at a green screen studio in Hengdian.
Shooting and special effects start at the same time, otherwise we won’t be able to keep up with the overall progress.
Then we moved to Erhai Lake in Dali to shoot the village part.
Finally, we went to Hangzhou to shoot the city part.
The decoration of the B&B was coming to an end. Qiao Shan took out his notebook and showed Li Mingyang the photos.
After watching for a while, Li Mingyang patted Qiao Shan on the shoulder, "Qiao Zi did a good job, you really have a talent for decoration."
How can I have any talent? I was forced...
I have been working as a contractor for several months and have eaten ashes for several months. Even though I don’t know anything, I have become enlightened!
Thinking like this in his heart, Qiao Shan said: "Director Li gave me the opportunity, otherwise I wouldn't know I have the talent for decoration."
"How much money have you spent now? "
"More than 3.3 million yuan, mainly 2.1 million yuan to buy the B&B. According to your wishes, the interior decoration did not go to great lengths. It cost almost more than 600,000 yuan. The labor over there was It’s quite cheap. The greening outside the B&B, the expansion of the parking lot, and the infrastructure cost more than 500,000 yuan, and then the basic salary of the employees.”
"Well, build a small farm around it, turn it into a farmhouse, and find a place to hold a bonfire party. In addition, you can talk to the local area to see if you can build a horse farm, basketball court, and football field."
" Ah!"
"Ah what!"
"No, Director Li, you want to build a resort!"
"Where do you get the money to build a resort? Just ask, Huace and Huayi opened their mouths, I see these film and television companies are all going to build resorts, ask about the situation in advance.”
Qiao Shan nodded, took out his mobile phone to call the local people, and turned on the speakerphone.
Li Mingyang listened for a while and found that the local government encourages cultural tourism development, but it cannot be developed anywhere, it must be in a designated area.
The B&B that Qiao Shan bought is a cluster of B&Bs and cannot be used to open a racecourse, build a golf course, or build a resort.
If they are interested, they can come and talk. There is strong local support. As long as the number of local jobs is guaranteed, the tax exemption policy can be discussed in depth.
“Director Li, we can talk.”
"If you follow their rules, it's easy to fall into a ditch. They'll give you an undeveloped area. Let's do this for now. You can go back to Dali and work on your bed and breakfast."
"Director Li, you are so unhurried. Is it possible...?" Qiao Shan said.
"Why do I feel like you've been talking more and more recently?" Li Mingyang rolled his eyes at Qiao Shan.
Qiao Shan sighed for a while, and then said, "Director Li! Your success or failure is not only related to you personally, but also to us... Sun Honglei is my star in the film My senior brother, he invited me to dinner a while ago. At the dinner table, when he talked about filming with Jing Tian, I burst into tears. My scalp went numb when I heard it.”
“It’s not scary if you don’t have acting skills! , she was afraid that she would not listen to the advice... She even thought there was something wrong with my senior brother’s filming, and asked him to do whatever he wanted to do.”
"This is too scary!"
"My senior brother asked me to advise you, never use Jing Tian, you will regret it."
"Just pick anyone in the Chinese drama. She is strong..."
Li Mingyang was extremely embarrassed when he heard this, but Shuai Lei Lei felt this!
“Actually, I have an actress I like, but she didn’t come.”
(End of this chapter)