James Cameron said that he would give Zhou Yan the entire script, but he didn't seem to be prepared in advance.
When Zhou Yan reached out for the script, James Cameron rummaged through his messy desk for a long time before he came up with a script.
“This one should be relatively complete.”
Zhou Yan took the script and knew it was incomplete without even looking at it carefully, because the script had page numbers, and the script he got The page number starts from 5, and 1, 2, 3, and 4 are not found later, which means that this script is at least four pages short.
However, he took a brief look and found that there should not be much missing content, because the protagonist only started to board the ship on the fifth page, and the first few pages were likely to be various introductions.
James Cameron also knew how many pages were missing and said with a smile, "There are a few pages that I can't find. I'll ask Sebastian to fill them in for you later."
Then he found some storyboards. When Zhou Yan saw it, it was even less this time, only about twenty pages.
Although I don’t know how many pages of storyboards there are, according to James Cameron’s style, the number of storyboards for “Titanic” must be very large, and these more than twenty pages are not enough.
But Zhou Yan doesn’t care, as long as there is a script.
"Do you want to go to the filming location? Maybe the scene will give you some inspiration." James Cameron asked.
"Is the boat ready?"
"Of course."
"I heard that the boat is built one to one?"
"Yes, but Only half of it was made."
"Only half of it was made?" Zhou Yan looked confused.
He didn’t understand how to shoot it if he only made half of it. Should he do it purely with CG? But looking at the final effect, it seems that it was not purely made with CG. Current special effects technology has not yet reached this level.
“Just use a mirror image for the other half.” James Cameron solved Zhou Yan’s doubts.
Zhou Yan suddenly realized that this was indeed a good idea.
Although the effect of simply using CG is not good, you can use mirroring and then use CG technology to splice the mirrors together.
As for the words and patterns on the hull, you can also paint them as mirror images, and just flip them around after taking them.
The filming technology of the movie "Titanic" played a big role in achieving such a high box office.
The props alone took several years of James Cameron’s entire team, which is not something ordinary people can do.
I heard that in order to shoot this movie, 20th Century Fox acquired a piece of land of several hundred acres in Mexico to set up a filming location.
They also found the shipyard where the Titanic was built, obtained the drawings, and used more than 10,000 people to build the hull one to one, spending several months.
The preliminary preparations for this movie alone have already cost tens of millions of dollars in budget.
Zhou Yan flipped through the script, then flipped through the storyboards, put both things away, then took out a pen and notebook, and asked, "Mr. Cameron, what are your thoughts on the soundtrack of the movie?" "?"
"Will you write a soundtrack based on my ideas?" Cameron asked.
Zhou Yan shook his head, "Normally, I don't deliberately pursue the director's satisfaction. But understanding the director's ideas in advance is very beneficial to my work."
In fact, Zhou Yan He doesn't care at all what James Cameron thinks about the soundtrack. Even if Cameron expresses his opinion, Zhou Yan will only consider it as appropriate.
The so-called discretionary consideration is that if Cameron’s idea is the same as Zhou Yan’s, then Zhou Yan will adopt it, but if Cameron’s idea is different from Zhou Yan’s, then Zhou Yan will not adopt it...
The reason why I ask these questions is because I want to learn more about James Cameron’s thoughts on film shooting through this topic.
This time Zhou Yan took over the job of "Titanic" not only for fame and fortune, but also to learn James Cameron's film shooting techniques.
There are many criteria for judging whether a movie is good or bad, and everyone has their own aesthetics. Perhaps in the eyes of many people, "The Shawshank Redemption" is better than "Titanic".
But no matter what, when it comes to the technology used in the movie, James Cameron is still the best.
In his films, the technology is multi-faceted. Props, special effects, and shooting techniques are all ahead of the movies of the same era.
It is also a movie about "big ships". Some people may prefer "The Pianist", but I have to say that the shooting technology of "The Pianist" is completely inferior to "Titanic", which was shot earlier than it.
Cameron nodded, "I do have some ideas to tell you. You should know that the reason why I asked you to be the soundtrack director of "Titanic" is because I watched "Sense and "Emotion", the soundtrack of this film impressed me deeply. After watching "Sense and Sensibility", I also read your other works, such as "The Flying Piano Boy", and I found that you can master many styles. And they were all done very well."
Hearing Cameron praise himself, Zhou Yan was even more surprised, because from the time he entered the door to now, except for Cameron's behavior that was a little rude at the beginning, his behavior afterward was very good. It's very normal and not as difficult as other people say.
As everyone knows, Cameron also wants to leave a good impression on Zhou Yan.
The composers who have worked with Cameron do not have a good relationship with him, because he never considers the work difficulties of composers when filming movies.
Many composers feel that their work has not been valued by Cameron, and their works have not been better reflected.
When Cameron chose the scorer this time, he actually had two choices, one was James Horner and the other was Zhou Yan.
"Braveheart", scored by James Horner, is the biggest winner at this year's Oscars. The film's soundtrack is very successful and has attracted much attention.
In the end, Cameron chose Zhou Yan, not because "Sense and Sensibility" finally won the Best Score Award, but because Cameron's previous collaboration with James Horner was not pleasant.
The two collaborated for the first time when Cameron was filming "Alien".
Cameron's perfectionism and busy production schedule resulted in Horner not getting enough of the finished film when he was composing the soundtrack.
Normally, scorers still have to complete their work based on the final film, especially if some scorers do not participate enough in the early stage. If they do not get enough film production in the later stage, the work will be It is difficult to carry out.
Without the completed film, Horner could only create with messy materials, so with only one and a half months left before the film was released, he had not yet completely written the soundtrack.
In addition, because many of Horner's creations are based on filming materials, he will face a problem, that is, the clips for which he composed the soundtrack may not eventually be edited into the final film.
For example, Horner wrote the score for the Alien Queen fight scene overnight, but it was not included in the movie after Cameron deleted it.
Most composers can't stand Cameron's behavior. No one wants the results of their hard work to be wasted.
It’s not just Horner who doesn’t like Cameron, Cameron doesn’t like Horner either. He thinks Horner puts the soundtrack too much in the dominant position, and his work efficiency is low and he can’t complete it well with him. Work. In Cameron's view, a movie is only about two hours long, and not every segment needs to be scored. The scorer should write it quickly.
And during the pre-production, there was already a lot of preparation time left for the composer.
Because of this rift, Cameron finally chose Zhou Yan between Horner and Zhou Yan.
In addition to this reason, there is another reason why Cameron chose Zhou Yan, and that is that he heard some rumors related to Zhou Yan's working style.
Cameron heard that when composing the soundtrack for "Sense and Sensibility", the movie had not yet been shot, and Zhou Yan had already written several pieces of music for the movie.
This fully shows that Zhou Yan has high work efficiency and a high level of understanding of movies, which is better than Horner.
Cameron also attributed the reason why Zhou Yan was able to complete the soundtrack work so efficiently to the fact that Zhou Yan himself is an excellent director.
Because Zhou Yan is an excellent director, he knows more about movie shooting than the average scorer, and his understanding of the movie is higher than the average scorer.
Therefore, when he met Zhou Yan just now, James asked Zhou Yan if he had any inspiration when he looked at the storyboard.
Faced with Cameron's praise, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "The job of a composer is to serve the movie. What my music style is depends on the final effect of the movie."
< br>Cameron nodded, "One thing I want to tell you in advance is that I may not be able to guarantee that the finished film will be handed over to you soon, so you may not be able to see the finished film when you are composing music. In other words, , if you are fast and can write the soundtrack in a short time, it will be no problem."
Zhou Yan smiled and said, "So, I must know in advance what you are going to shoot. , how to shoot, only in this way can the subsequent work be done quickly."
Cameron shrugged, "Don't worry about this, I will tell you whatever you want to know."
< br>
Now that Cameron said this, Zhou Yan was not polite. He pointed to the storyboard that Cameron had just drawn, "How are you going to shoot this section and how will the camera move? It shouldn't be a real shot, right? After all, the ship is half built."
"Well, it definitely can't be a real shot. This part is mainly done with CG..."
After Cameron finished speaking, Zhou Yan asked again, "What about the broken ship? How will it be shot?"
"The broken ship is the most difficult part of the whole movie. We dug a huge pool on site..."
In this way, Zhou Yan asked and Cameron answered, and the conversation between the two seemed to have turned into a talk show.
In fact, when answering Zhou Yan's question, Cameron also felt that something was wrong. He was very confused. Does the soundtrack need to know so many details?
He has worked with many soundtrack directors before, some of whom did not even participate in the early stage. This was the first time he met a composer like Zhou Yan who had to understand everything.
But he didn't say anything. He basically answered all the questions asked by Zhou Yan.
Gradually, Cameron also realized that as a director, Zhou Yan should also want to know some of their film shooting techniques.
But Cameron didn’t think there was any problem, and even thought it was good. This shows that Zhou Yan is very concerned about the film, and if he knows more about film shooting, he will be more efficient in the post-production of the soundtrack. He doesn't need to worry.
He didn't want to think that at the end, when all the other post-production work was done, he still had to wait for the soundtrack to come out.
As for Zhou Yan, the more he asked, the more surprised he became, because he found that many of Cameron's ideas were really something he had never been exposed to before.
Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and even An Li, who has studied in the United States for many years, do not have as many "routines" as Cameron.
Cameron has a very good understanding of modern film technology, so he can think of special ways to realize the picture.
For example, the scene where the male and female protagonists stand on the bow of the ship and "fly" has not been filmed yet, but Cameron has already decided on a shooting method. It is not a simple use of special effects, but half real scenes and half special effects.
The sunset was shot in real life, while the close-ups of the bow of the ship and the faces of the male and female protagonists were post-shot and then modified with special effects.
What surprised Zhou Yan the most was that the long shot of "I am the King of the World" was also shot using a "routine".
Zhou Yan was thinking about how to shoot this long shot before, because current technology is basically unable to complete such a long shot.
Cameron told him that he could use orbital camera movement, rotate the scenery for relative movement, and add green screen keying to complete this shot.
Zhou Yan exclaimed that he was awesome, and Cameron really messed with the technical aspects.
Of course, if you want to complete this shot, you not only need a routine, but you also need money.
Although Cameron did not say how much this segment would cost, he did complain that it was relatively expensive and could not be filmed for too long.
He can tell it’s expensive, and it should cost tens or even millions of dollars.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh. Guy Ritchie is still running around for a budget of hundreds of thousands of pounds, but Cameron is using the same money to shoot a ten-second clip.
The two chatted for more than an hour, and Cameron suddenly asked, "I'm going to the filming location in a few days. Do you want to go with me?"
This is the second time Cameron has asked this question, and Zhou Yan did not answer last time.
This time Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "I'm afraid not, I can't go there now, but when the movie starts shooting, I should be able to be there."
"It's a pity, in fact, many of your questions, Just go to the site and see. And for many technical things, others can give you more detailed and accurate answers.”
Cameron understands technology, but he doesn’t know everything. Everything is done by professionals, such as prop production. He can only propose ideas, and the specific implementation depends on the people in the prop team.
Zhou Yan nodded, "I will definitely be at the scene to take a closer look."
As they chatted, he felt more and more that Cameron was not a difficult person to get along with.
Of course, nothing can be concluded now because they have not officially entered working mode.
Just like Zhou Xingchi, Zhou Yan also felt that he was easy to get along with when chatting in private.
But on the set, Zhou Xingchi was really unreasonable and very arrogant many times, and he couldn't listen to other people's opinions at all.
During the filming of "Westward Journey", although the conflict between Xiangjiang and the mainland staff was not caused by Zhou Xingchi, as the main controller of the scene, he could not escape the involvement if there was a problem.
At least on Zhou Yan's set, similar problems are unlikely to occur.
So, even though Cameron seems to be very good now, he may not be like this when he gets to the set. Maybe he will be "revealed" after he gets to the set. (End of this chapter)