Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 205 Boss Lu Brings Goods
Major events in the outside world have been settled, the atmosphere of public opinion has become relaxed, and all the disturbances outside the filming site have been isolated from the crew of "Foreign Land".

For the heroine Liu Yifei, she had the solid foundation laid by Lu Kuan in the past two years, and she also had the guidance of veteran actor Li Xuejian through his own demonstration and practice.

In addition, as the girl solved one problem after another and climbed one mountain after another during the filming process, she gradually got into the groove.

Li Xuejian and Lu Kuan sometimes watched her performance in front of the monitor, even if they judged it with the strictest standards.

It must be said that she is already an actor who is above the passing level, but there is still a gap between her and being excellent or the top level.

Compared with her sophomore classmates at the Beijing Film Academy, she has experienced the most rigorous "The Drummer" and "Alien Land" directed by Lu Kuan, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" directed by Beijing Film Academy professor Jiang Wei, as well as "Gold Powder" and "Tian Long".

Every day and night of hard study and filming, every strict teacher's teachings, every minute of the movie, and every episode of the TV series fed her with food.

Even if it is a piece of rotten wood, it will soon bloom.

Besides, Liu Yifei is not stupid. On the contrary, she has a characteristic that all top actors have.

Focus.

Be 100% focused on your work and goals.

Thanks to Liu Yifei's rapid growth, the crew's filming progress has also been greatly accelerated.

November 11st is Halloween in the West, so Boss Lu simply gave the crew a few days off to commend and show sympathy to the outstanding cast and crew.

On the other hand, he also needed to go back to the special effects company headquarters in Peking to review the CG special effects that had been shot in the early stages.

If there are any problems, they need to be adjusted in a timely manner to avoid inconsistency in the effects and styles of the front and back parts of the film.

Beiping, headquarters of Butian Films.

Lu Kuan stood in front of the DIT console, next to him was Joss Williams, the special effects director specially hired for "Alien Land". The fireworks and explosion effects in the previous car chase scenes were made by his team.

This is also the world's top war special effects team. "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" are both their company's works.

Since Butian Films was only responsible for the least difficult part of the special effects, this sample film was sent from Beast Logic in Australia, and Butian Films did the final repairs and finishing work.

In other words, they build the house and put the furniture in, and your Chinese company is just responsible for cleaning the windows and doing the tidying up.

It was only because of the high "tuition" paid by Boss Lu that the special effects personnel of Butian Film followed the entire production process.

In the process, many Chinese special effects artists were recruited from Hollywood. At present, the strength of Butian Film has basically surpassed the state-owned enterprises such as Hualong Digital, which have a rigid system.

In addition to Boss Lu himself, he also called the company's contracted directors and directors under training to come and learn.

Ning Hao, Xue Xiaolu, Jiang Wei, and Wu Ershan.

There is also Justin Lin who was brought back from the United States. Boss Lu is determined to tie him to his own chariot.

No matter how you make "Fast and Furious", the copyright is not in your hands.

If you sign with my company, I will give you a bunch of movies like "Buried Alive", "Insidious", "The Hangover" and so on, and let you enjoy them slowly!
However, today there are two more "customers" following Han Shanping into the door of the operating room.

Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.

Although there had been some minor disagreements before, we were all decent people.

Boss Lu’s current status in the industry is far from being the unknown figure he once was, so everyone is of course greeting each other in a friendly manner.

"Mr. Han, Director Zhang, Director Chen, welcome to visit! Welcome to purchase special effects services!"

Han Shanping laughed and said, "You kid, you're obviously an artist, but why do you sometimes look more mercenary than a businessman?"

Chen Kaige shook hands with Lu Kuan and looked at him with a smile, but he felt a little uncomfortable.

It would be fine to call Han Shanping first, but why should I be ranked behind Zhang Yimou?
According to his ex-wife, Ms. Hong Huang, the reason why Chen Kaige returned to China to develop his career after obtaining a green card in the United States was because he saw Zhang Yimou's movie "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear.

He sat on the toilet and sneered, "You were just a photographer of mine, what's so great about that?"

This refers to the filming of "Yellow Earth". He found his old friend and student Guo Baochang through his father, and was transferred to the Guangxi Film Studio as he wished. He also specifically asked Zhang Yimou to be his photographer.

At this moment, Director Chen's eyes wandered over Zhang Yimou and Lu Kuan who were chatting enthusiastically, and he inexplicably found that there was one more grassroots peasant whom he looked down upon.

The last time I saw this wide road was on the set of Quentin's "Kill Bill" at the Beijing Film Studio.

In just two years, it has grown to this point.

However, Director Chen did not feel that there was anything wrong with his last scolding, even though "Alien Land" was a blockbuster with a budget of 7500 million US dollars.

As for special effects films, they don’t rely on the director’s personal artistic qualities, but on rigid and cold machines.

What he wants is to combine the profound humanistic connotations of his upcoming film, “The Promise,” with the so-called Hollywood special effects, so that young and fortunate people like Lu Kuan can take a good look at it.

What is the perfect fusion of art and special effects industry!
Later, Chen Kaige took the script of "The Promise" and looked for investment everywhere. The project was approved at the end of 03 and filming officially started in May 04.

Looking at the situation, it is obvious that China Film Group has already boarded the ship.

Boss Lu listened to Han Shanping teasing him with a smile, and thought to himself that you will cry when "The Promise" is released.

"Mr. Han is wrong. Movies have both artistic and commercial attributes. It's not an exaggeration to say they are a business, haha."

Zhang Yimou also joked: "Xiaolu is definitely the best director in terms of business, and the best filmmaker among businessmen!"

Everyone laughed. Seeing that their boss was so familiar with the two famous domestic directors, the employees of Butian Films became more confident in taking on future business.

Chen Kaige felt a little annoyed watching him chatting with everyone with ease.

"Hey, Xiaolu, why don't we stop wasting time and take a look at the work and the results?"

Boss Lu sneered in his heart, "Little bastard, you called me Xiao Lu too?"
It’s just that the special effects companies nowadays are “poor and ambitious”. The total investment of “The Promise” was 3.4 million yuan, and the special effects costs in later generations were close to million yuan. That’s all a lot of money.

The key is not money. Cultivating such a top special effects team is like cultivating Liu Yifei. They need to be fed with movies!
Forget it, just treat it as bullshit.

Zhang Yimou also came up. He was also there for the special effects of "House of Flying Daggers", although the requirements were not as high as those of "The Promise".

"How about this, let me show you the effects of this DIT workbench."

"Cao Yu, start the camera now and find two people to stand in front of the green screen."

"Yes, director."

Boss Lu is really selling goods through live streaming!

He took Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and others to stand in front of the monitor.

"Both of you know that with traditional film shooting, there's a discrepancy between what you see on a monitor and what's actually shot with a camera. This is especially critical for a director like Director Zhang, who has very high standards for film color."

The two nodded in agreement. Just like when a film shot with a camera is developed and printed, except for black and white photos, the resulting effect is bound to have errors.

Such an error cannot be seen on a small one-inch or two-inch photo, but what about when it is put on a large screen that is more than 20 meters wide and 15 meters long?

“And that’s where our technology is advanced.”

"First, it can greatly reduce errors including focal length changes and color contrast distortion."

"Secondly, traditional special effects production requires first developing the film, converting it into an in-between, and then applying the special effects. This brings up a problem!"

"If a scene is not satisfactory after printing, it has to be re-shot, which greatly affects production efficiency."

"But our technology and equipment can achieve real-time viewing of the results. When the digital camera is shooting, a wireless transmitter will be used to transmit the images to the DIT's workstation."

"Directors, please watch!"

DIT technology was only born in the United States in the early 2000s. Not to mention Chang Yimou and Chen Kaige, even many Hollywood directors may not know about it.

Because in this era, people who use film to shoot movies look down on those who use digital cameras, thinking they are low-class.

The two of them were fascinated by the song, especially Chen Kaige.

He has already constructed the storyboard of "The Promise" in his mind. It would be so convenient if he could use this technology to control and create special effects at any time!
"Please look at the two actors in the camera. Now I don't need to use makeup, I can directly render their photogenic effects."

Lu Kuan asked the staff to demonstrate, and Chen and Zhang watched as the lighting technicians placed a huge sci-fi backdrop behind them. It featured towering ancient trees, giant corn plants, and monsters resembling those from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

This is all the material for "Alien Land".

"Xiao Wang, turn the sky behind the character a dim yellow, and adjust the surrounding vegetation. I want the austere feeling of yellow sand all over the sky."

The lighting technician operated the machine and circled the trees in the picture with the mouse. The yellow leaves instantly turned green, and the various elements in the picture were adjusted as required.

It takes no more than ten seconds, and the key point is that it doesn't look out of place no matter how you look at it, it's so real!
Both were shocked speechless.

Han Shanping thought about how Lu Kuan had recruited basic talents from Hualong Digital through him. Now even he, an outsider who was only responsible for overall coordination, could see it.

This has far surpassed the special effects level of Hualong Digital...

He actually managed to accomplish this!
Just watching others drink and eat meat seems delicious.

He didn't see the difficult negotiations Lu Kuan had to go through with several top special effects companies to complete the company's technological accumulation, nor did he see the high equipment, labor costs, and tuition fees.

This is simply a money-burning black hole.

It is precisely because of this that he returned to China in person this time, supervising the production of special effects CG while working hard to promote his special effects services to the industry.

Let’s not talk about expanding overseas, but at least we should take over the business in China and try to be self-sufficient.

Boss Lu continued to lead them to another device.

"That was just a static rendering effect. If you want to achieve more complex dynamic special effects coordination with multiple cameras and lenses, you'll need this."

"This is Joss Williams, the special effects supervisor for 'Alien Land.' Now, I'll let him demonstrate it to everyone."

After hearing the translator's words, Zhang Yimou greeted Qiao Si in a simple and honest manner. Later, he also found this team for his "The Flowers of War", so they knew each other in advance.

Jos began to demonstrate the Techviz workbench to everyone, which is actually a virtual reality technology software.

To put it bluntly, this is an animation, but this animation will help the director and special effects director to make a detailed modeling.

Your camera position, movement trajectory, pitch angle, automatic zoom, etc. will all be set very clearly.

Only by completing these preliminary modeling and special effects preparations can the director's dynamic special effects intentions be truly implemented during shooting.

If you don't make preparations first, it's useless to invite Industrial Light & Magic or Weta Digital.

Seeing Chen Kaige's eager look, Boss Lu also gave him a heads-up in advance to prevent his Butian Films from taking the blame for "The Promise" later.

"You two, there's one thing we must pay attention to in this process. The early preparation for special effects is very important. If we really want to use this technology, the director must first give us storyboards of the before, during, and after scenes of special effects."

“Otherwise, there will be problems with the beginning and the end of the process being poorly connected, and it will be very troublesome to make modifications.”

When selling goods on live streaming, food tasting is a must. It is better to let them see it once than to tell them a thousand times. Lu Kuan asked Justin Lin to play a car chase scene that he had just made.

Because of Zhang Ziyi's black swan incident, the crew had to use the two cars that had been saved before and let Liu Yifei reshoot this classic shot.

This was the first time for Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou to see this scene, while Han Shanping had already seen it at a pre-sale meeting of China Film.

At the end of the fifteen-minute short film, the two fifth-generation directors were speechless at the shocking special effects.

To make an inappropriate analogy, it's like the Boxer Rebellion's queue-wielding soldiers seeing the foreigners' cannons. It turns out that Hollywood's special effects technology has developed to this level!
They are still stuck in the wild age of film!
Boss Lu, who was known as "Open Your Eyes to the World," said with a smile, "How about this? Directors, you can enjoy a discount if you place your order today!"

Everyone laughed after hearing this.

Chen Kaige couldn't help but admit it: "It's really amazing. I have to say we are far behind in this area."

Han Shanping said, "Fortunately, we still have Boss Lu who can learn from the foreigners and defeat them. Haha."

Zhang Yimou also nodded continuously. The color carving in his films is the most delicate.

"Red Sorghum" seems to be saturated with the red of the sky;

In "Hero", Maggie Cheung and Carol Chang's duel in the poplar forest, the falling golden leaves and the red clothes they wear are in sharp contrast;
There is also the dazzling bright yellow color in the "bad movie" "Curse of the Golden Flower".

With this set of technology, it is undoubtedly of great significance for him to set the scene and adjust the color more finely.

Lu Kuan sent a few people to the door of Butian Cinema, and Chen Kaige left in a car with a heavy heart.

Zhang Yimou smiled and said, "Xiaolu, I've always been worried that Zhang Ziyi's absence would cause you difficulties. But after watching the scene with Concubine Liu Yi just now, it seems that the impact is not that big."

Lu Kuan said helplessly, "In terms of martial arts, Xiao Liu is better than Zhang Ziyi, and his English is more fluent, but in terms of acting, he is still no match."

"I fine-tuned the script a bit, and I think it's finally been able to play up its strengths and mitigate its weaknesses. At least there won't be any major omissions. After all, the audience is still watching Leonardo DiCaprio."

Han Shanping interrupted, "Yimou, don't worry about him. What about your 'Ten Sides of Ambush'?"

After these words were spoken, Yimou became even more Emo.

"Weiping talked to her and said her salary would continue to decrease, but the film could wait for her. Now she has gone to Spain for treatment."

"There are some world-renowned orthopedic surgeons there who specialize in serving players from top clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona. They have proposed some new treatment options for her, which may allow her to return early."

Lu Kuan nodded. Zhang Ziyi almost ruined two crews!

"By the way, Xiaolu, are you free tomorrow? There's a meeting at the headquarters..."

When Lu Kuan heard about the meeting, he refused immediately: "I'm busy, Mr. Han."

Han Shanping pretended not to hear: "You're free, right? You'll be speaking then, so get ready."

Gao Chengsheng, who came to pick him up, laughed heartily: "We still have to tie the road guide to the chariot. Those guys will be too noisy tomorrow. We might not be able to defeat them!"

Boss Lu's face was filled with gloom: "What kind of meeting is this?"

Zhang Yimou and Han Shanping looked at each other and remained silent.

"Just wait, Lao Tian will contact you, you definitely won't be able to escape."

Lu Kuan had a vague guess in his mind, but he wasn't sure.

Until Tian Zhuangzhuang came strolling into the world with a teacup in hand.

"The General Administration met with Section Chief Jia and seven other directors, intending to lift the ban on them collectively."

The faces of the fifth-generation directors were shrouded in a layer of smoke, making the wrinkles carved by the years seem even deeper.

I wonder if Lao Tian was thinking about his lost youth.

Boss Lu understood.

There were two major events in the mainland film industry.

The first time was at the 1994 Rotterdam Film Festival, where seven directors involved, including Tian Zhuangzhuang, violated taboos and faced a ban.

The second time was in 2003, when Wang Xiaoshuai, Section Chief Jia and others were collectively interviewed by the General Administration.

The purpose is also very clear.

With the country's accession to the WTO, the annual Hollywood quota of ten films will soon be broken.

Both the official and private sectors in the domestic film industry have realized that it is necessary to promote and transform the reserve director force as soon as possible to cope with the overwhelming influx of foreign films.

Thus, there was this open and frank discussion between the film industry and the government.

However, later interviews were only held within the literary and art circles, and the location was chosen at the Beijing Film Academy. Why did this time it become like a research summary meeting?
Tian Zhuangzhuang answered his questions while smoking a cigarette.

"I suggested this to Director Tong. I had my own selfish motives. I also told Han Shanping about it, and he supports you, too."

Lu Kuan was stunned for a moment, then sneered, "Teacher Tian, ​​with so many leaders here, if I say something outrageous, will you be able to cover it up?"

(End of this chapter)