The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 486 The "Soul" of the Space Trilogy

Inside the huge studio.

A tall and huge curved LED virtual screen stands in the middle, showing the red wilderness.

Gravel and rocks are arranged in front of the virtual screen, and Lei Jiayin is walking in front of the LED virtual screen wearing the spacesuit for going out to work in "The Martian".

With the changes of Lei Jiayin's movements, the scene on the virtual screen is also changing in real time, and the picture is extremely realistic. A strange-looking robot follows Lei Jiayin's pace outside the screen on the screen, driving in the vast wilderness of Mars.

The cameras on the outside are also constantly moving along the track, adjusting the shooting angle.

After a while, a segment was finally filmed. With the assistance of the staff, Lei Jiayin took off his mask, walked outside the camera, and looked at the changing scene on the curved virtual screen with some novelty.

"How? I told you, half a day is enough."

Chen Jingxing stood beside Lei Jiayin with his chest folded, apparently he had been watching Lei Jiayin's performance before.

Lei Jiayin sighed: "I mean, you can release one short film of the animated film "Wall-E" in a week, and the special effects are quite realistic. This black technology is amazing."

"Wall-E" is the only film of DreamWorks in the Spring Festival in 19. An animated film, it is not a big IP, nor does it have the blessing of well-known symbolic cultural elements. There are many disadvantages. Even with the name of DreamWorks It is not easy to stand out in the Spring Festival stalls when the crowd is competing.

Not to mention that Chen Jingxing's expectation is still to reproduce the glory of "Kung Fu Panda" in this year's Spring Festival, so he can only increase the marketing efforts as much as possible.

Starting in September, the promotional campaign of a "cute" short film a week is still showing good results.

Before the movie was released, this silent robot named WALL-E, with a dirty appearance, has become a new generation of cute things on the Internet.

Of course, apart from the interesting content of the short film itself and the cuteness and cuteness of Wall-E's image and body language, Wall-E's successful marketing has also attracted the popularity of almost all DreamWorks works.

In each animated short film, Wall-E will appear in a certain scene of the film and television animation works produced by DreamWorks and interact with the characters in the works.

From "Fatal Identity" to "Matrix", from "Suspect Tracker" to "The Walking Dead", from "Space Super Battleship" to "Skyhawk Warrior", animation TV series and movies are not missed.

This time it's the turn of "The Martian". After Lei Jiayin was landed on Mars, she discovered the cowardly and sneaky mysterious robot WALL-E. One person and one machine accompanied each other on Mars and planted potatoes together.

Lei Jiayin became a chatterbox to relieve loneliness, and Wally responded to Lei Jiayin's words with cute body language and a voice that could only make simple electronic sounds.

The short film is only two and a half minutes long, and it was shot in less than half a day.

Chen Jingxing shook his head: "This is actually not a black technology. This is virtual production, or dynamic live-action shooting. When you and Sister Yue filmed "Gravity", the principles of many scenes are similar, except that they are filmed in a spherical shape. In the light box, it is more complicated than this, and the difficulty is much higher."

Virtual production is actually "what you shoot is what you get". The huge surrounding LED virtual screen is used to change the scene in real time according to the dynamics of the actors, saving a lot of post-production work on picking green and blue and other special effects.

DreamWorks is also the earliest and the first company in Huaguo to use virtual production on a large scale, and its equipment is updated most diligently.

In fact, up to now, Mo's special effects business is not very profitable, especially in order to attract talents from home and abroad to join, Mo's salary is close to that of Internet giants, resulting in the cost of special effects is rapidly approaching that of Hollywood special effects studios.

The special effects department is actually mainly subsidized by the animation department. "The Return of the Great Sage" and "Kung Fu Panda" have been laying golden eggs in a steady stream until now, especially "Panda", the peripheral revenue is close to the revenue of the box office.

This allows the special effects department to carry out technology research and development and equipment procurement with wealth and wealth on the basis of maintaining the labor costs that domestic counterparts are overwhelmed with.

However, the special effects themselves are closely related to animation. Of course, what we are talking about here is mainly 3D animation. In the world, except for the exotic countries like Japan, the box office and revenue of [-]D animation in all countries far exceed that of [-]D hand-drawn animation.

For DreamWorks, the improvement of special effects is also equivalent to the improvement of animation technology, and vice versa. Isn’t the scene displayed on the LED virtual screen in virtual production also CG rendering, so there is no distinction between them.

And when the DreamWorks digital film and animation production base in Shanghai is completed, DreamWorks will have the world's largest digital virtual production studio, and it will become the virtual production center of Huaguo and even the whole of Asia. resources and money to cultivate their own technology.

"Won't there be no need to go out on location for filming in the future? There is no need to build a real scene, and everything can be done in the studio?"

There was a little regret in Lei Jiayin's tone, and even a little bit of inexplicable unwillingness.

Although this kind of virtual production "what you shoot is what you get", it can save a lot of manpower and material resources for building real scenes and post-production time, and compared with green screen shooting, it can greatly reduce the difficulty of actors' performances.

——The mode of green screen shooting that is close to "no physical performance" is not only embarrassing, but also more repulsive to good actors. Many actors in Hollywood have publicly expressed that certain movies require a lot of green screen shooting Ruined the performing arts.

This is not something that can be solved by a sense of belief. The better the actor, the more he values ​​and relies on feedback.

Performing with feedback and performing without feedback are two different things.

That's why the opponent's reaction is so important to the actor.

Virtual production is the equivalent of turning a green screen into an LED screen, which is certainly welcome for actors.

But Lei Jiayin actually prefers live-action shooting. Although the filming of "The Martian" in Devil City in Xijiang was tormented, it is a precious memory now.

On the contrary, "Gravity" was filmed in the whole studio, which was not very impressive to him, and he didn't feel that he was creating and acting the role.

Of course, Chen Jingxing could understand Lei Jiayin's thoughts, and comforted him: "Don't worry, the current virtual production is actually more suitable for TV dramas, not movies."

No matter how realistic the picture of the LED virtual screen is at this stage, it still cannot replace the real scene and the top CG rendering.

For large-scale productions, on the big screen, the visual experience brought by the virtual screen cannot reach the first-class visual effects.

However, it can greatly increase the lower limit of special effects, so it is suitable for TV dramas and small and medium-cost movies.

The TV series "Once Upon a Time on Earth: Prelude" produced by Chen Jingxing will use a lot of virtual production. It is in the next-door greenhouse, and he also wandered over from the next-door studio where "Once Upon a Time on Earth: Prelude" was filmed.

"How about it? Can you spare some time? I am planning to shoot "Interstellar" in real locations, and I will also go to Iceland in Northern Europe to shoot, and I will shoot the whole process!"

Chen Jingxing seduced Lei Jiayin with real shots.

Lei Jiayin showed no problem, and raised the volume: "Director, don't worry, I am familiar with Director Cheng. I called him last night, and I will definitely be able to spare time, not any of the space trilogy." Without me, wouldn’t you lose your soul without me?”

"Interstellar" is undoubtedly a peerless cake in the circle.

Since the establishment of the "Interstellar" project, many stars have started to be active. Chen Jingxing's film works have always treated the protagonist as a tool, and the brilliance of the characters is submerged under the amazing sci-fi creativity.

But it seems that space movies are an exception. The hero and heroine of "Center of the Earth" and "Mars" not only have so many roles that they are close to one-man shows, but also the characters are quite dazzling, and they are all classic characters that can be deeply remembered.

Wu Yue's movie queen got soft hands, if Lei Jiayin hadn't been unlucky to meet Zhang Yi from "The Ninth District", the movie queen would definitely get a lot of it.

It's just a pity that not long after the news that "Interstellar" was approved, the leading actor was handpicked by Chen Jingxing to Chen Kun.

And Chen Jingxing's film appointment after Chen Kun was given to Lei Jiayin.

The character given is the first group in the movie who was sent out to find a new home, but found that the "new home" was not suitable for human survival, and did not want to die alone on a cold planet, so he did not hesitate to lie and say "this planet is suitable for human habitation" False information caused the earth to send the spaceship where the protagonist is located, trying to murder the protagonist and return to the earth, but the astronaut died in the docking failure of the spaceship.

This role is very suitable for Lei Jiayin.

It forms a subtle and sharp contrast with the male protagonist in "The Martian". They are both left on a lonely planet and have a strong will to survive.

It's just a miracle of an amazing individual with a strong will to survive.

And the other has become a somewhat selfish villain who does not hesitate to deceive the humans on Earth, and wants to kill all the second batch of humans who came to the planet.

Regardless of whether it is a gimmick or a certain integrity of the space trilogy, Lei Jiayin is the right candidate to do his part.

After all, he has participated in both "Center of the Earth" and "Mars", and it is a good story to continue to participate in "Interstellar".

With Lei Jiayin's current celebrity status, it is usually impossible to play the male N number in a movie, but Chen Jingxing's movie is naturally different, and for him, his long-cherished wish has been fulfilled.

It's just that Lei Jiayin is indeed a very busy person. As one of the top domestic actors at present, and also has an international reputation, she definitely can't escape the need to make a gift film.

Unless it is a director like Wu Jing who has "Spike III" to shoot, he can be exempted from accepting the film.

There are at least three films that Lei Jiayin has decided to make.

He is the leading actor in the war movie "Under the Taihang Mountains".

He is the protagonist of one of the units of the gift platter movie "My [-]".

There is also a movie dedicated to the Korean War, "Beacon Fire Yunshan", which tells the story of the battle of Yunshan in the first battle.

This is also the reason why Lei Jiayin did not routinely call him to "complain" after Chen Jingxing decided that the hero of "Interstellar" was Chen Kun. These three movies are all blockbusters, enough to keep him busy for two years.

Of course, in the eyes of other actors and audiences in the circle, this is an affirmation of their status and a kind of honor. I don't know how many stars in the circle can only play a supporting role in the gift blockbuster.

In a sense, Lei Jiayin's positive roles established by the two main theme space movies "The Center of the Earth" and "The Martian" have indeed great influence, and he has become a kind of image of a hero in the Chinese nation. hero.

From Chen Jingxing's point of view, he looks a bit like Wu Jing from the previous life, and in a certain sense, he occupies a part of Wu Jing's ecological niche. He is named in all the main theme blockbusters.

Similar to this is Luo Chen, who is also a superstar promoted by Chen Jingxing. As a young actor and a representative of high-quality idols, Luo Chen naturally cannot escape the gift film.

After "Flying Eagle Strike" failed in both box office and word-of-mouth, the Air Force is still unwilling. Taking advantage of this 70th anniversary gift, it cooperated with National Film Group to launch an air combat blockbuster "The King of the Sky". The protagonist is Luo Chen, and this is Luo Chen One reason to reject Universal's offer.

In fact, the air administration also approached Chen Jingxing. After all, all the major military blockbusters with a good reputation at the box office have been related to DreamWorks.

It's just a pity that there are really not many good air combat movies in Chen Jingxing's mind. If he wants to shoot, he doesn't want to ruin the DreamWorks brand. A good script is a problem. Although DreamWorks has accumulated a lot of screenwriting resources, the script I am afraid it will take a long time to create, and the air administration simply cannot wait.

In addition, DreamWorks' own projects are already very full, and it is difficult to spare more resources, so I can only say sorry to the Air Force.

For various reasons, it is difficult to adjust the schedule of Lei Jiayin, the sweet pastry. Today, he took a day to fly to DreamWorks' digital film and television studio during the filming of "Under the Taihang Mountains" to shoot a short film for Wally. play.

However, this kind of behavior that is hated by many directors and audiences is treated differently when ordinary actors are treated differently from first-line actors like Lei Jiayin.

It's just that the expected filming cycle of "Interstellar" will coincide with that of "Beacon Fire Cloud Mountain", which cannot be completed in a day or two.

Fortunately, he did not forget the man who dug the well. As a recognized official of Chen Jingxing's lineage, Lei Jiayin overcame many difficulties and communicated with the director and producer of "Beacon Fire Cloud Mountain". months to match the schedule of "Interstellar".

(End of this chapter)