China Entertainment’s rescue plan is hard to come by

Chapter 703 New Technology, New Equipment and Starry Sky Young Director Support Program

Huairou Film and Television Base, Starry Sky Digital Studio.

Oh, now it is called Starry Sky Image Digital Film and Television Production Center.

It was just established a few years ago.

Taking advantage of the reorganization of the company's internal brokerage business at the end of last year, Sun Yi discussed with Yang Fan and other management to integrate Starry Sky Studio and Starry Sky Digital, including the life center of the Huairou Film and Television Base, into one department.

There is no distinction between superiors and subordinates, but the logistics services and comprehensive management are unified under one department, which is called Starry Sky Image Digital Film and Television Production Center.

This can be said to be the most advanced film and television production base in the whole of China, or even in the whole of Asia. Even in terms of individual technologies and links, it occupies a place in the world.

While the outside world was hyping up the fact that Sun Yi's New World was nominated for five awards at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards, he had already been in the production center for three days with the "Gravity" crew.

However, the filming of the movie has not officially started.

The main reason is that Liu Yifei and Liu Dehua still need to adapt to the on-site shooting equipment and environment.

The most important part of the movie is the scenes of weightlessness. When they were at the National Space Administration, the two were able to simulate and adapt to the weightlessness in space by going underwater.

But when it comes to Sun Yi, he can't shoot the movie in water, so he has to use other high-end equipment.

There are generally several ways to shoot weightlessness scenes in movies.

The first type is what Sun Yi likes to call "artificial rationality" weightlessness.

That is to say, the story background of the movie requires a weightless environment, but the director reasonably removed the weightless shots in the plot.

For example, in "Star Wars", there are almost no weightlessness shots in the scenes set in space, but the director will implant the concept of future technology into the film plot to express that in the future it will be possible to simulate the earth's gravity environment through technical means.

Therefore, there is no need to express special weightlessness shots in the movie. As long as the plot logic is self-consistent and the world view is complete, generally speaking, movie fans will not care about it.

Now that we have the Force, what else can't we overcome?
The second method, which is self-explanatory, is to use various movie CG technologies and synthesize them through special effects.

This approach has obvious advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that it is very convenient to shoot. The actors only need to fix some movements, and the post-production synthesis effect is also very realistic.

But the shortcomings are also prominent.

In one word: expensive.

If I had to add one more word, it would be slow.

Sun Yi is not short of money, but he can't afford to waste time. This "Gravity" is not the previous "Pacific Rim".

At that time, various Star Sky technologies had just been introduced, and both the studio and special effects department were still in a process of learning and exploring, so the production of the entire film took more than a year.

Sun Yi is not going to spend that long on "Gravity".

Then, we have to use the last method, simulating weightlessness on the ground.

There are actually many types of this approach, including bold, pleasing, and strict.

The most bold approach is to just spend money to build an artificial gravity cabin.

The trick is to use various props to shoot the weightlessness scenes, minimize the actors' weightlessness scenes, and when it comes to the critical moments, just show the actor's face or half of his body to do the action, never a full-body shot, and then use props in the picture, such as pens, food, notebooks, etc., to make them float, thereby highlighting the actor's weightlessness environment at the moment.

If the filming is done properly like this, generally speaking, movie fans won’t be able to tell the difference.

Sun Yi did not use these two methods. The scene shots of "Gravity" are complex, including the Tiangong Space Station, the International Space Station, the Russian Space Station, and at least three scenes that require weightlessness.

He can't build three gravity chambers, right? Xingkong is rich and earns a lot, but he can't build them like a prodigal son~!

Even if you only build one and then modify it according to the progress of the shooting, it will be time-consuming and laborious, and you cannot make any mistakes, because if there is any shooting problem that is not discovered and you want to reshoot it, it will be too late because the scene has been changed.

Therefore, Sun Yi chose the last one, the rigid wire hanging, commonly known as wire hanging.

No, the wire he uses is not the same as those used in traditional film and television crews.

That thing is called equipment, but it is actually very simple.

Back then, when Sun Yi first joined the cast of The Return of the Condor Heroes, he also guest-starred as a wire worker.

In fact, to put it simply, it is a set of poles with pulleys. The actors are tied to one end and perform corresponding movements by themselves, while the staff pulls the steel rope on the other side.

As soon as the action director gave the order, they ran madly in the opposite direction.

How did the little girl's fairy sister fly at that time? Her clothes fluttered in the wind, just like a fairy descending to earth.

In fact, it was Sun Yi who was behind it~~~
After talking too much, I started to miss the past.

Sun Yi's crew of "Gravity" is not the bearded "The Return of the Condor Heroes". They have the technology and the funds. What's more, the investment in this movie is from so many companies. As long as the shooting is comfortable and the effect is good, Sun Yi will do whatever he wants.

Sun Yi named the wire system invented by the starry sky this time the Puppet System.

It consists of two parts, corresponding to the space shots in the movie and the shots inside the space station.

The space lens uses a robotic arm that can achieve three-axis rotation, with a fixing device similar to a hanging basket to fix the actors.

In fact, it is the same principle as the roller coaster in the amusement park, using a robotic arm to carry you flying.

It was customized by Sany Heavy Industry, which provided the mecha operating cabin in "Pacific Rim". It is of high quality and low price and was completed in less than two months. Liu Yifei and Liu Dehua have been getting used to this equipment these days.

The operating procedures also need to be fine-tuned according to the habits and weight of the two people.

When it comes to the camera part of the space capsule, the robotic arm has a hard time moving.

After all, the space in the space capsule is limited, and it is impossible to carry the actors up and down.

But Star Sky’s technicians came up with a new idea and solved this problem perfectly.

That is using steel wire.

First, the roofs of the Tiangong space, the International Space Station and the Russian space station were all opened to create open prop scenes.

Then, using the slide rails prepared in advance on the ceiling of the Starry Sky Stunt Studio, 12 steel wires were installed to act on the actors' arms, chests, waists, legs and various joints. The actors were hung up like puppets, and allowed to perform gravity-defying movements such as rolling, hanging upside down and even "lying flat" in the air.

To put it simply, it means "to create a feeling of weightlessness in a place where there is gravity."

During these three days, Liu Yifei was adapting to this "puppet" system. Different from the traditional wire work, this system can be applied to various joints to achieve good leverage, and the actors do not need to work so hard to perform the movements.

What's more, there is no manual pulling behind it. Instead, it is independently operated by a servo motor controlled by a computer and a slide rail on the studio ceiling. This allows the actors' movements to be smoother and have a larger range of motion. The programmed movements can also be repeated accurately, making the actors' experience more comfortable.

At the same time, a triple safety switch is installed, which is very safe and intelligent.

The only thing that is inconvenient is that it is not very versatile and needs to be adjusted according to each different actor. After all, actors of different body shapes have different strengths and bodies, and they need to be matched as much as possible.

In this way, the actions performed by the actors will be more realistic.

Of course, this is also Sun Yi's strict requirements for the details of the shots. If he changes to a similar director, then it will be fine without the trouble of adjusting it. Sun Yi pursues perfection, but it is a bit costly for his girlfriend.

When Liu Yifei saw this system for the first time, she thought it was quite interesting and different from the wire aerial techniques she had experienced before.

As a young person, she was the first to volunteer and go up to experience it.

First is the puppet system.

When Liu Yifei was hung in the air like an octopus, she laughed herself.

Then he started to show off, stretching his arms and kicking his legs in the air, performing a space "travel" and having a lot of fun.

While "swimming", she also asked the operator to start the slide and take her forward!

Sun Yi's forehead was full of black lines.

This girl was so exhausted after a month of training at the National Space Administration~
However, her happiness did not last long. After experiencing the puppet system, when it was the turn of the three-axis robotic arm, Liu Yifei was completely dumbfounded.

When the machine just started moving, she was still asking for it to speed up, and she was shouting so happily. But when the entire robotic arm started running at full speed, simulating the high-speed flip of the space station after being hit by satellite debris in the movies, she was almost scared to death.

The scene was just like standing under a roller coaster at an amusement park and listening to screams.
When the machine paused, Liu Yifei came down with a green face.

"Is it fun?"

".Uh-huh"

The little girl could hardly speak clearly, but she was still as stubborn as a duck and refused to admit defeat.

For the next two days, Liu Yifei's daily task was to adapt to this entire "always simulation" system. Of course, the male lead, Liu Dehua, also needed to adapt, but because he did not have many weightlessness scenes and no intense actions, he looked much more comfortable.

Next, Liu Yifei started her dizzying life on the set.

That morning, Sun Yi went down to the cafeteria to have breakfast.

Starry Sky has newly built a complete set of living facilities at the production center, which can provide food and accommodation for no more than 500 people.

In order to avoid trouble, Sun Yi and Liu Yifei chose to live here.

As for Liu Yifei, she was still spinning in bed and couldn't get up at all.

In the cafeteria, Sun Yi met Liu Dehua who also lived here.

It was just him, not even his assistant was seen.

Sun Yi prepared breakfast and sat down directly.

"Brother Hua, where is Assistant Wang?"

"Oh, there was a business event to discuss. I had to film a movie and didn't have time, so I asked him to go instead."

"Oh, I see." Sun Yi nodded, picked up a boiled egg, knocked it on the table, and then began to peel the eggshell.

After spending these days together, the two have become very familiar with each other privately.

Liu Dehua is a very easy-going person and not very particular, which suits Sun Yi's temperament very well.

"How are you, Brother Hua? Are you adapting here? If you have any needs, just let me know. This place is not as good as the city, and the conditions are worse in all aspects."

"It's not that bad, it's already pretty good. Besides, I'm here to film a movie, to work, not to have fun. When I was filming in Hong Kong Island before, I even lived in a shack."

"Haha, society is developing. We can't always talk about that time. We worked hard when we were young, just to live a more comfortable life in the future."

In fact, the conditions here are definitely not bad. Leading actors like Liu Dehua all have small suites of about 100 square meters, with two bedrooms, two living rooms, and two bathrooms with a living room, and there is no public area.

Although the decoration cannot be described as luxurious, it is simple and warm, fully functional, and the materials used are of the best quality.

It certainly cannot be compared with internationally renowned resort hotels, but it is pretty much the same as an ordinary five-star hotel.

Ding ding~~
"Feel sorry."

Liu Dehua's cell phone rang. He apologized to Sun Yi and left his seat.

After waiting for a while, he turned back.

"Excuse me, it's about the company's business, this year's 'Asian Rising Star Director Program'."

After hearing Liu Dehua mention this, Sun Yi became interested.

As we all know, Liu Dehua himself has a very good reputation both inside and outside the circle.

This collaboration with Sun Yi gives us a glimpse of the whole picture. Not only does he not have the airs of a superstar, he is also very humble and never causes any trouble to the crew. He is in his 50s, but he didn't say a word when asked to go to the space agency for training.

In addition, he can be said to be both virtuous and talented, because after becoming famous, he has been working hard to give back to the film industry that nurtured him.

Hong Kong Island is said to have a well-developed entertainment industry and experienced the golden age of Hong Kong films, with many popular stars in the fields of film, television and music. However, looking around Hong Kong, almost only Andy Lau can have such fame and status and be willing to work hard to support younger generations.

The "Asian Rising Star Director Project" was initiated by "Cinema Entertainment Co., Ltd." led by him. The first phase raised 2500 million Hong Kong dollars, half of which was his personal salary. Then, six young directors were selected from across Asia to fund their filming.

Later, the second and third phases were started. On average, they are held every two years.

It can be said that a lot of talents have been trained for the film and television industry.

Of course, there are only three of them who have made it big, while most of them have squandered the filming funds and made a bad movie.

But there is no way around it. This is how film investment works. No one can guarantee that this movie will be a hit.

Liu Dehua himself also lost a lot of money. In an interview, he did not shy away from saying that he was not aiming to make money at all, but wanted to invest in a group of new directors to save the Chinese-language films that were on the decline.

"I know that many behind-the-scenes staff have no work, and there are also many new directors who don't have any opportunities."

"Since I have the ability and the film and television industry created me, I will try to provide everyone with an opportunity to start working and also give some new directors a chance to perform."

"Otherwise, these directors may disappear in two or three years. No matter how talented they are, they will have to change careers because there is no investment and no one will ask them to make movies."

This is what Liu Dehua really said during the interview.

Sun Yi admired this very much.

Moreover, he also thought that with his current status and influence in the circle, should he also launch a support plan for emerging star directors?
Although Starry Sky Image has now solved the problem of shortage of directors, its directors Li Ruijun and Xin Yukun have already completed their first feature films, and Guo Fan has no intention of directing independently, but Sun Yi feels that he wants to develop more in the direction of producer. Together with himself and an elusive senior sister Yu, they can basically meet Starry Sky's film and television production capabilities.

But as for directors, especially excellent ones, there is no such thing as too many.

If Star Image wants to grow into a film and television production company with considerable influence in Asia, then the more outstanding directors of various genres it has under its umbrella, the better.

Moreover, as a top director who has won the Cannes Palme d'Or and the Oscar, it is time to promote newcomers.

After all, we need to give young people more opportunities.
"Brother Hua, I'm very interested in you as the Asian rising star director. Can you tell me more about you?"

(End of this chapter)