1990: Starting from Baojia Street

James Cameron said 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 more 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 page numbering of the script he got started from 5, with no 1, 2, 3, or 4 following it, which meant that the script was missing at least four pages.

However, after a quick look, he felt that there shouldn't be much missing content, because the protagonist only started boarding the ship on the fifth page, and the previous pages were most likely various introductions.

James Cameron also knew that a few pages were missing, and said with a smile, "There are a few pages that can't be found. I'll ask Sebadisian to fill them in for you later."

Then he found some more storyboards to show Zhou Yan, but this time there were even fewer, only about twenty pages.

Although we don't know the exact number of storyboard pages, but according to James Cameron's style, the number of storyboards for "Titanic" must be very large, and these twenty pages are not even a fraction of it.

But Zhou Yan didn't care, as long as there was a script.

"Do you want to visit the filming location? Perhaps the scene will give you some inspiration." asked James Cameron.

"Is the boat ready?"

"of course."

"I heard that the ship was built one to one?"

"Yes, but only half of it is built."

"Only half built?" Zhou Yan looked puzzled.

He didn't understand, if only half of it was built, how should it be filmed, should it be done purely with CG? But looking at the final effect, it should not be done purely with CG, the current special effects technology has not 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 using CG alone is not good, you can use the mirroring method and then use CG technology to splice the mirror images together.

As for the words and patterns on the hull, they can also be painted in a mirror image and then reversed after taking the photo.

The reason why the movie "Titanic" was able to get such a high box office was that the filming technology played a big role.

Just the props alone took James Cameron's entire team several years, which is not something that 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 blueprints, mobilized more than 10,000 people, and spent several months to build the hull on a one-to-one scale.

The budget for this movie alone has burned through tens of millions of dollars in pre-production.

Zhou Yan flipped through the script, then flipped through the storyboard, put both things away, then took out a pen and a notebook and asked, "Mr. Cameron, do you have any ideas about the soundtrack for the movie?"

"Will you write the score based on my ideas?" Cameron asked.

Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "Normally, I don't deliberately pursue the director's satisfaction. But knowing the director's ideas in advance is very beneficial to my work."

In fact, Zhou Yan doesn’t care about James Cameron’s ideas on the soundtrack at all. Even if Cameron expressed his opinions, Zhou Yan would only consider them as appropriate.

The so-called discretionary consideration means 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 I asked these questions is that I want to learn more about James Cameron's thoughts on film shooting through this topic.

This time, Zhou Yan took on the job of "Titanic" not only for fame and fortune, but also to learn James Cameron's filming techniques.

There are many criteria for judging whether a movie is good or bad, and everyone has his or her own aesthetic standards. 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 movies, James Cameron is still the best.

His films use a wide range of techniques, including props, special effects, and shooting techniques, which are all ahead of their contemporaries.

As both are movies about "big ships", some people may prefer "The Legend of 1900", but it has to be said that the filming technology of "The Legend of 1900" is completely inferior to "Titanic", which was filmed earlier than it.

Cameron nodded. "I do have some thoughts to share with you. You should know that the reason I asked you to be the music director for Titanic is because I watched Sense and Sensibility, and the soundtrack of this movie left a deep impression on me. After watching Sense and Sensibility, I also watched your other works, such as Flying Piano Boy, and I found that you can master many styles and complete them very well."

Zhou Yan was even more surprised to hear Cameron praising him, because from the time he entered the door until now, except for the fact that Cameron was a bit rude at the beginning, his subsequent behavior was very normal, and he was not as difficult to deal with as others said.

Little did he know that Cameron also wanted to leave a good impression on Zhou Yan.

The composers who have worked with Cameron all have a bad relationship with him because he never considers the work difficulties of composers when filming a movie.

Many composers feel that their work is not valued by Cameron and that their works are not better represented.

This time, when Cameron was choosing the composer, he actually had two choices, one was James Horner and the other was Zhou Yan.

"Braveheart", with the music composed by James Horner, is the biggest winner of this year's Oscars. The soundtrack of the film was very successful and attracted much attention.

In the end, Cameron chose Zhou Yan not because "Sense and Sensibility" won the Best Original Score Award, but because Cameron's previous collaboration with James Horner was not pleasant.

The two worked together for the first time when Cameron was filming "Alien".

Cameron's perfectionism and busy production schedule meant that Horner did not get enough finished films when he composed the film's score.

Normally, composers still have to complete their work based on the final film. Especially when some composers are not sufficiently involved in the early stages, it will be difficult to carry out their work if they do not get enough finished films in the later stages.

Without a finished film, Horner could only create based on those messy materials, so when there was 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, this poses a problem: the clips for which he composes the soundtrack may not necessarily be edited into the final film.

For example, the music Horner wrote overnight for the Alien Queen fight scene was not included in the movie because Cameron deleted this part.

Most composers cannot tolerate Cameron's behavior. No one wants their hard work to be wasted.

It's not just Horner who dislikes Cameron. Cameron also dislikes Horner. He thinks Horner puts the score too much in the lead and is inefficient, unable to work with him to complete the job. In Cameron's view, a movie is only about two hours long, and not every clip needs a score, so the scorer should be able to write it quickly.

Moreover, during the early stages of filming, the composer had plenty of time to prepare.

Because of this rift, Cameron finally chose Zhou Yan over Horner.

In addition to this reason, Cameron chose Zhou Yan for another reason, which was that he heard some rumors about Zhou Yan's working style.

Cameron heard that when Zhou Yan was composing the soundtrack for "Sense and Sensibility", the film had not yet been shot, and he had already written several pieces of music for the film.

This fully demonstrates that Zhou Yan is highly efficient at work and has 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 music composition 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 filming and has a higher level of understanding of movies than the average composer.

So, as soon as he met Zhou Yan just now, James asked Zhou Yan if he had any inspiration when reading the storyboard.

In response to Cameron's praise, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "The job of a composer is to serve the film. My musical style depends on the final effect of the film."

Cameron nodded. "There is one thing I want to tell you in advance. I can't guarantee that I can give you the finished film quickly, so you may not be able to see the finished film while you are composing the music. In other words, if you are very fast and can write the soundtrack in a very short time, that's fine too."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "So, I must know in advance what you are going to shoot and how to shoot it. Only in this way can the subsequent work be done quickly."

Cameron shrugged. "Don't worry about that. I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

Since Cameron said so, Zhou Yan was not polite. He pointed to the storyboard that Cameron had just drawn and said, "How are you going to shoot this part? How will the camera go? It shouldn't be a real shot, after all, the ship is only half built."

"Well, it definitely can't be real shooting. This part is mainly done with CG. As for the camera movement..."

After Cameron finished speaking, Zhou Yan asked again, "How will you shoot the broken ship?"

"Breaking the boat was the most difficult part of the whole play. We dug a huge pool on the scene..."

Just like that, Zhou Yan asked and Cameron answered, and their conversation seemed to have turned into a talk show.

In fact, when answering Zhou Yan’s question, Cameron also felt something was wrong. He was very confused. Does the soundtrack require knowing so many details?
He had worked with many music directors before, some of whom did not even participate in the early stages. This was the first time he met a composer like Zhou Yan who wanted to know everything.

But he didn't say anything. He basically answered all the questions Zhou Yan asked.

Gradually, Cameron 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 anything wrong with it, and even thought it was a good thing. It showed that Zhou Yan was very concerned about the movie and had more knowledge about filming, so he could be more efficient in the post-production music composition and he didn't need to worry about it.

He didn't want to have to wait for the soundtrack to come out at the last minute after all other post-production work had been done.

As for Zhou Yan, the more he asked, the more surprised he became, because he found that many of Cameron's ideas were things he had never encountered before.

Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and even An Li, who studied in the United States for many years, do not have as many "routines" as Cameron.

Cameron is very familiar with modern film technology, so he is able to think of those special ways to realize the pictures.

For example, the scene where the male and female protagonists are standing on the bow and "flying", although it has not been filmed yet, Cameron has already decided on the shooting method. It is not a simple use of special effects, but half real scene and half special effects.

The sunset was a real shot, while the bow and the facial close-ups of the male and female protagonists were added later 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 had been wondering how to shoot this long shot, because current technology is basically unable to complete such a long shot.

Cameron told him that he could use track movement, rotate the set to achieve relative motion, and use green screen keying to complete the shot.

Zhou Yan exclaimed that it was awesome, Cameron really played around with the technical stuff.

Of course, to complete this shot, it takes more than just a routine, it also requires money.

Although Cameron did not say how much this segment cost, he did complain that it was expensive and could not be shot too long.

He can say it's expensive, so it must be tens or even millions of dollars.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh that Guy Ritchie was still running around for a budget of hundreds of thousands of pounds, while Cameron was using the same money to shoot a clip of just a dozen seconds.

The two chatted for more than an hour, and Cameron suddenly asked, "I'm going to the filming site in a few days, do you want to come with me?"

This was the second time Cameron asked this question, and Zhou Yan did not answer the last time.

This time Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "I'm afraid not. I can't go there now, but I should be able to be there when the filming starts."

"I'm sorry, but actually, you can answer many of your questions by visiting the site. And for many technical issues, other people can give you more detailed and accurate answers."

Cameron understands technology, but he doesn't know everything. Many things are done by professionals, such as prop making. He can only come up with ideas, and the specific implementation depends on the people in the props team.

Zhou Yan nodded and said, "I will definitely take a closer look at the scene when the time comes."

As they talked about this, 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 yet officially entered the working mode.

Just like Stephen Chow, when chatting privately, Zhou Yan also felt that he was easy to get along with.

But on the set, Stephen Chow was often unreasonable and stubborn, and wouldn't listen to other people's opinions at all.

During the filming of "A Chinese Odyssey", although the conflicts between Hong Kong and mainland staff were not caused by Stephen Chow, as the main controller of the scene, he could not escape responsibility when problems arose.

At least on Zhou Yan's set, similar problems would not occur.

So, even though Cameron gives people a good impression now, he may not be like this when he is on the set. Maybe after he arrives on the set, his true colors will be revealed. (End of this chapter)