This director needs to apologize

Chapter 265 You can’t have your cake and eat it too

There was nothing romantic about the dinner in the evening. The fun was over and there is no need to elaborate.

An Meizi had never given any ambiguous instructions that would cause people to think. She only had a few conversations with Chen Yiming alone, which made the latter even more sure that what she had learned in the afternoon was really an illusion.

For a while, Chen Yiming devoted himself fully to the post-production work of "Mulan", and occasionally paid attention to the announcement of "Love Letter". He was too busy to care about it. The little association he had before had long been thrown out of the sky.

To put it bluntly, Chen still has some estrangement and alienation from the life after time travel. Coupled with his past life experience, he has never thought about identifying a life partner in the industry.

He even felt that there was nothing wrong with being alone.

Someone's idle-fish mentality in his previous life has also been brought to this life, and it is difficult to get rid of it.

"Mulan" is Chen Yiming's third film. Compared with the previous two films "Holiday in the City" and "1951", the post-production work is complicated and trivial, which is completely different.

"Holiday in the City" is a typical low-cost studio film. It is a feature film shot entirely in real locations. In addition to the relatively fine color grading, other post-production projects only need to be followed step by step without any difficulty.

It is precisely because of this that "Holiday" was shut down in September and scheduled to be released in mid-November. The post-production time was less than one and a half months, which is extremely fast.

Although "1951" is a war film, it tries its best to avoid making tricks in big scenes. It is innovative in terms of special effects, but it is only a superficial taste, and the overall intensity is very limited.

The one-shot shooting method greatly reduces the editing time and allows the film to be completed and submitted for review after two months of shutdown.

"Mulan" is completely different. Post-production involves all aspects and cannot be completed in one or two months. It takes at least four months to base the project, and half a year if things go poorly.

If nothing else, editing is a big project.

Chen Yiming first stayed at home for vacation, and then returned to Shanghai to help promote the release of "Love Letter". For more than half a month, the rough cut of "Mulan" was not finished.

The editor is Wang Suqiu, who has previously collaborated on "Love Letter", and his professional skills are impeccable.

The material he took over was initially screened by Chen Yiming and Lin Xiao, and was not a hodgepodge collection after work was done every day.

Even so, the editing progress is still slow.

It was not until the last week of August that Chen Yiming finished interviews with two media outlets and got away from the "Love Letter" road show team, and finally saw the rough cut of "Mulan".

Good guy, the length is actually over 1500 minutes, which is more than ten times the expected final cut.

By the way, the results of "Love Letter" exceeded expectations. In its third week of release, it was still able to beat the three new films "Those Years", "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "HOLD", with a box office of 7800 million, ranking first in that week. Ranked No. 2.

Second only to "Batman: The Black Knight" which swept the world.

The total box office has also been announced to have exceeded the 3 million mark, ranking fifth on the annual list. Considering that it is almost guaranteed to be postponed to September, this movie is very hopeful to compete for the honor of the annual top 5.

It seems that Chen Yiming's idea of ​​​​"bringing order to chaos" is just in time. Urban young people who are tired of eating big fish and meat are very fond of the refreshing side dish "Love Letter".

Lao Jia's team's public opinion tracking showed that on Broad Bean's movie review page, "coquettish bitch" has become a high-frequency keyword.

Movie fans naturally have different positive opinions on "Love Letter", but when it comes to negative opinions, it seems to be a consensus that it is "different from those previous coquettish bitches".

This is called high-end ingredients that only require the simplest cooking method.

"Love Letter" brought fame and fortune, which naturally made the main creators prosperous.

The first movie she directed after returning to China was a huge fireworks display. Two movies in a row became hits in one year. Fu Ruixiang was in the limelight and firmly established herself as the number one female director in China.

As the leading actor, Liu Dongjun has continued his popularity from the previous "1951". This time he is the main lead, and his partner is a newcomer, so his status and reputation in the industry have been greatly improved.

The biggest winner is Anxixi.

Romance films and youth films have always been about praising actresses, but "Love Letter" is combined into one, and the effect of praising people is doubled.

This girl is truly soaring into the sky. As an "elderly young woman" who debuted at the age of 24, she shows a ferocious momentum like a tornado, and she doesn't look like a newcomer at all.

The promotional period for her debut novel has not yet passed, and a newcomer appeared on the September cover of a top fashion magazine. This is the only case in the industry so far, and it highlights a shocking fact.

According to rumors, the one who was rejected was a certain A-list female star named Zhao, and the feud was aroused.

However, with An Meizi's background, this negative energy can be easily resolved, so Chen Yiming has no worries.

For the crew of "Love Letter", the days of flowers and brocades can continue for a while, but Chen Yiming has already left early.

He felt relieved knowing that the project was not messed up. As for whether he earned more or less, he didn't really care.

For a person who is already financially free, how much difference can there be between a large cup and a super large cup.

The things in front of you are what you should really focus on.

The 15-hour rough cut is really a big burden and must be treated with caution.

But before moving to the editing room of Phantom Factory, he had to arrange the affairs of other departments outside.

The post-production of a movie is a systematic project. In practice, it is often carried out in series and parallel, so coordination is very important. For example, the special effects led by Megalithic Workshop are very complex.

Compared with similar movies, "Mulan" does not have many special effects shots. Chen Yiming considered this issue at the beginning of the project and chose the principle of shooting as much as possible the shots that can be shot realistically.

Not only to save the cost and man-hours of special effects, but also to match the richness of the historical themes of ancient costumes as much as possible.

In the storyboard draft of "Mulan", the use of large long-range shots is very restrained. The main purpose is to explain the spatial logic of the scene, rather than to highlight the so-called extreme style of the big scene.

Precisely because they are used sparingly, the large long-range shots that use special effects to complement the number of people and atmosphere require even greater refinement.

For example, in the first location scene on the grassland, the government army patrol led by Mulan, the copy-paste method cannot be used.

Because according to the setting, the Tang Dynasty government troops all brought their own dry food, and only armor was distributed by their superiors.

As the lowest level in the chain of despise of the frontier army, the equipment of the frontier army is all leftovers from other companies, so naturally it cannot be neat.

If Yishui's black helmet and black armor were really well-equipped, this plot would be completely ruined.

Conversely, in the decisive battle in the Gobi at the end of the movie, the Western Turkic infantry who attacked the Tang army's camp also faced this problem.

Most of the Western Turkic soldiers fighting on foot are ordinary herders who are slightly stronger than cannon fodder. It is only right that they have a variety of equipment.

If they were all as well-armed as the Wang Zhang army that raided on the east side, it would be illogical for Xiao Siye to counterattack despite being outnumbered.

The post-production of these shots can only be done bit by bit and slowly, and there is no other way to gain texture by adding up the work hours.

Compared with the above-mentioned long-term projects, there are also short-term operations for post-production special effects, which can be left to be resolved intensively after the fine-cut version is finalized.

For example, the close-ups of martial arts scenes will involve a series of fine-tuning operations, all of which are fine operations on a frame-by-frame basis. Of course, it is better to wait until the movie editing is completed, which can save a lot of wasted effort.

In addition to special effects, music and sound effects, which are the highlights of the post-production process, also need to be planned in advance.

Before the film was finished, Chen Yiming approached Ge Jiming and asked him to compose the film's soundtrack based on the storyboard.

This time, Chen Yiming did not "transfer". He carried ready-made music from his previous life and provided it to Mr. Ge for "reference."

Because "Mulan" is already an original script, Chen Yiming trusts the abilities and experience of professional composers more than his own memory and sense of music.

Moreover, the scenes in "Mulan" are complex and the plot has twists and turns, which cannot be summarized by a single melody.

Wubao, grassland, Chang'an City, Gobi, there must be at least four independent but disconnected melodies.

Mulan, the protagonist, also needs a main theme.

This is completely beyond Chen Yiming's ability. He has this self-knowledge.

In terms of sound effects, the sound effects engineer needs to pre-select and integrate the sound effects library for subsequent use based on the rough cut version of the material.

This is a job that tests your senses and experience, no less than finding a needle in a haystack.

The sound effects engineer needs to determine the complete list of sound effects that need to be used according to the director's requirements, and then rely on his own ears to locate a specific sound effect in the vast sound effects library.

In more extreme cases, sound effects engineers may even be required to "create" a certain sound on their own.

"Mulan" is a period war film with many exteriors and battle scenes, and most of the shots require additional sound effects.

In terms of magnitude, it is almost two to three times that of "1951".

Chen Yiming spent two days following up on the progress of the special effects, music, and sound effects departments, and then touched upon the post-production color grading work with Lin Xiao, before he plunged into the editing room and started working on it.

Compressing 1500 minutes of material into 150 minutes is a headache just thinking about it.

This time is different from the last time he slimmed down "Love Letter". Xiangrui let himself go and filmed many side plots. The 1500 minutes of "Mulan" are all the main plot, and there are no large sections of material that can be cut away.

The reason why the rough cut is so long is because Chen Yiming shot a large number of alternative materials in the same scene, different performance methods, different camera combinations, and different lighting schemes.

In short, Chen Yiming reserved a wealth of possibilities for himself during the filming stage.

For example, in the scene where Yu Nan and Nie Yuan first meet in the military camp, Wu Yuanrong made three designs for the two people's fighting skills.

Chen Yiming's request was to split at the touch of a button. Yu Nan's side was releasing and closing, while Nie Yuan's was closing and releasing. Yu Nan took the initiative to take a small loss to gain a psychological advantage. Nie Yuan seemed to succeed but was secretly angry.

In this drama, the martial arts drama is connected with the literary drama, and the three acting methods are combined with the three shooting methods to produce three sets of materials. Now Chen Yiming is faced with the choice of one of the three.

It was so refreshing to shoot at first, but now it’s so embarrassing to cut.

As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

(End of this chapter)