This director needs to apologize

Chapter 308 The truth is cruel but beautiful
Having clarified the direction of the next movie's magical transformation, Chen Yiming was very determined.

Calculating the time, there are still more than half a year before next year's Spring Festival. As long as you don't have to grow corn by yourself like director No. 1, there is a lot of room for making a fantasy science fiction film.

What's more, Chen Yiming didn't want to imitate Feng Pants' gimmick of making a New Year's film every year. It was really too late to release it during the Spring Festival of the year after next year. For most directors, one film every two years can be considered a high output.

Limited by time and technology, hard science fiction need not be considered for the time being, and the target of magic modification can only be soft science fiction.

In this regard, Chen Yiming's reserves are still very rich, and there are many classics to choose from. For example, Director Nuo made many such films in his early days.

How about taking advantage of the time-travel trend that hasn't hit the film industry yet, and remaking "The Butterfly Effect" to take a seat and set a precedent for our domestic counterparts?
Or refer to Novo's idea of ​​a time loop and try out a magical adaptation of "Terror Cruise"?

And that classic of low-budget sci-fi films, the alien metamorphosis District 9?
There are too many high-quality options, which actually makes Chen Yiming fall into some kind of difficulty in choosing.

After struggling for a long time, I finally no longer had to write essays, but I ended up feeling a bit at a loss as to what to do.

Moreover, these are all in dark and dark directions, and they don’t seem to fit the Spring Festival atmosphere of stability, peace, and family reunion.

Even if it's not a cliche family carnival, the theme of the movie should be more optimistic and positive.

But they will enjoy watching "Back to the Future" or "Inception" because the protagonists in the movies intuitively represent their own inner visions.

Chen Yiming just built Banla Film and Television City for the filming of "Mulan". Although it was just a few buildings built in a hurry, it couldn't be completed in three or two months. In Tangcheng, it was just a long street and a Daming Palace. More than half a year.

On the one hand, this is because at present, human beings are still in a vague state of not knowing the reasons for these two basic concepts, and it is difficult to attribute them in a scientific sense.

Changing the unchangeable past, or achieving immortality through the power of consciousness, is almost an innate ambition of human beings, and this hardly differs from person to person.

In short, as long as the script and performance conform to realistic logic, the setting can be bold and unconstrained.

You still have to choose soft science fiction with more positive energy!
However, once the two qualifying prefixes are added, the problem seems to become complicated all of a sudden.

The word "soft" means that it focuses on the discussion of human relationships at the fantasy level, rather than the outline and prospect of a grand future world. After all, it cannot be hard.

Science fiction films need to present an entire world. The more exquisite the details, the more time it takes to set up the scene.

Therefore, any extension and association made by film and television works cannot be falsified in theory.

Chen Yiming decisively created a new folder, threw the previously organized documents into it, and then renamed the folder "Backup".

On the other hand, it is time and consciousness, which are closely related to everyone's ultimate ideal, eternal life.

There is a high probability that the general public has no interest in "A Brief History of Time" and "The Interpretation of Dreams". They may fall asleep instantly after turning half a page of the book.

These will not be used for the time being, and it will not be too late to arrange them in a few years when the real-life theme becomes popular.

Compared with hard science fiction, soft science fiction does have the advantage of low cost, but this low cost is also relative.

In the meantime, the interpretation of time and consciousness has become the two key words of soft science fiction.

After all, movies use pictures to tell stories. Whether it is returning from the future to the present, or returning from the present to the past, or the construction of a purely conscious world, it all involves the shaping of a different space.

So there is a trick like "Source Code", which limits the stage to a moving train, and the real space outside consciousness is the laboratory. It can be done by setting up the scenery in the studio. The so-called future world only exists in In the post-production texture on the car window.

"District 9" is even more shabby, letting the story take place directly in the slums. This is also in line with public perception. The slums of the future will also be slums and will not become nobler due to technological advancement.

After comprehensively considering various realistic conditions, Chen Yiming decided to determine the theme as the world of consciousness, and the main background as the present world of China. In other words, this will be a story where most of the shots are shot in real cities in China.

Chen Yiming couldn't help but think about the popularity that "Holiday in the Magic City" gained in Shanghai after it was released.

As for the source of the magic transformation, it is the Hollywood movie "The Thirteenth Floor" released in the previous life in 1999. The English title is literally translated as "The Thirteenth Floor".

13 is a taboo number in Western culture, and the title hints at the dark tone of the film.

On the surface, this is a story about a female scientist "transforming" her useless husband through "technological" means. The core theme is the independent personality of virtual consciousness.

In the carefully woven world of consciousness, her ineffective husband remains ineffective, addicted to the false happiness of playing NPC. The female scientist is nostalgic and resentful, and comes up with the idea of ​​replacing her husband's consciousness with a computer AI created in the conscious world.

If your real husband is not ideal, then find an ideal fake husband.

The skin is still the same as before, but the core has changed inside.

Of course, just as a program is bound to have bugs, the process of changing the core did not unexpectedly lead to an accident. The AI ​​in the virtual world awakened its autonomous consciousness and became aware of its own existence.

The film is narrated from the perspective of autonomous AI. The protagonist travels between 1999 and 1937, step by step approaching and unraveling the truth of the conscious world.

The ending naturally leads to disillusionment. After all, autonomous AI does not equal consciousness. No matter how hard the machine is, it cannot become a human.

"Hackers from Another Dimension" is actually a three-layer nested setting. The main time and space is the near future 2024, the first layer of consciousness is the real world of 1999, and the second layer of consciousness is the retro 1937.

The Easter egg at the end of the film creates a classic setting of pulling out the plug. The reality you think may not be virtual, but the infinite matryoshka dolls are.

The dark version of "The Truman Show" and the romantic version of "The Matrix" were released less than a year apart from each other. They can be regarded as heroes.

The narrative methods are different, and the points of interest are also different, but this setting is indeed classic.

The arranged life is just like the AI ​​running according to the program. The two are superimposed, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false. There are machines that want to be human, and there will naturally be people who are addicted to illusions. Old stories are often told and always new, and they will never become outdated.

Just before Chen Yiming traveled through time, HBO used this setting to produce a popular TV series, "Westworld."

Naturally, time management master Nobel Laureate would not let it go. He further developed the multi-layered nesting of dreams based on the three-layered nesting structure. This is "Inception".

Chen Yiming likes this setting very much, but he feels that the ending of "Hackers from Another Dimension" is too sad, and the three levels of nesting are also a bit deliberate. He wants to explain the point of "becoming a human" thoroughly, so two levels are enough. An extra layer can easily confuse the audience.

In Chen Yiming's view, although "Hackers from Another Dimension" has an autonomous AI as the protagonist, he and the female scientist's husband are essentially two sides of the same coin. One is the ideal type created by the female scientist, and the other is a fool in reality. otaku.

This triangular structure is classic enough and can easily be incorporated into everyone's personal experience.

Female scientists are little notebooks with self-motivation plans written on them. One end is the true self that is getting along in life, the other is the superego imagined by the brain, and the middle is the insurmountable reality gap.

Laziness is human nature, and among all living beings in the world, who has not experienced momentary or long-term laziness and decadence.

It is difficult for the audience to empathize with AI. The theme of machines turning into humans only serves to alert the audience to face the duality of future technology.

Chen Yiming didn't want to discuss the crisis of artificial intelligence beyond his lifetime. He wanted to use this science fiction setting to tell a heartwarming story that focused on people themselves, just like Truman finally broke free from his prison in "The Truman Show."

The truth is cruel, but beautiful.

(End of this chapter)