hollywood melon man

Chapter 686: Succubus Sail

"Just go to the United States and study hard with Director Gilbert. You don't have to worry about the company."

Liu Ji said this to Guo Fan on the way to the airport.

"Is there no major problem with Boss Wang?" Guo Fan asked.

Boss Wang is their investor and partner. They built the company together. Without his financial support, Guo Fan would not have been able to get the opportunity to direct at such a young age.

"It's not a big problem. Boss Wang supports you to study in Hollywood. We used the name of Hollywood to fool him in the beginning, and now he is very superstitious."

Liu Ji continued, "You have to learn some real skills this time, so that we brothers can do something big."

Guo Fan smiled and said, "Great, let's do something big together."

This was Guo Fan's second trip to Hollywood, but unlike before, this time he went alone and went directly to Gilbert Jr.'s crew to serve as assistant director.

After Guo Fan arrived in Los Angeles, he was received by a staff member from Melon Studio.

Guo Fan’s English is okay, at least there is no problem with communication, after all, he has practiced it.

He asked the staff member: "Can you tell me what project we are working on now?"

"The Dark Knight, a Batman movie, a big production with an investment of 200 million US dollars." The staff member replied casually.

"Hiss~" Guo Fan took a breath of cold air. A big production worth $200 million. When would he be able to direct such a big production?

After Guo Fan reported to Xianggua Studio, he was soon assigned to the crew of "The Dark Knight" and then assigned to the director team as an assistant director.

"For a big-budget film, all the steps from pre-production to shooting and post-production are indispensable."

Gilbert Jr. also taught Guo Fan some knowledge about the industrialization of Hollywood films. He actually took Guo Fan to inspect the production of props.

"In Hollywood, every director has a different style," Gilbert said. "Green screen technology is becoming more and more advanced nowadays, and many things don't need to be done. You can achieve good results in a green screen studio.

But I tend to make real props, not just to look real, but also to create a real world.

Have you seen the Batmobile and the Batbike?"

"Looked."

"How does it feel?"

"It's very cool and handsome, but unfortunately, with the current industrial capabilities of the Chinese-language film industry, we can't produce it," said Guo Fan.

Little Gilbert nodded slightly: "We didn't make these things either. We contacted the car manufacturers and asked them to make them for us."

"Anyway, you still have a lot to learn!"

In this way, Guo Fan successfully joined the crew of The Dark Knight. From the very beginning of the early preparations, he systematically came into contact with the Hollywood industrial assembly line film production model.

Guo Fan also takes notes on what he learns every day, and reviews and summarizes it repeatedly to train himself.

He also came into contact with the IMAX camera, which is currently not used in China. He was present during the experimental shooting of this big guy.

"Chinese, this camera is very heavy and costs several million dollars. You can't afford to pay for it if it is damaged."

Seeing Guo Fan curiously circling around the IMAX camera, director of photography John Schwartzman kindly reminded him.

Guo Fan said, "I have never seen this thing, John, can you tell me what are the advantages of this camera?"

"Advantages? Of course there are many." John Schwartzman introduced: "This is a 70mm IMAX camera, which has a larger picture range and higher brightness, presenting a better picture effect. Director Gilbert Jr. decided that all action scenes would be completed with IMAX cameras, which put very high demands on our photography."

"Can I try it?" Guo Fan meant whether he could touch the IMAX camera.

However, John Schwartzman misunderstood and thought that Guo Fan wanted to test shoot a segment with an IMAX camera.

"Do you want to try it? Do you know how to operate it?"

Guo Fan was stunned for a moment. What else can I do if I just touch it?
But he nodded: "No, but I can learn."

John Schwartzman complained: "You nod your head if you don't know how to do it. Come, I'll teach you. First, do you see that red button? Turn it on..."

So, when neither of them understood what the other meant, Guo Fan used an IMAX camera to complete his first filming experience. He was stunned. He was using an IMAX camera now?

"John, will this violate the rules? And this filming won't be cheap, right?" Guo Fan was a little worried.

John Schwartzman said, "No, test shooting is part of the early preparation of the photography team. We need to be familiar with the performance of the machine so that we can use it normally during the formal shooting."

Guo Fan felt relieved after hearing this and tried shooting several more times under the guidance of John Schwartzman.

In summary, I was very nervous because the IMAX camera was too expensive and too heavy. Guo Fan was not as strong as the fat man John Schwartzman, so his arms became sore after using it a few times.

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But this was in a foreign country, and he couldn't bring shame to the Chinese, so Guo Fan endured it.

In The Dark Knight, there is a diligent Chinese man who runs around and goes wherever help is needed. He is also not ashamed to ask questions and must understand things he does not understand.

Many people were actually quite impatient at first, but Guo Fan's sincere attitude touched them, so many people didn't mind giving Guo Fan some advice.

In this way, Guo Fan made rapid progress and his learning outcomes were greatly improved.

By the time the second batch of young directors who went to Hollywood to study arrived in October, Guo Fan had already been studying on the set of "The Dark Knight" for half a month.

A group of more than a dozen people came to the venue of "The Dark Knight" and were completely stunned by the cool Batmobile and Batbike, as well as various exquisite equipment.

This group of people is different from the previous one. This group of people were carefully selected by Big Scissors to come and learn.

After the last fake student incident, which almost caused a diplomatic incident, Minister Tian specifically instructed that the list must be carefully prepared. Even if you want to put someone in there, at least you can't let others see it, right?
If you stuff some rotten fish and shrimp in there, you'll be embarrassed when people find out.

After the last incident, no one dared to do that. So the trainees sent this time were all genuine.

But this time the study time is very short, just one week, not as long as last time.

Many of these students from China were visiting Los Angeles for the first time and were amazed by Hollywood's advanced industrialization.

They visited the headquarters of major companies such as Paramount, Universal, and Disney, as well as top special effects studios such as Industrial Light & Magic Digital Domain.

I also saw James Cameron's "Avatar" which is currently in production, as well as the strange equipment and motion capture studio.

Of course, at that time they didn't know that James Cameron was producing "Avatar".

In fact, the motion capture studio is not new. As early as when the "Lord of the Rings" series was filmed in China, Gilbert Jr. built a motion capture studio.

At that time, the motion capture equipment was left in China due to damage, and for a period of time it became the only motion capture studio in China and even in Asia.

However, the production model of Chinese-language films means that this motion capture studio has few opportunities to be used. Over the years, only two directors, Chen Ge and Tsui Hark, have used it twice. The rest of the time, it was abandoned and finally used for scientific research.

But from the perspective of digital motion capture studios, the one in China has long lagged behind that in Hollywood.

(End of this chapter)