Made in Hollywood

Hardcore fans of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" have always been mortal enemies, and unlike Duke's always-on masked role for Simon Peggy, Bendnick Cumberbatch wants to compete with the male lead , This kind of thing that is seriously contrary to the opinions of the core audience, if there is not enough interest, Duke will definitely not do it casually.

Besides, he is going to use Chinese actors like Daniel Wu in the second protagonist, and the third protagonist uses Latino. Bendnick Cumberbatch does not meet this requirement at all.

Although Bendnick Cumberbatch showed an active fight for the role and his popularity and popularity were also higher, Duke still chose to refuse.

For the "Star Trek" series, Duke didn't know much about it. In his spare time during the preparations, he also watched the most classic "Star Trek". After all, a series can be produced for so long and has so many fans' support. , There must be some merits, and perhaps something can be learned from it.

However, after watching a few "Star Trek", Duke found that it did not help "Star Wars."

Although both "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" are science fiction films about space wars, there are essential differences. The two series emphasize completely different things.

In "Star Wars", like other typical Hollywood blockbusters, the most important thing is to punish the evil and promote the good. Everything else must be compromised. The forces of evil cannot defeat the forces of light, otherwise it would be politically incorrect. In "Star Trek", the most important thing is the development of science and technology, the pursuit of spirit, good and evil are not important, strength is the foundation of survival in the universe.

So "Star Wars" is a pseudo-sci-fi, just a blockbuster with a sci-fi cloak.

In "Star Wars", the underdevelopment of technology is not important. As long as you have the force, you can defeat everything. The force can surpass the laws of physics and produce supernatural phenomena. This setting greatly reduces the sci-fi attributes of "Star Wars" and is more like a magical story.

To a certain extent. The Star Wars series is a space opera, very epic, with a very grand scene, and a very clear plot process; "Star Trek" is a space cowboy theme, and the movie version often mentions his plot core, exploring the unknown, and going forward.

While Duke was preparing the film, Lucasfilm also signed promotional cooperation agreements with some companies.

In February, VR followers and Star Wars fans got the news they have been waiting for. "Star Wars" is about to fully enter the virtual reality experience. Lucasfilm and Google will develop a strategic cooperation. The production of a complete virtual reality experience has officially begun, which will open a new Star Wars universe.

This complete virtual reality experience will include a compelling story and exclusive content that has never been seen before. It is directly related to the opening of the new series of "Star Wars". Fans will be able to access the official Star Wars on ios and andriod. App to experience.

Google is not just a vr of "Star Wars 7," they have tied-up each related application, asking users to choose the light or dark side. A dedicated department will closely follow up relevant information.

In this spring, news about "Star Wars 7" basically occupied the front page of most entertainment media. Whenever the heat drops slightly, Lucasfilm and Warner Bros. will break new news to attract the attention of movie fans.

However, the current time period is after all the awards season, and the news about the awards season still robbed a lot of attention, and it was announced on the Oscar nomination list. When the media's attention shifted, Duke and Lucasfilm and Warner Bros. jointly convened a press conference to officially announce the "Star Wars VII" movie as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

The news drew the attention of fans again.

With three months to go before the shooting of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", the special effects work on the film has begun, and one of the focuses is the design of new robots. In the draft settings that Duke submitted to Industrial Light and Magic, the robot named bb-8 will not fight enemies in the film like r2d2, and its main job is to sell cute.

bb-8 will shoulder the important task of promoting and driving sales of peripheral products.

Although the level of drawing is very limited, as early as last year, Duke made the prototype of bb-8 and drew the first draft of bb-8 on a piece of drawing paper.

Taking into account the hand-crafted enthusiastic style of the Star Wars series and the film atmosphere of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", Duke's hand-painted draft bb-8 is composed of two stacked spheres, and The eye is represented by a small dot on the sphere above, and this artwork has become the core concept of the design of bb-8.

Duke's idea also prompted Christen Alzman, the designer of Industrial Light & Magic, to complete the final design of bb-8.

In order to complete the design of this robot that rotates on a sphere, Christine Alzman tried a variety of different methods, taking into account Duke's ideas on the one hand, and showing new features on the other.

Of course, the image of the robot in the original sketch looks mild and pleasing, so he can’t design this character in a serious or violent direction. Duke must give it accordingly every time he designs a new bb-8 image. Feedback, and finally a full version of the bb-8 conceptual design.

Kristen Alzman admitted to Duke that he observed all sorts of weird ball-like objects in search of inspiration when designing bb-8, until he saw a football rolling in front of him, he thought it It was the feeling he dreamed of.

When Alzman determined the basic design ideas, the next job was how to combine this concept with reality.

The designers from the biological team of the Industrial Light and Magic Company, after constant trial and repeated consideration, have finalized the final image of bb-8-a rotatable spherical body and a hemispherical suspended head, which looks simple and simple. Not simple, the typical Star Wars style.

And in order to make the actual shooting cheap, the designer can remotely control the bb-8 to make various actions.

Completing the conceptual design is only half the battle. How to materialize the concept is the key to success.

To this end, the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" crew hired Industrial Light & Magic legend Neil Scanlon as the mission director.

At Duke's request, Neil Scanlon followed the design concepts of the other two designers, but it was still a huge challenge to turn bb-8 into reality.

The modeling team headed by Neal Scanlon first set out to make multiple puppet versions of bb-8.

When the conceptual design is applied to practice, some changes will inevitably occur. Duke knows this very well. In particular, the model team in charge of Neil Scanlon made different versions of bb-8 to find the most suitable version.

Neil Scanlon and Duke discussed a lot of topics about how the bb-8 robot moves, such as whether it needs a retractable neck.

But Duke didn't think this was necessary. In order to prove his idea, he let the model team spend half a day building a movable puppet robot.

The flexibility of this puppet robot is amazing. Its head and arms can move freely. Everyone thinks this robot is great. This puppet version of the robot has laid a solid foundation for the final realization of bb-8. basis.

After making the puppets, how to manipulate the puppets for actual shooting has become another thorny issue facing the team of Duke and Neal Scanlon.

The two staff who were the controllers of bb-8 hid in the studio of Warner Studios and spent two full weeks to master the sports routines and expressions of bb-8.

At the same time, Duke asked John Schwarzman to send a photographic assistant to record the various expressions of bb-8 with the lens in the studio, and constantly adjust and practice, so that bb-8 can finally make rich and consistent Movements and expressions.

After the process of model making and actual manipulation, Neil Scanlon’s team showed Duke the results of their labor. When seeing the flexible movements and rich expressions displayed by bb-8, Duke was relieved. Finally, I can let go of the burden that has been on my shoulders for a long time.

The wonderful performance of bb-8 also conquered the crew of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". It does not seem to be a puppet model, but becomes the real bb-8 in the movie.

At the same time, in order to better serve "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and subsequent series, Lucasfilm specifically asked Industrial Light & Magic to set up a studio in Los Angeles. The studio is well-known for Industrial Light & Magic. The character Rose Urban is in charge, and Duke also made him the visual effects director of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

Today's Industrial Light and Magic, visual effects directors like Russell Earle still inherit the tradition of "serving filmmakers", and this tradition was first established by George Lucas in the 1970s .

Russell Earle joined Industrial Light and Magic in 1994, when he was still a technical assistant. Up to now, he has been responsible for "Mission Impossible 2", "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, "Transformers" series and "Avengers" He has rich experience in special effects production for many popular blockbusters such as "The League".

If a director wants to add a spaceship to the movie, or let Iron Man fly in the sky, or pack hundreds of animals into Noah’s Ark, then he definitely needs a visual effects director to lead the entire special effects The team, Duke is no exception.

Directors like Duke always hope that the special effects will be upgraded to another level. In today's Hollywood, every point of special effects must be upgraded, while the production time is shrinking.

Therefore, for all Duke projects, special effects work always starts from the start of the project, and some even start before the project is approved.

Fortunately, Duke has been accompanied by Industrial Light and Magic over the years, and now Industrial Light and Magic has become his asset, and there is basically no need to make special effects.

When these preparatory work came to an end, Duke received a call from Irene Lauder's cousin, a billionaire from New York wanted to talk to him about the heroine of the film. (To be continued.)

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