China Entertainment: Director’s happiness is so simple

On May 9, the 54th Cannes Film Festival opened.

Nearly a month ago, this year's Cannes Film Festival announced the list of shortlisted films in each unit.

This time, a total of 23 feature-length films were shortlisted for the main competition, of which only two Chinese-language films were shortlisted, both from Wanwan.

They come from "The Name of the Rose" by Hou Hsiao-hsien and "What Time Is It Over There" by Tsai Ming-liang.

Neither Hong Kong nor the Mainland had a film shortlisted for the competition this time. The previously promising film "Lan Yu" by Kwan Jin Peng also unfortunately missed out.

Compared with the popularity of Chinese-language films last year, three Chinese-language films including Edward Yang's "Yi Yi", Jiang Wen's "The Devils Are Coming" and Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood for Love" were shortlisted for the main competition. This year will indeed make people less excited.

Therefore, many domestic media made negative noises, and the atmosphere was like missing out on the top three in a certain Olympic event.

But fortunately, there are still mainland filmmakers in the short film section.

There are 12 shortlisted films in this short film unit.

One of them is from Lu Ping An, who just won the Berlin Short Film Silver Bear Award a few months ago.

This time, Lu Pingan was once again nominated for Cannes and nominated for the Palme d'Or with his short film "Black Hole". He will compete for the Short Film Palme d'Or in the future, so Lu Pingan was once again in the newspaper.

Of course, there is another mainland filmmaker shortlisted for the short film. His name is Yang Chao, and his work is called "Waiting to Die". However, he signed up for the film cornerstone unit, which is not as valuable as the short film unit, one of the official competitions. He is very tall, and Lu Ping'an is already famous, so few people will report on him.

Lu Pingan's short film was shortlisted again, and many reporters came to the school to interview him.

Lu Pingan directly referred the interview to Hu Qingquan on the grounds that the post-production of the movie "The Tuner" was very busy.

So the media soon learned that the short film called "Black Hole" was only more than two minutes long!

Then various discussions came out.

There are positive ones, which make up the majority, and there are also negative ones.

Positively speaking, if it is short and concise, it will definitely be exciting.

Negatively speaking, the duration is too short and it is almost impossible to win the grand prize.

Some people even said that Lu Ping An didn't take Cannes seriously.

Two minutes, this sets a record for the shortest short film in Cannes, right?

With the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, such discussions are gradually heating up.

The Sixth Princess also joined the report, first reporting on the two Chinese-language films that were shortlisted, then reporting on Lu Ping An, and finally saying that Yang Dechang and Li An were among the judges this time, and then blessing Lu Ping An to win another award.

As a result, Lu Pingan's name has become a top name in the film industry to a certain extent.

This situation is actually helpless.

Why is there not a mainland film in Cannes this time?

It would be great if all of them are not that bad. There is only one safe road. If you don’t talk about him, who will you talk about?

Lu Ping'an himself doesn't care about this.

He is now concentrating on the later stages of the film and will wait until a few days before the awards ceremony to go over and take a look.

. . . . . . .

The post-production work of the big movie "The Tuner" went smoothly than expected.

On the one hand, Zhang Yifan and Lu Ping'an have already cooperated once, so the tacit understanding is much higher when they cooperate again this time.

On the other hand, it is the credit of the "X" special effects software given by Goldfinger.

The one-stop special effects generation software from 2050 is really advanced!

After the film was completed, Lu Pingan spent two days studying this thing.

The golden finger is very powerful. After Lu Pingan received the reward, all the information about "X" came into his mind. In other words, he can now use the software proficiently.

However, if you want to actually use it in reality, you still need relevant hardware facilities.

This will cost a lot of money.

After all, this is 2001, and the computing power of a smartphone 20 years from now can surpass the computing power of an ordinary computer today.

So if you want to make "X" run smoothly, you have to spend a lot of money.

Lu Ping'an went to find out more.

The current mainstream computers on the market use 64M processors, AMD processors, only a pitiful 4M of video memory, and only 6.4G of hard drives. Looking at it 20 years later, many people may doubt that this kind of computer can be used? The hard drive will be full after just a few software installations.

But how much does such a computer cost now? 18,000!

Hardware performance is too lagging behind.

Fortunately, the software provided by Golden Finger has multiple levels to choose from. Just use the low-level one, which reduces the hardware requirements a lot.

Lu Ping'an directly rented a new office building of more than 200 square meters, and then registered a special effects company, named "X (Akers) Special Effects Technology Co., Ltd.", and then spent more than 200,000 yuan to purchase equipment to fill the entire office. So a special effects company headquarters with only one person was established. If those who are mining in the future see it, they will definitely think that Lu Ping'an is a member of the same group.

After the equipment was built, Lu Pingan entered the source code into it through golden fingers, and then the world's most advanced and blackest special effects software "X" appeared on his computer screen.

And you don’t have to worry about it being stolen, because “X” is bound to you.

As long as Lu Ping An feels it is no longer safe, he can take it back at any time and the computer will be formatted without leaving any traces.

Of course, Lu Ping An can also teach himself programming or recruit relevant personnel, split "X" into various software, such as Nuke, PS, 3Dmax, etc. that are already available in the world, and then compete with them, and because of the generation difference, the competition You can definitely win, so making big money is definitely no problem.

But Lu Ping'an hasn't considered this for the time being. It's too troublesome. Let's talk about it later.

With more than 200,000 yuan spent, it can support "X" to run.

Its efficiency cannot be compared to a computer host worth more than 10,000 yuan in 20 years.

It's pathetic, but it's adequate.

The movie "The Tuner" didn't require many special effects, just a rabbit, which took less than a minute in total, and there was no need to shoot it separately.

But this lifelike rabbit is basically impossible to make based on the current domestic special effects level.

Fortunately, Lupingan now has "X". For such simple special effects, you only need to pull it out of the material library in the software and adjust it.

Of course, "X" software is not omnipotent, and shots involving real people still require the assistance of some external props and equipment.

Although Lu Ping'an currently does not have access to these advanced special effects, he already has the idea of ​​forming a complete special effects team. After all, he has to prepare for future blockbusters, but he is not in a hurry now, as the time and funds are not sufficient. Just take your time.

Pull out the material library, enter the required instructions, and after a day of tinkering, the special effects will begin to be generated slowly.

Lu Ping'an expects that all the special effects shots for the big movie can be completed in a week at most.

This greatly speeds up the post-production process.

Finally, on May 16, all special effects shots for the movie "The Tuner" were completed.

. . . . . .

"Who are you doing these special effects for?"

On the 17th, after Han Sanpin watched the lifelike rabbit several times in the editing room, which was almost unrecognizable as a special effect, he finally asked the question in his heart.

Lu Ping'an replied calmly: "Of course it's from the United States. How can it be made in China now?"

Han Sanpin asked again: "How much did it cost?"

Lu Ping'an continued calmly: "This time I didn't spend much. I was looking for a friend of my dad's. He knew a special effects person in the United States. The other party also wanted to expand the market, so he gave me a friendly price of 60,000 US dollars. Just 500,000 yuan.”

This time "The Tuner" has a total budget of 4 million. So far, because the scene is relatively simple, it is very economical. In addition to special effects, only 3.47 million has been used, which means that there are more than 500,000 left for special effects.

Lu Ping An only spent a little over 200,000 yuan to purchase equipment, which means he earned about 300,000 yuan from this one vote.

And this is not a one-time business. You can still make money by using special effects in the future. It only requires some electricity and maintenance fees.

As for 500,000 yuan, is it expensive to do special effects?

The quality of the special effects also depends on the quality. Naturally, the special effects of Wumao cannot be compared with the special effects of "The Tuner" now. Moreover, it is still 2001. This kind of special effects is the top in the world, so of course it is not expensive, and it is even worth it. This is what Han Sanpin thinks. of.

"Special effects of this level are top-notch in Hollywood. You can hardly tell they are special effects. They are worth US$200,000!"

Han Sanpin was a little surprised. He originally wanted to introduce the special effects company to Lu Ping'an, but he didn't expect that they were much more wild than him in this regard.

Lu Ping'an shook his head and said: "It's worth it, but I think few people in the country will use it."

Han Sanpin also agreed: "Indeed, the domestic film market is still too small."

Zhang Yifan said with some sadness: "Without that soil, we naturally can't grow top-notch things. The old Americans are still great."

"Isn't it?"

The three of them sighed inwardly, and then stopped discussing the special effects.

Then Han Sanpin asked: "You are going to Cannes tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, tickets for the evening."

"Then I wish you win the award again."

"Haha, thank you, Mr. Han."

After finishing work, Lu Pingan first went to pick up Yan Danchen.

Yan Danchen will also go to Cannes this time.

Therefore, for Lu Ping An, whether he won the award or not is actually secondary. Traveling to France with Yan Danchen is the most important thing.

On May 18, local time, Lu Pingan, Ning Hao, Zhang Songwen and Yan Danchen landed in France.

Ning Hao came here this time to lay a foundation for the future. He had already planned to shoot the next movie, but it was not "Incense". Lu Ping'an expressed that he was looking forward to it.

It was still Hu Qingquan who came to pick him up. He had already arrived a week before the opening of the film festival on May 9.

So this time he can still work part-time as a tour guide.

After picking up the plane and getting in the car, Hu Qingquan drove everyone to the hotel.

"France, the country of (four tones), this romantic capital is just different."

Before the car even left the airport, Ning Hao in the back seat began to sigh with emotion at the white girl outside the window.

"You can tell it's different. I think it's just like that. Look over there, it's all garbage."

Lu Ping'an pointed at a black plastic bag piled in a corner and complained.

"I didn't see it, I don't know, I don't admit it."

Ning Hao tilted his head and continued to look at the big white girl on the street.

On the way, Hu Qingquan informed everyone of the itinerary.

"Peace, let's meet up with Director Jiang Wen after we settle down in the hotel later. After the meeting, if we have free time, we can do some activities together. Are you going to the venue to watch a movie or something?"

Lu Ping'an smiled and said: "Of course I'll eat French food first to let my stomach get used to it."

This proposal was approved by everyone.

Then we started discussing whether French food really takes several hours to eat.

What have you been eating these past few hours?

After discussing all the way, everyone arrived at the hotel.