China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 198 Compensation to Guo Fan

Guo Fan was somewhat comforted by Chen Jingxing's confident words. If someone else was categorical in affirming that the Mekong River would achieve outstanding results, he would only think it was polite. But after all, Chen Jingxing has achieved so many successes.

Once he missed it, he was still the new box office champion, and the words coming out of his mouth were indeed convincing.

Moreover, Chen Jingxing’s recommendation is exactly what Guo Fan wants. He himself is a fan of science fiction. Chen Jingxing once told an American talk show that his experience of watching the works of science fiction masters such as Asimov and Clark when he was a child is actually a reflection of Guo Fan. He also

Before I graduated from Beijing Film Academy, I co-produced a low-budget science fiction film "The Adventures of Li Xianji" with my friends. Of course, the result was a loss of money, and the box office was not as high as the production cost.

After Chen Jingxing and Guo Fan confirmed the filming plan for "Edge of Tomorrow", DreamWorks soon started the preparatory work for the movie.

"Edge of Tomorrow" is a heavy industry movie no less than "Gravity" in terms of production scale, and even more difficult than "Gravity" in terms of production difficulty.

Because "Gravity" is an animated special effects movie, although it takes a long time and is expensive to produce, it does not involve much industrial division of labor. After the special effects artist designs the shooting plan, most of the actors' performances are in the light box.

, the rest depends on the CG rendering by the special effects artist. The difficulty lies in the heavy workload and high technical requirements.

"Edge of Tomorrow" is not an animated special effects movie. It has a large number of real shots, including explosions and fights, and Chen Jingxing and Guo Fan agreed to use 3D cameras to shoot. This is not something that can be solved in front of a computer.

Just an exoskeleton mecha cannot be designed in a short time, and it requires a very high level of industrial design. In Chen Jingxing's previous life, the final design and shaping of the exoskeleton armor for "The Wandering Earth", also shot by Guo Fan, took nearly

In one year, hundreds of concept drawings were drawn.

Moreover, the exoskeleton armor in "Edge of Tomorrow" can actually be worn on the body, and at least it can walk. Many scenes require actors to shoot in real locations. This is the main reason why the exoskeleton in the movie gives the audience an extremely real feeling.

In addition, there are aircraft, vehicles, firearms and very important image design of alien monsters, as well as the manufacturing of physical models. These physical special effects - physical special effects that are different from computer special effects, are often more difficult and time-consuming to implement.

It is longer and the industrial categories involved are more professional and sophisticated.

The above are the most important things in heavy industry movies. If they are done well, they can give the audience a strong sense of involvement and immersion. If they are not done well, it will be like "SH Fortress". It has no texture and is very fake, even if you use computer special effects.

No matter how perfect the CG rendering is, poor industrial design will still leave people with a strong sense of detachment, as if they are watching a tokusatsu film, or even worse than a tokusatsu film.

In "Operation Mekong", because Guo Fan was strongly recommended to Qin Zhonghe by Chen Jingxing, and because of his qualifications and historical achievements, he did not have the capital to negotiate a high salary, so except for the two million he spent out of his own pocket, he participated.

In addition to being able to participate in profit sharing for the production of the Mekong River project in the future, the director's contract only has a fixed salary of 2 million, which takes into account the difficulty of filming the film.

After all, "Gravity" is led by Legacy Special Effects Studio, while "Edge of Tomorrow" will hand over most of the special effects work - including computer special effects and physical effects - to domestic special effects companies.

Without Chen Jingxing, such a film project would probably not have been produced in two years - including the preparation time. In fact, the same is true for "Gravity", but who allowed Chen Jingxing to have a "film library" in his brain? Not only are there completed shots,

There is also mature industrial design of physical special effects props. These often most time-consuming processes have become the simplest steps here.

If Mo cannot handle the production alone, then he can find other special effects companies to take on less difficult tasks. If that doesn't work, he can find Korean special effects studios. Their price-performance ratio is also very high, and they can do it even if the salary cost is higher than that of domestic companies.

Compete with domestic special effects companies for Hollywood outsourcing.

In addition, the equally time-consuming script polishing has been basically completed. Chen Jingxing believes that if the preparation progress of "Edge of Tomorrow" is fast, it can be completed within a year and a half.

Of course it would be better if it can surprise him, and he does not have the obsession that all designs must follow the original version. If it is not ideal, he will give modification suggestions based on the industrial design in the original movie - even this can be greatly reduced.

Film preparation time.

One is Guo Fan's director contract, which has nothing to do with his contract with DreamWorks. His remuneration as a director needs to be renegotiated; the second is casting.

Of course, he is not going to throw these things out directly. DreamWorks and Mo have recruited so many talents, so they naturally have to use them. These aircraft, vehicles, firearms, exoskeleton armors and alien monsters will be designed by designers first.

Of course, there are still two issues that need to be resolved before "Edge of Tomorrow" is officially registered as a project.

It can be said that "Edge of Tomorrow" is the second challenge that DreamWorks has faced since its establishment, after "Gravity", and even the biggest challenge.

In addition to considering improving the domestic special effects technology strength - in the previous life "The Wandering Earth" has cultivated a large number of special effects design talents, the main reason is that Hollywood special effects companies really cannot afford it. If "Edge of Tomorrow" is made by the top special effects companies in the United States,

If it is produced by a studio, the production cost may be higher than that of "Gravity".

Although "Operation Mekong" has not yet been released, and Guo Fan's box office performance has not been improved by the market test, but with the director qualifications of this 200 million blockbuster, it is naturally different from after the release of "My Deskmate".

In addition, Chen Jingxing also has selfish motives. After all, he has delayed Guo Fan's future "ascension" to a certain extent. However, many science fiction classics in his previous life are not available in this dimension, including several science fiction classics by Da Liu, so if there are not

With his intervention, it is unclear whether Guo Fan can find a good science fiction film project, let alone attract investment and achieve box office miracles after several years of polishing.

However, Chen Jingxing still has a certain compensatory mentality towards Guo Fan. In addition to intending to make concessions on the salary, "The Wandering Earth" will naturally return to Guo Fan's hands. However, that is not the current situation. The original version of "The Wandering Earth" was limited to that time.

Due to the level of Chinese special effects and tight production costs, there are some flaws and imperfections in both the script and the finished film.

Without the appearance of Chen Jingxing, the original "The Wandering Earth" would definitely have achieved extraordinary success here. However, with "Source Code" and later "Gravity" and other domestic special effects blockbusters, the flaws of the original "The Wandering Earth" would be

It will be amplified by the audience, after all, they are targeting domestic films.

(End of chapter)