China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

In early December, Jiang Heng flew to Beijing again.

Also going there were the male protagonist Wu Yanzu, the female protagonist Li Meiqi, the villain Yuan De, and the supporting actor Yuan Hua from "The Matrix".

Naturally, I came here so early to promote the film.

In the mainland film market in the late 1990s, there was no mature concept of promotion and distribution.

Not to mention promotions, even commercial films only came out in the past two years.

In the past period of time, movies have been an important carrier of publicity and education.

The matter of making money is somewhat off the table, and I feel like I can't speak out with confidence.

Jiang Heng didn't care about that. He had communicated with Yu Dong before coming here to invite all media and hold a grand premiere.

It doesn’t matter how many stars and big names in the film and television industry can come. In any case, the invitations will be distributed in large numbers.

Not only do we need to send it to celebrities from the Mainland, but we also invite artists from Hong Kong.

Jiang Heng has already negotiated with Hong Jinbao, Yuan Biao, Yuan Kui, Liu Zhenwei, Jin Chengwu, Liao Qizhi and others and invited them to come to the capital to attend the premiere celebration.

Hong Jinbao and others naturally gave this face and promised to try their best to arrange time to go there.

Even Liu Zhenwei, who is very busy at work, expressed his willingness to go.

On the one hand, I became interested in "The Matrix" after listening to Yuan Kui, Yuan Biao and others. More importantly, I wanted to understand how science fiction elements are used in Chinese movies.

"Ma Yongzhen", released in the summer, failed miserably at the box office. On the one hand, the film elements were indeed somewhat outdated, and more importantly, it was crushed by Hollywood blockbusters.

Because two days before the release of "Ma Yongzhen", Nicolas Cage's "Prison in the Sky" landed at the Hong Kong Film Market.

When Yuan Biao and Jin Chengwu were still fighting desperately with the Ax Gang on the ground, the foreigners were already fighting to the sky.

"Ma Yongzhen" only had a pitiful 3 million, while "Prison in the Sky" in the same period took nearly 17 million at the box office.

"Prison in the Sky" could have gotten more, but it encountered the more powerful "Jurassic Park 2".

Compared with the previous film, this film not only has many more types of dinosaurs, but also brings dinosaurs to run rampant in downtown America. The visual shock it brings to the audience is obviously not comparable to that of "Ma Yongzhen".

Many Hong Kong filmmakers, including Liu Zhenwei, have gradually realized that Hong Kong films have lagged behind Hollywood in terms of visual effects.

The only way to save the Hong Kong film market is to try special effects blockbusters.

Xu Ke is preparing to shoot "The Legend of Shushan", while Liu Weiqiang plans to move "The Storm" to the big screen.

As for "The Matrix", which is already ready for release, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang, etc. all have reference ideas.

Considering that the film was released in Hong Kong more than half a month late, Xu Ke, Liu Weiqiang and others also decided to go to the capital to attend the premiere.

Seeing that there were more and more guests at the premiere, Hong Jinbao, who was good at attracting people and creating grand scenes, suggested inviting more celebrities from Hong Kong to make the momentum even bigger.

Jiang Heng was very moved after hearing this. Xiangjiang filmmakers have a strong sense of "joining a group and heading north together". Zhou Xingxing was ostracized in various ways in his later period, largely because he worked alone in the general environment of Xiangjiang filmmakers "joining a group and heading north". .

And with Hong Jinbao coming forward, he could also invite a few important stars.

The more artists come from Xiangjiang, the easier it will be to invite those from the mainland.

When the premiere of "The Matrix" is turned into a star-studded event, the media will definitely hype it up, and it will be difficult to lower the box office.

Jiang Heng immediately expressed his willingness to provide air tickets, food and accommodation expenses for Hong Kong filmmakers who would go north to attend the premiere celebration.

Hong Jinbao chuckled: "I will tell you for you, but if you are willing to go, you must not be short of the money!"

After hanging up the phone, Hong Jinbao thought about who would be more suitable to invite. Cheng Long was definitely not possible.

This brother is currently the most influential Chinese movie star in the world, so naturally he will not help others easily.

Zhou Runfa and Jet Li went to Hollywood, but Zhou Xingxing was too withdrawn.

Andy, you can ask!

Hong Jinbao made a lot of phone calls, and there was actually a Hong Kong star with a big enough schedule who was willing to go, and that was the so-called "Fifth King" Zheng Yijian.

Suffering from the public opinion that "Young and Dangerous" taught young people bad things, Zheng Yijian has been passive and sabotaged in the past year. In addition, he is not very ambitious and loves to play. He finally agreed to go with his girlfriend Shao Meiqi.

Jiang Heng got the exact news and thanked Hong Jinbao on the phone, and then informed Yu Dong who was preparing for the ceremony.

"This, so many people?"

As the former head of the distribution department of Beijing Film Studio, Yu Dong is very familiar with the status and influence of Hong Kong directors and stars.

I thought it was just the cast and crew of "The Matrix", and at most some friends from the industry.

I don't think we can even invite "popular fried chickens" like Zheng Yijian, "big brothers" like Hong Jinbao, and great directors like Xu Ke.

After walking around the room for a few steps, he suppressed his inner excitement and said, "With these people coming, the country's major entertainment media will definitely come for interviews, and it will be even better to invite domestic celebrities!"

Jiang Heng also had some surprises and surprises, "Yes, it's a gathering of stars. The Chinese entertainment industry hasn't had this kind of event for a long time, right?"

"What do you mean it's been a long time? It's never happened before! There are so many artists from Hong Kong and Mainland China, so it's really more appropriate to use the Chinese entertainment industry!"

Yu Dong was excited for a while, and immediately ordered people to continue to contact the major domestic entertainment media to inform them of the participation of Xiangjiang artists.

Then I tried to contact a lot of domestic celebrities and invite as many of them as possible to attend the premiere.

The first reaction of the mainland celebrities who received the call was confusion. What is a premiere?

After all, this thing is not only not available in the mainland, but has never been heard of in Xiangjiang!

Midnight preview screenings are also popular there!

But it doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard it before. You can understand it literally, not to mention the people from the issuing company who explain it.

After finding out what was going on, many mainland stars naturally agreed to come, and the most positive one was Jiang Wen.

At the beginning of the year, Jiang Wen participated in "Song Dynasty" and later won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this film.

He had been in contact with Hong Kong and knew what was going on in Hong Kong movies. He was very curious about Jiang Heng who appeared out of nowhere and what kind of sci-fi special effects blockbuster he made.

After asking about the location and time of the ceremony, I rushed there early.

On December 12, Jiang Wen drove to the CPPCC Auditorium in Beijing.

When he got off the car, he saw the major media carrying "long guns and short cannons" and taking photos non-stop. Even though he had seen many big scenes, he was also shocked by the scene in front of him.

When has this situation ever happened in our mainland film and television industry?

"Jiang Wen, Teacher Jiang Wen!"

I don't know who shouted something, and a large group of reporters cheered and surrounded him. The cameras almost hit his face. They asked Jiang Wen what he thought of Hong Kong director Jiang Heng and what he thought of the so-called "The Matrix".

Jiang Wenxin said, "Why the hell am I still watching people and movies alone? You ask me what I think?"

Before Jiang Wen could say a few words, someone shouted "Hong Jinbao is here!" and almost all the reporters surrounding him ran past.

Jiang Wen glanced at the reporter wearing a peaked cap and a mustache beside him, "Aren't you leaving?"

"The person who came here is not a good person!" the man sighed.

Jiang Wen heard the voice and thought it sounded familiar. He took a closer look and said, "Hey, isn't this Ge You!"

"Why are you here...!"

"Shh, keep your voice down. Didn't you see me putting on makeup?"

"No, you are so generous!"

Ge You chuckled, "This is called dressing up in disguise to spy on the enemy. Who told him to challenge us? I've made the brothers not sleep well for several days!"

"No, why do you want to bomb the premiere?"

"Why am I bombing the premiere? Why did you bomb the pit when you were a kid? Just go to the scene and have a look. By the way, you can also take a look when you go in to see what the selling point of their film is!"

"become!"

There were many people at the scene, so Jiang Wen didn't say much and stepped into the auditorium.

Looking around, there are quite a lot of people coming, from the mainland, from Xiangjiang, and many famous figures in the film industry.

Jiang Wen exchanged pleasantries with his acquaintances before walking up to Jiang Heng.

"Hello, I'm Jiang Wen!"

"Hello, Director Jiang, I've heard about this famous name for a long time, and it's like thunder to my ears!"

Jiang Wen smiled, "I believe it won't be long before I can return these words to you!"

"Ah, haha, senior is so complimentary!"

"This ceremony is very good. In the future, when my film is released to the public, I will make a copy of it. You have to help me give advice!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "No problem, I'll take care of it!"

After chatting for a while, Jiang Wen found a place to sit down.

After a while, everyone in the auditorium took their seats.

The host of the ceremony appeared, but he was the host of CCTV's six movie channels.

As the premiere ceremony of the first commercial blockbuster in China, many directors, celebrities and media reporters from Hong Kong and Mainland China were gathered at the scene. The movie channel naturally wanted to report it and took over the hosting job.

Because there is no precedent, no one knows what to do.

Jiang Heng thought about it again and again, and decided to show everyone a shocking special effects scene from "The Matrix" first, then let the main creator go on stage to be interviewed by the media, then show a video, and then give the concluding remarks.

After the host finished his opening remarks, the lights in the auditorium dimmed and a beam of light was cast on the curtain.

But Neo, played by Daniel Wu, and Trinity, played by Meiqi Lee, were dressed up in cool clothes and appeared in a vast white space.

Then multiple "trains"-like things came forward, placing Neo and Trinity in the "queue". Only then did the audience see clearly that they were shelves full of firearms.

"Is this a picture shot with special effects?"

"The scene looks great!"

"Well, just so-so!"

Everyone began to whisper, and soon saw Neo, played by Daniel Wu, breaking into the building with a large bag of guns and starting various gun battles.

The video being played was carefully edited by Jiang Heng, and there was no scene of Smith interrogating Morpheus.

After all, it is just for everyone to see the special effects scenes of "The Matrix" without considering the completeness of the story.

When the audience watched the scene of bullets flying on the big screen, they felt that it was somewhat similar to the action movies shot by John Woo.

"To be able to shoot to this extent, Director Jiang has something special!"

"It's already amazing!"

"If it's just an enhanced version of John Woo, it's not that big of a deal!"

During the discussion, the playback came to the moment when Neo was dodging bullets. The audience was surprised when they saw the bullets flying in mid-air and making several translucent trajectories.

Even those who have already seen it, such as Hong Jinbao and Yuan Biao, are still shocked.

Commercial films are all about visual effects.

Action movies like Cheng Long rely not only on various fancy movements, but also on various risky jumps and falls to stimulate the visual nerves of the audience.

After more than ten years, the audience got tired of watching it, and Cheng Long's action movies gradually became weak at the box office.

When special effects blockbusters and 3D movies first came out, the audience was shocked.

But by around 2020, Chinese people’s enthusiasm for special effects blockbusters and 3D movies has almost faded.

The bottom line is that after watching too much, I get visual fatigue.

But in 1997, when special effects were still a bit crude, the "bullet time" special effects shot shocked all the filmmakers present.

Zheng Yijian, who was sitting in the front row, murmured: "Will "Storm" be shot so handsome by then?"

Shiu Meiqi said: "Let the director ask Director Jiang. We are all from Hong Kong and there is no box office competition. We can help each other!"

Director Liu Weiqiang, who was not far away, seemed a little confused, "Has the special effects production in Hollywood reached this level?"

He had no problems in writing and directing, but he was still in the learning stage of special effects.

Xu Ke was obsessed with technology. His first reaction when he saw this shot was, how can I shoot such a shot.

Perhaps it was influenced by this mentality that his "The Legend of Zu" special effects became the pinnacle of Chinese special effects movies, and the plot was a little fragmented.

Jiang Wen, seeing the "bullet time" special effects, instantly burst into a swear word.

Then he murmured, "How the hell can we fight this?"

Although he had not seen the finished film "Party A and Party B", he could guess the effect of the film based on his understanding of Feng Xiaogang and Ge You and the outline of the script he heard.

If there was no "The Matrix", it would not be a problem to get some box office in the Lunar New Year period.

But the special effects of "The Matrix" in front of him are not inferior to or even surpass those of previous Hollywood movies. I heard that the plot is also very good. How could "Party A and Party B" win in the same period!

The first preview clip ended with Neo driving a helicopter, breaking the glass of the building with a machine gun, and rescuing Morpheus.

The people in the hall felt that they were not satisfied, but the media reporters were excited beyond words.

In their view, "The Matrix" is likely to become the first successful special effects blockbuster and science fiction masterpiece in the history of Chinese-language films.

For such a film, there are too many things to report.

"Hello, Director Jiang. What kind of story does this movie tell?"

"Well, it's about the future world, where artificial intelligence develops to a certain level and eventually rules over humans, imprisoning them in a virtual world, and humans constantly resist!"

"Fuck!"

Someone sighed, but I think this is a big idea.

How did you come up with this?

Artificial intelligence? There are so many people here, but how many of them know what artificial intelligence is?

"Director Jiang, where did you find the male and female leads? Are they newcomers? Why did you choose unknown newcomers?"

"Director Jiang, aren't you afraid that new actors won't be able to take on the main role?"

"Director Jiang, what do you think the domestic box office of this movie will be?"

"As the first science fiction movie and special effects blockbuster in China, will The Matrix be released worldwide?"