Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"It looks great...", Ronald said to George Lucas and director Ron Howard after attending the premiere of "Willow". This is the highest compliment a director can give to other people's movies. .

"Do you think it looks good? Hahaha, I'm really happy." Lucas still likes Ronald, a kid. This guy doesn't have the campy personality of many Hollywood directors, but he retains a lot of it. The original intention that inspired the person who started out as a director was to make beautiful and admirable movies.

"Yeah, it's very beautiful. I can barely see the splicing of the special effects. How did you do it?"

Ronald has been in the industry for nearly ten years and has directed and produced many movies. If he puts a shot in front of his eyes, he can roughly understand how it was shot. Even if you don’t understand some key links, you can find a solution by gathering a group of experts and working on the problem for a period of time (just like asking Jim Cameron to build an airplane cockpit when filming Top Gun).

But today he really seems to have returned to the perspective of an ordinary viewer. For this movie "The Wind and Cloud", he has no idea how some of the scenes in it were filmed.

Particularly obvious are the three images. One is that the wizard shoots lightning from his hands to hit the enemy. Supposedly, in Star Wars VI, the Emperor's unique trick used to deal with Luke Skywalker was this kind of lightning that emitted from his hands. It was not a new technology.

But in Star Wars, Ronald could still see that the lightning was an engineer from Industrial Light and Magic. He found a way to shoot (or draw) the silver lightning on the film, and then printed it with special effects and transferred it to the film that had been shot in advance. Up.

The lightning in "The Gathering of Storms" is definitely not drawn, because the lightning and the fingers are very closely combined, as if they are flying out of the fingers, and finally hit the enemy, shooting out sparks of electricity. Even the random little swings of the lightning beam and the small lightning beam that appears immediately after it finally hits the person are very natural. It is very similar to the electric light emitted from a welder's welding gun.

This is exactly the same as the "lightning" magic imagined by the audience. Ronald can't think of any method to achieve such perfection.

The second picture is of a monster (dragon) breathing fire. The fireball spitting out of the monster's mouth is not the light and fluttery version created by the painter. It seems to have quality and impact. Rushing towards the target will also cause the target to be knocked back, which is different from the feeling of throwing charcoal into the fireplace. After the fireball hits an obstacle, the explosion that splashes out is very similar to the explosion created by the traditional special effects department.

The last scene that Ronald couldn't figure out how to shoot was the scene where the genie is giving a revelation to the protagonist. There will be a soft glow around the elves, like the holy light behind Jesus in medieval paintings.

The surprising part is,

This kind of light is not simply transferred to the film. Around the characters, in the space of tens of centimeters where the holy light dissipates, the holy light has a gradient pattern, which is very natural. It is very similar to the effect produced by photographers taking portraits against the sun at sunrise and sunset. At the intersection of the holy light and the dark background, small rays of light are constantly being dissipated into very small particles.

"Aha, that's... the particle system developed by Pixar Studio." Director Ron Howard also worked for Roger Corman before, and he and Ronald are brothers in the same discipline. So there is no secret about this relatively advanced technology.

"Particle system? Particle physics kind?" Ronald didn't understand. He was very interested in this new film effect because when he watched the film, there was a sense of familiarity that he felt needed to be taken seriously.

Ordinarily, a director who embraces special effects technology would be aware of this epoch-making special effects scene immediately. But when Ronald saw the spitting fire, lightning, and holy light, he didn't feel any fluctuation in his heart. It was the bursts of exclamations from the audience that suddenly made him realize how powerful this scene was.

It is very possible that I have seen so many special effects like this in my previous life that my first reaction was that it was very ordinary. This led Ronald to make a bold inference: maybe it will be normal for these special effects to appear in Hollywood movies in the near future.

"Ha, no, this is an animation generation technology... Let me put it this way, at Pixar, all images are rendered by computers."

Lucas continues to invest a lot of money in Industrial Light and Magic, consuming a lot of the wealth he earned through the "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series. Now he needs to sell some special effects computers and special effects software to It’s time for colleagues in the industry to go back to their roots. Otherwise, even with his huge wealth, it would be too much for him.

It turns out that these very realistic images were not shot through special effects and then transferred to the original film using traditional techniques. Rather, it is all computer generated.

The computer uses an algorithm to simulate a bunch of tiny particles, propagating, exploding, rebounding, etc. in the air or water, and then inputs the motion trajectory equations of hundreds of small particles into the super computer, and then lets the super computer pass Computer graphics, according to the equation of motion trajectory, generates the final image frame by frame. This process of generating images out of nothing is called rendering.

"Every frame is rendered by a computer..." Lucas said to Ronald. "If you are interested, go to my ranch and have a look. We have completed machines for sale. Software developed by Pixar , still at Industrial Light \u0026 Magic.”

It turns out that Lucas was short of money due to the huge losses of "Howard the Duck". He had been investing money in Pixar (computer graphics generation department) and Industrial Light and Magic (traditional model animation), but he could only support one. .

However, the industry's interest in Pixar's technology was not high, and no one bid for it. In the end, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, who was kicked out of the company he founded, asked for $5 million to buy it, and then continued to inject $5 million to keep the company running.

Lucas felt guilty about the old Pixar employees who jumped out of New York Institute of Technology to start his own business, so he did not ask to retain too many shares in the sale. In the end, apart from the major shareholder Jobs, Lucas and several core team members hold shares.

Jobs wanted to turn around, but he was at odds with employees who wanted to invest more money in pursuing more advanced computer graphics rendering capabilities. Now the company can only survive by selling some computer software and hardware.

Ronald secretly lamented that it was a pity that he did not have the money to buy this new company at that time, and even if he bought it, he would not be able to afford the continued investment for the time being.

But now his wallet is deep enough, and he can buy some computers, or recruit some people to his own company, or even invest in Pixar.

At that moment, Ronald made an agreement with Lucas to visit Pixar's "Computer Magic" after returning to China.

As for the other special effects, they were also groundbreaking, but those were the ones that Ronald could almost guess how to shoot.

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For example, there is a monster with two twin heads, which is obviously the traditional model technology of Industrial Light and Magic, and a barbarian knight, which is the traditional makeup technology, and a set of masks is added to the knight.

The heads of the two monsters, one named Albert and the other Cisco, are obviously Lucas' satires on two Chicago film critics. And that death knight, whose name is General Carr, was teasing New York female film critic Pauline Carr. Because she was known for telling the straight truth, Lucas named a main character after her.

There is also one of the two male protagonists, Willow, a dwarf farmer who wants to become a wizard. That is even simpler, that is, he is played by a dwarf actor. His name is Warwick Davis. When he was a child, he played the role of the bear-like native who helped several people escape in Star Wars VI.

Now that he was eighteen, he was delighted that Lucas asked him to come back to play the lead role. Actors of this type often have the opportunity to play supporting roles, but there are very few opportunities for leading roles.

Warwick Davis was there, bouncing around like a kid. Ronald waved to him, followed by another actor, Val Kilmer.

Val Kilmer still has a lot of feelings about Ronald cutting down his role in "Top Gun", but now he has no successful works. In order not to offend the three major Hollywood directors on the scene, He also needs to behave better.

Next to him is Val Kilmer's new girlfriend, the film's heroine Joanne Whaley. She was a British actress, and she and Val Kilmer were pretending to be real, and the two of them looked like they were inseparable.

Ronald greeted them and then looked at Warwick Davis. This kind of story in which a dwarf is the protagonist always feels familiar to him. Has he seen similar movies in his previous life?

"Does it remind you of something?" George Lucas looked at Ronald and smiled. He is also a director and producer with a strong business sense. This time Ron Howard directed him, and the two worked happily together. It was very similar to when Spielberg directed the Raiders of the Lost Ark series for him.

If Ronald... Well, Ronald is making a lot of money now. There are rumors in the industry that "Dirty Dancing", which he produced independently from the seven major studios, earned him at least 50 million (actually it's far from that) more than). Since he is interested, then take him to the Lucas Ranch to see if the old brothers from Industrial Light \u0026 Magic and Pixar can get shares, life will be better.

"I was just wondering, is this story about a dwarf wizard as the protagonist..." Ronald was still searching his subconscious mind to find out what kind of movie it was... It seems that he still has to wait to see if he would dream... …”

"Haha, you are right. It incorporates a lot of plots from Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'. The copyright of his book is in the committee, so it is difficult to negotiate."

Lucas is indeed a shrewd businessman, but he only retained the character image of The Lord of the Rings...a wise dwarf (changed from the Hobbit to a farmer), a wandering knight (starring Val Kilmer), and an evil wizard (from the Hobbit) Sauron was replaced by a witch)...and then the entire plot was changed, and there was no copyright issue at all.

The copyright for Tolkien's adaptation has always been in the hands of a committee composed of his family, publishers and others. In addition to high copyright fees, they also made many demands for this book that has influenced a generation of teenagers.

So much so that to this day, apart from one unsuccessful cartoon, one TV series, and one radio drama, only "The Hobbit" filmed by the Seville Alliance has achieved some success. Speaking of this influential work, there are audiences everywhere who are willing to spend money to watch the movie version.

"When are you releasing it in America?" Ronald asked Lucas and Ron Howard.

"Starting from the end of May..." The two of them looked a little unhappy, because the previous film "Pujie" and this kind of fantasy-themed movie had no successful precedent in the 1980s. Fox and Paramount, which they had been collaborating with, both Refuses to issue.

In the end, only MGM agreed to distribute the film in North America. This is because the executive who discovered Star Wars back then is now working at MGM.

"The end of May..." Ronald felt that they were a little embarrassed now. Lucasfilm did not have its own distribution channel. He had previously made a high-profile bid to get 20th Century Fox to take a share of the film from him and monopolize the derivatives market. Although it made him the richest director in Hollywood, it also offended many distributors.

That was all when the box office was doing well in the past, but now a Howard the Duck film has also been implicated.

Moreover, at the end of May and the beginning of June, there are many blockbusters to compete for in Hollywood this year. In addition to Lucas's film, there are also "Grown Up" starring Diane Lane, as well as "Crocodile Dundee II" and "Rambo III" all gathered during this period.

"Where are your video tapes?" Ronald then went on to get some video tape business for his company.

As it turned out, the video rights for Lucas' "The Gathering" had not yet been sold, and Ronald immediately expressed his daydream that he could be an agent for production and distribution.

Lucas didn't expect such an unexpected surprise. He was so happy that he became even more determined to sell more Pixar special effects computers to this wealthy director who had just become rich. Artists always have special preferences for spending money.

Before the Palme d'Or was chosen, Ronald returned to Los Angeles.

The most important thing about this trip to Cannes is to finalize Daydream's next key film, "Steel Magnolias." Ronald began to send audition invitations to middle-aged female stars through CAA. In addition to Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacLean, whom Ronald had a personal connection with, two middle-aged actresses were asked to play the mothers.

Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange and others all expressed their willingness to cooperate with Ronald as long as he is the director.

However, Ronald always carried the movie and stage play scripts of "Steel Magnolias" with him every time he flew. He even used it as a pillow to sleep on, and he never dreamed of any fragments of the movie in his previous life. This makes him still have doubts about directing movies.

So at the same time, caa is also helping him find a suitable director. All Ronald would have to do is finance and produce, like he did with Joel Silver on Die Hard.