Heads Up Hollywood

It was far more than Spielberg and Martin Scorsese who came to visit the set.

This summer, the abnormal box office of "Pirates League 2: Dead Man's Chest" has taught the whole Hollywood a deep lesson. Even if you are a proud movie senior, you have to admit that the times of movies have changed.

The taste of movies in the past no longer meets the psychological expectations of movie fans.

And it just so happens that Twain is the one who understands the minds of movie fans best!

"Pirate Alliance 2: Dead Man's Chest" was released for two months, with a North American box office of 440 million US dollars and a global box office of 1.07 billion US dollars! The movie has not yet been released, and it is entirely possible to break through 1.1 billion US dollars!

From a professional point of view, the camera movement and composition of this film are very jerky, and director Gore Verbinski is a novice at first glance.

However, the producer of this film is Tang En!

He literally turned this movie into a $1 billion box office hit!

It has to be admitted that Twain created the movie myth of New Hollywood.

Especially during this period of time, Tang En's popularization and promotion of the production process of film and television special effects has been more and more valued by people in the industry. The standard production process for special effects blockbusters seems to have begun to take shape.

Now, Tang En is going to personally shoot a special effects sci-fi blockbuster "The Avengers", and it is said that the most advanced digital technology will be used. How can people in the industry miss such a good opportunity to observe and learn?

After Spielberg, George Lucas came, Zack Snyder came, Roland Emmerich came, Gore Verbinski came, and James Cameron also made a special trip.

However, unlike the other directors who were repeatedly amazed at the application of real-time preview technology, Cameron curled his lips repeatedly at the real-time preview applied in "The Avengers", quite disdainful.

Tang En explained it to him, saying that the hardware performance of the laptop computer could not keep up with the location shooting, so naturally it couldn't produce high-standard picture effects. However, it will be much better to wait for green screen shooting next year.

First, equipment upgrades and software updates.

Secondly, the green screen shooting can be fixed in the studio, so there is no need to use a laptop, and you can move all the highest-performance desktop computers there, and put dozens of them together to work. At that time, the real-time preview will surely have a qualitative leap!

This time, it was Ann Lee who came to visit the class.

"Brokeback Mountain finished?"

Seeing Ann Lee, Twain was quite pleasantly surprised, which was much more pleasant than dealing with Spielberg and George Lucas.

In any case, the current Ann Lee... can be regarded as Tang En's direct descendants.

Ann Lee smiled, "Work will be over in mid-August."

"How? Are you confident?"

With Tang En's current status, it is impossible for him to personally follow the progress of "Brokeback Mountain".

Ann Lee paused for a moment, her complexion was not very good, "When we were filming in Texas, many local people organized to protest. The novel "Brokeback Mountain" is very controversial, and the movie... is even more so. big."

Tang En said disapprovingly: "Don't worry about them, a group of outdated 'western cowboys' have long been eliminated by the times. Don't worry, as long as the artistic level of "Brokeback Mountain" is fine, the movie will have no problems!"

Ann Li said seriously: "I can guarantee this!"

Tang En was also very confident.

Ann Lee's films... never lack artistic, philosophical and humanistic considerations.

Next, Tang En introduced the working mode of the DIT digital workstation to Ann Li step by step as in the past few days, and briefly introduced the application effect of the real-time preview technology.

"Can I have a look at the Previz script?"

"ah?"

Ann Lee smiled and said: "It is the concept of pre-stage special effects and dynamic storyboard that you popularized in the theory of film and television special effects process. During this period of time, you are busy making movies, and you may not know much about the outside situation. The Hollywood industry, including USC , You have launched a very in-depth academic discussion on your theory of film and television special effects. In particular, USC has held more than a dozen forum lectures and theoretical debates on this, which is very popular! However, they feel that the dynamic storyboard The name is not accurate enough. After all, traditional movies also have the concept of dynamic storyboards. When you explained the concept of dynamic storyboards, you used the term Previsualization, and people in the industry thought it was very good, so you created a term for it— —Previz."

Tang En was slightly taken aback.

what's going on?

His own film theory, and thus gave birth to a professional term for film?

This is a bit powerful!

Tang En was very proud, and on the surface he didn't care about it, "It's just a name! It doesn't matter if it's Previz, dynamic storyboard, or even 3D storyboard. As long as you understand the meaning, how can you call it a storyboard?" It doesn't matter what you call."

Ann Li admired Tang En's attitude of treating fame and fortune like clouds.

If he can create a professional term for film and influence filmmakers all over the world, he will feel that his life is worth it!

Look at Twain, he is really upright!

It really is like a mountain without wind and rain!

Previz, in fact, is to simply make the shooting content before the film is officially shot, and use simple animations to show the general direction of actors' positions, framing, camera angles, camera movements, etc., for the production team, director team, camera crew and other crew members Reference when shooting.

Of course, Hollywood is not popular yet, but 5 years later, it will become an essential element of Hollywood blockbusters!

Even Christopher Nolan, who has always stayed away from digital technology, also adopted the method of drawing Previz dynamic storyboards first when filming "Tomb Raiders".

In the past, movies relied on sub-shots, concept heads, and physical models to plan visual presentations. But this is too abstract, everything is in fantasy.

Previz is different. It uses computer technology to create a version of 3D animation storyboards to complete the entire movie.

Experienced producers can accurately judge what the movie will look like after it is shot through the Previz script.

If it meets expectations, it will be shot.

Lower than expected, or modify, or give up.

This will greatly reduce the risk of making commercial blockbusters!

This summer's "King Arthur", "Catwoman", "80 Days Around the World" and other movies are really terrible. Such a bad movie, wouldn't the producer know about it? Nothing can be done. A huge amount of money has been invested, and it is too late to regret it.

The film party had no choice but to bite the bullet and push forward.

If you have the concept of Previz and do a good job of risk control in advance, you may be able to avoid serious losses.

There are also a large number of commercial blockbusters, and a large part of the reason for the failure is the lack of unity between the director and the special effects team.

The director is a mind, and the special effects team is a mind. Of course, the things produced will be nondescript.

If there is a Previz dynamic storyboard, it will be much easier to handle.

Previz allows the director to see the effect in advance and make a decision as soon as possible, and the post-production special effects team can start the real special effects production according to the director's modification opinion.

This will greatly save production costs!

The post-production special effects of a commercial blockbuster often requires a special effects team of more than 1,000 people, which takes more than half a year to complete, and the investment is too large. But Previz is very simple, with three or five people, it takes two or three months, and it can be done.

Tang En was slightly hesitant about Ann Li's request.

Ann Li suddenly realized, and said awkwardly: "I'm sorry, I... I just want to learn, I forgot that the movie is still in a state of high secrecy."

Tang En was taken aback, then waved his hands, and said with a smile: "You misunderstood, I really didn't hide it, the main reason is... I didn't make dynamic storyboards at all for the movie "Avengers", oh, That’s what you call Previz.”

Ann Li was shocked, "Ah? No way?"

How to understand the concept of Previz?

If a movie is compared to a building, then Previz is a drawing! Although the person who buys a house ultimately lives in a house, in the process of building a house, drawings play an important role all the time.

After Tang En introduced the film and television special effects process to filmmakers all over the world in detail, everyone felt that Tang En's theory was very reasonable!

Isn't it nonsense to build a house without blueprints?

However, An Li could never have imagined that Tang En didn't draw blueprints for "The Avengers"!

Isn't this too fake? !

Tang En said with a smile: "No way, you know, this summer... I'm really too busy, and I don't have any extra energy to prepare for the movie. Fortunately, this is a Marvel movie, with many styles, formats and rhythms. It’s all fixed, and compared to other original films, it’s easier to shoot.”

"That can't be without Previz, right? This...isn't this the film theory you proposed?" Ann Lee was a little bit broken, feeling a little bit of a collapse of values.

Tang En was trying his best to promote the film concept to the filmmakers, but he himself played another way.

Which one is true? Which set is fake?

Tang En saw his thoughts, and said seriously: "An, the concept of dynamic storyboarding is an essential element of commercial blockbusters! There is no doubt about this! But... I proposed a set of standardized procedures, but for a certain Some special people, but they can play cards out of common sense, do you understand what I mean?"

In the previous life, once the concept of Previz was launched, it immediately became popular in Hollywood. Almost all Hollywood commercial films were produced based on this set of standards.

However, there are always exceptions.

For example, Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy, such as Roland Emmerich's "2012", all adopt the traditional film production process.

The director's ability is too strong, even if he jumps out of the standardized process, he can still create classics.

Tang En's meaning is obvious, his film level is too high, far ahead of his peers in the industry!

He popularized the production process of film and television special effects to Hollywood, but he gave lectures to "students".

There are often many solutions to a question, and the teacher usually picks out the method that is easiest for everyone to understand and pass it on. But it does not mean that this method is the only method.

An Li's eyes showed unconcealable admiration.

For this director who is younger than him, I am completely convinced.

Really great!

Building a house without drawings?

Too fierce!