Millennium director

Chapter 151 Invitation from Jinji, poaching Xantao Digital?

Don't ask, just ask for support.

During the afternoon of discussion with Director Kege, the three words Wu Yuan said the most were:

“Great idea!”

"I also think so!"

"I see no problem!"

Of course, he is not completely fishy. From time to time, he will follow Chen Kaige's ideas and discuss some detailed designs with him.

This makes Director Kego very comfortable.

This is the partner he is satisfied with.

A director like Jiang Wen who can get into a fight on the set when he says something to himself is really a son of a man!

After discussing with Wu Yuan for an afternoon, Director Kege, who spoke freely, was extremely satisfied and had more ideas about the Olympic opening ceremony.

But just when he still wanted to drag Wu Yuan to talk all night long and fall asleep, Wu Yuan smiled and rejected him.

"Director Kege, I'm really sorry. I still have editing work for a movie and preparatory work for another movie."

"I'm a bit pressed for time. I have to go back to the company to edit the film first."

"I still agree with your proposal."

"We can start working on the planning for the opening ceremony first, and then we can find time to discuss it more."

Such an important planning project for the Olympic Games opening ceremony certainly cannot be discussed in two or three times.

Wu Yuan has already made plans to fight a long-term war with Director Ke Ge, but he still sticks to his fishing principles.

The opinions put forward by Director Kego are all supported, and Director Kego agrees with his ideas.

As long as they do this, the cooperative team between them will probably be on the same track as the original one and cannot compete.

It's not that he doesn't want to work hard, it's that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is really of great significance. Wu Yuan really doesn't dare to mess around with his small body. The expectations of 1.2 billion people are really no joke.

Director Zhang Yimou's version is already perfect enough. He can't mess around just because he has memories of the future.

"That's right." Before leaving, Wu Yuan stopped and asked: "Director Kege, when do you plan to start shooting your movie "The Promise"?"

"My "Painted Skin" will be officially launched in two months."

"The special effects team in Hollywood has been found."

Speaking of his blockbusters, Chen Kaige also calmed down from the excitement of the Olympic opening ceremony.

"'The Promise' is still in preparation. This film has cost me a lot of effort, and there are many investors supporting it. It will be a joint venture between Japan, South Korea and China, and Hong Kong Island will also participate."

“It is really not easy to prepare for such a big project, and it is also my first time to make a movie with such a high investment and mobilize so many people.

"How much is the investment?" Wu Yuan frowned and asked.

"Forty million!" Chen Kaige stretched out four fingers, with uncontrollable pride on his face: "Dollar dollars!"

"Ten million more than "Heroes"!"

Wu Yuan was happy.

With Hong Kong capital mixed in, the US$40 million is very valuable.

When the actual shooting time comes, even including the subsequent publicity expenses, I'm afraid it will only cost 30 million US dollars.

"Old Chen is very ambitious this time. The Promise is aimed at Oscars." Chen Hong, who was standing next to him, also supported her husband.

Well, it seems that starting from "The Promise", domestic directors began to pursue the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, right?

Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows, still smiling brightly.

"Then I wish director Ke Ge immediate success and become the first mainland director to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film." Wu Yuanyan said sincerely.

Well, no one in China has ever won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

"The Embalmer" was not submitted for Oscar consideration that year.

To be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, officials from each country and region need to submit their lists to the Oscars, rather than private candidates.

After Wu Yuan won the Berlin Best Director Award that year, the General Administration did not send "The Embalmer" to the Oscars.

The main reason is that at the beginning of the millennium, no one paid attention to the Oscars on the other side of the ocean.

The Oscar is an award that only belongs to North America. Only films released on a large scale in North America can participate in the Oscar selection. Films released in other countries can only compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

At that time, Mainland China was only paying attention to the three major European companies, and the General Administration rarely sent films to Oscars.

It was not until the past two years, as relations between the two countries continued to heat up after joining the WTO, that the General Administration began to pay attention to Oscars, and mainland directors also began to pursue Oscars.

This made what was originally a regional film festival award in North America become an international film award in China, and even became the highest palace.

The three major European film festivals, which have truly international influence and have been running for 70 or 80 years, have gradually fallen to the second echelon in terms of domestic momentum.

But it doesn't matter, Wu Yuan can enjoy himself in Hollywood.

Although "Love" aims to be submitted to Cannes for selection, it can also be sent to the Oscars to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

To be honest, Wu Yuan would rather go to the Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

As long as you are willing to spend money, this thing can still be publicized. It is not as difficult as Best Picture and Best Director.

Directors from other countries want to compete with Wu Yuan, who is already in Hollywood, for this award?

The difficulty is not that high.

It's just because of his ability in public relations that he has always disliked Oscar.

As an ambitious and pursuing director, of course he would not like this kind of award with many unspoken rules, preferring the more fair European top three.

However, when it came to these art awards, Wu Yuan, who said goodbye to Chen Kaige and returned to the company for post-editing of "Love", received an invitation to an award within a few days.

The organizing committee of the China Film Golden Rooster Awards sent him an invitation letter, inviting him to participate in this year's 24th China Golden Rooster Awards.

On the evening of September 19, the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony was held in Yinchuan.

On August 21, the shortlist for this year’s Golden Rooster Awards was announced.

Although the organizing committee was a little dissatisfied with Wu Yuan because he did not attend the Golden Rooster Awards in person last time because he failed to make an appointment for "The Executioner" last time, they could not really turn a blind eye to "Your Name", which had a box office of 140 million in the mainland.

In the shortlist, "Your Name" was shortlisted for three awards, namely Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

It is conceivable that the grand prize is unlikely to be awarded to Wu Yuan.

He has the memory of later generations, but he knows that even Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" only won the consolation Best Art Award at this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

But Wu Yuan really doesn’t want to go either.

Wu Yuan's absence once before has made some leaders dissatisfied, thinking that he is not gregarious and ununited.

You know, in mainland China, at present, the evaluation of "unsociable and ununited" is quite serious.

Even without looking at Zhang Yimou, he knew that he would not win the award, so he still went to support him.

For the mainland film industry, the Golden Rooster Awards is not just an ordinary award ceremony, it has a lot of special meaning behind it.

Wu Yuan still agreed to attend this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

There is no requirement for "Your Name" to get a share of the big cake, but it has to be like director Yimou and get a consolation award for Best Cinematography, right?

As long as I don't care, I won't be disappointed.

This is Wu Yuan’s attitude towards the Golden Rooster Award.

Nowadays, the right to speak in Jinji is in the hands of a group of old men, and hilltopism is prevalent. He has never had any expectations for Jinji.

Only the top three in Europe are Wu Yuan’s goals!

In this way, while Wu Yuan was editing "Love", he began to prepare the crew of "Painted Skin".

The cast of "Painted Skin" has basically been confirmed.

The male and female protagonists Wang Sheng and Xiao Wei are played by Chen Kun and Zhou Xun, Zeng Li plays Pei Rong, Zhang Guorong plays Pang Yong, and Xia Bing or Sun Lilai plays, making up the five leading actors.

Among the remaining supporting roles, Xiao Wei's invisible assistant Xiao Yi, also known as the lizard spirit, is played by Yuan Honglai, which can be regarded as fulfilling the cooperation contract between Light and Shadow Times and Tang Dynasty.

The other character actors were all veteran mainland actors and prime supporting actors.

The schedules of all actors have been adjusted, and filming will begin on September 11th.

Weta Digital, which is far away across the ocean, also sent a team to China to do preliminary special effects design work for "Painted Skin 1".

Originally, Wu Yuan contacted his old partner Industrial Light and Magic.

But it's a pity that Industrial Light and Magic really can't schedule it, and they will have to do the special effects for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" later.

Wu Yuan had no choice but to find Weta Digital, which was about the same level as Industrial Light \u0026 Magic.

The transformation of the fox demon in the movie, the poaching of the heart, the painting of the skin, and the most important special effects fighting scenes all require Weta Digital to model the faces of the protagonists, and then create special effects that fit according to the height and body shape of the protagonists. template.

So although the crew officially started shooting on the 11th, several leading actors who had special effects scenes came to Huairou Film and Television Base five days in advance to gather, and were manipulated by a group of foreigners.

Wu Yuan also took the time to take a look at the situation.

The current level of special effects in Hollywood is indeed a level that even domestic film and television dramas cannot match. Wu Yuan remembers that in his dream, he waited at least until around 2012 before he saw a crew in China that used casts to model the faces of actors.

Before 2012, the special effects of so-called special effects movies were not so detailed at all. They were purely "texture-type" special effects.

The technological gap is indeed a chasm.

The idea of ​​starting a domestic special effects company that had appeared in his mind before was put on Wu Yuan's agenda again.

While observing Weta Digital's employees doing early-stage special effects design, Wu Yuan had a casual chat with them and roughly inquired about how much Weta Digital's computers and special effects equipment cost.

If you don’t ask, you won’t know. If you ask, you will be shocked.

Weta Digital's existing equipment alone is worth more than $100 million, and they plan to add more than $100 million in equipment in the next five years!

In other words, if you want to obtain a special effects company with one-tenth of the current productivity of Weta Digital, you need to invest at least more than 10 million US dollars.

And to open a special effects company, you don’t just have to have the equipment, you also need a group of people who can use the equipment.

Employees like Industrial Light \u0026 Magic and Weta Digital are basically trained by themselves, and the most cutting-edge film special effects technology is in the hands of core employees.

If outsiders want to learn, there is no place to learn.

Setting up a special effects company is really not a simple matter. By analogy, it is like the chip manufacturing industry in the computer industry, which is the most cutting-edge field.

Even in 2020, when Guo Fan made "The Wandering Earth" and "The Wandering Earth 2", not all the special effects companies he hired were domestic companies. Half of the special effects had to be assigned to foreign companies.

There are so many special effects companies in the mainland that together they can’t afford the post-production of a special effects blockbuster.

There are many technologies that are not mastered in the Mainland, so some of Hollywood's top teams must be used to handle the production. This can also be regarded as a technical barrier.

Now that Wu Yuan wants to be a special effects company, he must first find a special effects team that can support the company, and then he can think about buying equipment.

But where to find this team is really a worrying question.

"Director Wu, do you want to do the special effects for the movie yourself?" Zhang Guorong came up and asked with a half-smile.

He had long noticed that Wu Yuan looked at the people at Weta Digital in a wrong way, and after listening to his questions, he immediately guessed what he was thinking, and even guessed what was bothering him.

"Director Wu, China actually has a lot of special effects talents."

Zhang Guorong smiled and hugged Wu Yuan's shoulders: "You can go to Xiantao Digital in Hong Kong Island to recruit people."

"Now Xantao's digital special effects are really good, and there are many elites. I heard that their company has more than 100 employees who specialize in special effects."

"If you recruit a dozen of them, you can set up a stall."

"Xiantao Digital." Wu Yuan murmured.

I remembered.

The special effects production company of "Kung Fu Soccer" and "Kung Fu"!

Later, "The Promise" was also contracted by this company to produce special effects!

The time is counting down to 1998.

That year, a movie adapted from the comic book of the same name was released in Hong Kong: "The Storm". The movie was very popular when it was released and won the box office championship of Hong Kong movies that year.

Xiantao Digital Company was established specifically for the filming and production of this movie.

The newly established Xiantao Digital at that time boldly learned the special effects technology of Hollywood!

They used special effects technologies such as fully virtual characters, green background synthesis, and particle rendering in "The Storm", which was the first time for a Hong Kong film.

This film also became the special effects benchmark for subsequent Hong Kong films.

At this point, the special effects company, which was originally established just to make a movie, has embarked on a prosperous road.

In 2001's "Kung Fu Soccer", many scenes that looked like real shots were actually made with special effects, and what looked like special effects were actually real shots. Also produced by Hong Kong Sentao Digital Company.

In 2004's "Kung Fu", the special effects were still produced by Xiantao Digital Company.

The number of special effects in "Kung Fu" is quite staggering. It is said that if all of these special effects were done by one person, it would take 100,000 hours, or 35 years.

Xantao Digital was able to complete the special effects for "Kung Fu" within a few months, which shows that this company has trained a large number of special effects artists.

Xiantao Digital is now at its peak, with strong military strength, but it is also a good time to recruit people!

Because after "The Promise", Xantao Digital's glory period was about to pass. Because of the old equipment, the boss was reluctant to spend money, and could not keep up with Hollywood's ever-changing special effects technology. In the next few years, it was gradually eliminated by the market.

I don’t know where these Xantao Digital special effects artists went.

It is estimated that a large number of people went north to join the new special effects companies that have sprung up in the mainland, and have become nutrients for the growth of special effects technology in the mainland.

Since you are going to come to the mainland sooner or later to develop, it is better to come earlier.

Wu Yuan chuckled, reached out and patted Zhang Guorong on the back: "Leslie, it has to be you."

"Thank you for your advice, I will act as soon as possible!"