The Best Director

Chapter 115 Progress

"This is the motion capture technology. (Read the novel)" Mr. John Wolf looked at the staff in charge of the demonstration in front of him, made hand movements, and introduced to the students next to him: "We first use the sensor on the actor, and then follow the According to the needs of the plot, let him perform various actions." He pointed and said: "The camera captures his actions, and then transmits them to the computer through the equipment, so we can see the effect in real time."

The empty studio is full of pitch-black sets. In the middle, a white man in a black tights with white sensors plastered all over his body dances and moves under the pale yellow light. Three infrared cameras are placed around him, capturing his movements in a triangle.

Wang Yang and a dozen students followed him to the computer not far away. John Wolfe sat down on the chair, held the mouse and clicked a few times, and saw an active software window appear on the screen. The green three-dimensional model of the front is exactly the action of the white man in front. John Wolfe said: "This is just the beginning. If you want an animated character, you need to use other drawing techniques..."

The time has come and the nomination list for the 73rd Academy Awards has been announced. According to previous media predictions, Natalie Portman was shortlisted for Best Actress and became the first person to be nominated for an Oscar queen. In a short while, she received countless praises, not only the number of movie fans soared, but also the new national idol in the United States. If it weren't for her studies, she would be the most popular and concerned girl in Hollywood. It even landed on the covers of several magazines, and went hand in hand with the "scheduled queen" Julia Roberts.

In the Best Actor award, Will Smith was successfully selected, competing with two main rivals Russell Crowe and Tom Hanks for the honor of Best Actor. Will has always been the king of popularity, especially among the young people with extraordinary influence. This result naturally made his fans extremely happy. Last year, Will was trampled to nothing by the golden raspberry, but he did not fall. He hit back right away with his best hit: an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

The movie fans are clamoring that "Will should win the statuette"; the public relations department of Flame Movie is not doing nothing, coupled with Will-Smith's personal relationship, so many newspapers and media have stood by Will Smith. In the camp, he advocated and campaigned: "His performance is impeccable", "This is a legend belonging to black people, the best portrayal of the American dream, the stories of Chris Gardner and Will Smith are all moving...", "He will end the monopoly of white people on Oscar winners and become the first black winner"

In addition to the nominations of the actor, "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" also received nominations for the best props and scenery, and the best original soundtrack; while "Juno" had the best original screenplay and the best original song.

Without the best director, Wang Yang lost the election with a "little upset". Although many media and the general public had guessed this result beforehand, many people were still very dissatisfied and denounced the outdated and conservative Oscar judges, which had not changed for decades.

In 1989,

The 26-year-old "prodigy director" Steven Soderbergh won the best picture at the Cannes Film Festival with "Sex, Lies and Videotape", but in the following year's Oscar, the 27-year-old prodigy only won the best original film The nomination of the script; in 2001, the 21-year-old "Baby Director" Wang Yang did the same, even though he was the youngest nominee for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

However, the former prodigy, now 38-year-old Steven Soderbergh, this year with the two films "Never Compromise" and "Drug Network", after setting the Golden Globe record, he set an Oscar record and won The two nominations for the best director have become one of the most popular candidates; does it mean that Magic Yang has to wait 11 years before he can impress the Oscar judges? At that time, he was 32 years old, and he still had a chance to tie the record for the youngest award.

This year's nominees include Ang Lee, Ridley Scott ("Gladiator"), and Stephen Daldry ("Life Is Dancing").

American film awards are not limited to the Golden Globes and Oscars. There are so many big and small awards that make people dizzy. Like the popular candidates who sweep the awards, they often don’t know exactly how many awards they have won. First of all, various associations, such as Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Actors Guild, Cinematographers Guild, Screenwriters Guild... There are also countless film critics associations in Los Angeles, New York, broadcasting, etc., as well as Saturn Awards, Young Artist Awards, etc. awards.

"When Happiness Knocks on the Door" and "Juno" both won nominations for many awards, which are almost a replica of Oscars; in terms of personal honors, Wang Yang has also received nominations for best director from at least a dozen associations, the most important of which is The most important thing is the Directors Guild. This award is the most important barometer for the best director of the Oscars. Since the 53rd session, only 4 results have been different from the Oscars, and this year's award-winning director is Ang Lee.

In any case, at this year's Oscars, Yang is out of the running for best director, so what about next year? This naturally depends on the movies he released this year, but to the disappointment of movie fans, he, who has always been "high-speed production of high-quality goods", suddenly stopped and returned to USC to study, and it seems that he has no idea of ​​directing movies. Of course, he also has a new production plan, the youth dance film "Sweetheart", which is also something that movie fans, especially song and dance fans, are very excited about.

"A cool girl, a group of cool young people, I believe "Sweetheart" will make everyone like it." When fans saw Wang Yang's words, and a few days later, Flame Movie announced that she would play the role of the girl. Jessica is chosen as the protagonist "Sweetheart", which makes the young people's expectations skyrocket, won't Miraculous Yang push a bad movie to his girlfriend?

However, there are also some gossip media who say that this is because Natalie became an Oscar nominee for "Juno", Jessica was very angry, and Wang Yang made "Sweetheart" to calm his girlfriend's emotions : "From the name of the movie, it can be seen that this is a love show between them. But Magic Yang obviously didn't have much confidence in this movie, so he chose not to direct it, but to produce it."

In fact, Wang Yang is not sure whether "Sweetheart" will be a big hit, but he is absolutely confident and will do his best to make it. No matter what aspect he is trying to please his girlfriend, he will not allow himself to mess up. That's why he chose not to direct. But for the script of "Sweetheart", during this month, he racked his brains every day to refine the specific content, and went to many hip-hop bars and other places to find ideas, while not forgetting to synthesize the success of similar movies in his mind.

The script and frame style of "Sweetheart" were getting closer to completion day by day. When the time came to March 1, its completion speed suddenly slowed down, because the Robert Zemeckis Digital Art Center was officially completed at the USC School of Film and Television, On the opening day, Wang Yang, one of the sponsors, happily attended the opening ceremony; on the second day, he took off his suit and leather shoes, put on windbreaker sneakers, and became an ordinary university student, spending his days at Spend the evening at the University Park campus and return home to Beverly Hills in the evening.

Film special effects and digital technology are what Wang Yang mainly wants to learn. Of course, he is a director, not a special effects artist or programmer. He does not learn those specific computer software technologies, but how to make and shoot; when creating and designing shots, this knowledge also provides inspiration and allows the director You can consider what special effects technology to use, how to shoot to realize the picture; how to cooperate with special effects artists, etc.

In just half a month, he has figured out and learned many special effects techniques, such as miniature model shooting, image synthesis, etc. that he knew before; and the real gains are these new or old digital technologies, digital Technology is a movie revolution, which really liberates the mind of the director. It can be said that in this era, as long as you are willing to spend money, no matter what kind of picture can be realized.

Computer graphics, motion capture, virtual shooting... But he is not only in the digital art center. He does not want to get a degree. Thea-Lucas named after the post-production center and other places to sit in and study. Although the most famous product of USC is the director, he may have learned a lot of other things. The film is a whole. The more you know about this whole, the more control you have as a producer and director.

Anyway, after half a month, he has benefited a lot. He feels like Mario has eaten a big mushroom. If he suddenly wants to make a blockbuster special effects movie, he will not be at a loss about how to direct it.

"Jessica, have you noticed that you have a few moves that you like to do when you're performing." Wang Yang on the sofa looked at Jessica with a serious face next to him, his eyes looked up, and said "This is the first one." He twisted his neck left and right again, and said with a smile, "This is the second one, but your flexibility is better than mine."

Jessica smiled suspiciously: "It's not good? I didn't pay attention to this, it's just acting like that." Wang Yang laughed, and said with a smile: "It's not surprising, you usually talk like this. It's not good or bad. No, it depends on when it is used. To create different characters, you can’t use the same small movements, otherwise where is the difference?” Jessica nodded silently, then rolled her eyes with a slight shrug: “I know, I think I should work on my facial expression skills."

"Look, here are your eyes again, and..." Wang Yang laughed, shrugged and said, "This is the third one." Jessica frowned, put her hands on her head, He widened his eyes and said: "It seems that I want to do this." Wang Yang smiled, hugged her and said, "Jessie, reducing body language can make you look more natural. I think you understand this better than me. What I want to say is that you The power when performing..."

This is the "director and actor game" that the two of them have played for a while at night in the past month. He accompanies her for performance training, giving suggestions and opinions; there is also an explanation of "sweetheart", shaping the This role changed her from a text setting to a real person on the screen. After a month, he didn't know if it was an illusion or something, but he felt that Jessica's acting skills had improved a lot; of course, as she said, her acting skills were quite good a month ago, although it was far from Natalie's. It's completely different from "High School Musical" more than two years ago.

After training for a while, they ended tonight's game. Wang Yang turned on the TV with the remote control. As soon as the TV was turned on, there was an excited voice, and the screen played the picture of basketball players beating their chests: "The first round of the AA National Championship officially started, who will continue to lead the way?" The road to the championship..." Wang Yang turned his head to look at Jessica, and said excitedly: "By the way, you know we will play Oklahoma at home tomorrow, let's go and watch." He sighed again: "Wow , this year is really exciting”

He loves basketball, AA, and University of Southern California. After returning to college for half a month, the omission he had for the collision of the three suddenly returned. This is the first time the Trojans have reached the national championship since he entered school, and it will also be the first time he has personally experienced the taste of March Madness.

Previously, he also made predictions for this year's semi-finals on his blog, Michigan State University, Illinois, and Stanford; in the end, in the Eastern Conference, he did not choose the big favorite Duke University, but chose Southern California. This choice is both emotional and rational. It has been several years since I entered the championship stage, and everyone is overwhelmed. Returning to the top 32 this time can be said to be full of morale and have a lot to do.

"Well, okay." Jessica smiled happily, looked at the TV screen, and said with interest: "I haven't been to the AA game live, and I was invited to watch LA before, but I declined. "

"What, LA?" Wang Yang frowned suddenly and shouted. Jessica stared at him blankly, and said: "I didn't go." Wang Yang nodded with a serious face, and then laughed again: "If you refuse, you will never support those sons and daughters of LA..."

LA and LA have always been rivals in the same city. The two schools seem to compete for strengths and weaknesses in everything, and they both think they are better than the other. LA students also call it "ty-of-nd-e (the second choice of university)". He just thought it was funny and disdainful when he heard it at the beginning. Regardless of other things, it is the best film university in his mind. But he thought it was all for learning, there was nothing to argue about, and the facts were there.

But a few years ago, before he was expelled at that time, he and a few classmates were ridiculed by a group of LA people for not making it to the national championship. Although they can also laugh at LA football, as a basketball fan, since then In terms of basketball, he and LA are sworn enemies.

Thinking of those loud ridicules, Wang Yang felt angry in his chest in vain. He took a deep breath and said to Jessica: "You are a real person now, remember, only the Trojans will belong to our family." Tradition"

"Only Trojans." Jessica nodded solemnly. She had also heard about the grievances between the two universities, but she didn't expect his reaction to be so big, but her boyfriend is human, so she naturally supported him. She stretched out her hand to him, and shouted with hatred: "Let LA die." Wang Yang smiled and clapped her hands vigorously, and said, "Yes, we will kill them in the quarterfinals; unless that A rotten bear was eliminated by other schools before..."

But in the end, both the first round and LA passed smoothly. USC defeated Oklahoma State University 69:54. At the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium that night, Wang Yang and Jessica both shouted hoarsely and had a good time. In the second round, USC will travel to Boston to challenge Boston College away.