The Best Director

"Well, this design is not bad, but" Wang Yang frowned slightly as he looked at the drawings of guns and weapons on the round table. After thinking for a while, he looked at the props beside the table. Drew Petrota, art designer Kevin Vanav and others, said: "I think it can be bolder, I mean its shape and lines, you know it doesn't necessarily look like a human gun, let it go to design !"

Since he completed the acquisition of the image engine in mid-June, he has officially devoted himself to the work of forming the crew of "The Ninth District". (Reading novels)

After the achievements of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" and "Juno", an Oscar winner, a 19-year-old Oscar queen nominee, and a 21-year-old youngest Golden Globe winner Nominated for the best director, the title of miraculous director continues, but not many people still think that he is just a worthless little baby. Coupled with the generous salary and the attitude of the hot city, he spent more than half a month to do it. After searching and searching, the entire crew was finally completed.

In terms of actors, apart from Robert Downey Jr., several other important actors such as father-in-law, wife, and military colonel have found suitable candidates; Some small roles in the on-the-spot script were handed over to the casting director to select and audition. He didn't have so much time to do everything by himself, and only needed the final review to confirm.

The photographer is still his old partner Walley Pfister. Although he has no experience in shooting blockbuster films, Wang Yang himself has no experience." The tacit understanding of the "director photographer" between the two has reached a very high level. , It can almost be said that communication is completed with eyes. Of course, this is an exaggeration. The specific effect and how to shoot still need to be communicated with language.

Not long before Wang Yang’s invitation, Vale Pfister had just finished holding the camera for another film. It is said that the first assistant Harry George was also in charge of shooting many sets of shots. Their hands were hot. Joining a big production like "The Ninth District" is very exciting and full of confidence. The set designer of the crew is also a familiar face. Gordon Yixin, who has worked with Wang Yang twice: art director Patrick Tatopoulos ( Representative works "Independence Day", "Iron Enemy"); art design David Klassen (representative works "Yihai Heroes", "Charlie's Angels", "Iron Man" series), Kevin Kavanaugh (representative works "Disc Spy, "Transformers", "The Dark Knight"); costume designer Shanna Hayes (representative "Star Trek 9", "Battle of Los Angeles"); and the prop master is by Drew Petrota ( Representative works "Big Fish", "Transformers" series).

Plus a "genius ruined by drugs" starring Robert Downey Jr." Although this team is not currently the top lineup in Hollywood, it can also be called luxurious: if it is pushed back a few years, it will definitely be an All-Star line-up.

After the filming stage was completed, Wang Yang brought the members who needed to make preliminary preparations, their assistants, employees and other team members to Vancouver in a mighty way.

"The Ninth District" will take the shooting order of the interior first, the exterior of the streets of Los Angeles, and the exterior of the African slums.

In the interior, there are many scenes that need to be specially built, such as the secret research room of the MUN headquarters, Christopher Fussen's home, the interior of the spacecraft, and so on. Naturally, I came to Vancouver because the studio of Flame Movie was built here. Although it will take some time before the first phase is completed, the original business has built many factories. Xinjing is a brand new building, so it is not Delay things.

In addition to Gordon Sheen to build the scene; Shanna Hayes to design the costumes of the characters; Drew Petrota to design and organize all the props needed in the film.

The 33-year-old Drew is a well-known prop master in Hollywood, and he is the third-generation successor of the Petrota family. Edward Scissorhands") are very famous top masters. When Wang Yang invited him and asked him "Are you good at science fiction movies?", he said, "I was 12 years old at that time." You were still a newborn baby, but I was already on Santa Monica Boulevard. The shop was busy looking for things. Young director, I am good at everything! "

And when he became an adult, he officially started to do this business, and it has been more than ten years now. The work of the prop master is very hard and trivial. Basically, in every scene in the film, everything that can be seen, the prop team must pre-conceive, make a list and produce it, as if to say A gun, a weapon, and a small ring on the actor's hand that holds the weapon, nothing appears out of thin air.

After getting the script, Drew Petrota used his family tradition, a method similar to cold reading, to separate every place in the script that he felt needed prop support, and slowly observed each character and Every scene, to feel the martial arts, the holy king of the universe, the holy king, the king who kills the gods at night, the gods, the gods, the throne, the throne, the magic, the world, the world, the strongest abandoned young master Zhou The royal family's martial arts, the heaven and the earth will kill the gods and seal the throne at night, begging the demon, the world's strongest abandoned young man, the great Zhou royal family, the god-making general, and the night, killing the gods, the gods and seals, seeking the demon, proud of the world, the strongest abandoned young man, Da Zhou, the royal family and understand them, the characters and Clothing, dressing, decoration, and arrangement of the scene... This is a process of interpretation that can easily break down and drive people crazy. But the job of a prop artist is not to work behind closed doors. His own personal imagination and understanding cannot determine things. He needs to contact and discuss with various departments, what props are needed for setting, what is needed for costumes, and the requirements of art direction... ...but the scariest person is called the "director" and is also the one with the longest contact with a prop master in the crew.

His father, Bel Petrota, said: "You never know what's going to happen, it's like when directors go to sleep, they dream all night, and then in the morning, they'll suddenly say to you: I'm going to do it again." I think of something new, I need a girl who jumps out of the cake!" But no matter how wild the director's idea is, the prop master has to find a way to do it, Bell said: "At that moment, it felt like walking in hell. inside.

When working as a prop master for "Jaws", Steven Spielberg was still very young, very good and demanding. There was a scene where he said: "Tomorrow's scene, I need some crabs. When shooting , those crabs are going to climb from the seaweed to the actor's arm." So Bale got the crabs, but when it was time to shoot, Spielberg pointed to the crabs and said to him: "They didn't move, they just stood there. Hmmm Make them move, I want them to crawl around!" Then Baer immediately thought of a solution, and when the camera was ready, he took a cup of hot coffee and poured it on top of the crabs, and they crawled quickly, and Spielberg did this. satisfy.

This is the wisdom and professionalism of prop masters." No matter how many ideas and requirements the director puts into their designs, they must follow them and do it well. This is the motto of a family of excellent prop masters.

So in these days, Drew Petrota has never expressed support or complaints about Wang Yang's various demands. He looked at the several weapons on the drawings that borrowed the style of German rifles, and heard Wang Yang continue to say: "We need guns, but we don't want all of them to be guns. I mean, it's too "guns." Shall we try adding some insect-inspired decorations? "

"Yes, this is it!" Wang Yang's eyes lit up immediately, the weapons of aliens should have their national characteristics! He clicked some blueprints, and said excitedly: "More features and their national characteristics! Let the audience think "this is definitely a gun of another civilization" when they see it, it's not from the people of the earth! It's not the current one. Humans are not human beings in hundreds or thousands of years, no! We have to jump out of the shadow of human civilization in the future, this is Mex civilization!" Mex (bedbug) is just a name given to that alien race by humans.

Hearing Wang Yang's new ideas, Drew-Petrota and Kevin-Kavanaugh couldn't help smiling, and the inn saw the problem! Then it is not difficult to solve. Drew immediately picked up a pencil and started drawing on the drawing paper, and said with a smile: "Yang, I understand what you mean, give me a day" Tomorrow you can see several new weapons. "Kevin Kavanaugh also smiled and said: "I have no problem here, mex-style mecha, I know. "

"OK!" Wang Yang nodded with a smile, watched them draw for a while, and made some comments. At this time, assistant Ian Murphy walked in and said, "Director" Gordon told you to go over to the night a bit. Wang Yang glanced at him and patted Drew Petrota on the shoulder: "Dude, remember, cool!" "After that, he and his assistant left the art design room and went to the scene setting.

In fact, it’s the inside of the studio.” Passing through various busy departments, a distance of more than 100 meters will arrive soon. The scene that Gordon Sim and his set team are building now is the secret research room of the N headquarters. The scene has already completed the mobile set panel on three sides, and there are also some tables, chairs, instruments and other items. What kind of scene to build, Wang Yang and Gordon Xin have already drawn and determined in advance, but when actually building it, often There will be many details that need to be discussed and resolved again.

"Gordon, what's the matter?" Wang Yang walked to Gordon's side, and saw him crossing his arms, staring intently at the scene in front of him, frowning tightly, as if he couldn't figure something out.

Hearing the director's voice, Gordon Xin suddenly came back to his senses. He groaned, pointed to the set board and said, "I just feel that this wall is a little empty, only this MUN. It seems that it is not enough, but it has ...," he scratched his hair in distress again, and said, "I can't figure out where the problem is right now, so I'll ask you to come over."

"Well, it's a bit empty." Wang Yang nodded, holding his right hand and rubbing the roots of his chin." He also thought about it and slowly became fascinated. This wall will be the first one that Wiggs came out after escaping from the small room. Looking straight at the scene... He suddenly thought of something, couldn't help snapping his fingers, and said with a smile: "Yes! "

Under the eyes of Gordon Yixin and several other set designers, he walked to the edge of the set, pointed his fingers back and forth to plan, and said: "Next to this MUN logo, add a symbol that can represent all mankind." Things, the flag of the United Nations is good; then on the walls on the left and right sides of them, some aliens will be added with special amplifiers, and they will be hung here."

Gordon Xin and others smiled in agreement when they heard the words. Wang Yang became more and more excited as he talked, circled the position on the set plate, and said: "The one here is only half of its body, and its intestines are dangling like that; here No hands" and the eyeballs here were gouged out." Gordon Yixin nodded" and laughed: "This is cruel and disgusting, but it is very impactful!"

"And here, Chuan Wangyang was completely engrossed in his thoughts, looking at the messy tables and chairs around him that hadn't been set up yet, but in front of his eyes were all the pictures of the sub-cameras. He walked to one side of the table, knocked on the table and said: "There is a Each of Dapan's eyeballs is round, and there is a little alien sitting next to him. He suddenly chuckled a few times and said: "When Viggs came out, he saw that wall, and then saw these eyeballs and the eyes of the little alien, so dazed that he didn't have eyes of fear... ……,”

Everyone was silent but imagining that scene, as well as the director's weird laughter, made them feel hairy. Gordon Xin couldn't help shivering, and shouted with a thumbs up, "Yan!"

"Huh! I'm a bit perverted." Wang Yang shook his head and smiled, and came back from the world of the sub-camera." Looking at Gordon and others, he said with a smile: "But don't be afraid, I obviously won't take your eyeballs put it down. "Everyone laughed, and he thought again: "Well, I have to tell Drew, I need a big eyeball!"

But before he could go back to Drew Petrota's side, assistant Ian Murphy found him again: "Director, Shanna has something to ask you to go to her place!"

"Okay." Wang Yang responded." He gave Gordon a signal look, and walked towards the fashion design studio. When he came to the fashion design studio, he knocked on the door and walked in, looking at the Shanna Hayes, who was cutting clothes on the table in front, asked, "What's wrong with Shanna?"

Several long hangers in the room are full of various clothes, including MUN's ninth district management staff, research scientists, security forces, military uniforms, etc., as well as some clothes of main characters such as Wiggs , are designed and produced here. The person in charge of this department is Shana Xie—Hayes. Hearing the knock on the door, she looked up at Wang Yang who walked in." Picking up the clothes in her hand, she said: "I have some new ideas, soldier your uniform, how do you see this change? Wang Yang nodded and said, "Okay, let me see." "

Throughout the morning, "Wang Yang walked around in various departments of the studio" to communicate with everyone, solve their problems, and put forward his own opinions and ideas. These days he has gotten used to this. This is the director's job, leading the crew to complete the preliminary preparations. It's just that sci-fi movies have a lot of work. This is just the beginning. There is too much work to do for a movie or a big production.

In addition to the current work, he still has a lot of other work for the director, such as confirming the shooting style and plan with Walley Pfister, purchasing or renting the necessary photographic equipment, continuing to improve the sub-camera images, and answering the actors' questions about the roles. ...

Some directors screw up because they can't coordinate the various departments; Wang Yang doesn't want to be those directors. No matter whether he is tired or not, he must keep letting himself release positive energy to drive the entire crew to run vigorously; he must also keep learning and improve his knowledge in all aspects and ability, so that we can better coordinate everyone and be a better director.

After having lunch in the studio and resting for a while, Wang Yang left the studio and went outside. The weather in Vancouver is still cool during the month, but it's extremely hot in Luo Shiwan. He smiled and tugged on his coat, and walked quickly to the parking lot." After taking Mou, he went to Fifth Avenue in West Vancouver, where the image engine company is located.

After the acquisition of Flame Films was completed, within a few days Sean Walsh officially joined the image engine as a visual effects supervisor, and also served as the computer production director and special effects team leader of "The Ninth District". Of course, the special effects team at that time was just an empty shell. For nearly a month, Sean Walsh was building this team. Finish.

The special effects team has basically been set up, and the rest is whether to increase the number of CG animators. If you want to speed up the production of special effects, you need to add money and people; if you want to take it slowly, you can continue to maintain it. Once the sub-teams are established, their work will begin. The first step is to transform the designed alien into a 3D image, and today is the director's acceptance day for "Alien Head".

"It's cool!" Wang Yang looked at the alien's head on the computer screen, dragged the mouse to turn it around, and praised again: "It's cool." He turned his head and looked at the head standing beside him. Sean Walsh, modeler Brian Mike, and Julie Clares, responsible for the development of the alien appearance, said: "They look good, but they just don't look high enough in texture and a little soft. Can the texture of Huan be higher?"

There is a clay sculpture of a head on the desk, which is the masterpiece of the modeler Brian Mike. He made the clay sculpture first, and then scanned it in 3D. After completing the work of skeletalization of the creature, the prototype of the fine graphic on the screen will be available. Next, the work is handed over to Zhu Yileikesi and other members in charge of texture mapping.

Hearing Wang Yang's question, Sean-Walsh heheed, nodded and said: "Yes, this is actually not finished yet." He glanced at Zhu Li-Clex, and Zhu Li then explained : "We also need higher and more detailed texture mapping. This model will have 21 bitmap texture materials, each of which will probably have more than 4,000 pixels. You know that the more pixels, the more realistic it is."

Wang Yang hummed and listened carefully, she continued: "These maps will include color, bump, displacement, various parameters, wetness, roughness..." She took the mouse and clicked a few times "He said: "There are also reactions to various substances, such as eyes, shells, skin, hair, wounds, blood, mud, dust, mucus...it will become more and more realistic. "

"Okay, let's do it, I absolutely support it." Wang Yang smiled happily, and then said seriously: "This head is very good, I have no objections; of course, my request is more textured and more realistic, there is no other Already." Zhu Liyi Alex shrugged and said with a smile: "This is already the highest request." Everyone laughed immediately, Wang Yang touched the clay sculpture head with a smile, looked at Brian Mike, and smiled. Said: "Wait, can I take this artwork away? It's beautiful."

Brian-Mike nodded happily, and said: "No problem, its graphics and values ​​have been scanned, and now it belongs to you." Wang Yang picked up the clay sculpture's head and lifted it, and said with a smile: "Wow"