In Xu Wangqiu's impression, the movie that uses airburst technology on a large scale abroad is "Saving Private Ryan", this technology uses the principle of gas expansion, simulating an explosion, and people can stay on the explosion point during filming, they will feel pain, but they will never be injured, and the airburst will produce a dusty effect, which is closer to the real explosion feeling.

The earliest use of air explosion technology in domestic films was "Assembly Number", and most of the fireworks and explosions in domestic film war films before this were performative and beautiful, but this kind of explosion scene lacked local and detailed portrayal, and did not have that immersive feeling. Many domestic war films fired thousands of artillery at the same time, and the scene was very grand, but when they exploded, they often bombed open ground, and there was no tragic scene of people being blown away and maimed by shells.

Xu Wangqiu remembered that when "Assembly" came out, Feng Xiaogang triumphantly claimed that the latest air explosion technology was used in the movie, which could ensure that people 20 centimeters away would not be injured. The final effect of "Assembly" is really good, the war scenes in the movie have broken the avoidance and cover-up of death in domestic war films in the past, and there are a large number of scenes of soldiers being killed and maimed, and they were even suspected by the audience that they were too bloody.

Xu Wangqiu always thought that China learned the gas explosion technology from abroad after the "Assembly", and then gradually mastered it, but he never expected to master this technology in the Bayi Factory in the 70s. His first reaction was, how could this be? The second reaction was, this is not a joke, is it? And finally he blurted out, "How is this possible?"

Ge Yongliang saw Xu Wangqiu making such a fuss, so he said: "Why is it impossible, when Beijing Film Studio remade "Southern Expedition and Northern War" in 1974, it used a lot of this technology. However, jet blasting technology uses compressed air to simulate an explosion, which is relatively costly, and there is no flame after the explosion, which is not beautiful enough, and few movies use this technology. ”

Xu Wangqiu was completely stupid, he never dreamed that Bayi Factory would really master this technology in the 70s. Thinking about Feng Xiaogang's triumphant announcement at the beginning, "Assembly" uses the latest airburst technology, which can ensure that people 20 centimeters away will not be injured, Xu Wangqiu simply didn't know what to say. Obviously, Bayi Factory mastered this technology more than 30 years ago, but Chinese filmmakers don't know that they have mastered this technology, so they can only invite fireworks teams from abroad.

Xu Wangqiu hadn't watched the 74 version of "Southern Expedition and Northern War", and after the movie came out, many people said that it was very badly made, far worse than the old version of "Southern Expedition and Northern War", so he didn't watch this film. He did not have much contact with the film studios of this era, and only the real contact was the Xiuying Studio, and although the Xiuying Studio claimed to have been established for 20 years, it actually made less than ten films so far, and its technical force was very weak. He always thought that other film studios were not much better than Xiu Studio, and they were very weak in special effects.

Now hearing that Bayi Factory has mastered the air explosion technology, Xu Wangqiu realized that there was a serious deviation in his understanding of Chinese special effects in this era, and immediately asked Ge Yongliang about the situation of Chinese special effects.

Ge Yongliang saw that Xu Wangqiu was interested in special effects, so he talked about it. As a master of film special effects, Ge Yongliang is very familiar with the special effects technology of various domestic film studios, and he talks endlessly.

From Ge Yongliang's narration, Xu Wangqiu learned that before the 70s, Chinese film special effects were in a leading position in Asia, and the gap with the United States was not particularly large.

In the early 60s, after years of hard work, the special effects department of Beiying completed the development of China's first domestic infrared movable mask synthesis photography system, and successfully applied it for the first time in the film "Garden Dream". The stunt workshop of Beijing Film Studio even has a large pool dedicated to filming ocean scenes, equipped with an airplane nose blower and a wave maker, which can do all kinds of marine effects.

In 1963, when the film "Red Sun" was filmed at the Magic Studio, Jiang Yisu, the film's stunt designer, specially designed and built a 60-foot-high long-arm lift, which could be mounted on the top of the elevator and manually controlled to shoot shots when the plane was dive or pulled up. There are also a large number of models and troop composite shots in the movie, to the extent that they are realistic.

Coming out of the stunt workshop, Xu Wangqiu was in an extremely complicated mood, happy for the achievements of Chinese filmmakers in special effects, which meant that he would be subject to much fewer restrictions when making movies, and it was possible to even make science fiction films; but at the same time, he was in an extremely heavy mood, he didn't know how the old pyrotechnics of Bayi Factory would feel when they heard Feng Xiaogang triumphantly announce that "Assembly" used the latest foreign air explosion technology, but he believed that the old pyrotechnics must be very uncomfortable, and he would definitely ask why?

Yes, why? Our pyrotechnics team has mastered the gas explosion technology more than 30 years ago, but 30 years later, we have to ask the Korean team to do the war scene.

All afternoon, Xu Wangqiu was thinking about this problem, and even when he returned to the guest house in the evening, he was still thinking about it while lying in bed. After thinking about it in the middle of the night, he finally figured out this problem, and in the final analysis, it was caused by the unified purchase and sales policy.

Since the 50s, the state has implemented unified purchase and sales of films, and 700,000 color films have been made, and it was not until Document No. 198 in 79 that the purchase price was raised to 900,000. In 1980, Wang Yang, director of Beijing Film Studio, wrote to the central government, asking for the reform of film distribution. In the end, the state adjusted the policy, and settled according to the copy, 9,000 yuan for one copy. However, at the time of settlement, only 35 mm copies are counted, and 16 mm copies and 8 mm copies are mainly for rural areas, which are free to play, and these copies are not money. By 1989, due to the soaring cost of films, most of the film studios lost money, and China Film raised the copy fee to 10,500 yuan each.

Billing by copy sounds good, after all, the more copies of a movie, the more money the studio earns, but it's actually very unfair to the studio. For example, the movie "Xiyingmen" by Magic Studio has more than 700 million viewers, and nearly 4,000 copies have been distributed, but most of them are 16mm and 8mm copies, and only 241 are 35mm copies. The actual income of the Shadow Factory is only 2.17 million, and the actual income after deducting costs is only more than 1 million.

In the case of "*****" by Xiu Film Studio, the box office is as high as 130 million, and if it is divided into tens of millions according to the sharing method of later generations, it should be divided into tens of millions. If there is this money, it will be enough for the show studio to eat for a few years. However, due to the fact that only 513 35mm copies were issued, the income of Xiuying Studio was only 5.38 million, and the actual income was only 4.08 million after removing the cost of 1.3 million.

Due to the unified purchase and sales, the majority of the film's profits were taken away by China Film Company, and the number of 35mm copies of the film was basically less than 100, and more than 100 belonged to the more popular movies. That is to say, after a movie is made, most of the income obtained by the film studio is less than 900,000. Excluding costs, the profit is very small. In order to ensure profitability, the film studio will try to control the cost within 900,000. In this case, studios do not dare to make films with high investment and a large number of special effects.

With the development of the country's economy, the cost of films has risen year by year; in addition, the film industry has been hit by television sets, and the number of moviegoers has been declining year by year; it is becoming more and more difficult for films to recover their costs, and film studios are becoming more and more afraid to use special effects. In the late 80s, film studios canceled stunt workshops one after another, and special effects technicians retired and changed careers, so Chinese film special effects were completely finished.

It was not until the re-emergence of the Chinese film market after 2002 that Chinese special effects began to slowly recover, and at this time it was already the era of computer special effects, and special effects companies were basically based on computer special effects. The physical effects of Chinese movies are completely out of order, and naturally no one will remember that we mastered the air explosion technology decades ago, thinking that it was a new thing invented by foreigners.

Xu Wangqiu lay on the bed, looked at the blurred ceiling, and let out a long sigh.

Chinese film special effects and Chinese movies are connected, and when Chinese films decline, Chinese film special effects are finished. If Chinese movies can live well, then movie special effects will not die.

The key to all this is the unified purchase and sales, if you can't break the unified purchase and sales, even if the king of heaven and Lao Tzu comes, it is useless.

Xu Wangqiu has been thinking about the issue of unified purchase and sales these days, but it is very difficult to break the unified purchase and sales; the film studios in the previous generation have been fighting for many years to change this policy, but because there are too many things involved, it was not until 1993 that the film studios could no longer hold on, and the situation of unified purchase and sales was broken.

However, Xu Wangqiu has no other choice, if the policy of unified purchase and sales is not broken, the situation of Chinese films will not change, and in the nineties, Chinese films will still collapse, and history will still repeat itself. So, even if he knew it was the south wall, he would still crash into it.

People always have to do something to live, and smashing this wall is what Xu Wangqiu must do!

In the next few days, Xu Wangqiu, under the leadership of Sun Wangquan, communicated with the people in various workshops of the Magic Shadow Factory.

The skirmish with Chen Yongquan made Xu Wangqiu realize that it is not a good thing to be a director in this era with a too tender face. Others will think that you are hairless and insecure, they will think that you are relying on relationships to sit in the director's position, and even think that you don't understand anything, which will undoubtedly threaten the authority of the director.

In order to resolve this problem, Xu Wangqiu went to Daguang Glasses Store to get a pair of black/rim glasses to make him look more mature.

At the same time that Xu Wangqiu was communicating with the film studio, Xie Fei and the others made a list of scenes according to the script breakdown table through the streets and alleys of the magic city, looking for suitable locations for filming. Xu Wangqiu made detailed marks on the list, each scene has specific atmosphere and environmental element requirements, and drew a schematic diagram, which undoubtedly saved Xie Fei a lot of effort in choosing the scene.

In the process of scouting the scene, Xie Fei and the others bought a map of the magic capital, and drew a cross every time they walked to a place. In the process of scouting, they will choose three alternative options for each required scene, and Zeng Lianping will take pictures in all directions. Every night when they come back, they will ask the printers of the Shadow Factory to wash it out, and let Xu Wangqiu and the main creative team filter it according to the pictures of the scene.

After tossing back and forth for half a month, the entire map of the magic capital was full of crosses, and the plan for the main scene was finally determined. However, there is no way to solve the scenes of the two war scenes, especially the first war scene, there are a lot of explosions, and even house explosions. No unit, no private person is willing to take out their house to shoot this kind of scene, and it can only be solved by setting up a scene. Xu Wangqiu's idea was more radical, and he felt that it would be better to build two streets to shoot these two scenes.

Sun Wangquan and the production team counted the budget of the film according to Xu Wangqiu's requirements, and if it was completely shot according to Xu Wangqiu's concept, the cost of the whole movie would be as high as 950,000. The price of China Film Company's acquisition of color feature films is 700,000 yuan, and if the film costs 950,000 yuan, it means that the magic film studio will lose 250,000 yuan.

If "Hoe Rape" does not make money, the Magic Shadow Factory may accept it, but it is absolutely impossible to agree to lose 250,000.