The New Year's holiday in the United States is very long, which is the two holidays of Christmas and New Year's Day, usually at least 2 weeks, from December 20 to January 5. And there are many people in the United States who focus their annual vacation on this time, especially those who plan to travel, and they generally leave the office from the beginning of December to enjoy this super long vacation.

But Jing Jian didn't have such a good fate. Don't forget, he came to the United States this time to work and complete the filming of "Infinite Shiver 3". Although it is said that I have been in Europe for a while, I always need to get my job done, right?

So on the third day of the new year, Jing Jian led the main creators of the crew and representatives of Industrial Light and Magic to Paramount's editing room and began the rough cut of the film. This rough cut was quite a lot of work, as a lot of special effects footage would be put into the film.

"This section is placed here, and the effect is better with montage lenses......"

"Wait, go backwards, put it again......"

"Cut it, cut it! Hey, I'm really reluctant to ......."

“......”

I was busy until about eight o'clock in the evening, and even my lunch and dinner were sandwiches and hamburgers, and finally I completed the rough cut that lasted more than five hours.

Sipping hot coffee, the editing room was full of laughter. Judging from the rough cut results, it has exceeded the originally expected shooting effects, especially the special effects produced by Industrial Light and Magic, which far exceed the level of the films of the same period. Fully worthy of the adjectives "ahead of the times, shocking".

However, in a relaxed atmosphere, assistant director Palyugin suddenly found that Jing Jian was still frowning slightly, watching clips of the film repeatedly. Palyukin was a little strange: "Bramble, is there anything else you don't like?"

Palyugin's words immediately caught everyone's attention, and they all noticed Jing Jian's abnormality. But when the rough cut just now, and even during the entire filming process of the film, Jing Jian basically decided with one word? So what else is there to be dissatisfied with? Is it because he is not satisfied with himself? Moreover, all the people present are basically veterans of the film industry, and with their professional vision, they can be sure that the level of this movie has far surpassed that of "Infinite 1" and "Infinite 2".

In fact, Jing Jian is not dissatisfied with such a vertical comparison, but dissatisfied with the horizontal comparison. Indeed, the rough cut results are beyond the level of similar films of the same period, but there is an unattainable giant peak in front of the horizontal fence - "Terminator 2"

As a milestone film in the history of film special effects, Jing Jian knows very well what a shocking effect "Terminator 2" will bring, which is simply a crushing trend sweeping the world. To be honest, the special effects of "Infinity 3" are indeed first-class, but compared with "Terminator 2", no matter how you look at it, it is a line worse.

After thinking about it for a while, Jing Jian secretly decided: "I think there are a few special effects that still need to be improved. ”

"Huh?" exclaimed in unison, ILM's CTO Ferran was puzzled, "Mr. Bramble, we've created the special effects you requested, and they did exactly what you wanted. Plus, it's the highest level you can achieve so far, so what's not to be satisfied with?"

Jing Jian is not dissatisfied with the current special effects, but needs more shocking special effects. That is, special effects comparable to "Terminator 2". So he thought of another milestone in the history of special effects - bullet time in The Matrix.

However, "The Matrix" appeared in 1999, and now it is only 1990. The rapid development of digital technology can be said to be completely two eras. Although Jing Jian's idea is good, it may not be technically able to support it. So after thinking about it for a few more seconds, Jing Jian was ready to discuss it with the technicians of Industrial Light & Magic and Professor Sager, a photographer.

"My idea is that the main plot and the main picture structure are not changed. But in these shots, I want ......"

"It can't be. ”

"I think it's possible, but it's just a possibility, and there's no guarantee of what you're saying. You can do that......"

"It's a way to try. ”

"No, no, you're saying that's too risky. ”

"It's not particularly risky either. Listen to me......"

“......”

To Jing Jian's surprise, as the discussion of this group of technology nerds deepened, he found that bullet time was really possible. Originally, Jing Jian's hope was not very big, and he just made a request, but he didn't expect that the group of fat houses engaged in technology were quite capable, which made the hope bigger and bigger.

In fact, this is not a coincidence, because any technology will never be born in a vacuum, there is always a gradual development and maturity process. Bullet time, on the other hand, refers to a cinematographic technique that simulates various speed-changing effects in a movie, such as intensifying effects such as slow motion or time stillness. It allows the viewer to see some scenes that cannot be seen normally, and there are two main performance characteristics, namely extreme changes in time and extreme changes in space, such as bullets flying overhead (hence the name), or slow motion while the perspective rotates around the scene.

Therefore, it can be said that bullet time is a general photographic technology, with diverse forms of expression, which is the history of the past life, and many directors used it before the release of "The Matrix", but the research is not thorough enough, and the computer digital technology is not yet mature. For example, the slow motion of the violent aesthetics often seen in John Woo's films is also a variant of bullet time.

In the history of previous lives, there are roughly three ways to complete the effect of bullet time:

First, the camera array, which is also known as the legendary "pose".

That's what "The Matrix" does. With 120 digital cameras around the subject, and then let the shutter of these cameras take pictures according to the pre-programmed sequence and time interval of the computer, and then scan all the photos taken from all angles into the computer, and the computer will virtually repair the difference between the two adjacent photos, so that you can get the coherent and smooth movement of the subject under the 360-degree lens, and finally the computer will merge the coherent dynamic image with the background, forming the amazing novelty we see in the movie.

There is no doubt that this trick did not work at all in '88, and it was both computer technology and digital cameras, and at that time there were no even intelligent film cameras, so where did the digital cameras come from? Moreover, there was no supporting computer technology to build virtual scenes, and the movie lenses were full of cameras from other angles, and the goofs had to be worn to break through the sky.

So definitely not!

Second, full CG simulation. Not to mention, computer chip technology has not developed to this extent, and it is also not a good way!