Which part of a science fiction movie is the most important?

There are a thousand answers to this question for a thousand people.

Some people believe that in science fiction movies, the science fiction shown must be based on realistic scientific theories, and science fiction movies that violate real scientific theories are garbage movies.

This type of person is often the most fond of hard science fiction, and likes to see rigorous and logical scientific inferences in movies.

Some people think that a science fiction movie is a successful science fiction movie if it has enough cool visual effects and real special effects shots to make people dazzled.

This kind of audience likes the kind of space opera-style science fiction movies the most, and likes grand war scenes or special effects pictures with a sense of science and technology.

Others believe that science fiction films need to deeply reflect on the way humans abuse science and technology, and touch the dependence and fear of technology in the depths of human nature.

This type of audience likes science fiction movies with critical reality the most, and for them, technological developments often represent danger, uncontrollable, and even the end of the world.

A science fiction movie, often among the three, if one of them is done to the extreme, it can become a classic science fiction movie of famous film and television.

But Peng Yichen is even more ambitious, and he hopes that his first sci-fi movie can do the best in all three aspects.

Criticizing reality and touching the depths of human nature, he is very confident that he chose to adapt this science fiction that only existed in his previous life. In terms of touching human nature, it must be the best kind of science fiction.

In terms of rigorous scientific theoretical foundation and wonderful visual effects, Peng Yichen needs the help of professionals.

Early in the morning of June 12, Peng Yichen drove alone to a science fiction film and television base on the outskirts of Kyoto.

Here, he built a special research and development center for film special effects technology for the digital shooting technology training center.

Zhou Jingqi resigned as a professor at the Kyoto Film Academy and devoted himself to this research and development center.

The first major task he faced was to prepare Peng Yichen for the next science fiction movie and make technical preparations for various special effects shooting.

Now the special effects technical team here has made all kinds of basic preparations for the filming of special effects for the movie.

The next step is to build various special effects shooting locations and make various special effects shooting equipment according to the guidance of professional physicists and the specific requirements of director Peng Yichen.

Peng Yichen came to the science fiction film and television base this time, and at the same time brought a physicist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences hired by Sun Yizou for him - Chen Xudong.

The task of the two of them is to explain to the special effects technicians the special effects lens effects that the film needs to achieve.

"For this filming, I will use 3D-MAX technology to shoot the whole process, and of course, you also have to consider the realism of the special effects after converting it into a 2D movie. But our special effects production this time is still mainly in 3D. ”

Peng Yichen first set a main tone for the way the film was filmed.

The reason for this is because Peng Yichen knows very well that 3D movies are the core direction of the development of film special effects in the future.

In fact, 3D technology has been around since the 90s, but the cost is too high and the technology is not mature, so it has really become popular.

In Peng Yichen's previous life, Cameron's epoch-making "Avatar" ignited 3D-MAX technology and made fans all over the world crazy about this kind of movie.

But Peng Yichen knows that even after the release of Avatar in the previous life, this technology is actually not very mature.

In Peng Yichen's memory, in his previous life, due to the influence of "Avatar", a large number of film production companies changed the 2D movie that was originally planned to be filmed into a 3D movie.

But the 3D effect of these movies is extremely poor, the picture is dark, and the clarity is very poor, so that later 3D movies were even equated with "bad movies that cheat money".

Is it because these movies don't want to make stunning 3D effects?

Peng Yichen doesn't think so.

One or two movies are not good because the director or investment producer is unwilling to spend money or shoddy production, but if a large number of movies are not all good, it is a technical problem.

According to Peng Yichen's own analysis, the reason for the extremely poor picture effect of the 3D movie is mainly that this kind of shooting is shot through two cameras to simulate the effect of the human eye.

In order to create a three-dimensional effect, it is inevitable that there will be interference between the two sources.

Maybe you have two cameras with 4K resolution, but when they are stacked together, they often show less than 2K due to interference with each other.

To make matters worse, the light source quality of today's 3D projectors is not up to par.

3D movies tend to look very gloomy.

If such a filmmaking technique is used for animation shooting, it can be barely accepted.

If it can be used in live-action movies, it will not be able to meet the needs of the audience.

The reason why Avatar's picture effect is so good is that Cameron is willing to spend money and only makes a special ultra-high-definition 3D camera.

It also has a part of the opportunistic element in it.

The film is about a story that takes place on an alien planet.

Among them, the alien natural environment and the alien skin and hair are all produced by computer special effects technology, and there is no need for real-life and physical shooting.

In this case, in the post-production of computer special effects, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can infinitely improve the clarity of the film source.

In other words, the clarity of most of the film's sources actually far exceeds the level of general 4K HD, reaching a resolution of 16K or even 32K.

This makes the movie "Avatar" look acceptable in front of clarity.

Other movies that require a lot of real-life and physical shooting do not have this convenience.

The technology is not mature enough, and no matter how you shoot, the audience will not buy for your bad picture.

Peng Yichen doesn't want others to say that he is a bad movie that cheats money, and he doesn't want to make a sci-fi movie with a bad picture.

In this life, Cameron's "Avatar" has not been released for a long time, and Peng Yichen filmed this science fiction movie, not to use 3D technology, in order to become the first director to lead the trend.

This kind of identity and honor will play a great role in his future development in Hollywood.

Therefore, he searched his stomach and finally remembered that there was a science fiction movie in his previous life, which also applied 3D shooting technology, but solved the problem of picture clarity and brightness, and became the most successful 3D movie after "Avatar", that is, "Gravity".

The film initially overcame the technical difficulties of 3D film shooting.

There is also a "Interstellar" filmed by Nolan, which takes the scene of the most magnificent black hole and the movement of the starship in the universe to the extreme.

Therefore, Peng Yichen told all the members of his special effects team what he said he knew, some of the shooting techniques of these two movies.

Hopefully, they will be able to combine the techniques of the two films to create a set of 3D-MAX special effects shooting technology that can meet his shooting needs.

As soon as his request came out, Zhou Jingqi, the person in charge of the special effects team, had not yet spoken, but Chen Xudong, the physicist who came with him, spoke.

"I'm sorry, Director Peng. I haven't read your script before because of the confidentiality requirements. Now I want to ask first, do you want to shoot a movie with a cosmic background?" Chen Xudong asked very seriously.

Peng Yichen nodded: "Yes, there is a lot of cosmic background in the movie, and it is a science fiction movie." ”

"Then I think it may not be enough to just come to me. You'll also need an astrophysicist to join the team to complete the shot effect you're talking about. Chen Xudong suggested.

Peng Yichen paused for a moment, and immediately asked respectfully, "Thank you very much for your suggestion." I don't know if you have any recommendations. I need the kind of expert who can get there right away, because it's not long before we start shooting. Of course, we will not be stingy in terms of treatment. ”

Peng Yichen's request made Chen Xudong frown, and after thinking about it, he spoke, "I have a friend who works in Huaxia Aerospace Group, and he is an expert in astrophysics. It just so happened that he was recuperating in a hospital in Kyoto due to physical reasons. As far as I know, he is very interested in science fiction movies and should be willing to take the job. ”

"That's great, see if you can give him a call first. If he agrees, I'll send someone to pick him up at once. Peng Yichen said urgently.

Chen Xudong took out the phone with a smile, and while dialing, he replied: "No problem, my friend and I are very fond of science fiction movies." But those movies made by Huaxia before are really insulting to science fiction movies. We also hope that Director Peng can shoot a truly classic Chinese science fiction movie, so that we will be satisfied. ”

Peng Yichen looked at the expectation in Chen Xudong's eyes and nodded seriously.

He knows that making a real classic science fiction movie is not his own business.

This is the common wish of thousands of fans who have infinite expectations for Chinese science fiction movies.

……