"Well, this design is good, but ......" Looking at the drawings of guns and weapons on the round table, Wang Yang thought with a slight frown, and after thinking for a while, he looked at the prop master Drew Petrota, art designer Kevin Kawanave and others on the table, and said: "I think it can be bolder, I mean its shape and lines, you know it is not necessarily what a human gun looks like, let it go and design!"

Since the completion of the acquisition of the graphics engine and blogger in mid-June, he has officially devoted himself to the formation of the crew of "District 9".

After the results of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" and "Juno", an Oscar winner has been created, a 19-year-old Oscar actress nomination, and a 21-year-old Golden Globe Award Best Director nomination, the title of magical director continues, but not many people still think that he is a worthless baby;

In terms of actors, in addition to Robert Downey Jr., several other important actors such as father-in-law, wife, army colonel and so on have found suitable candidates; as for the other small roles that will not get the full script, or the special character script, but will only get the live script, they are handed over to the casting director to select and audition, and he does not have so much time to do everything himself, just need to make the final decision.

The position of photographer is still his old partner Valley Pfister, although he has no experience in shooting blockbusters, but Wang Yang himself does not have it, and the tacit understanding between the two "director & photographer" has reached a very high level, and it can almost be said that communication can be completed with eyes, of course, this is an exaggeration, what effect do you want, how to shoot, or verbal communication.

Shortly before Wang Yang's invitation, Valley Pfister had just finished taking the helm for another film, and it is said that the first assistant Harry George was also in charge of shooting many sets of shots, and their hands were all hot, and they were all excited and confident to join a big production like "District 9" this time.

The set designer of the crew is also a familiar face, Gordon Sheen, who has worked with Wang Yang twice, Patrick Tatepoulos (representative works "Independence Day", "Enemy of the Machine"), art designer David F. Klassen (representative works "Heroes of the Sea", "Thunderbolt", "Iron Man" series), Kevin Kawanave (representative works "Mission: Impossible 2", "Transformers", "The Dark Knight"), costume design Shanna Milkovic-Hayes (representative works "Star Trek 9", " The Battle of Los Angeles), and the prop master is Drew Petrota (representative "Big Fish", "Transformers" series).

Coupled with a "drug-ruined genius" starring Robert Downey Jr., this team is not the top lineup in Hollywood at the moment, but it can also be called luxurious, and if you push it back a few years, it is definitely an all-star lineup.

After all the crew in the filming stage was formed, Wang Yang came to Vancouver with the members who needed to make preliminary preparations, as well as their assistants, employees and other team members.

"District 9" will be shot in the order of interior shots, Los Angeles street exterior scenes, and African ghetto exterior scenes, and there are many scenes in the interior that need to be specially built, such as the secret research room of the MNU headquarters, Christopher Foson's home, the interior of the spaceship, and so on. Naturally, I came to Vancouver because the studio of the flame movie was built here, although it will take some time before the first phase is completed, but the original business has built a lot of factory sheds, and the new scene is originally a new construction, so it does not delay things.

In addition to Gordon Sheen to set up, Shanna Hayes to design the costumes of the characters, and Drew Petrota to design all the props needed to organize the film.

The 33-year-old Drew is a well-known prop master in Hollywood, and he is the third generation of the Petrota family, with his grandfather Vic Petrota and father Bell Petrota (Jaws, Edward Scissorhands) both very famous top masters. When Wang Yang invited him, he asked him "Are you good at science fiction movies?", and he said: "I was 12 years old at the time, and you were still a newborn baby, but I was already busy looking for things in the props and antique shops on Santa Monica Avenue. Young director, I'm good at everything!"

And when he became an adult, he officially started doing this business, and it has been more than ten years. The work of the prop master is very hard and trivial, basically every scene in the film, everything that can be seen, the props team has to pre-conceive, make a list and make it, such as guns and weapons, and a small ring on the hand where the actor holds the weapon, nothing appears out of thin air.

After getting the script, Drew Petrota used a family-traditional, cold-reading method to break down every part of the script that he felt needed prop support, and slowly observed each character and each scene to feel and understand them, and the clothing, dressing, decoration, and arrangement of the characters and scenes...... It's a frustrating process of interpretation.

However, the work of a prop master is not behind closed doors, his own personal imagination and understanding cannot decide things, he needs to contact and discuss with various departments, what props are needed to set up the scene, what costumes are needed, and the requirements of the art director...... But the most terrifying person is called the "director", and he is also the one who has the longest contact time in the crew.

"You never know what's going to happen, it's like directors go to bed, they're dreaming all night, and then in the morning, they're going to suddenly say to you: I've got something new in mind, I need a girl jumping out of the cake!" But no matter how fanciful the director's idea is, the prop master has to find a way to do it, and Bell says, "It feels like walking in hell at that moment." ”

When Steven Spielberg was young, very good and demanding when he was working as a prop master for Jaws, there was a scene where he said, "Tomorrow, for that scene, I need some crabs, and when I shoot, those crabs have to climb from the seaweed onto the actors' arms." So Bell brought in the crabs, but when it was time to shoot, Spielberg pointed to the crabs and said, "They didn't move, they just stood there." Find a way to get them to move, I want them to crawl around!" and then Bell immediately thought of a solution, and when the camera was ready, he picked up a cup of hot coffee and poured it on top of the crabs, and they crawled quickly, and Spielberg was satisfied.

This is the wisdom and duty of the prop master, no matter how many ideas and requirements the director instills into their design, they must follow it, and do it well, which is the motto of a good prop master family.

So these days, Drew Petrota has not shirked or complained about Wang Yang's various requirements. He looked at several weapons on the drawings that borrowed the style of German rifles, and heard Wang Yang continue: "We need guns, but we don't want all guns...... I mean, it's too 'gun', let's try adding some insect-inspired decorations?"

"Yes, that's it!" Wang Yang's eyes lit up suddenly, alien weapons should have their national characteristics! He clicked on the drawings and said excitedly: "More characteristics, their national characteristics! Let the audience feel that 'this is definitely the gun of another civilization', not the people of the earth! Not the current human race, nor the human race in hundreds or thousands of years, no! We have to jump out of the shadow of the future human civilization, this is the CIMEX civilization!"

The cimex (bed bug) is exactly the name that humans have given to that alien race.

Hearing Wang Yang's new ideas, Drew Petrota and Kevin Kawanave couldn't help but smile, and found the problem! Drew immediately picked up a pencil and drew on the drawing paper, and said with a smile: "Young, I see what you mean, give me a day, and tomorrow you will be able to see a few new weapons." Kevin Kawanave also smiled: "I don't have a problem here, Cimex-style mech, I know." ”

"OK!" Wang Yang nodded with a smile, watched them draw for a while, and said some more opinions, at this time the assistant Ian Murphy walked in and said, "Director, Gordon has called you over there." Wang Yang glanced at him and patted Drew Petrota on the shoulder: "Dude, remember, cool!" With that, he and his assistant left the art design room and went to the other side of the scene.

In fact, inside the studio, through the busy various departments, a distance of more than 100 meters is about to arrive, and the scene that Gordon Sheen and his set team are now building is the secret research room of the MNU headquarters. What kind of scene to build has been drawn and determined by Wang Yang and Gordon Xin in advance, but when it comes to actual construction, there are often many details that need to be discussed and solved again.

"Gordon, what's wrong?" Wang Yang walked up to Gordon Xin's side, only to see him clasping his hands on his chest, looking at the set board in front of him attentively, frowning tightly, as if he couldn't figure out something.

Hearing the director's voice, Gordon Sheen suddenly came back to his senses, he sighed, pointed to the set board and said: "I just think this wall is a little empty, only this MNU logo, it seems to be a little insufficient, but the specific ......" He scratched his hair in distress again, and said: "I can't think of what the problem is now, so I called you over." ”

"Well, it's a bit empty. Wang Yang nodded, touched the fibrous root of his chin with his right hand, and slowly thought about it, this wall would be the scene that Vickers looked at the first time after he escaped from the small room...... He suddenly thought of something, couldn't help snapping his fingers, and said with a smile: "There is!"

Under the gaze of Gordon Sheen and several other set decorators, he walked over to the set board, pointed his finger back and forth, and said: "Next to this MNU sign, add something that can represent all mankind, the United Nations flag is fine, and then on these walls on the left and right of them, there will be special effects and some aliens, and they will hang here." ”

Gordon Xin and the others all smiled approvingly when they heard this, and the more Wang Yang spoke, the more excited he became, circled the position on the set board, and said: "There is only a half-cut body here, and the intestines are swaying like that; there are no hands here, and the eyeballs here have been gouged out...... "Gordon Xin nodded and smiled: "This is cruel and disgusting, but it is very impactful!"

"And here......" Wang Yang thought completely into it, looking at the messy tables and chairs around him that had not yet been set up, but there were all sub-camera pictures in front of him, he walked to the side of the table, knocked on the table and said: "There is a large plate of eyeballs here, each of which is round, and then there is a little alien sitting next to it." He suddenly chuckled a few times and said, "When Viggers came out, he saw the wall, and then he saw these eyeballs and the eyes of the little aliens, so dazed that there were no eyes of fear......

Everyone was silent, but the imagination of that scene, and the director's weird laughter, made them feel hairy in their hearts. Gordon Sheen couldn't help but shudder, and gave a thumbs up and laughed and shouted, "Young!"

"Whew! I'm a little perverted. Wang Yang shook his head and smiled, detached himself from the world of the storyboard, looked at Gordon and the others, and said with a smile: "But don't be afraid, I obviously won't put your eyeballs down." Everyone laughed, and he thought again, "Well, I've got to go tell Drew that I need some big eyeballs!"

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

"Okay. Wang Yang answered, gave Gordon Sheen another gesture look, and walked to the fashion design studio. When he came to the costume design studio, he knocked on the door and walked in, looked at Shanna Hayes in front of him who was cutting clothes on the table, and asked, "Shanna, what's wrong?"

Several long hangers in the room were hung with all kinds of clothes, including the uniforms of the ninth district management of the MNU, the scientists of the laboratory, the security team, the soldiers, etc., as well as some clothes of the main characters such as Victrex, which were designed and produced here. The person in charge of this department is Shanna milkovic-hayes, hearing the knock on the door, she looked up at Wang Yang who walked in, picked up the clothes in her hand, and said: "I have some new ideas, military uniforms, how do you see how this one has changed?" Wang Yang nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take a look." ”

Throughout the morning, Wang Yang walked around the various departments of the studio, communicating with everyone, solving their problems, and putting forward his own opinions and ideas. He is used to this these days, this is a director's job, leading the crew to complete these preliminary preparations, but the workload of science fiction movies is very large. This is just the beginning, and there is so much work to be done for a movie, a big production.

In addition to this, he has a lot of other directorial work to do, such as finalizing the style and plan of the shoot with Varay Pfister, purchasing or renting the required camera equipment, continuing to refine the storyboard, and answering the actors' questions about the role...... Some directors mess up because they can't coordinate departments, some lose their temper because of fussiness and pressure, and some directors just don't have the ability. Wang Yang doesn't want to be one of those directors, no matter whether he is tired or not, he must keep letting himself release positive energy and drive the whole crew to run actively and vigorously; he must also keep learning and improve his knowledge and ability in all aspects, so that he can better coordinate everyone and be a better director.

After lunch in the studio and a rest, Wang Yang left the studio and went outside, the weather in Vancouver in July was still very cool, but in Los Angeles it was extremely hot. He smiled and pulled his coat, walked briskly to the parking lot, picked up his car and headed to Fifth Avenue in West Vancouver, where the graphics engine company is located.

Within a few days of the completion of the acquisition of Flame Films, Sean Walsh officially joined Graphics Engine as a visual effects supervisor, as well as a computer production director and special effects team leader for "District 9". Of course, the special effects team at that time was just an empty shell, and for nearly a month, Sean Walsh was building this team, he traveled to many places around the world, gathered masters from all over the world to join, and finally completed it a few days ago.

The special effects team has been basically formed, and all that remains is whether the number of CG animators has increased or not, if you want to make special effects faster, then add money and people, and if you want to take your time, you can continue to maintain it. After the team was built, their work began, and the first step was to transform the designed 2D alien into a 3D image, and today is the director's acceptance day for the "alien head".

"Very cool!" Wang Yang looked at the 3D alien head on the computer screen, dragged the mouse around it, and praised it again: "Very cool." He turned his head to look at Sean Walsh, modeler Brian Mack, and Julie Clarks, who was in charge of alien appearance development, and said, "They look good, but they just don't look high enough, a little soft, can the substance be higher?"

On the desk is a clay sculpture of a head, which is the masterpiece of modeler Brian Mack, who first pinched the clay sculpture, then scanned it in 3D, and after topology again, he used software to complete the work of bioskeletonization, and then he had the prototype of the 3D figure on the screen. Next, the work was left to Julie Clarx and other members of the team responsible for texture mapping.

Hearing Wang Yang's question, Sean Walsh sighed and nodded: "Yes, this is actually not done yet." He looked at Julie-Clex, and Julie took over and explained, "We also need to do higher and more detailed texture mapping, and this model will have 21 bitmap texture materials, each of which will probably have more than 4,000 pixels, and you know that the more pixels, the more realistic it is." ”

Wang Yang hummed, listened attentively with a full face, and she continued: "These textures will include color, bumps, displacements, various parameters, wetness, roughness, ......" She took the mouse and clicked a few times, and said: "There are also reactions to various substances, such as eyes, shells, skin, hair, wounds, blood, dirt, dust, and mucus...... It's going to get more and more real. ”

"Okay, go for it, I absolutely support it!" Wang Yang laughed happily, and said seriously: "This head is very good, I have no opinion; of course, my request is more textured and more real, and there is nothing else." Julie Clarx shrugged and smiled, "That's already the highest requirement." Everyone laughed at once, Wang Yang smiled and touched the clay head, looked at Brian Mack, and said, "Wait a minute, can I take this artwork away?" ”

Brian Mac nodded happily and said, "No problem, its graphics have been scanned into the computer, and now it belongs to you!" Wang Yang picked up the clay sculpture head and raised it, and said with a smile: "Wow!"

After spending another afternoon at the graphics engine company, discussing a lot with the special effects team about the image of alien body parts, the clothing of Christopher Fussen and his son, and having dinner at a restaurant, Wang Yang returned to his hotel apartment.

The desk was covered with piles of sketch papers, all of which were designed storyboard drawings, Wang Yang stretched out with a pencil, and a wave of tiredness came up, the director really didn't do what people do, he whispered to himself: "I really want to do it." With a laugh, he continued to draw, but soon he fell asleep on the table.

Time passed minute by minute, and I don't know how long it took, the mobile phone on the pile of drawings suddenly vibrate, and the caller's name was displayed on the screen...... Wang Yang was still asleep.

(To be continued)