Two days later, Zhao Fei, who had attended a training on new equipment organized by the Cinematographers Guild in the United States, came directly to Lin'an, accompanied by the 3D photography team of the film "Hugo" led by cinematographer Dimmit Porter.

The movie "Hugo" has not yet been released, but as a reborn, Zhang Ran knows that "Hugo" is one of the best 3D movies after "Avatar". In order to make his new film better in 3D, he directly packaged the 3D photography team of "Hugo".

After Zhao Fei and the others arrived in Lin'an, Zhang Ran quickly held a meeting to discuss the issue of virtual photography. Zhao Fei is a traditional photographer, and he still wants to shoot in real time and compose it after shooting, while Dimit Potelli and the 3D photography team think that since it is going to be 3D, it is better to take virtual photography.

After weighing it, Zhang Ran decided to go with virtual photography. However, the virtual photography had to be carried out in a special virtual studio, and he would have to find the person in charge of Century Film Metropolis and ask them to transform the existing studio into a virtual studio.

Next, Zhang Ran and the others began to discuss the issue of 3D.

The world that people see with the naked eye has a three-dimensional sense, because the subtle angular differences between the two eyes are transmitted to the brain through the retina, and the front and back of the scene can be distinguished, and then a strong three-dimensional sense is generated. 3D film is a method of observing the scenery with the human eye, using two movie cameras placed side by side, representing the left and right eyes of the person, to simultaneously shoot two film images with slight horizontal parallax. During the projection, the two movie films are loaded into the left and right movie projectors respectively, and they run synchronously to form a double shadow of the left and right images. When the audience wears special polarized glasses, the left and right images are superimposed on the retina through the binocular convergence function, and the brain nerves produce a three-dimensional visual effect.

3D movies are developed on the basis of ordinary movies, and these techniques can be used, but 3D movies are still different from ordinary movies in production, and 3D technology has brought many restrictions to the shooting of movies. For example, the editing of a 3D movie cannot be too fast, because it takes about 3 seconds for the human eye to perceive the content in the shot, and 5 seconds to perceive the content in the 3D shot. If you can't reach this time, you won't feel the 3D effect, and if you make a 3D style movie like "Spy", it will definitely not have much effect.

There are many similar problems, which is the fundamental reason why Zhang Ran chose Dimit Porter as a 3D photographer, he hopes to work with people who have experience in shooting 3D films, listen to their opinions, and try to avoid detours.

Zhang Ran looked at Dimit Porter and said, "You have experience in shooting 3D movies, and I'm a complete rookie, so I'd like to hear your advice on what problems we need to avoid." ”

When Dimit Porter heard Zhang Ran say this, he immediately explained: "In the process of filming "Hugo", we found that if the film is full of 3D, it is difficult to have a strong impact. The best way to achieve the best 3D effect is to hold the flat effect for a while, wait until the moment is needed, and then release it at once, so that the effect is doubled. If you think about it, you first see a flat, shallow image, and then you forget about 3D for a while, and then all of a sudden, boom! 3D effect comes out, and it feels amazing!"

Zhang Ran smiled: "It feels like watching a horror movie, and suddenly it's like that!"

Dimit Porter nodded with a smile and continued: "Another point, we find that a lot of times a single shot looks particularly good in 3D, and you will see the objects in the frame rushing towards you, which makes people stunned, but putting a single shot in the whole movie often does not achieve the desired effect, and there is no sense of shock. ”

Zhang Ran nodded, Cameron had also said this question to him, and said: "Although 3D technology has appeared for a hundred years, making movies in 3D is still a new challenge for any director. The application of new technologies will definitely bring a new film language, and to find a film language that belongs to 3D, everyone needs to work hard and continue to explore. ”

Dimit Portley suddenly laughed: "Scorsese heard that you were going to make a 3D movie, and said that the lens language of 3D movies is still in the stage of development and enrichment of the traditional film lens language, but with the deepening of 3D creation, it will usher in the great development of 3D film language, and you are most likely to make a breakthrough." ”

Zhang Ran does not have a great passion for 3D movies, because he believes that VR movies are the future, and 3D movies will inevitably be replaced by VR movies. However, he didn't say this, and said with a smile: "Martin thinks too highly of me, and he says that I am too stressed." But really, 3D is a new topic, and we had to take enough time to test it out and find the ideal audiovisual language for our film. ”

The whole meeting lasted for a week, and after a series of discussions about the special effects and shooting of the film, Zhang Ran took the camera crew to test the 3D photography.

In the preparation of a film, cinematographers often test their cameras because each machine has different light sensors. They come in different qualities, different tolerances, different color spaces, color depths, as well as overexposed and underexposed performances, pseudo-moiré expressions, and so on. As a photographer, you have to find out the advantages of the camera you are using and use it in your own way, rather than relying on someone to tell you the advantages of the machine. At the same time, it is important to avoid the shortcomings of the cameras, so that they do not interfere with the picture of the film.

Camera testing is often the work of the camera crew, and the director doesn't have to worry about it at all. However, this time it is different, 3D shooting is also a new topic for Zhang Ran, and the use of 3D shooting has restrictions on the audio-visual language of the film, and at the same time, it has created new possibilities, as a director Zhang Ran can only make a truly excellent 3D film by understanding this.

Zhang Ran: The test system was not a 3D photography system bought from James Cameron last year, but a device developed by the Tiangong Chongcai Beiping team through the purchase. THE CAMERA USES TWO RED EPIC CAMERAS, THE LATEST FROM RED, WHICH IS CAPABLE OF SHOOTING IN 5K AND IS LIGHT ENOUGH TO BE EASY TO OPERATE. The 3D mount for the camera is a German P+S mount, which can quickly and accurately control the two cameras, which is very easy to use.

At the same time that Zhang Ran took the photography team to conduct a 3D photography test, Century Shadow began to invest 50 million yuan to transform a virtual studio covering an area of 1,000 square meters in the first phase of the project according to Zhang Ran's requirements. When the renovation is complete, the studio will replace Universal Pictures' virtual studio as the world's largest virtual sound stage.

At the same time, the special effects team was also busy preparing for Zhang Ran's new film, they began to draw concept drawings and began to make 3D storyboards; After tossing for nearly a month, Zhang Ran finally made a decision on a handsome dog with a particularly good image and temperament. After the model was finalized, the special effects crew began sampling the selected dog to capture its movements and expressions.

The time soon entered June, and on June 6, the anniversary of the Normandy landing, "Edge of Tomorrow" was simultaneously released in many countries and regions such as China and the United States. The combination of alien creatures invading the earth, rookie training and transformation into heroes, mechanical armor, long-range missile warfare, and handsome guys and beauties made the movie rave reviews after its release. The film topped the box office with a North American opening of $55.43 million, beating "The Hangover 2" and "Kung Fu Panda 2," which were released for two weeks. Outside of North America, "Edge of Tomorrow" also broke out in full swing, especially in Asia, where it won 210 million yuan at the box office in its first week in China, and "Edge of Tomorrow" earned $210 million worldwide in its first week, winning the global box office championship in one fell swoop.

Over the next two weeks, Edge of Tomorrow continued to heat up globally, quickly surpassing the $400 million mark, and the film's final box office could break the $600 million mark. Brother Tom, who has been languishing for several years, has finally rejuvenated smoothly with the help of Summit Entertainment!

Although Fan Binbin played a supporting role in "Edge of Tomorrow", he was definitely not a soy sauce role with only one or two lines, and he definitely did not only appear in the special version, and there were many scenes, so it attracted great attention from domestic fans and media. Fan Binbin's studio naturally won't let go of this opportunity, and issued a press release, what "foreign media praise Fan Binbin's appeal bunker", Fan Binbin's Yan presses Emily Blunt", etc.; and Fan Binbin's fans are even more excited, changing Fan Binbin's title from "Fan Ye" to "International Fan", declaring that "my family Binbin is the real international fan".

Until the end of June, Zhang Ran was still leading the photography team to conduct 3D photography tests. During the two-month test, Zhang Ran and the others encountered countless problems, and sometimes it took a couple of hours to solve a small problem. However, the effort is worth it, Zhang Ran has a new understanding of 3D technology, and he found that 3D is not only a technology, but also like push, pull and pan, it can be used as a film language and can become a part of the film narrative.

In the studio of Century Film Metropolis, Zhang Ran and the others are wearing 3D glasses, standing in front of a huge 52-inch monitor to watch the 3D footage that has just been edited.

On the screen, a man is knocking the door, followed by a man's face. Both lenses are flat and have no three-dimensional effect. When the knocker saw that no one answered in the room, he turned to leave. When he leaves, the picture still has no sense of depth, it is still flat.

But at this moment, the door behind him suddenly opened, and a man appeared in front of him. This shot is a panoramic shot, just when the man opened the door, Zhang Ran and they clearly felt that the wall stood out from the screen, as if they really pushed open a door, as if they were standing in front of the door, so that someone let out an exclamation of "wow".

After taking off the 3D glasses, Zhang Ran pointed to the 3D monitor and analyzed: "Knocking on the door, close-up of the face, and the leaving shot, the audience's point of view is on the surface of the screen, the picture is relatively flat, and there is no sense of depth;

Everyone in the audience nodded their heads, and the effect was indeed better than shooting several shots in 3D.

Zhao Fei nodded and added: "Combined with the previous content, coupled with the sense of presence, I feel as if something is going to happen." ”

Zhang Ran nodded and said: "I also feel this way, I am particularly uneasy, I think this is a bit of the meaning of the Kulishov effect, as long as the 3D lens is used properly, it can have some psychological hints to the audience, and even make them automatically associate, this kind of 3D effect only belongs to 3D movies!"

Just as he was talking happily, Zhang Ran's mobile phone rang suddenly, and he picked it up and looked at it, slightly surprised. He said hello to Zhao Fei and the others, walked to the side and connected the phone.