This is Zhang Ran's second visit to the movie channel.

After more than half a month, the younger sister who was in charge of reception at the front desk of the movie channel recognized him at a glance and smiled: "Teacher Zhang, hello!"

Zhang Ran was in a very good mood, and joked with his sister at the front desk: "I'm afraid that you won't recognize me, so I specially groomed and dressed up for a long time, so that you can strengthen your impression, but I didn't expect you to remember me, I worked in vain!"

In order to show his solemnity for this meeting, Zhang Ran put on a suit and tie, looking very formal.

The sister at the front desk laughed wildly when she heard this: "Teacher Zhang, you are really joking!"

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "I have made an appointment with your Director Yan, can you report it?"

My sister hurriedly straightened up: "Director Yan is waiting for you, please come with me." ”

"Thank you. Zhang Ran smiled, followed her with a computer bag, and walked into the building of the movie channel.

The sister at the front desk took him to the director's office, knocked, opened the door, and said with a smile: "Director, Teacher Zhang is here." With that, she went back to the front desk.

"Are you Zhang Ran, Teacher Zhang?" Yan Yueming looked at Zhang Ran, saw Zhang Ran nodding, stretched out his hand and said with a smile, "Hello! I am Yan Yueming, the director of the movie channel. ”

"Director Yan, hello!" Zhang Ran shook Yan Yueming's hand. As long as people who watch movie channel programs, they basically know Yan Yueming, because the movie channel programs all say producer Yan Yueming at the beginning.

After beckoning Zhang Ran to sit down, Yan Yueming made a call and asked people from several departments of the movie channel to come over.

People came soon, and in addition to Yue Tao, there were also heads of several departments.

Yan Yueming gave an introduction to Zhang Ran, including Liu Ming, director of the editor-in-chief's office, Chen Zhiqiang, director of the film purchase and sales department, and so on. These people will definitely deal with each other in the future, and Zhang Ran greeted everyone very politely.

After greetings, Yue Tao said directly: "Mr. Zhang, in addition to talking about cooperation, I also want to know about the special effects of "Time Prisoner", please introduce it to everyone!"

"Time Prisoner" has very few special effects shots, but it is extremely significant, especially the special effects of the flying car, which is the key to bringing the audience into 40 years later. As soon as the audience looks at this shot, he doesn't need to explain, he knows that this is the future.

"I said directly, everyone can't understand it, let's watch a simple special effect first, I did it!" Zhang Ran turned on the computer, clicked on a video, and played it.

The video shows a seaside with a large rock in the middle, and the sky is cloudy and raining. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the entire scene, followed by several bolts of lightning.

After the video was played, Zhang Ran pointed to the screen on the display screen and said: "This video looks like it was shot with a camera, right? Actually, no, I made it with a photo and other materials." ”

Everyone present was taken aback: "How is this possible?"

Zhang Ran clicked on AE's document, pointed to the file screen, and demonstrated to everyone: "This is a picture I downloaded from the Internet, a picture of the seaside, and a big rock in the middle of the picture. I import the image into AE, then I import a video of the sky with dark clouds rolling under the image, and then I create a mask layer to partially block the sky of the image, so that the sky with rolling clouds replaces the sky of the image. Now the picture is moving, the sky is full of dark clouds, but the light on the ground is very bright, and it looks like it was taken on a sunny day, which is uncoordinated. At this time, the color of the picture is darkened through AE, and it looks like a cloudy day. Next, create a new layer, use the ion plug-in to make raindrops, make water waves on the ground, and this video will rain. It's the same with lightning, create a new layer and use the lightning plugin to import a lightning material. In addition, when lightning flashes, the surrounding sky will brighten, so the surrounding environment needs to be brightened, which can be done with the Fractal Noise plugin. There are many details to deal with later, so I won't talk about it. After doing it, everyone will see the effect. ”

After watching Zhang Ran's demonstration, the people present basically understood it, and were a little surprised: "It's that simple?"

Zhang Ran said with a smile: "The principle is actually not difficult, it mainly depends on patience, of course, it is not easy to do a good job and be true and credible." It's just lightning effects, and the flying car effects at the end of the movie are much more complicated, you need to shoot with a green screen, you need to build a 3D model of the car, and you need to build a 3D model of the street where the car flies, which I can't show you. ”

However, several people in charge of the movie channel were very interested in the footage of the car flying in the air and wanted to know how it was made, so Zhang Ran simply gave them a science popularization of the process of special effects.

Movie special effects are particularly important in the early stages of storyboarding, as you need to determine which parts of the picture need special effects and what special effects to use, and when you use a camera to shoot in the shooting stage, you need to control the shooting method to leave enough space for post-production, such as Life of Pi The tiger is made by the computer, and the space for the tiger must be set aside for the lens when shooting, if the space is not enough, the tiger can't be put down at that time, then it will be troublesome; in the later stage, the special effects team will combine the real shot with the special effects in the computer to produce the desired picture effect.

Take the special effects of the flying car that Zhang Ran is going to do, for example, you must first determine the required materials, the material of the car, the material of the window glass, etc., and draw a sketch of the car, and then let the special effects staff make a 3D model of the car in the computer according to the design drawing, and at the same time, you must also make a car model according to the outline of the car, brush it with green paint, and the actors will perform in the model of the car during shooting.

Once the 3D model is created, the lighting and materials department must add the appropriate light and materials to the car, so that the car looks real and has a texture. The lighting effect is a difficult point for special effects, which must be in line with the scene of the movie and must be realistic.

After the 3D model of the car is completed, the 3D model of the car can be combined with the shot of the actor performing in the green model in the post-production, and the green model can be removed and replaced with a 3D model, so that the special effect of the actor driving the car of the future can be made.

However, in the story of "Time Prisoner", the car is flying in the air, so this composite image has to be put into the scene of the movie, put it in the air, so that the shot of the movie becomes the actor flying in the air in a car. Then, the shot was handed over to the rendering department for rendering to make the picture more realistic.

It was only then that the special effects shot of the flying car was completed.

After Zhang Ran finished talking about the process of special effects, Yan Yueming asked, "It sounds quite complicated, can you make it for 1.2 million?"

Zhang Ran nodded and said: "1.2 million should be able to be made, the cost of the actor is expected to be 15w, the cost of equipment and props venues is 300,000, the crew is 150,000, 500,000 is for post-production and special effects, and the remaining 100,000 is for mobility!"

Many companies cooperate with movie channels to make films, and with a budget of 1 million, they often invite directors to 10w, actors 20w, equipment and other expenses 20w, plus production costs of 10w, and the rest becomes the company's profit.

Zhang Ran planned to spend all the money on filming and production, which surprised the people on the movie channel: "In this way, won't you and Qingying Studio have no income?"

"The important thing is to make a good movie, people can't just look at the immediate interests!" Zhang Ran smiled, looked at Yan Yueming and said, "But the Qingying Studio is really not very easy to explain, so I have a request, I will go to pull some sponsorship, hoping to use the sponsorship fee as our income!"

A TV movie can get a sponsorship of at most one or two hundred thousand, and the movie channel earns billions a year, so how can you put this little money in your eyes. Yan Yueming waved his hand and said, "You just have to pull it, how much money is yours." ”

Huang Heping from the International Department asked: "Last year, Shanghai Film Studio filmed "Emergency Landing", and reported the more than 5-minute stunt shots in the film to a digital film and television production company in the United States, and the other party quoted 2 million US dollars, and finally Shanghai Film Studio made it itself, and it also took 5 million. Although there are not many special effects in "Time Prisoner", can you make it with such a small amount of money?"

"Emergency Landing is a movie, and if it is to be released in theaters, the resolution of the picture is very high, while "Time Prisoner" is broadcast on TV, and the resolution does not have to be so high. Let's put it this way, the special effects of "Emergency Landing" should be the size of a movie screen, while "Time Prisoner" should be the size of a TV screen. The larger the picture of the special effects, the more time-consuming it is to render, like "Avatar", no, the special effects of "Titanic" take half an hour to render, and there are at least 24 shots in one second, and it takes more than ten hours to render alone. Therefore, Hollywood does not use a separate computer to render special effects, but uses a render farm, and the render farm is a supercomputer like Dawn, and even so, a special effects team of thousands of people has to do it for a year and a half!"

Everyone suddenly realized: "So that's the case!"

Yan Yueming asked: "How long does it take for the special effects of "Time Prisoner" to be completed, and can they be completed before the Spring Festival? If so, we will arrange it to be broadcast during the Spring Festival!"

Zhang Ran nodded and said, "It should be possible for you to see the finished film within three months." You can rest assured about the special effects, what takes time is the 3D model of the car and the street, and the special effects team will start modeling during the preparation period, and when we finish filming and editing, we are almost ready, and we can compose it directly!"

In Hollywood, special effects are managed by the special effects supervisor, and every step of the special effects production has to be reviewed by the special effects supervisor. However, domestic computer special effects have just started, and there is no such talent at all, even if there is Zhang Ran, he can't afford it, he can only take on this responsibility himself.

Zhang Ran talked with the people of the movie channel for a whole afternoon, and finally signed the contract. At Zhang Ran's request, the issue of sponsorship was written into the contract.

With the contract of the movie channel, Zhang Ran can rest assured and boldly solicit sponsorship.

Coming out of the building of the movie channel, Zhang Ran raised his hands and shouted at the sky: "It's finally time to wait for this day!"

(Thanks to "Matic" for the reward!Ask for collection, ask for recommendation!)