People in the film industry envy Li Xiaole, respect him, and sympathize with him, but at the same time, they feel extremely incomprehensible about this Li Jesus's new film, many of them have seen the script outline of the upcoming movies of major companies at the end of the year from various channels, on the big scene, exciting, the duel between good and evil between the Joker and Batman in "The Dark Knight" is absolutely shocking, and the plot is rich in expression of human nature "Rejuvenation", "No Country for Old Men" are all wonderful works, even if the exotic story "Slumdog Millionaire" is described with an alternative theme It can also be said to be the leader......

Why did Li Xiaole's "Life of Pi" stand out in such a cruel competition? No one can think of a way, and no one can know the answer.

So when everyone learned that Li Xiaole spent a huge amount of money to shoot the wreckage in deep water, they couldn't help but sigh, maybe this miracle director, who is known as undefeated at the box office, is really crazy...... It's like Francis Coppola after filming "The Godfather" back then...... It's completely out of touch with the market.

They didn't realize the deep meaning of Li Xiaole's doing, the footage of the wreck in the deep sea can not only be used to recreate the footage of the wreck in the movie, but also can get countless real details of the movie, the decorations, costumes, accessories, and even the scenery of that era can be 100% restored, which will make the artistry and visual effects of this film reach a new height.

As early as a month ago, after Li Xiaole decided to shoot the movie "Life of Pi", he set up a set next to a dock in Calcutta, India, where the raw materials for building a filming boat were relatively cheap, and the crew only needed to hoist the various sets on a container ship, and then go to the Bay of Bengal to shoot, Li Xiaole was very satisfied with the light in the high-latitude area here, and he invited Ingmar Bergman's royal photographer Sven Nickwes, who could use this light to the fullest.

But Li Xiaole not only had to set sail with the restored "Lancastria", he also had to sink her, which meant that they needed a pool.

"We were going to use the old way of building a pool set by the sea, so we could use the ocean, the sky and natural light in the distance to make the overtime scene look more realistic, and we could pan the camera to create the illusion of movement......," Fred said when he suggested it, not knowing how much it would cost, but only from a purely cinematic point of view.

But when he learned the time and investment figures, the president of the British Drama Council was stunned on the spot...... He never knew that Hollywood-level movies would cost so much money......

Everyone knows that realistic set effects are better than special effects, but the difficulty of doing it is far more difficult than using software in front of a computer......

But Li Xiaole didn't reject this opinion, just clapped his hands calmly and said, "Okay, let's start doing it~~~"

Li Xiaole has a fire burning in his heart~ Since he wants to have no 3D special effects and surpass the great Ang Lee, then he must do more than Ang Lee, he must surpass his previous limits, and use the shooting effects of real scenes to defeat Ang Lee's beautiful 3D special effects a few years later~!

So the crew found a cliff no more than 100 feet from the sea in Kolkata, in Li Xiaole's opinion, the skyline here looks very clean, and there are no islands or busy ships, which is very beautiful to film.

And what makes Li Xiaole even more gratified is that the cost of human resources in India is very cheap, much cheaper than that of the United States, which has eased his financial pressure a lot, and the return of "Captain America" and "Hulk" has not completely returned to Black Pearl, and now he is gritting his teeth to make this movie.

And this decision also made Li Xiaole's royal Korean set designer Xu Zhen almost scream out of excitement, you must know that even if it is the kind of large-scale scene in "Iron Man", it is completely impossible to make this kind of 10,000-ton giant ship out of thin air to make it exciting, this will definitely be the grandest set in his career! This is the pinnacle of his career as a set prop! It is a work that can be famous in the history of photography!!

But before Xu Zhen finished his excitement, Li Xiaole looked at his old partner and put forward a request that can be called ****: "My request is very simple, although this ship only appeared in the filmmaker for more than ten minutes, but I need his effect to surpass James Cameron's "Titanic". ”

"Beyond the Titanic?" Xu Zhen's brain was dazed for a while when he heard this, and he began to wonder if Li Xiaole was crazy...... This standard is too unrealistic, which means that he wants to surpass the prop master of "Alien 2", "True Lies", "Titanic", and Peter Lamont, who is recognized as a "set magician" in the circle? Are you kidding......

Li Xiaole is not joking, there is nothing to stop him now, the benchmark in his mind is the two high mountains of Ang Lee and James Cameron, he must surpass them~

After deciding on this idea, Li Xiaole put a model boat on a table that day, stayed there for the whole day, observed the light and shadow effects at different moments of the day, and made smoke from time to time, to see how it moved in minutes, he studied for ten hours, shot the deck and the upper cabin from different angles, and then went back to carefully study the video to make sure that all the shots in his mind were implemented.

After Li Xiaole finalized all the details, Xu Zhen's nightmare began, and in less than two weeks, 2,000 Indian and American construction workers began building the largest soundstage in the history of the world's cinema until the thirties of the twentieth century.

At the beginning of the project, Bollywood decided to build the seaside pool and scenery into the company's permanent real estate, and it will be one of the Bollywood studios in the future, which is also a prerequisite for Bollywood's senior management to help Li Xiaole get the government department.

The project plan that made Xu Zhen almost collapse was like this, and such a few facilities were completed in 100 days...... Covering an area of 40 acres, a large studio with five studios, the largest outdoor photography pool in the world, the largest indoor photography pool in the world, the highest studio in the world, a costume building, an actor building, four office buildings and processing facilities......

Moreover, during this time, the workers of another engineering group also had to build a replica of the "Lancastria" oil tanker in the same city, which was roughly the same as the grandeur of the original ship, although the "Lancastria" was not as delicate as the Titanic, a symbol of luxury in the Gilded Age, but the volume was even larger than it, and the ship took 14,000 workers and more than three years to complete.

The 12-storey replica of "Lancastria" designed by Li Xiaole is 786 feet long, and this set uses a one-to-one ratio, but the length is reduced by 100 feet by cutting off many repetitive parts in the middle, which also allows the replica to be accommodated on the land that has just been bought by Bollywood.

After reading the drawings, Fred and Xu Zhen were completely shocked, and they were completely frightened by Li Xiaole's ambition...... Where is this filming, this is completely to build the shell of a 10,000-ton giant ship......

"This can't be done, this can't be done." In charge of the construction of the replica of "Lancastria" by Black Pearl Company, Indian designer Cody Terry said in half-baked English, although the Indian designer was educated in the United Kingdom, but the accent is exactly the same as Raj in "The Big Bang Theory", so that Li Xiaole always can't help but want to laugh.

"The construction period is 100 days, and we will shoot this plot after the last day, I believe you should be able to catch up." Li Xiaole feels that there is plenty of time, James Cameron's team did it 10 years ago, and now that technology has advanced so much, of course they can do it.

"Wait, boss...... The ...... Vessels...... The ship structure is too complicated, and you ...... You also have to pursue realistic textures, which I'm afraid is really hard to press...... Finish on time. Xu Zhen, who was already an Oscar winner, couldn't help but nervously dissuade him.

"Lord Shiva is on top~~ It will take at least 6 months to make such a whole ship!!" Designer Cody Terry looked at Li Xiaole, put his hands in front of his chest angrily and said, he hates this kind of layman to command him the most, three months...... No kidding.

"Poof~" Li Xiaole looked at his angry appearance, and listened to his tongue-flicking Indian accent, and unconsciously remembered the plot of Raj spoiling his friend Howard in "The Big Bang Theory", and finally couldn't help but be amused by him.

"What's so funny!!" Cody Terry stared at those big eyelashes with extra-long eyelashes, and glared at Li Xiaole angrily, this guy not only loves to blindly command, but also laughs at his accent! It's so rude.

"Sorry...... I'm sorry......" Li Xiaole desperately held back a smile, took a deep breath several times before reluctantly putting on the director's tone and said: "We don't need to make a whole ship, strictly speaking, we only need to make half a ship, and the other side only needs to build a shelf, we just need to build the left half." Li Xiaole said as he gestured.

"So how do you plan to shoot a panoramic shot? And those close-ups? Fred immediately heard Li Xiaole's clever thinking, and reminded in a deep voice:

"If you plan to use the other half of the computer special effects synthesis, I'm afraid the effect will be greatly reduced after the release, with the degree of exquisite construction of your current physical model, plus natural light, if you want to do the other side of the computer CG special effects synthesis, the cost is probably about the same as you do full CG......"

Generally speaking, the physical object and CG are coordinated with the real thing in front and the CG background in the back, and it is too difficult to make two sides of the same object like this, and it is almost impossible to match the precision and fineness with the light.