In Xiangjiang, he didn't expect that someone would find himself to do special effects makeup, and now he is an actor, and he hasn't touched special effects makeup for several years.

Is this the opportunity that we have finally been waiting for after a long wait? Lian Kai asked himself, he didn't know the answer, after all, he had experienced too many disappointments.

Although he didn't dare to report too much hope, it was always a chance, and this person's film had just been shortlisted for the Berlin Film Festival, maybe he wouldn't be as ignorant as other directors, so Lian Kai agreed to meet Cheng Peng.

Two days later, Lian Kai walked into Cheng Peng's office, and when he saw Cheng Peng, he was slightly stunned, only twenty-three or four years old, so young?

Lian Kai did not look down on Cheng Peng because of this, but looked forward to it even more, young people are full of passion, good at learning, and may know more about special effects than other directors.

Cheng Peng was also looking at Lian Kai, he felt that although this person was an actor, he did not have such a strong worldly spirit, his eyes were clear, his expression was melancholy, and he had a sense of indifference and alienation from an artist.

After greetings, Lian Kai asked, "How do you know that I can do special effects makeup?" ”

Cheng Peng smiled and said: "Because my movie needs special effects makeup, this makeup must be very real, after the mask is attached to the face, it must be able to move, and it must have a real texture, there is no talent in this area in China, I plan to look for it in Hollywood, and I accidentally saw your information on the Internet, and I found you." ”

Lian Kai's eyes lit up when he heard that the mask should be able to move, and it had to have a real texture, which required high makeup skills, and specialized materials: "What kind of mask, animal, or monster do you want to make?" ”

Cheng Peng clicked on the storyboard, turned the notebook to Lian Kai, and said with a smile: "Let's read the storyboard first, you play Chen Ran's husband, and you will understand it after you finish reading the storyboard." ”

"Good!" Lian Kai took the mouse, flipped through the pages and looked at the storyboard page by page, and after a few pages, he found that the character he was going to play was hit by a car and died, and he died in minutes at the beginning, which is also called the male protagonist?

However, the story is quite exciting, which attracts him to continue reading, and the pace of the story is fast, and the six female caves first encounter various dangers in the cave, and then the monsters appear.

His breath stagnated slightly, and his heart, which had been a special effects makeup artist, suddenly became restless, and the images of various monsters in his mind couldn't stop changing, like a quick flashback shot of a movie, if I were to design it, what would these monsters look like?

After a short period of distraction, Lian Kai continues to read, six female surnames flee in the cave, accidents keep happening, conflicts keep happening, and death keeps coming, and finally the end of the story comes.

After reading the story, Lian Kai was dumbfounded by the ending, broke out in a cold sweat, and was completely speechless. He didn't know what to say, from heaven to hell, extreme despair, cold all over, like a stone in his heart, it was very uncomfortable.

The story is so good, and there is a deep excavation of people's surnames, this will definitely be a good movie, so handsome!

Lian Kai's heart was beating a little hard, he wanted to do this special effects makeup, and he wanted to design the monsters in the story. His idol is H.R. Giger, the designer of the Alien, who once participated in the special effects makeup of "Alien 3" and personally participated in the production of that great monster.

For a long time, he had a dream in his heart, hoping that one day he could design a monster that would go down in film history like H.R. Giger, and hoped that the monster he designed would scare the audience.

In order to realize this dream, he left Hollywood and returned to Xiangjiang, he felt that Xiangjiang special effects makeup was relatively backward, and there was enough space for him to show his hands and feet, but the ideal was very plump, the reality was very skinny, no one in Xiangjiang paid attention to this, and even fewer people understood, and he had no chance at all.

There are too many directors who don't understand special effects, and there are too few who are willing to spend money, what kind of director is the young man in front of him?

Lian Kai glanced at Cheng Peng and said: "It's no problem to help you do special effects, but you have to understand that special effects are very expensive, the monsters in the movie need to make masks according to the face shape of the actors, and they must use professional foam latex from the United States, this kind of latex is soft, has a bullet surname, and sticks to the face to move with people's expressions, and I can't do makeup alone, I have to invite it from a foreign country, air tickets, and accommodation have to cost money, and makeup alone can't be done without two or three million, your cave needs to be modeled, which is more expensive than makeup." How much do you invest in this movie, and how much are you going to spend on special effects? ”

Cheng Peng knew what Lian Kai was worried about, glanced at him, and said lightly: "The budget is 20 million, and the cost of special effects is 10 million." ”

The cost of the original version of the film is only 3.5 million US dollars, that is, about 2,800 yuan, and it is filmed with 20 million yuan in China, which is quite abundant.

Lian Kai was taken aback, he thought that the investment of 10 million in this film would be the sky, but he didn't expect the investment to be as high as 20 million, and he didn't expect Cheng Peng to take back 10 million to make special effects: "I took this job, 10 million, now there are too few directors like you in China who are willing to spend money!" ”

Cheng Peng nodded and said: "On the one hand, the audience likes to watch stars, and the director spends money on stars, and has no money to do special effects; On the other hand, there are too few directors who understand special effects, everyone does not have this concept, many directors think that special effects are all things in the later stage, and they don't pay attention to the early stage at all. ”

Now Lian Kai is sure that Cheng Peng really understands special effects, Cheng Peng said a very important place, special effects are divided into early and late stages, only by doing a good job of early special effects and laying a solid foundation can real effects be made in the later stage.

"Wuji" is a particularly typical example, there is a bull running scene in the movie, people and the bull are completely disconnected, and the bull itself is completely disjointed, which looks particularly fake. If you let a Hollywood director do it, you have to think about how to design the lens in the early stage to add special effects, and when you actually shoot it, you will arrange some fake cows, arrange a green screen, replace them on the basis of these fake cows in the later stage, and then synthesize them with the characters, so as to produce a realistic effect.

Lian Kai has been back from Hollywood for a few years, and now he always meets a director who understands special effects and is willing to spend money, which makes him feel like he has met a bosom friend: "You are so right, special effects are divided into pre-stage and post-stage, only in the early stage of careful design, do all kinds of things well, in the later stage can make realistic effects, "Jurassic Park" made a total of 200 special effects team for dinosaur models, did two years of early stage, two years later. ”

But he quickly laughed: "You monsters are too ugly, and too human-like, since they are monsters living in caves, you should avoid human features, the design of monsters must conform to biology, bones must be reconstructed, the skin glued on must conform to the environment, fingertips and teeth must also be specially designed, and the most important thing is the eyes, if you can see the human feeling from the eyes, it will definitely not work, and the monster needs to find a special person to design." ”

It's not the first time that Cheng Peng has been said to be ugly, he doesn't care at all: "This is a storyboard for me, just understand the meaning." Monsters must be designed by someone.,You're an art student.,I see you draw a lot now.,If you can.,I'd like you to design.。 ”

Lian Kai was stunned for a moment and asked, "How do you know that I still paint a lot?" ”

"You have paint on your fingernails, you can't be unshaven nail polish, right?"

Lian Kai looked at his fingers, and sure enough, there was paint, and he smiled: "You observed really carefully, you are right, painting and special effects makeup are my interests, and the monster will be designed by me!" ”

At this moment, Cheng Peng finally said his real purpose for finding Lian Kai: "I have an idea, because most of the movies I will make in the future are special effects movies, so I want to set up a special effects studio." Ten years ago, when Weta was founded, there were only four or five people, three or four computers, and now Weta is the best special effects company in time, what Peter Jackson can do, we may not be able to do, are you interested in being the head of this studio? ”

Lian Kai was taken aback, Vita, isn't this idea too crazy, and said with a smile: "Vita, you really dare to think about it!" ”

Cheng Peng does have this confidence, and his confidence comes from a company called Beifeishi, which is called basefx in English.

In 2006, BASEFX was founded in Beijing, and the owner is American, but the employees are basically Chinese.

In 2010, BaseFX won the 62nd Emmy Award for Best Visual Effects for his special effects work on War in the Pacific.

In 2011, BaseFX won the 63rd Emmy Award for Best Visual Effects for Seaside Empire.

At the end of May 2012, BaseFX and ILM officially started working together to produce most of the special effects for the film Pacific Rim.

BaseFX also made special effects for domestic films at the beginning, and then developed step by step, and finally killed Hollywood, since BaseFX can be successful, then why can't I?

Of course, Cheng Peng will not tell Lian Kai about this, but analyzes it from the perspective of the market: "The key to the development of a special effects studio is whether it can continue to receive projects, Weta is developed by Peter Jackson's films, my films need special effects, and there will be no shortage of special effects work; And we have no opponents in China, there are many CG in China, but there are no makeup and models, the domestic market is very large, and it will get bigger and bigger. Now there are movie theaters opening every day in China, and the increase in screens is as high as 30%, at this rate, after seven or eight years, the number of screens will be close to 10,000, and then the domestic film market can support a blockbuster. The monsters in "Journey to the West", the immortals in "The God List", and the monsters in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", if they can appear on the screen, how magnificent and magnificent it is, don't you want to achieve it with your own hands? ”

Although the dream has gradually been lost, but those scenes, those monsters, countless times appeared in Lian Kai's dreams, never forgotten, he is only 35 years old, the blood is still hot, his answer is categorical: "I want to, I want to dream about it!" ”

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