"Okay, I got it."

The stretch from Queenstown to Granochy, rated as one of the top 10 road trips in the world, is a beautiful stretch of scenery along the lake, sometimes spiraling over the mountains, and standing on the observation deck at the pass, you can look down on Lake Wakatipu.

One of Queenstown's most beautiful and touching landmarks, Lake Wakatipu is a stunning sapphire blue, with Mt Cook and the Southern Alps across the lake on both sides of the lake, and the white snow on the brown peaks is clearly reflected in the sapphire blue water.

However, in the face of such a pleasant landscape, Lin Yuquan, who hung up the phone, showed a wry smile on his face, and his expression was quite distressed.

While the plot is the true soul of a movie, there's no denying the extraordinary role that thrilling disaster special effects play in a disaster movie.

Although the number of special effects in "Immediate Rescue" is not as large as that of the $200 million disaster giant "2012", and the core is to show people's strength in the face of disasters, his emphasis on special effects is undoubted, and in about 10 minutes or so, he hopes to present the audience with the most staggering magnificent earthquake scenes, which is why "Immediate Rescue" may become the most expensive Chinese-language film.

After starting to prepare for the filming, Lin Yuquan immediately contacted ILM's old friend, Carl Stoker, the current general manager, because the reason why ILM is not Weta Digital, which has a happy cooperation, is naturally a good reason to make such a choice.

On the one hand, Weta Digital may be the only special effects company in the world that can compete with industrial light and magic. Possess top-notch special effects production capabilities. Covita Digital is not omniscient either. Actually, it's not very good at earthquake physics.

On the other hand, Weta Digital's manpower is limited after all, and now Weta Digital is busy with the special effects of "Avatar", and he will soon hand over the special effects work of "Wild Legends: Hundred Clans" to the other party, and he is no longer able to undertake more large-scale special effects work, at least he cannot complete the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue" within the time specified by him.

From Lin Yuquan's point of view, of course, he is happy to cooperate with Industrial Light and Magic, which has already worked together twice before, for the third time, therefore. I also contacted ILM as soon as possible.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, just now, he received a message from Carl. Stoker's callback, the other party said that after a detailed discussion at the meeting, it was determined that it was impossible to lead the completion of the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue" within the specified time according to his requirements, because Industrial Light & Magic really had no spare energy, and they were doing the special effects of "Avatar" and "Transformers 2", two special effects masterpieces, and at the same time, they were also doing special effects for several medium-budget productions of "Future Warriors", "Prophet", and "Terminator 2018".

General VFX practitioners can also be recruited quickly. But the top VFX directors and VFX professionals can't do it and want to work with ILM again. Unless he is willing to choose to wait, and the waiting time must not be short, at least more than half a year.

But the problem is that Lin Yuquan can't spend so much time waiting, his "Immediate Rescue" will start filming soon, and the special effects company must immediately cooperate with the filming work, and there are also scheduling considerations, he hopes that it is best to catch up with next year's summer schedule.

Which special effects company should be chosen as the leading company? In addition to Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, the names of a series of well-known foreign special effects companies quickly appeared in Lin Yuquan's mind, such as Digital Domain, Sony Graphic Images, Tippet, Coffee, Acelent, Offenici, Lehew, Rhythm & Color, Senaset, Gui Images, FramestoreCFC, Mill, and Picture Warehouse in the United Kingdom? , Double Negation, Moving Image, Senisset, Animal Logic in Australia, FuelVFX, Buffyne in France, Pixomondo in Germany, Daejeon Imaging Special Center in Korea

Among these companies, the most well-known are of course the digital field and Sony graphics images, which were previously known as the world's four top special effects companies with Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital.

For the two, Lin Yuquan didn't want to veto, the advantage of technology in the digital field lies in particle effects, the most praised is the simulation and digitization of complex flowing objects such as seawater, which is vividly reflected in the atmosphere and ocean special effects in "The Day After Tomorrow" and the naval combat special effects in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The End of the World", which may not be better than other special effects companies in earthquake special effects scenes.

Of course, that's not the point, the point is that with the founder of James. Cameron, film special effects master Stan. With the departure of Winston and the rest of the team, the digital landscape has lost its leading role and is often only involved in the post-production and rendering of special effects.

Coupled with the rise and competition of some small companies, the digital field is facing a serious dilemma in the special effects industry. Ross also won't fade out of the digital space in '06 and sell the company to Michael. Seashell.

How can he rest assured that the digital realm will dominate the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue".

As for Sony's graphic images, it is known for its live special effects, simulated creatures, character animation and full CG animation, animation technology and picture quality have always been the best in Hollywood, but as a small company under Sony, it mainly provides post-production for Sony's film animation, and has produced "Elf Mouse Brother" and "Spider-Man" series.

The most important thing is that its cost performance is really unbearable, giving people the feeling that it is spending a lot of money to do small things, and it completely fails to reflect the value of the high special effects cost, and he has a deep understanding of this after watching the "Spider-Man" series, it is hard to imagine that the investment in "Spider-Man 3" is as high as 258 million US dollars, which makes people can't help but wonder where their investment is spent.

Therefore, Lin Yuquan will not hand over the special effects of "Immediate Rescue" to Sony Graphics and Graphics, and there is another important reason. "2012" was invested by Sony Pictures. But the special effects for 2012 are not the responsibility of Sony Graphics. Instead, it was handed over to Pixomondo, a German special effects company.

Although this is similar to that of Roland, who is a director. Emmerich is German and close friends with the owner of Pixomondo, but there must have been some problems with Sony's graphics graphics that led to this result.

Aside from the digital realm and Sony graphics and graphics, Lin Yuquan successively crossed out some special effects companies that were capable of participating, but were difficult to reassure as the leading ones, and finally left only five special effects companies in his list, Framestore, Double Negation, Moving Image, Senisset, Rhythm & Color, and three British special effects companies. Two American special effects companies.

Founded in 1986, it acquired CFC in '97 and opened branches in New York, Iceland, Montreal, and Los Angeles. Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Tomb Raider 2, Troy, Harry. Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", The Celestial Dynasty, Harry. Potter and the Goblet of Fire, X-Men: Last Stand, Superman Returns, The Golden Compass, Harry. Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" series of special effects masterpieces, the experience is not insignificant.

The double negation of the British special effects company was established later, in 98, with only 30 people at first, but it developed extremely rapidly. He has contributed to the Harry Potter series, Christopher. Nolan's "Batman Prequel" series, "The Da Vinci Code", "007: Die Another Day", "007: Casino Royale" and dozens of other film and television works have been produced for post-production special effects.

Today, Double Negative has more than 400 professional computer stuntmen, and the scale of the staff is not inferior to that of established special effects companies such as Digital Field and Sony Pictures. Its development momentum is even more likely to catch up with Framestore and become the largest film and television post-production special effects company in Europe.

In today's difficult operation of many special effects companies, it is not easy to go against the current and achieve this step, and the reason why the double negation can do this lies in its well-known work efficiency and work quality in the circle.

Founded back in 1970, Moving Image is almost the UK's oldest VFX company, at least the oldest in existence, and is part of a subsidiary of Carleton Communications, which is in excellent condition, with branches in London, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, Bangalore and Mexico City.

As a veteran special effects company, Harry. The Potter series began with the first Harry. Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it has been involved in the production, and after participating in "Harry. Among the companies that produced Potter's special effects, it and ILM were the only two companies involved from start to finish.

In addition, he also participated in the production of a series of films such as "Tomb Raider", "Troy", "Heavenly Dynasty", "X-Men: Last Stand", "Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow", Lin Yuquan's own "Red Cliff" and Zhang Yimou's "The City is Full of Golden Armor", Feng Bigang's "Night Banquet", and some of the special effects are also contracted to the production of moving images.

Cinesite, also known as Cinesite, is a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company founded in 1992, and then set up a branch in London, England in 1994, and gradually took London as the company's headquarters, and it has participated in the production of hundreds of special effects films, including "007: Skyfall", "Iron Man 3", "World War Z", "Harry Potter" series and other eye-catching films.

Its core technology is digital color processing technology, which can finely adjust the color of the film according to the needs of the staff to achieve the desired visual effect.

Headquartered in El Segundo, California, USA, the rhythm and color of the company, although it is not as famous in the United States as Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Field, Sony Graphics Image, and Senaset, its strength is definitely not to be underestimated, with branches in India, Malaysia, Canada and Treasure Island, and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1995 for "Baby Pig", and participated in "The Golden Compass", "The Lord of the Rings" series, "X-Men: Last Stand", "Night at the Museum" , "The Chronicles of Narnia" and other films.

Any of these five companies are undoubtedly the world's top special effects companies, so which one should you choose? Lin Yuquan had a hard time choosing.

Due to the specialization of the art industry, and the special effects work needs to be completed within the specified time. Films with a large number of special effects. The special effects are often the result of the collaboration of multiple companies.

The workload is heavy. Energy is limited, and it is impossible for any director to communicate with each special effects company involved in the production one by one, which requires a special effects company or a visual effects supervisor to lead and supervise the completion, which is related to the quality of visual effects.

It is precisely because the role of the leading special effects company is so important that Lin Yuquan is extremely cautious and difficult to choose.

"Yuquan, what's wrong?" Liu Shishi's soft words sounded in his ears.

"Oh. It's nothing. Lin Yuquan turned his head to look at Liu Shishi and shook his head with a smile.

"Am I that easy to deceive? As soon as you finished the phone call just now, you fell into deep thought with a sad face, and it was clear what problem you had encountered. Liu Shishi pursed his lips, but the concern in his eyes was undisguised.

"Yes, Brother Yuquan, what problem are you encountering?" Liu Yifei also said beside him, looking at him with watery eyes without blinking.

Lin Yuquan smiled and said, "Okay, it's a problem with the special effects of the movie, and I was going to cooperate with Industrial Light and Magic." However, ILM currently doesn't have the manpower to spare, unless I choose to wait more than half a year. Otherwise, I have to find another company, and I have a few options now, but it's hard to decide which one to look for. ”

"That's it!" The delicate little faces of the two girls suddenly wrinkled, quite distressed, they didn't know anything about the special effects company that Lin Yuquan said, and they couldn't help at all.

"I'm sorry Brother Yuquan, I can't help with this." Liu Yifei said a little sullenly, when Brother Yuquan was in need of help, she couldn't help anything.

"Yuquan, if you don't talk to Brother Hao and Xiao Yang, they are both directors, maybe they can give you some suggestions on how to choose." Liu Shishi said after thinking about it.

Lin Yuquan's eyes lit up and said with a smile: "That's right." Then he walked towards Ning Hao and Xiao Yang.

After listening to what Lin Yuquan said, Ning Hao pondered for a moment and said: "I don't need many special effects for my movie, so I didn't have a special understanding of these top special effects companies in Europe and the United States before, so I can't give you specific advice, but since it's a choice?" There must be some comparison, such as the technical advantages, the cost and time required, and the confidence of its VFX supervisor to complete the visual effects you want, as long as you compare them in detail, it should not be difficult to choose, after all, the five special effects companies you consider are all top-notch, but they are choosing better and more suitable.

Speaking of which, I have another suggestion, I think you should consider acquiring a special effects company, which was fine before, but now you need more and more special effects for your own films, and there are two companies, Dawning Film and Summit Entertainment, and the movies and TV series produced in the future also need a lot of special effects. ”

"Haha, thank you Brother Hao! If you don't say it, I'll forget about it for a while. Lin Yuquan excitedly patted Ning Hao on the shoulder, making the corner of the latter's mouth "Okay, I know." ”

The stretch from Queenstown to Granochy, rated as one of the top 10 road trips in the world, is a beautiful stretch of scenery along the lake, sometimes spiraling over the mountains, and standing on the observation deck at the pass, you can look down on Lake Wakatipu.

One of Queenstown's most beautiful and touching landmarks, Lake Wakatipu is a stunning sapphire blue, with Mt Cook and the Southern Alps across the lake on both sides of the lake, and the white snow on the brown peaks is clearly reflected in the sapphire blue water.

However, in the face of such a pleasant landscape, Lin Yuquan, who hung up the phone, showed a wry smile on his face, and his expression was quite distressed.

While the plot is the true soul of a movie, there's no denying the extraordinary role that thrilling disaster special effects play in a disaster movie.

Although the number of special effects in "Immediate Rescue" is not as large as that of the $200 million disaster giant "2012", and the core is to show people's strength in the face of disasters, his emphasis on special effects is undoubted, and in about 10 minutes or so, he hopes to present the audience with the most staggering magnificent earthquake scenes, which is why "Immediate Rescue" may become the most expensive Chinese-language film.

After starting to prepare for the filming, Lin Yuquan immediately contacted ILM's old friend, Carl Stoker, the current general manager. The reason why it is Industrial Light & Magic. Nota Digital, which is a happy cooperation. Nature is a good reason to make such a choice.

On the one hand, although Weta Digital may be the only special effects company in the world that can compete with industrial light and magic, with top-notch special effects production capabilities, Weta Digital is not omniscient, in fact, it is not very good at earthquake physics special effects.

On the other hand, Weta Digital's manpower is limited after all, and now Weta Digital is busy with the special effects of "Avatar", and he will soon hand over the special effects work of "Wild Legends: Hundred Clans" to the other party. He can't afford to take on more large-scale special effects work, at least not to complete the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue" within the time he allotted.

From Lin Yuquan's point of view, of course, he is happy to cooperate with ILM for the third time, which has already cooperated twice before, so he will contact ILM as soon as possible.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, just now, he received a message from Carl. Stoker's callback, the other party said that after a detailed discussion at the meeting, it was determined that it could not comply with his request. Lead the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue" within the allotted time, because ILM really has no spare energy. While they are doing the special effects of the two special effects masterpieces of "Avatar" and "Transformers 2", they are also doing the special effects of several medium-budget productions of "Future Warriors", "Prophet", and "Terminator 2018".

Ordinary special effects practitioners can be recruited quickly, but top special effects directors and special effects professionals cannot, and if they want to cooperate with ILM again, unless they are willing to choose to wait, and the waiting time is bound to be not short, at least more than half a year.

But the problem is that Lin Yuquan can't spend so much time waiting, his "Immediate Rescue" will start filming soon, and the special effects company must immediately cooperate with the filming work, and there are also scheduling considerations, he hopes that it is best to catch up with next year's summer schedule.

Which special effects company should be chosen as the leading company? In addition to Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, the names of a series of well-known foreign special effects companies quickly appeared in Lin Yuquan's mind, such as Digital Domain, Sony Graphic Images, Tippet, Coffee, Acelent, Offenici, Lehew, Rhythm & Color, Senaset, Gui Images, FramestoreCFC, Mill, and Picture Warehouse in the United Kingdom? , Double Negation, Moving Image, Senisset, Animal Logic in Australia, FuelVFX, Buffyne in France, Pixomondo in Germany, Daejeon Imaging Special Center in Korea

Among these companies, the most well-known are of course the digital field and Sony graphics images, which were previously known as the world's four top special effects companies with Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital.

For the two, Lin Yuquan didn't want to veto, the advantage of technology in the digital field lies in particle effects, the most praised is the simulation and digitization of complex flowing objects such as seawater, which is vividly reflected in the atmosphere and ocean special effects in "The Day After Tomorrow" and the naval combat special effects in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The End of the World", which may not be better than other special effects companies in earthquake special effects scenes.

Of course, that's not the point, the point is that with the founder of James. Cameron, film special effects master Stan. With the departure of Winston and the rest of the team, the digital landscape has lost its leading role and is often only involved in the post-production and rendering of special effects.

Coupled with the rise and competition of some small companies, the digital field is facing a serious dilemma in the special effects industry. Ross also won't fade out of the digital space in '06 and sell the company to Michael. Seashell.

How can he rest assured that the digital realm will dominate the special effects work of "Immediate Rescue".

As for Sony's graphic images, it is known for its live special effects, simulated creatures, character animation and full CG animation, animation technology and picture quality have always been the best in Hollywood, but as a small company under Sony, it mainly provides post-production for Sony's film animation, and has produced "Elf Mouse Brother" and "Spider-Man" series.

The most important thing is that its cost performance is really unbearable, giving people the feeling that it is spending a lot of money to do small things, and it completely fails to reflect the value of the high special effects cost, and he has a deep understanding of this after watching the "Spider-Man" series, it is hard to imagine that the investment in "Spider-Man 3" is as high as 258 million US dollars, which makes people can't help but wonder where their investment is spent.

Therefore, Lin Yuquan will not hand over the special effects of "Immediate Rescue" to Sony Graphics and Graphics. Furthermore. There is another important reason. "2012" was invested by Sony Pictures, but the special effects of "2012" were not taken care of by Sony Image Graphics, but by Pixomondo, a German special effects company.

Although this is similar to that of Roland, who is a director. Emmerich is German and close friends with the owner of Pixomondo, but there must have been some problems with Sony's graphics graphics that led to this result.

Aside from the digital realm and Sony's graphic images, Lin Yuquan successively crossed out some special effects companies that were capable of participating, but were still difficult to reassure as the leader, and finally only five special effects companies were left in his list. Framestore, Double Negation, Moving Image, Senaset, Rhythm & Color, three British VFX companies, two American VFX companies.

Founded in 1986, it acquired CFC in '97 and opened branches in New York, Iceland, Montreal, and Los Angeles. Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Tomb Raider 2, Troy, Harry. Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", The Celestial Dynasty, Harry. Potter and the Goblet of Fire, X-Men: Last Stand, Superman Returns, The Golden Compass, Harry. Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" series of special effects masterpieces, the experience is not insignificant.

The double negation of the British special effects company, which is also a British special effects company, was established later, and it was established in 98 years. Initially there were only 30 people, but it grew extremely quickly. He has contributed to the Harry Potter series, Christopher. Nolan's "Batman Prequel" series, "The Da Vinci Code", "007: Die Another Day", "007: Casino Royale" and dozens of other film and television works have been produced for post-production special effects.

Today, Double Negative has more than 400 professional computer special effects personnel, and the scale of personnel is not inferior to that of established special effects companies such as Digital Field and Sony Pictures, and its development momentum is even more likely to catch up with Framestore and become the largest film and television post-production special effects production company in Europe.

In today's difficult operation of many special effects companies, it is not easy to go against the current and achieve this step, and the reason why the double negation can do this lies in its well-known work efficiency and work quality in the circle.

Founded back in 1970, Moving Image is almost the UK's oldest VFX company, at least the oldest in existence, and is part of a subsidiary of Carleton Communications, which is in excellent condition, with branches in London, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, Bangalore and Mexico City.

As a veteran special effects company, Harry. The Potter series began with the first Harry. Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it has been involved in the production, and after participating in "Harry. Among the companies that produced Potter's special effects, it and ILM were the only two companies involved from start to finish.

In addition, he also participated in the production of a series of films such as "Tomb Raider", "Troy", "Heavenly Dynasty", "X-Men: Last Stand", "Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow", Lin Yuquan's own "Red Cliff" and Zhang Yimou's "The City is Full of Golden Armor", Feng Bigang's "Night Banquet", and some of the special effects are also contracted to the production of moving images.

Cinesite, also known as Cinesite, is a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company founded in 1992, and then set up a branch in London, England in 1994, and gradually took London as the company's headquarters, and it has participated in the production of hundreds of special effects films, including "007: Skyfall", "Iron Man 3", "World War Z", "Harry Potter" series and other eye-catching films.

Its core technology is digital color processing technology, which can finely adjust the color of the film according to the needs of the staff to achieve the desired visual effect.

Headquartered in El Segundo, California, USA, the rhythm and color of the company, although it is not as famous in the United States as Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Field, Sony Graphics Image, and Senaset, its strength is definitely not to be underestimated, with branches in India, Malaysia, Canada and Treasure Island, and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1995 for "Baby Pig", and participated in "The Golden Compass", "The Lord of the Rings" series, "X-Men: Last Stand", "Night at the Museum" , "The Chronicles of Narnia" and other films.

Any of these five companies are undoubtedly the world's top special effects companies, so which one should you choose? Lin Yuquan had a hard time choosing.

Due to the specialization of the art industry and the need to complete the special effects work within the specified time, the special effects of films with a large number of special effects are often completed by multiple companies.

With a heavy workload and limited energy, it is impossible for any director to communicate with every special effects company involved in the production one by one, which requires a special effects company or a visual effects supervisor to lead and supervise the completion, which is related to the quality of visual effects.

It is precisely because the role of the leading special effects company is so important that Lin Yuquan is extremely cautious and difficult to choose.

"Yuquan, what's wrong?" Liu Shishi's soft words sounded in his ears.

"Oh, nothing." Lin Yuquan turned his head to look at Liu Shishi and shook his head with a smile.

"Am I that easy to deceive? As soon as you finished the phone call just now, you fell into deep thought with a sad face, and it was clear what problem you had encountered. Liu Shishi pursed his lips, but the concern in his eyes was undisguised.

"Yes, Brother Yuquan, what problem are you encountering?" Liu Yifei also said beside him, looking at him with watery eyes without blinking.

Lin Yuquan smiled and said: "Okay, it's a problem with the special effects of the movie, I was going to cooperate with Industrial Light & Magic, but Industrial Light & Magic currently has no extra manpower, unless I choose to wait for more than half a year, I can only find another company, I have a few options now, but it is difficult to choose which one to find?" ”

"That's it!" The delicate little faces of the two girls suddenly wrinkled, quite distressed, they didn't know anything about the special effects company that Lin Yuquan said, and they couldn't help at all.

"I'm sorry Brother Yuquan, I can't help with this." Liu Yifei said a little sullenly, when Brother Yuquan was in need of help, she couldn't help anything.

"Yuquan, if you don't talk to Brother Hao and Xiao Yang, they are both directors, maybe they can give you some suggestions on how to choose." Liu Shishi said after thinking about it.

Lin Yuquan's eyes lit up and said with a smile: "That's right." Then he walked towards Ning Hao and Xiao Yang.

After listening to what Lin Yuquan said, Ning Hao pondered for a moment and said: "I don't need many special effects for my movie, so I didn't have a special understanding of these top special effects companies in Europe and the United States before, so I can't give you specific advice, but since it's a choice?" There must be some comparison, such as the technical advantages, the cost and time required, and the confidence of its VFX supervisor to complete the visual effects you want, as long as you compare them in detail, it should not be difficult to choose, after all, the five special effects companies you consider are all top-notch, but they are choosing better and more suitable.

Speaking of which, I have another suggestion, I think you should consider acquiring a special effects company, which was fine before, but now you need more and more special effects for your own films, and there are two companies, Dawning Film and Summit Entertainment, and the movies and TV series produced in the future also need a lot of special effects. ”

"Haha, thank you Brother Hao, if you don't mention it, I will forget about this stubble for a while." Lin Yuquan excitedly patted Ning Hao on the shoulder, causing the latter to gasp. (To be continued......)