Don't ask, asking is the main support.

In the afternoon of discussing with Director Kaige, Wu Yuan said the most three sentences:

"Good idea!"

"I think so too!"

"I think it's fine!"

Of course, he is not completely fishing, and from time to time he will follow Chen Kaige's train of thought and discuss some details of the design with him.

This makes Director Kaigo very comfortable.

This is the person he is satisfied with.

Jiang Wen said it himself, he had to say a word, and the director who could fight on the set was really inhuman!

After discussing with Wu Yuan for an afternoon, Director Kaigo, who spoke freely, was extremely satisfied, and he also had more ideas about the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

It's just that when he was still unsatisfied and wanted to drag Wu Yuan to talk all night and fall asleep, Wu Yuan rejected him with a smile.

"Director Kaigo, I'm really sorry, I still have editing work for one film and pre-production work for another film at hand."

"I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I have to go back to the company to cut the film first."

"I still agree with your proposal."

"The plan for the opening ceremony can be started first, and then we will find time to discuss more."

Such an important planning project as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is certainly not something that can be talked about in two or three times.

Wu Yuan is ready to fight a long-term battle with Director Kaige, but he still adheres to his own fishing rules.

Director Kaigo's opinions are all supported, and Director Kaige's ideas are all agreed.

As long as this is done, then their cooperative team will be the same as the original trajectory and will not be able to compete.

It's not that he doesn't want to work hard, it's that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is really of great significance, Wu Yuan's small body really doesn't dare to mess around, and the expectations of 1.2 billion people are really not a joke.

Director Zhang Yimou's version is perfect enough, and he can't just mess around with the memory of his future.

"That's right." Before leaving, Wu Yuan stopped and asked again: "Director Kaige, when are you going to start your "Wuji"?" ”

"My "Painted Skin" will be officially launched in two months."

"Well, the special effects team over there has been found."

Speaking of his blockbuster, Chen Kaige also calmed down from the excitement of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

""Wu Ji" is still in preparation, this film has cost me a lot of effort, and there are also a lot of investors, it will be a joint venture production of Japan, South Korea, and China, and Hong Kong Island will also participate."

"It's really not easy to prepare for such a big project, and it's the first time I've made a film with such a high investment and mobilizing so many people."

"How much to invest?" Wu Yuan frowned and asked.

"Forty million!" Chen Kaige stretched out four fingers, and his face couldn't be suppressed with pride: "Dollars!" ”

"10 million more than "Heroes"!"

Wu Yuan was happy.

With the addition of Hong Kong capital, the $40 million is a lot of water.

When the actual shooting is carried out, even if the follow-up publicity costs are added, I am afraid that it will be 30 million US dollars.

"Lao Chen is ambitious this time, and "Wu Ji" is aiming for the Oscars." Chen Hong next to her also supported her husband.

Well, it seems that it was also from "Wu Ji" that domestic directors started the trend of chasing the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, right?

Wu Yuan raised his eyebrows, still with that bright smile.

"Then I wish director Kai Ge success and become the first director in the mainland to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film." Wu Yuanyan said insincerely.

Well, no one in China has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at present.

"The Undertaker" was not sent to the Oscar that year.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film requires the official Oscar list from various countries and regions, rather than private participation.

After Wu Yuan won the Berlin Best Director Award that year, the General Administration did not send "The Undertaker" to the Oscars.

Mainly at the beginning of the millennium, everyone didn't pay attention to the Oscars on the other side of the ocean.

The Oscar is an award that only belongs to North America, and only films released on a large scale in North America can participate in the selection of the Oscars, and films released in other countries can only compete for one Best Foreign Language Film Award.

At that time, the mainland of China paid attention to the three major European ones, and the General Administration rarely sent films to the Oscars for selection.

It was not until the past two years, with the accession to the WTO, that relations between the two countries continued to warm up, and the General Administration began to attach importance to the Oscars, and mainland directors also began to pursue the Oscars.

This made what was originally just a regional film festival award in North America become an international-level film award in China, and even became the highest palace.

The three major European film festivals that have really had international influence and have been held for seventy or eighty years have gradually fallen to the second echelon in China.

But it doesn't matter, Wu Yuan can also eat well in Haolaiwu.

Although "Love" aims to run in Cannes, it can also be sent to the Oscars to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film award.

Seriously, Wu Yuan would rather go to the Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

As long as you are willing to spend money, this thing can still be PR, and it is not as difficult as Best Picture and Best Director.

Directors from other countries want to compete with Wu Yuan, who was already in Hollywood, for this award?

That's not the usual difficulty.

It's just that because he can do public relations, he has always disliked Oscar.

As an aspiring and aspiring director, of course he will not like this kind of award with many unspoken rules, and prefers the more fair European Big Three.

However, when it comes to these art awards, Wu Yuan, who said goodbye to Chen Kaige and returned to the company for the post-editing of "Love", received an invitation to an award within a few days.

The organizing committee of the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award sent him an invitation letter inviting him to participate in the 24th China Golden Rooster Award this year.

On the evening of September 19, the award ceremony of the Golden Rooster Award was held in Yinchuan.

On August 21, the shortlist of this year's Golden Rooster Awards has been announced.

Although Wu Yuan did not attend the Golden Rooster Awards that year in person because of Wu Yuan's "The Undertaker" last time, the organizing committee was a little dissatisfied with him, but it is impossible for them to really turn a blind eye to "Your Name", which has a box office of 140 million in the mainland.

In the shortlist, "Ling's Name" was shortlisted for three awards, namely Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

As you can imagine, it is unlikely that the grand prize will be awarded to Wu Yuan.

He has memories of later generations, but he knows that even Zhang Yimou's "Ambush on All Sides" at this year's Golden Rooster Awards only won a comforting best art award.

But Wu Yuan is not good, he really doesn't go.

Wu Yuan's absence once before has already made some leaders dissatisfied, thinking that he is unsociable and ununited.

You must know that in the mainland of China, at present, the evaluation of "unsociable and ununited" is still quite serious.

I didn't see Zhang Yimou, and I knew that I wouldn't win the award, so I went to the show.

For the mainland film industry, the Golden Rooster Awards is not just an ordinary awards ceremony, but also has a lot of special significance behind it.

Wu Yuan still agreed and would attend this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

I don't ask "Your Name" to get a big cake, but I have to go back with a consolation award for best cinematography like director Yimou, right?

As long as I don't care, I won't be disappointed.

This is Wu Yuan's attitude towards the Golden Rooster Award.

The current Golden Rooster has the right to speak in the hands of a group of old men, and mountaineering is prevalent, and he has never had any expectations for the Golden Rooster.

Only the three major in Europe are Wu Yuan's goals!

In this way, while Wu Yuan was editing "Love", he began to prepare for the crew of "Painted Skin".

The actors of "Painted Skin" have basically been determined.

The male and female protagonists Wang Sheng and Xiao Wei are played by Chen Kun and Zhou Xun, Zeng Li plays Pei Rong, Zhang Guorong plays Pang Yong, Xia Bing or Sun Li plays, and the five leading actors are all together.

Among the remaining supporting roles, Xiao Wei's invisible assistant Xiao Yi, that is, the lizard spirit, is played by Yuan Hong, which can be regarded as fulfilling the cooperation contract between the Light and Shadow Era and the Tang Dynasty.

The other role actors are all looking for old mainland drama bones and golden supporting roles.

The schedules of all the actors have been adjusted, and they will officially enter the group on September 11.

Weta Digital, which is far away across the ocean, also sent a team to Huaxia to do the preliminary special effects design work for "Painted Skin 1".

Originally, Wu Yuan contacted his old partner, Industrial Light and Magic.

But it's a pity that Industrial Light & Magic can't schedule it, and then it will have to do the special effects of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2".

Wu Yuan had no choice but to find Weta Digital, which was about the same level as Industrial Light and Magic.

The transformation of the fox demon in the movie, the heart-digging, the painting skin, and the most important special effects fight, etc., all require Weta Digital to model according to the face molds of the leading actors, and then make suitable special effects templates according to their height and body type.

So although the crew officially started on the 11th, several leading actors with special effects scenes came to Huairou Film and Television Base five days in advance to gather and were fiddled with by a group of foreigners.

Wu Yuan also took the time to take a look at the situation.

Wu Yuan remembers that in his dream, he waited at least until around 2012 to see such a crew modeling actors in the mainland.

Before 2012, the so-called special effects movies did not make such detailed special effects at all, and they were completely "textured" special effects.

The gap in technology is indeed a chasm.

The idea of wanting to be his own special effects company in China, which appeared in his mind before, was put on the agenda again by Wu Yuan.

When observing the employees of Weta Digital doing the preliminary special effects design, Wu Yuan once chatted with them, and roughly inquired about the computers and special effects equipment of Weta Digital, and how much it costs.

I don't know if I don't know, but I'm shocked when I ask.

Weta Digital's existing equipment alone is worth more than $100 million, and they plan to add more than $100 million in the next five years!

In other words, if you want to get a special effects company with one-tenth of the current Weta digital productivity, you need to invest at least more than 10 million dollars.

And to open a special effects company, it doesn't mean that you have equipment, you also need a group of people who can use these equipment.

Employees like Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital are basically trained by themselves, and the most cutting-edge film special effects technology is in the hands of core employees.

Outsiders want to learn, but there is nowhere to learn.

It is not a simple thing to engage in a special effects company, by analogy, it is like the chip manufacturing industry in the computer industry, which is the most cutting-edge field.

Even in 2020, Guo Fan did "The Wandering Earth" and "The Wandering Earth 2", and the special effects companies he found were not all companies in the country, and half of the special effects had to be assigned to foreign companies.

There are so many special effects companies in the mainland, and they can't even eat the post-production of a special effects blockbuster.

Many technologies are not mastered in the mainland, and some of the top teams in Laiwu must be used to handle the production, which is also a kind of technical barrier.

Now that Wu Yuan wants to be a special effects company, he must first find a special effects team that can support the company, and then think about buying equipment.

But where to find this team is really a worrying question.

"Director Wu, do you want to make your own movie special effects?" Zhang Guorong came up and asked with a smile.

He had already discovered that Wu Yuan had the wrong way of looking at the group of people in Weta Digital, and he listened to his questions, and immediately guessed his thoughts, and even guessed his troubles.

"Director Wu, there are actually a lot of talents in Huaxia who do special effects."

Zhang Guorong grinned and hugged Wu Yuan's shoulder: "You can go to Xiantao Digital on Hong Kong Island to poach people." ”

"Now Xiantao digital special effects are really good, and there are many elites, I heard that their company has more than 100 employees who specialize in special effects."

"If you dig up a dozen of him, won't you be able to set up a stall?"

"Xiantao Digital." Wu Yuan muttered.

Come to think of it.

The special effects production company of "Kung Fu Football" and "Kung Fu"!

Later, "Wuji" was also contracted by this company for special effects production!

Count back to 1998.

That year, Hong Kong Island released a film adaptation of the comic book of the same name: "Storm and Storm", which was a huge hit when it was released and won the box office champion of Hong Kong movies that year.

Xiantao Digital Company was established specifically for the filming and production of this movie.

At that time, the newly established Xiantao Digital boldly learned the special effects technology of Hollywood!

They used special effects technologies such as fully virtual characters, green background compositing, and particle rendering in "Fengyun", which was the first time in a Hong Kong Island movie.

This film also became a benchmark for special effects in later Hong Kong Island films.

So far, the special effects company, which was originally established just to make a movie, has embarked on a broad road.

In 2001's "Kung Fu Football", many of the pictures that seem to be shot are actually made by special effects, and what seems to be special effects is actually filmed. It is also produced by Hong Kong Xiantao Digital Company.

In 2004's "Kung Fu", the special effects are still produced by Xiantao Digital Company.

The number of special effects in Kung Fu is quite staggering, and it is said that if these special effects were all done by one person, it would take 100,000 hours, or 35 years.

Xiantao Digital was able to complete the special effects of "Kung Fu" in a few months, which shows that the company has trained a large number of special effects artists.

The current Xiantao Digital is at its peak, which can be called a strong army, but it is also a good time to dig people!

Because after "Wuji", the glory period of Xiantao Digital is about to pass, because of the old equipment, the boss is reluctant to spend money, and he can't keep up with the ever-changing special effects technology of Hollywood, and he will gradually be eliminated from the market in the next few years.

These Xiantao Digital special effects artists don't know where they all went.

It is estimated that a large number of people have gone north to join the new special effects companies that have sprung up in the mainland, which has become the nutrient for the growth of special effects technology in the mainland.

Since sooner or later they are going to come to the mainland for development, it is better to come early.

Wu Yuan smiled, stretched out his hand and patted Zhang Guorong's back: "Leslie, it has to be you." ”

"Thanks for the advice, I'll act as soon as possible!"

(End of chapter)