Director’s Legend

"The Nighthawks" is a movie about a gray hero, rather than a positive image of a hero. When it comes to choosing the protagonist, Shao Shuaijun feels that the most suitable person in Hollywood right now is Christian Bale, who just starred in "Batman Begins." 》The male star who set off a global craze.

It's a pity that just one "Batman" movie has raised his net worth to the height of 10 million US dollars, which is not something Shao Shuaijun can afford. After all, it needs to be shot in IMAX and 3D, which itself is a costly blockbuster. It would not be appropriate to spend a lot of money to hire a superstar. Previous audition invitations sent by the Screen Actors Guild were basically aimed at male stars with a salary of less than $5 million.

In the end, three actors were confirmed to audition, one was Taylor Kitsch, one was Josh Duhamel, and the other was Jake Gyllenhaal. Among them, Taylor Kitsch is the least famous and the least paid. Although she has participated in many movies, she mainly plays supporting roles. Josh Duhamel is quite famous, but he mainly works in TV series.

As for Jake Gyllenhaal, he is a popular niche player in Hollywood. One film "The Day After Tomorrow" and one "Brokeback Mountain" helped him gain a foothold in Hollywood.

Among the three actors who auditioned, Shao Shuaijun was most optimistic about Jake Gyllenhaal, both for his acting skills and his face. However, Jake Gyllenhaal's asking price is also the highest. His agent asked for $7 million. Shao Shuaijun couldn't accept this and was only willing to pay US$5 million.

Finally, I contacted Li Eucalyptus and gave Jake Gyllenhaal a piece of advice. For Li Yu, Gyllenhaal was still very considerate. After some twists and turns, he agreed to join "The Night Watcher" for US$5 million. Starring Thomas. All the supporting roles in the film were finalized within a week.

Originally, everyone was still speculating whether there would be Chinese actors in "The Night Watcher". After the casting dust settled, everyone discovered that there was no avatar. Of course, this does not mean that there are no Chinese behind-the-scenes staff. At least the director Shao Shuaijun is Chinese and the action director Dong Wei is Chinese.

Because it is an investment led by Dream Chasing Entertainment, Shao Shuaijun has absolute say in this film, and all staff members have been reviewed by him one by one. to join.

During casting. Mitchell Bruce of Summit Entertainment Company led the producer and was responsible for negotiating IMAX photography and 3D photography. During this period, there were approximately 300 IMAX theaters around the world, more than half of which were in the United States, and half of these were science museums. In other words, there are less than 100 imax theaters in the United States.

China is even more pitiful. Summer vacation is expected to be until tomorrow. There are only 9 imax theaters.

As the first movie shot with an IMAX camera, IMAX paid great attention to it and not only rented one of the only seven IMAX cameras in the world to the crew of "The Night Watcher" for free. Special personnel were even sent to guide the shooting.

imax is a magical projection system that changes the traditional projection method with its large screen and high resolution. However, IMAX is also the most complex and expensive projection system. Since its introduction in the 1970s, it has not been widely promoted. Most of them are used in science and technology museums for science screening and promotion.

Because the film formats of IMAX are 65mm and 75mm, not all movies can be shown on the IMAX screen. They need to be converted using DMR format, which costs a high price to convert to IMAX-DMR movies and appear on the IMAX big screen. The original "Painted Skin" was intended to be converted into an IMAX-DMR movie, but unfortunately it failed to take shape due to piracy.

Now Shao Shuaijun has greater ambitions. He is no longer satisfied with simple DMR, but actually uses IMAX cameras to shoot. Although the shooting length was only ten minutes, it still became a pioneering work. This is why everyone is worried about his new movie. The future of imax is uncertain, so he blindly shoots in imax.

The first one to eat crabs, I don’t know if it’s fun or not. But the first person to eat puffer fish was definitely poisoned to death.

Fortunately, Shao Shuaijun has his own plans, and more importantly, he wants to use this opportunity to pave the way for future cooperation with imax. China will definitely be a huge market for imax in the future, and Shao Shuaijun wants to seize this cooperation opportunity. What's more, shooting in imax is indeed expensive, but the imax company will provide certain compensation.

It is not easy to establish a new projection system. In order to encourage the construction of more imax theaters, more movies will adopt the imax format. The imax company has spent a lot of money to establish supply and marketing contracts for theaters and movies using the imax format in advance, and will also receive part of the financial compensation.

In other words, as long as "The Nighthawks" comes out, it will basically be shown in IMAX theaters around the world, and there is no need to negotiate arrangements. For example, the previous "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones", "The Matrix Reloaded", "The Matrix Revolutions", "Spider-Man 2", "Harry Potter and Azkaban" "Prisoners" and "Batman Begins" were all converted to IMAX-DMR movies and released in IMAX theaters around the world, with impressive results.

It was with such assistance that Shao Shuaijun dared to shoot with an imax camera.

Compared with IMAX shooting, which is expensive, 3D shooting is more mind-consuming. Although 3D technology has matured, the shooting methods are complicated and the materials are difficult to obtain. In the end, the cost is not much less than imax shooting.

The crew completed casting at the end of July and began setting makeup and rehearsals, which took nearly a month.

The reason for this is that Shao Shuaijun misjudged the difficulty of 3D shooting.

The 3D movies he was exposed to in his previous life were basically digital movies, but now they need to be shot on film. A set of 3D photography equipment weighs dozens of kilograms and requires the use of equipment to lift. What’s even more exaggerated is that the 3D effect is based on the rules of how the human eye captures light.

When a person sees an object with two eyes, the images seen by the two eyes overlap, creating a three-dimensional effect. The same goes for photography, which requires two 2D cameras to be shot together. Modeled after two human eyes.

But here comes the trouble. The human eye has an automatic adjustment effect, so seeing far and near both have a 3D effect. The camera is different and cannot automatically focus and adjust the angle. This requires two cameras to be fixed on a special pan-tilt, calculate the shooting distance, and then adjust the angle of the pan-tilt crane arm to produce a three-dimensional effect.

There is a saying in the industry about 3D shooting, which is called the three-stage shooting method of insect eye, human eye and giant eye.

This means shooting a close-up shot, the distance between the two cameras. Be as close as an insect's eyes. If it is a normal lens. The distance between them is about the same as the human eye. If it's a long shot, the two cameras should be as far apart as a giant's eye. There is a formula to calculate distance, but there is often a big gap between what is calculated and what is actually taken.

"How is it? This video was produced. How is the effect? ​​I have been exploring for a month. It should be perfect?" In the set up studio, Shao Shuaijun and deputy director Josh McGlaren were asking the computer Former special effects artist who produced 3D graphics.

The special effects artist pursed his lips. Turning the screen around: "See for yourselves."

There was a puppy running on the screen, and the images were blurry and overlapping. Shao Shuaijun and Josh quickly put on 3D glasses to see the effect. Real 3D needs to be shown in a cinema to be reflected. Now the left and right format images on the computer screen are compared, not to see the three-dimensional effect, but to see if there is any asynchrony between the images.

Looking through his glasses, Shao Shuaijun's face gradually darkened.

The overlapping images of puppies on the screen are obviously incoordinated. Some time periods are coordinated, and some time periods are either advanced or backward. With such coordination, it is impossible to produce a qualified 3D movie, let alone show the 3D effect on the IMAX big screen.

"Shao, I'm sorry, we failed again." Josh took off his glasses, peeled off a toffee, put it in his mouth, and said vaguely, "Although I followed director Robert Zemeckis and shot an IMAX-3D movie "The Polar Express," but it was a full digital matte painting. I just want to say that it is too early to make a live-action IMAX-3D movie, and we do not have the support of qualified 3D photography technology."

Josh McGlaren is an assistant director who has been working in Hollywood for many years. The reason why he was invited to join the crew of "Nightwatch" was because he followed the great director Robert Zemeckis who had made "Forrest Gump". , filmed the world's first IMAX-3D movie "The Polar Express" together. His experience is exactly what Shao Shuaijun needs.

Shao Shuaijun ruffled his hair in annoyance and threw his glasses to the ground. He studied 3D shooting in the studio for a month, but the result was still a piece of shit. 3D movies have a long history. Many 3D movies have appeared in the last century, but now he can't even capture the shot of a puppy running.

"Josh, how could this be? Why can't 3D meet my requirements after so many years of development!"

"Perhaps 3D should not appear. This three-dimensional effect is better performed in cartoons. The live-action version, that is, it can scare people in horror movies."

"No, 3D movies have great potential, and the world will be dominated by 3D movies in the future!" Shao Shuaijun shook his head.

Josh comforted him and said: "Shao, why do you have to insist on 3D shooting? We can already produce very outstanding effects by shooting in imax. Give up the idea of ​​​​3D photography, it will only bring a burden to "The Night Watcher" instead of Help. Maybe one day when 3D technology develops well, you can try it again, right?"

"No, no, no, Josh, you have to understand that I want to create a blockbuster worthy of being remembered by history. When people later mention 3D movies and IMAX movies, they can't avoid it. I want to put my name on it. , written into the history of film." Shao Shuaijun cheered up and clapped his hands, "Josh, come with me to the University of Southern California. I'm going to the School of Film and Television to find technical support."

"It's useless. 3D film photography, the method we have done is already the most advanced. Unless it's digital film, don't think about it."

Shao Shuaijun turned around and said in a daze: "There will be it, just try hard to find it!" (To be continued...)

ps: The fourth update is over. This is a 3,000-word chapter. Recent book reviews have been criticized in waves, and Lao Bai is under great pressure.

I said I wouldn’t read it, but I couldn’t help but read it. However, I will continue to write what I want to write.

I felt sorry for giving up halfway, but it didn’t matter, what I wanted to write was definitely wonderful! I see their criticisms with my eyes, and I correct them one by one if I can accept them. But regarding the original movie, I don’t want to say more. I never said that I want to be original now, it’s all for the sake of the plot.

Forget it, no more spoilers.

By the way, please give me a monthly ticket.