Chapter 151 An Invitation From Golden Rooster to Poach Talents From Xiantao Digital

Chapter 151 An invitation from Golden Rooster to poach talents from Xiantao Digital?

Don’t ask, the answer is to support.

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

“Great idea!”

“I think so too!”

“I think it’s OK!”

Of course, he was not completely idle, from time to time he would follow Chen Kaige’s ideas and discuss some details of the design with him.

This made Director Kaige very comfortable.

This is the partner he wants to be satisfied with.

Director Jiang Wen, who would talk back to him and fight on the set when he said something, is really inhuman!

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

But just when he wanted to talk to Wu Yuan all night and sleep with him, Wu Yuan smiled and rejected him.

"Director Kaigo, I'm really sorry. I have to edit a movie and prepare for another one."

"I'm a little pressed for time. I have to go back to the company to edit the film."

"I still agree with your proposal."

"We can start working on the opening ceremony plan first, and then we can find a time to discuss it more."

The planning of the opening ceremony of the Olympics is so important that it must not be discussed in two or three times.

Wu Yuan has already made plans to fight a long battle with Director Kaigo, but he still sticks to his own principle of slacking off.

He supports all the opinions raised by Director Kaigo and agrees with Director Kaigo's ideas.

As long as they do this, their cooperation team will probably 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, but the opening ceremony of the Olympics is really too important. Wu Yuan, with his small body, really dare not mess around. The expectations of 1.2 billion people are really no joke.

Director Zhang Yimou's version is already perfect enough. He can't mess around just because he has the memory of the future.

"By the way." Before leaving, Wu Yuan stopped and asked, "Director Kaige, when are you going to start shooting for your film The Promise?"

"My film Painted Skin will officially start shooting in two months."

"The special effects team in Hollywood has been found."

When talking about his own blockbuster, Chen Kaige calmed down from the excitement of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

"The Promise is still in preparation. This movie has cost me a lot of effort, and there are many investors who support it. It will be a joint venture between Japan, South Korea, and China, and Hong Kong will also participate."

"Such a large project is really not easy to prepare. This is also the first time I have made a movie with such a high investment and mobilized so many people.

"How much is the investment?" Wu Yuan frowned and asked.

"Forty million!" Chen Kaige stretched out four fingers, and his face was full of pride: "US dollars!"

"Ten million more than Hero! "

Wu Yuan was happy.

With Hong Kong investment involved, the $40 million is a lot of water.

When the actual shooting comes, even with the subsequent publicity expenses, I'm afraid it will be at most $30 million.

"Old Chen is very ambitious this time, and The Promise is aiming for the Oscars." Chen Hong next to her also supported her husband.

Well, it seems that it was from The Promise that domestic directors started to pursue 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 mainland director to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. "Wu Yuan said insincerely.

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

"Departures" was not submitted to the Oscars that year.

The submission of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film requires the official submission of lists from various countries and regions to the Oscars, rather than private submission.

After Wu Yuan won the Best Director Award in Berlin that year, the General Administration did not submit "Departures" to the Oscars.

The main reason was that at the beginning of the millennium, no one paid attention to the Oscars across the ocean.

The Oscars are an award only for North America. Only films that are released on a large scale in North America can participate in the Oscar selection. Films released in other countries can only compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

At that time, the Chinese mainland was paying attention to the three major European films, and the General Administration rarely submitted films to the Oscars.

It was not until the past two years, with the accession to the WTO, the relationship between the two countries continued to warm up, and the General Administration began to pay attention to the Oscars , directors in the mainland also began to pursue the Oscar.

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

The three major European film festivals that have truly had international influence and have been held for 70 or 80 years have gradually fallen to the second echelon in China.

But it doesn’t matter, Wu Yuan can also make a living in Hollywood.

Although the goal of "Love" is to participate in the Cannes competition, it can also be sent to the Oscars to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

To be honest, Wu Yuan would rather go to the Oscars to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

This thing can still be publicized as long as you are willing to spend money, unlike the Best Picture and Best Director.

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

That’s extremely difficult.

It’s just because he can publicize, so he has never liked the Oscars.

As an ambitious and aspiring director, he certainly doesn't like this kind of award with many unspoken rules, and prefers the more fair European three major awards.

However, speaking of these art awards, Wu Yuan, who said goodbye to Chen Kaige and returned to the company to edit "Love", received an invitation for an award a few days later.

The organizing committee of the China Film Golden Rooster Awards sent him an invitation letter, inviting him to participate in this year's 24th China Golden Rooster Awards.

On the evening of September 19, the Golden Rooster Awards held an awards ceremony in Yinchuan.

On August 21, the shortlist for this year's Golden Rooster Awards was announced.

Although Wu Yuan broke his promise last time for "Departures" and did not attend the Golden Rooster Awards in person, the organizing committee was somewhat dissatisfied with him, but they could not really ignore "Your Name", which had a box office of 140 million in the mainland.

In the shortlist, "Your Name" was shortlisted for three awards, namely Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Photography.

It is conceivable that the grand prize is unlikely to be awarded to Wu Yuan.

With his memory, he knew that even Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" only won a consolation Best Art Award at this year's Golden Rooster Awards.

But Wu Yuan couldn't really not go.

Wu Yuan's absence once before had already displeased some leaders, who thought he was unsociable and disunited.

You know, in mainland China, at the moment, the evaluation of "unsociable and disunited" is still quite serious.

Didn't you see that Zhang Yimou went to show his support even though he knew he wouldn't win the award?

For the mainland film industry, the Golden Rooster Awards is not just an ordinary awards ceremony, there are still many special meanings behind it.

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

I don't ask "Your Name" to get a big share of the pie, but I have to take back a consolation Best Cinematography Award 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 Awards.

The right to speak for the Golden Rooster Awards is now in the hands of a group of old men, and factionalism is prevalent. He never had any expectations for the Golden Rooster Awards.

Only the top three in Europe is Wu Yuan's goal!

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

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 Peirong, Zhang Guorong plays Pang Yong, and Xia Bing is still played by Sun Li, and the five leading actors are gathered.

Among the remaining supporting roles, Xiao Wei's invisible assistant Xiao Yi, that is, the lizard spirit, is played by Yuan Hong, which is considered to be the fulfillment of the cooperation contract between Light and Shadow Times and Tangren.

The actors for other roles are all mainland veteran actors and golden supporting roles.

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

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

Originally, Wu Yuan contacted Industrial Light & Magic, an old partner.

But unfortunately, Industrial Light & Magic couldn't make a schedule, and they had to do special effects for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" later.

Wu Yuan had no choice but to find Weta Digital, which was at a similar level to Industrial Light & Magic.

The fox demon transformation, heart digging, painted skin pasting, and the most important special effects fighting scenes in the movie all required Weta Digital to model the faces of the leading actors, and then make matching special effects templates based on their height and body shape.

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

Wu Yuan also took the time to see the situation.

The current level of special effects in Hollywood is indeed a level that even domestic filming cannot catch up with. Wu Yuan remembered that in his dream, he waited until at least around 2012 before he saw such a crew in the mainland that made facial models for actors.

Before 2012, the special effects in so-called special effects movies were not so detailed at all, and they were completely "texture-based" special effects.

The gap in technology is indeed a chasm.

The idea of ​​wanting to set up a special effects company in China, which had 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 had chatted with them and roughly inquired about how much the computers and special effects equipment of Weta Digital would cost.

You don't know until you ask, and you will be shocked when you ask.

The various equipment currently available at Weta Digital alone is worth more than 100 million US dollars, and they plan to add more than 100 million US dollars of equipment in the next five years!

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

And to open a special effects company, it is not enough to have equipment, but also a group of people who can use these equipment.

The employees of Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital are basically trained by themselves, and the most advanced movie special effects technology is in the hands of core employees.

Outsiders want to learn, but there is no place to learn.

It is not an easy thing to run a special effects company. To compare it, it is like the chip manufacturing industry in the computer industry, which is the most cutting-edge field.

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

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

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

Now Wu Yuan wants to start a special effects company, but 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 problem.

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

He had discovered that Wu Yuan's eyes on the group of Weta Digital were not right, and after hearing him ask questions, he immediately guessed his thoughts and even guessed his troubles.

"Director Wu, China actually has quite a few talents in special effects."

Zhang Guorong smiled and put his arm around Wu Yuan's shoulders: "You can go to Hong Kong's Xintao Digital to recruit people."

"Xintao Digital's special effects are really good now, and there are many elites. I heard that their company has more than a hundred employees specializing in special effects."

"If you recruit a dozen of them, you can set up a stall."

"Xintao Digital." Wu Yuan murmured.

I remember it.

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

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

Time goes back to 1998.

That year, Hong Kong Island released a movie adapted from the comic of the same name: "The Storm Riders". This movie was very popular when it was released and won the Hong Kong movie box office champion that year.

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

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

They used special effects technologies such as full virtual characters, green background synthesis, and particle rendering in "Storm and Cloud", which was the first time in Hong Kong movies.

This film also became a benchmark for special effects in Hong Kong movies.

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

In 2001's "Kung Fu Soccer", many scenes that seem to be real shots are actually made by special effects, and those that seem to be special effects are actually real shots. It was also produced by Hong Kong Xintao Digital Company.

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

The number of special effects in "Kung Fu" is quite amazing. It is said that if all these special effects are done by one person, it will take 100,000 hours, or 35 years.

Xintao 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.

Now Xintao Digital is at its peak, and it can be said to be strong and powerful, but it is also a good time to poach people!

Because after "The Promise", the glory days of Xintao Digital were about to pass. Because the equipment was old, the boss was reluctant to spend money, and it could not keep up with the ever-changing special effects technology in Hollywood. In the following years, it was gradually eliminated by the market.

These special effects artists of Xintao Digital did not know where they went later.

It is estimated that a large number of them went north to join the new special effects companies that sprang up in the mainland, becoming the nutrients for the growth of special effects technology in the mainland.

Since they will come to the mainland to develop sooner or later, why not come earlier.

Wu Yuan smiled and patted Zhang Guorong on the back: "Leslie, it has to be you."

"Thank you for your advice, I will act as soon as possible!"