"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 "Batman" has raised his net worth to the height of 10 million US dollars, which is not something Shao Shuaijun can afford. After all, it has to be shot in IMAX and 3D, which itself is a money-burning blockbuster. It is not easy to spend big money to hire superstars.
It's appropriate. The audition invitations previously sent out by the Screen Actors Guild were basically aimed at male stars with a salary of less than $5 million.
In the end, there were three actors 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 has the least pay.
Although he has participated in many movies, he mainly plays supporting roles. Josh Duhamel is quite famous, but he mainly plays 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 because of his acting skills and face. However, Jake Gyllenhaal also had the highest asking price, and his agent asked for $7 million. In this regard
Shao Shuaijun couldn't accept it and was only willing to pay US$5 million.
Finally, I contacted Li Yu and persuaded Jake Gyllenhaal. For Li Yu, Gyllenhaal was very considerate. After some twists and turns, he agreed to join "The Nighthawks" for US$5 million to star in the protagonist 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 found out that there was no avatar. Of course, it does not mean that there are no Chinese behind-the-scenes staff, at least director Shao Shuaijun
He 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 must be reviewed by him one by one before they can join.
During the casting period, Mitchell Bruce of Summit Entertainment led the producer and was responsible for negotiating the matters of IMAX photography and 3D photography. At this time, there were about 300 IMAX theaters in the world, and most of them were in the United States.
Half of them are science museums. In other words, there are less than 100 imax theaters in the United States.
China is even more pitiful. It is expected that until tomorrow's summer vacation, there will only be 9 IMAX theaters.
As the first movie to be shot using an IMAX camera, IMAX paid great attention to it. Not only did it rent one of the only seven IMAX cameras in the world to the crew of "The Night Watcher" for free, it also sent a dedicated person to guide the filming.
imax is a magical projection system that has changed the traditional projection method with its large screen and high resolution. However, imax is also the most complex and expensive projection system. It has not been popularized since its inception in the 1970s.
When going out, most of them are used in science and technology museums for science screenings and promotions.
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. Originally
"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 is only ten minutes, it is still a pioneering work, which is also his
The reason why everyone is worried about the new movie is that the future of IMAX is uncertain, so they blindly shoot in IMAX.
The first person to eat crabs was not sure whether it was a pleasure or not. But the first person to eat puffer fish was definitely poisoned to death.
Fortunately, Shao Shuaijun has his own plans. 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,
It is indeed expensive to shoot imax, but the imax company will provide certain compensation.
It is not that easy to establish a new projection system. In order to encourage the construction of more imax theaters, more movies use the imax format. The imax company has spent a lot of money to build theaters and movies that use the imax format.
They will sign a supply and sales contract in advance and 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 the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Batman Begins" have all been converted to imax-dmr movies, and are widely used worldwide.
It was released in IMAX theaters and achieved good results.
It was with such assistance that Shao Shuaijun dared to shoot with an imax camera.
Compared with the cost of imax shooting, 3D shooting is more expensive. 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 that of imax shooting.
The crew completed casting at the end of July and began setting makeup and rehearsals. This work 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 help of equipment to lift it. What is even more exaggerated is that the 3D effect,
It 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, resulting in a three-dimensional effect. The same goes for photography, which requires the use of two 2D cameras to shoot together. It is modeled after the two human eyes.
But here comes the trouble. The human eye has an automatic adjustment effect, so looking far and near both have a 3D stereoscopic effect. The camera is different and cannot automatically focus and adjust the angle. This requires two cameras to be fixed on a special gimbal.
On the camera, calculate the shooting distance, and then adjust the angle of the gimbal and 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 that when shooting a close-up shot, the distance between the two cameras should be as close as the eyes of an insect. If it is a normal lens, the distance between it and the human eye is about the same. If it is a long shot, the two cameras should be as close as each other.
The distance is as big as a giant's eye. There is a formula to calculate the distance, but there is often a big gap between the calculated distance and the actual photograph.
"How is it? How is the effect of this video produced? I have been exploring for a month. It should be perfect, right?" In the set up studio, Shao Shuaijun and deputy director Josh McGlaren were asking.
Special effects artist working in front of computer to create 3D images.
The special effects artist pursed his lips and turned 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. What is now on the computer screen is a left-right format comparison image, not a viewing experience.
Stereoscopic effect, but to see if there is any asynchrony between images.
Looking through his glasses, Shao Shuaijun's face gradually darkened.
The overlapping images of puppies on the screen are obviously inconsistent. 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 on the IMAX big screen.
Show the 3D effect.
"Shao, I'm sorry, we failed again." Josh took off his glasses, peeled off a toffee and put it in his mouth, saying 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 because 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".
, together they filmed the world's first IMAX-3D movie "The Polar Express". 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 and appeared in the last century.
He has appeared in many 3D movies, but now he can't even capture the shot of a puppy running.
"Josh, why is this happening? Why can't 3D meet my requirements after so many years of development?"
"Perhaps 3D should not appear. This kind of 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 insist on 3D shooting? We can already produce very outstanding effects by shooting with imax. Give up the idea of 3D photography, it will only bring a burden to "The Night Watcher", and
It's not a 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 movies." Shao Shuaijun cheered up his spirits 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, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
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 won’t read it, but I couldn’t help but read it. However, I will continue to write what I want to write.
I feel sorry for giving up midway, but it doesn’t matter. What I wanted to write is definitely wonderful! I take their criticisms seriously, and I will correct them one by one if I can accept them. But as for the original film, I don’t want to say too much about it. Say, I never said that I need to be original now, it’s all for the sake of the plot.