Chapter 434: Amazement and Earth-shattering Special Effects

Although Han Shanping was a director by profession, he switched to an administrative position after only a few years of making movies.

So even though he is very passionate about special effects blockbusters, he doesn't really know much about special effects.

Although he may not make movies again, he is still interested in shooting special effects blockbusters.

Normally, he doesn't have much time to observe it up close. Now that "Aftershock" is just around the corner and he has the great director Liu Zhou by his side, he also wants to take this opportunity to learn more about the shooting of special effects blockbusters.

So even when it comes to models, he looks at them very carefully.

When he saw a wall, he found that the wall was not a whole piece, but seemed to be built with bricks.

He stretched his head forward, looked carefully with wide eyes, and found that it was indeed built with small bricks. He asked in surprise:
"Liu Zhou, did you really build this wall with small bricks?"

Liu Zhou smiled and said:
"Not only the wall, but the entire panoramic model and the ruins model over there are all built with these small bricks. The ratio of bricks to buildings is 1:24!"

Hearing Liu Zhou's words, he could not help but feel even more shocked and said in surprise:
"What, these buildings are all made of small bricks?"

"That's right." Liu Zhou explained with a smile, "Although this model is only used for medium shots, it must be able to withstand close-up shots, so the model is made at a ratio of 1:24.

In order to make this panoramic model and that ruins model, Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio specially fired millions of such small bricks, and then hired people to use tweezers to glue these small bricks together one by one to make these small houses.

Finally, the art department created various effects such as the atmosphere of old bricks, gray walls, and slogans of the times based on these houses.”

Han Shanping looked at the model, then at the staff who were busy working, and was completely speechless. It was all made of small bricks. It was really not easy!

“How long did it take you to complete the model?”

"We decided to cooperate with Tangshan in June, and finalized the plan in July. We have been working on it until now, and some parts of the ruins model have not been completed yet."

Han Shanping sighed in his heart, no wonder the preparatory work for a general special effects blockbuster takes more than half a year, and in comparison, the preparatory work for this movie is even more complicated.

“How many shots do I need for this panoramic model?”

Liu Zhou raised a finger:
“Just one shot!”

Han Shanping suddenly felt a little choked. It was too extravagant to make such a complicated model and then take only one shot!

Liu Zhou saw Han Shanping's expression and roughly understood what he was thinking. He smiled and explained:
"This is only possible in our country, where labor costs are relatively low. If it were in Hollywood, I would definitely use CG for the production."

But in fact, even if these two models were made in China, it would still cost 20 to 30 million yuan.

In other words, the cost of shooting this one shot is enough to make a small or medium-budget movie.

Of course, using models for filming in China may be slightly cheaper, but the more important reason is that this kind of model plus CG production makes the film have a stronger visual impact and is more shocking.

The feeling with and without this lens is completely different, so even if the cost of using a model in China is higher, he will insist on making this model.

"It's just you. Maybe Zhang Yimou doesn't have such a big heart."

"Haha, it's all for the movie. Let's go check out the ruins model over there."

Han Shanping nodded:
"Okay, let's go over and see what it looks like after the earthquake."

The three of them came to the ruins model, where there was also a huge post-earthquake photo and more staff members were busying around.

Han Shanping felt that this ruins model was much larger than the previous panoramic model. Looking at the ruins model in front of him, he felt a strong shock in his heart, even a dull pain.

After all, the model is so realistic that it looks almost exactly like the photos taken after the Tangshan earthquake.

This is what the special effects team supervisor said:
“This model is 25m x 25m in size, which is equivalent to a model of more than 600 square meters. At first, we wanted to make a 15m x 15m model, but based on the shooting lens and the analysis of the panoramic view of the picture, we found that this size was too small.

After discussion between our special effects team and photography team, we concluded that it must be over 20 meters long, so we made it the current size.”

Han Shanping pointed at the ruins model and said:

"These houses are all upside down, so it should be easier to make them, right?"

Liu Zhou shook his head and said with a smile:
"No, this is more complicated and difficult to do! When we looked at the panoramic model just now, we only needed to make the complete brick walls, doors, windows and tiles on top of those complete houses.

Now that the house has collapsed, the decorative architectural structures inside the house will be exposed, such as the beams and some furniture in the house.

So it is more difficult to make a house collapse than to build a house.

At the same time, there is another difficulty, that is, the collapse of so many houses in the earthquake is also irregular. We can't just let them collapse randomly, but they have to collapse in a way that conforms to the conditions of an earthquake.

So in order to create the irregularity of the collapse during an earthquake, the special effects team conducted many experiments, observing the physical laws of the house when it collapsed, etc. ”

Just like making CG special effects, some huge waves’ splashes, waves, etc. all need to be strictly calculated, and physical special effects are not simply made to look good, it is also a delicate job.

This is also why the shooting time for special effects blockbusters is not very long. On the contrary, the pre- and post-production time for special effects production takes a long time, sometimes even several times the shooting time.

Han Shanping couldn't help but be amazed again. They actually had to do an experiment to observe how the house collapsed. This was so professional!

Then he looked at Liu Zhou and said:
“Will this ruins model only be shot in one shot?”

"No, there will be two shots. One is the shot after the earthquake, and the other is the heroine rushing back to Tangshan. The camera follows her gaze and sees that the entire city has become a ruin."

Listening to Liu Zhou's narration, Han Shanping couldn't help but think about the scene described in his mind. It was indeed quite shocking. It would allow the audience to directly see the cruelty of the earthquake.

It was really worth building this ruins model just for this shot.

However, if outsiders knew that tens of millions of dollars were spent on two or three shots, they would definitely be shocked.

After touring the ruins for a while, Liu Zhou wanted to let Han Shanping see something different, so he asked the team leader:

"Is the ground-breaking device ready?"

"It was just finished the day before yesterday. If Director Liu and President Han want to take a look, I'll take you there."

"What is a ground-splitting device?" Han Shanping asked curiously.

Liu Zhouzhou said as he walked:
“In my conception, there is such an important long shot, where the camera is close to the ground, showing people’s panic and fleeing in all directions when the earthquake comes. Then cracks suddenly appear on the ground, and the camera keeps moving forward along the irregular cracks. Then, the camera pans up and sees the cracks extending to the distance of the city. Finally, the camera pans to a higher position to show that the entire city collapsed in the earthquake.

In order to show the effect of the ground being torn apart when a major earthquake strikes, Golden Harvest's special effects department specially created a special device to achieve this effect. "

This long shot is very important, and Liu Zhou also attaches great importance to it. In fact, he came here today mainly to see the ground crack effect.

After listening to Liu Zhou's story, Han Shanping couldn't help but feel curious about the ground-splitting device he mentioned.

However, when he arrived at the site of the ground-splitting device, Han Shanping was surprised again. He found that in less than an hour, he had been surprised many times.

He had thought that the ground-splitting device that Liu Zhou had mentioned would be composed of many mechanical devices, but what caught his eye was indeed a street more than ten meters long with greenery on both sides of the street.

The special effects team supervisor saw Han Shanping's confusion and introduced:
“In fact, there are two large iron plates put together under the ground. The iron plates are covered with soil and some flowers and plants are planted on them, blending in with the surrounding environment.

When we were shooting, we needed to create the effect of a crack in the ground. When the actors ran on it, one of the mechanical plates below would move and vibrate, thus creating the special effect of a crack in the ground.”

Han Shanping seemed to understand something, but still asked curiously:

"Can I stand up and take a look?"

“Of course, the actors all need to run on it during filming.”

Han Shanping stepped onto the ground-splitting device, stepped on it hard, and found that the covering soil was quite thick, and it felt no different from a real street.

Then he looked at the ground carefully again and found no gaps.

Seeing him like this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but laugh:
"Boss Han, don't look at it. If you can see any traces, it means the art team is incompetent."

Liu Zhou then said to the special effects team supervisor:

"Let the special effects team responsible for this area prepare and show us the effect."

"Okay, Director Liu, but this ground-breaking device needs to be powered on. It will take some time to prepare. You need to wait for a while."

"No problem, go get ready."

About half an hour later, Liu Zhou and Han Shanping were told that the ground-fissuring device was ready. They also came to a relatively close position to experience the effect of the ground-fissuring device up close.

After the two men stood in place, with the sound of "start", they felt their feet shaking constantly, and then they clearly saw the ground being torn apart. A crack about thirty centimeters wide spread forward irregularly.

The crack is very long, as long as seven meters!

Seeing this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but nodded. He remembered that when Feng Kuzi was filming "Aftershock", he asked a South Korean team to create the ground crack effect. The South Korean team could only make it more than three meters long, and four meters was the limit.

Now the Golden Harvest team can achieve seven meters, which is obviously much better than the special effects team in South Korea.

Han Shanping was also amazed by this, but it was not without flaws. He pointed at the crack and said:

"Only this one crack seems a little fake. There should be other small cracks that are more realistic."

Liu Zhou nodded and said:
"Mr. Han is right. We have consulted experts. During a real earthquake, the cracks on the ground are similar to waves. The cracks will continue to extend forward, and the surrounding ground will also break apart in an uneven manner. This effect cannot be achieved by mechanical devices alone.

After discussing with the special effects team, I decided to use a combination of ground-breaking devices and CG special effects to present this effect.

The big crack was created by the ground cracking device, and the other small cracks were synthesized by computer to create wave-like vibrations, and then the cracks were opened at the most appropriate time. "

"Haha, it seems that I am being too good at teaching. You think much more comprehensively than I do."

Hearing Han Shanping's words, Liu Zhou couldn't help but say seriously:
"The movie 'Aftershock' has a special meaning. If it is not well made, the Chinese people will criticize it, so we have to be thorough."

“If domestic directors took movies as seriously as you do, there wouldn’t be so many bad movies.”

"Some bad movies are the director's fault, but more of them are the fault of another group of people."

Han Shanping also understood what Liu Zhou meant, but there was nothing he could do about it. The director has great power in a crew, but the investors have even greater power.

Investment talents are the ones who hold the power of life and death over the crew, but there are not many investors in the mainland who understand movies.

Han Shanping changed the subject and couldn't help asking:

"Is the level of Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio so high now? They can actually complete the special effects work of "Interstellar" and "Aftershock" on their own."

In response to Han Shanping's question, Liu Zhou smiled and explained:
“Although the technical level of Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio has improved rapidly in the past two years, it is not good at everything.

Special effects production is a very complex job with a very detailed division of labor. Each special effects company has its own strengths and it is impossible to cover everything.

There is hardly any special effects company that can take on all the special effects work for a special effects blockbuster movie.

So "Interstellar" and "Aftershock" are both international collaborations like Hollywood blockbusters, with more than a dozen special effects teams from around the world participating.

We at Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio are only responsible for the main special effects work.”

“I see. However, it is already impressive that your Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio was able to undertake most of the special effects work for these two special effects blockbusters.

I want to know what the current technical level of Golden Harvest Special Effects Studio is in the world. "

"Of course we can't compare with the world-class special effects companies such as Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, but at least we are at an upper-middle level. We have also received many special effects orders from Hollywood."

"That's right. I didn't expect that you, Golden Harvest, have created such a strong special effects company without anyone noticing. Most of your peers in the country probably don't know about it."

"Haha, we will need a lot of special effects in the future, and we can't always look for foreign special effects companies."

It was already past five in the afternoon when the two came out of the tour, and Han Shanping left first with satisfaction.

The next day, Liu Zhou flew to Tangshan. The main scene of the film was directed by people from Golden Harvest, and Tangshan was responsible for the investment and construction.

It has been more than three months since the construction started in September, and Liu Zhou needs to go over and see the specific situation.

(End of this chapter)