Chapter 407： fire from heaven

"I can assure you that Director Smith Zhang will never let us down. He will definitely bring us a great movie about courage and salvation, and the characters in it will usher in the most dazzling moment in their lives." moment, and when the movie opens at midnight at some point, the audience screams that the audience has been waiting for and the roof of the theater will be blown off!"

"Okay, and the big question now is, can Director Smith and Zhang repeat the miracle of Brokeback Mountain and break through six statuettes at the Oscars after the release of Lord of the Rings? The lost Best Actor, the Best Can the film awards, these two extremely important awards, be won by him who is only 25 years old? This kind of anticipation and waiting is the most interesting thing."

In May 1998, that is, at this time last year, a website called Rotten Tomatoes was quietly listed. It mainly provides movie-related reviews, information and news.

The website was founded by movie buff Senh Duong in May 1998 and has become the destination of choice for movie consumers and fans. Based on the praise from the Chicago Sun-Times, New Yorker, USA Today and other media, and with its many unique movie review methods, Rotten Tomatoes provides its users with a full range of services, featured products and communication communities.

The name of the website comes from the fact that audiences in vaudeville would throw tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables on the stage when the performance was not good. Good reviews are represented by fresh red tomatoes, and bad reviews by rotten green tomatoes.

Currently the most highly rated movies on the website, that is, movies with a "fresh" ratio of 100% include "Rear Window", "Toy Story 2" and other movies. In contrast, there are more than 200 films with a "Fresh" rating of 0%. The site keeps track of all reviews (about 250 for some major movies) and the percentage of positive reviews. If more than 60% positive comments, the work will be considered "fresh". Conversely, if a work has less than 60% positive reviews, it will be marked as "rotten". There are two types of movie evaluation, T-MeterCritics and TopCritics, the former is the comprehensive rating of the public and professional film critics, and the latter is only the rating of professional film critics.

Of course, the above is just the action trajectory of Rotten Tomatoes in the original time and space, but in this time and space, Zhang Dongcheng made the layout early and took him into his arms.

Compared with the difficulties and predicaments of Rotten Tomatoes in the original space-time, Rotten Tomatoes of this space-time was born as a model of wealth and wealth. Although it was silent and silent, all its actions were silent and scary. When everyone looked back, oh FUCK, when will there be another social networking site in the United States that mainly reviews movies?

Compared to the original popularity, freshness of film reviews, etc., Zhang Dongcheng ingeniously gave the definition and positioning of expectation value. On Rotten Tomatoes, in the sub-page of Lord of the Rings, countless reviews and ratings are comprehensively displayed.

98. 54% expected value, whether it is hopelessly obsessed with Zhang Dongcheng, or because he cannot understand his popularity and insists on hacking him, the sunspots who want to hack Zhang Dongcheng to the end no matter what An epic movie is full of expectations, but some people want to become the protagonists in Middle-earth, while some people maliciously want to find flaws and then lash out.

But no matter how bad Zhang Dongcheng is, he has to wait for the movie to be released, so this movie has jumped to the top of the most worthy of the list with an ultra-high expectation rate of 98.54%. "Fighter" ranked second, with a rating of 84.59%.

The third place is "Survival on a Deserted Island" by the national-level actor Tom Hanks. Everyone is full of expectations for how the actor will show off his invincible acting skills in this almost one-man movie.

Well, maybe there are more on the list, like Kate Beckinsale's Underworld?

The location shooting in New Zealand is over, and it lasted for four months. Although Zhang Dongcheng and Peter Jackson have some differences in certain film concepts, they treat the film very seriously.

Peter Jackson likes live-action shooting, or miniature landscape shooting, unless there is no way to use computer special effects, otherwise he will definitely make a big castle....

Real-scene shooting has the advantages of real-scene shooting, but it also has its disadvantages, that is, the construction period is long and the cost of money is not necessarily less than that of computer special effects. The parts that cannot be expressed by ordinary movie lenses are replaced by the ever-increasing computer technology.

Compared to the fact that the original Lord of the Rings can be beautiful and wonderful under the hands of college students, the shock brought by the collaboration of several of the world's strongest film special effects companies is even more amazing.

After more than three years of development, a film special effects company that was originally separated from Dongcheng Films began to appear in people's field of vision, adhering to Zhang Dongcheng's usual low-key, unobtrusive, and then broke out at a specific time. characteristics, this special effects company called Heavenly Fire has launched a strong challenge to the monopoly and leadership of Industrial Light and Magic in visual effects, and has been swallowing huge amounts of money like a gold-swallowing behemoth, which has transformed into the industry as a whole. All envy the special effects personnel, technology and software.

New Zealand's Weta Digital Special Effects Company was an independent special effects company for a period of time before the filming started, but within a month, the original director Peter Jackson and his friends Richard Taylor and Jimmy Searle The company co-founded by Kirk already belongs to the name of Fire of Heaven, one of Zhang Dongcheng's properties.

Achieving all this is nothing more than money opening the way and providing them with more opportunities to realize their dreams. Of course, they will not object to the win-win outcome.

Burton, who was originally the general manager of Heavenly Fire, became the CEO of the new Nintendo Fire Special Effects Company after naturally annexing Weta Xinma. His solid foundation and good popularity made him sit on this position that Zhang Dongcheng valued very . Now, he is sitting in front of the computer with Zhang Dongcheng, finishing the location shooting and switching to the Lord of the Rings in the later stage of film production.

Although the location shooting ended, Zhang Dongcheng did not get a rest because of this, but became even more busy. There are so many special effects shots of Lord of the Rings, and he must approve any of the scenes, so this long-awaited movie It seems that we will have to wait until next year's summer vacation to meet you.

"Hey, Smith. As much as I hate to say it, I'm so curious. Why do you think so much about Peter Jackson? Just because his ideas moved you? You're the only one who calls him a great director, and every time you say that, Peter Jackson's big teeth are almost laughing! You know he is only a B-movie director now, and he is far from being called a big Hollywood director! Don't say that your purpose is to make Vita... hehe, Snatch it here?" Burton is also an old man who has been with Zhang Dongcheng for several years, and he speaks more casually, unlike other employees who are so nervous that they can't even speak when they see Zhang Dongcheng who is smiling.

Taking a sip of his coffee, Zhang Dongcheng clicked his tongue appreciatively, then put down his coffee cup and laughed loudly: "Before I called Peter Jackson a great director, not many people in Hollywood knew him, the only one who was famous was In 1996, he filmed "Ghosts of Horror" and used a computer to make a very good computer animation, which was appreciated. After the new line got the right to shoot the script of Lord of the Rings, he was appointed as the director. To be honest, he didn't ask for enough funds at that time, and the money was negotiated bit by bit. If we didn't intervene in it, and then directly provide 400 million US dollars as the filming funds of the trilogy, Then Director Peter must first become a speaker who impresses capitalists before becoming a great director. As for Weta Digital, well, I think I am determined to win it.”

"Then I don't understand. How do you know that Peter Jackson can make this epic movie well? Especially when you are directing the first movie, and then handing over the next two movies to him, it's even more impressive. I don't understand." Burton knew that the boss Zhang Dongcheng would not appear in the special effects company every day, so he didn't chat much at this time, to deepen his relationship and impression, and he didn't know when this good position with an annual salary of up to one million would be offered by someone. .

Zhang Dongcheng snapped his fingers again, and said proudly: "Hey, everyone has their own characteristics, and the characteristics of Peter Jackson are his affection for Lord of the Rings and the team he has built for many years. The spirit of recreating the glory of Middle-earth on the silver screen and forgetting to eat and sleep, and working overtime for free is worth learning from us filmmakers!"

"Haha, BOSS, you got a good company, you got a good director, and you won't pay overtime for overtime... This is really wise!" Burton laughed loudly, as if the two were intimate when they were in the mummy Back then, they worked hard with the same enthusiasm for movies, working overtime for free.

Speaking of the beginning, the two chatted about interesting things about the mummy period, and a man who looked like a manager knocked on the door of Burton's office.

"Come in." Burton said casually.

"Boss, Mr. Burton, the new seven sets of blades have arrived!" The visitor said excitedly.

"OK! We know!" Hearing what the person said, Burton stood up immediately.

Edge is not a weapon, but the most advanced Intel IBM588 with 2.8GH Intel Xeon processor-the "Edge" mainframe, and the investment of these seven sets of Edge hosts is as high as 5 million US dollars!

Well, if you think this investment is really expensive, let me tell you that the Lord of the Rings crew already has 25 sets of blade hosts, with a total value of nearly 25 million US dollars!

This is only part of the hardware investment!

With a total of thirty-two sets of blade hosts, Heavenly Fire Special Effects Company already possesses the world's most powerful special effects processing capability, and has the world's largest and most Intel high-performance movie groups, connecting more than 2,600 processor, and in the original time and space, only about half of the blade mainframe was used, and it was only used in the third part of the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King, but now, under Zhang Dongcheng's hands, it is far more than the original version and nearly five Doubling the investment in hardware will make the first part of Lord of the Rings extremely shocking!

Of course, the benefit of investing in hardware is that it doesn’t just exist for one movie. In the future, when Hollywood movies are becoming more and more visual and special effects-oriented, Zhang Dongcheng must plan ahead and make preparations in advance.

Different from other companies, other film companies have to fully invest in a movie, and even pay a lot of publicity expenses for film shooting. Whether a movie with tens of millions of dollars can make a lot of money, or unknown number.

This is the case with "Deep Cold" that made Ender completely unable to gain a foothold in Hollywood. The $60 million was in vain, and that guy had to get out of the director's circle in embarrassment. .

But Zhang Dongcheng is different. Although his investment is concentrated in the film industry, he can avoid risks and find out the real money-making opportunities from the speeches of countless directors who want to take money out of his pocket. For movies, once the investment is confirmed, well, you don't have to worry about money at all. As long as it is not embezzlement or theft, Zhang Dongcheng can make any director stare at him.

Zhang Dongcheng’s short-term film funds have been tested by the market for about four years. Although each release says that the purchase fund has a return on investment of 10% to 50%, each time it is only the highest, and the return is never lower than 50%! This has made countless Americans regard Zhang Dongcheng as the God of Wealth. As long as there is a rumor that Zhang Dongcheng's short-term film fund is about to start buying, there will be a queue for miles outside the gate of the partner East West Bank. Putting up a tent, and waiting for Zhang Dongcheng to send money with the whole family...

With such a huge prestige bonus, as long as he wants, Zhang Dongcheng can easily raise an investment of more than one billion US dollars, and countless consortia and venture capital are lining up to beg him to accept his own money...

Therefore, Zhang Dongcheng's film company does not need to prepare any cash flow to deal with the most huge shooting and publicity expenses. It keeps growing like a balloon.

Not to mention the ZDC TV station covering the entire United States, and even most of Canada. This TV station, which was almost on the verge of bankruptcy, turned around in just two years under the leadership of Zhang Dongcheng, and its ratings jumped to the first in the United States. It's completely earning a lot of money!

Zhang Dongcheng's current net worth is conservatively estimated to exceed two billion dollars!

Closer to home, the wealthy Zhang Dongcheng is not a **** who only makes female stars scream in bed. Investing in movies is his favorite thing to do.

Just like the seven sets of blade hosts in front of him now.

Looking at the huge computer host in front of him, Zhang Dongcheng nodded in satisfaction, and looked at Burton who was obsessed with stroking his lover's smooth skin, and said amusedly: "Okay, don't touch it, your new lover is already It's yours. If you continue to touch it like this, the paint on the chassis will be ruined by you!"

Listening to Zhang Dongcheng's jokes, Burton touched his nose in embarrassment, and beckoned to the technicians to quickly install and run the machine, and then dragged Zhang Dongcheng to the special effects production center and said to him.

"Originally, Peter Jackson requested that the first Fellowship of the Ring only need to have more than 400 special effects shots, but you requested more than 800, so we made a lot of physical models of war characters, and then let the animation director scan them into Computer, to make computer animals, each virtual animated character has its own fighting movements and moves, so that the audience can't tell which is real and which is an animated character. In this way, you can fully meet your requirements!"

Zhang Dongcheng didn't speak, but just looked at the orc warrior on the computer screen with his chest folded. This is also a computer creature, and there is no real person playing it.

The camera shot across its ferocious face, and then came to the face of another orc. The short slow motion showed no flaws. This non-existing orc seemed to be a product of this planet, which really made people gasp. .

The battle scenes of thousands of troops and horses in The Lord of the Rings are completed by the revolutionary Massive computer software. In fact, there are 100 actors playing orcs, and there are no more than 500 horses. Computer graphics special effects are mainly used to simulate real people or animals, but models are needed before the simulation

to pose various actions, and then use a digital camera to take pictures of all the actions, input them into the computer, and then process and synthesize them.

For example, the four-toothed elephant is virtualized based on the movements of the real image, the black flying dragon and the giant have made huge models, and Gulu has a real person as the "cloning mother".

Before the perfect shot, it was the hard work and struggle of the special effects artists. At this moment, what appeared in front of Zhang Dongcheng was another real person, dressed in ragged clothes, holding a rusty, blood-stained The Orc, the leader of the Orc Legion, was roaring at the Fellowship of the Ring.

Oh, **** it, someone told Burton? You deliberately found this clip to make fun of me?

Zhang Dongcheng touched his nose in embarrassment. This movie shot was the one he had NGed more than 80 times and had to revise the script to get it right. Don't look at the majestic orc now, the next moment he will be shot by Orlando The bow and arrow shot through the head, and then fell off the performance of the wolf warrior with a thud.

But looking at Burton’s appearance, it seems that he can’t understand Zhang Dongcheng’s embarrassment at all. It’s probably just a coincidence. Burton is a technical geek, so he’s not as boring as Adaman and the others.

"Boss, look, after Orlando shot the arrow, we made the arrow's flight trajectory and brought out the special flame effect according to your requirements. This scene is quite powerful, and I was shocked!" Burton said excitedly He stared at the fruits of his labor intently, looking like a good student who was looking forward to seeing his grades.

The original Orlando is already so cool, but Zhang Dongcheng's idea makes him even more dazzling, physical archers transform into magic archers, and the arrows shot are ordinary, with flame special effects, and with cold The ice special effects, in short, are more dazzling and more unforgettable!

And these special effects are generated on the computer.

Slow motion, extremely slow motion, and these slow motions are after Orlando's extremely fast drawing of the arrow, the magnificent flame that bloomed from the arrow draws a stream of light, breaks through the air, bursts into a clear howl and deprives everything The roar of the right to life flies straight forward!

Under the computer special effects, the close-up of this flaming arrow is from the arrowhead to the arrow body, and then to the arrow tail, until it gets used to the orc's eye socket, bursting out a cloud of blood mist, and the free blood plasma is flying around, igniting a skyrocketing fire !

In less than ten seconds of footage, there are no less than five or six special effects actions. This simple arrow is converted into money, and there are 20,000 to 30,000 dollars thrown out, but no amount of money is worth it. However, the magical aura of life rushed towards his face, making Zhang Dongcheng forget that he was the unlucky guy who was shot down by an arrow, and couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Oh God! It is estimated that such a lens will not fall behind in twenty years!

This is much better than the original Lord of the Rings!

Sometimes, I have to admit the magic power of money, at least in the special effects of movies that require the most money to get the effect, it is absolutely true that you get what you pay for!

"Very good, very good! Keep this level!" Zhang Dongcheng was so satisfied, he patted Burton on the shoulder, expressing that he was amazed by the performance of this scene.

Even the director almost screamed out loud. It is conceivable how ordinary audiences will react when they see these shots. It must be screaming with excitement and excitement. There is no other way .

"Thank you!" Burton was very concerned about Zhang Dongcheng's compliment. After working all afternoon, he finally got the words he dreamed of, and finally the big stone in his heart fell to the ground.

"Oh, BOSS, by the way, there is one more thing, that is, Kate Beckinsale and the director of Underworld are also here. They also came for the special effects shots of the movie, and a special working group is serving them." After Burton played a few more short videos, he suddenly remembered something and turned to Zhang Dongcheng.

"Beckinsale and Tim? Oh, that's great, I'll go meet them!" Zhang Dongcheng was very satisfied with the special effects of Lord of the Rings right now, and he couldn't help but feel concerned about his company's name after he took care of the biggest matter on his mind. Take care of the next movie, or care about the night girl who gives herself another kind of stimulation.

Of course, it is impossible for Zhang Dongcheng to shoot Underworld to be handed over to the original director Lun Wiseman, because this kid took Beckinsale, the British rose, during the filming process. A super beautiful daughter, Lily-Mo-Sin, was born.

Zhang Dongcheng, who knew everything in advance, naturally had to prepare early, and Lun Wiseman's current director level is not enough to reach his directing level four years later, so Zhang Dongcheng recruited the great director Tim who was born in 1958 - Burton, the strangest director in Hollywood, filmed "Batman" in 1989, and almost made Johnny Depp the king's Edward Scissorhands in 1990.