v2 Chapter 814： A sports car with a market price of nine million dollars

During the whole week before Christmas, Duke was making internal adjustments to the Marvel comics. He talked with the creative committee and Kevin Fitch several times, and also served as Marvel at the new shareholder meeting. The post of chairman of the group.

Duke's attitude is very clear, the Creative Committee will not be dissolved.

He was indeed striving to keep Kevin Fitch, but the other party tried their best to dissolve the creative committee. If he wants to get more power that shouldn't belong to him, Duke doesn't mind accepting Kevin Fitch's resignation.

Just like Duke said, this Hollywood will function normally even if he is away from himself or James Cameron, let alone Kevin Fitch.

Fortunately, Kevin Fitch is not a fool and arrogant, and he has not acted too irrationally.

Duke will not break the balance of Marvel’s power structure. After he talked with Kevin Fitch, at the new board of directors, Kevin Fitch’s annual salary and option dividends have both increased to a certain extent. The Creative Committee The intervention of Marvel Pictures has also been appropriately weakened. The relevant recommendations they put forward must be reviewed by Duke before they can be implemented.

Of course, this is only limited to Marvel movies, and the power of supervision by the Creative Committee still exists.

The struggle within the Marvel comics was temporarily calmed down. Duke stayed in New York to spend Christmas with his mother and hurried back to Los Angeles. It was less than half a year before the release of "Avengers". Post-production must start as soon as possible. .

In addition to recruiting Mike Dawson's editing team to Warner Studios, Duke focused on the special effects production of Industrial Light and Magic.

Movie special effects production is a complex and vast project. It is difficult to say that a single factor can accomplish it. Just as for the human body, it is difficult to put the importance of the brain, heart, lungs and other organs in an order, because where are they? Likewise, people can't live.

Funds, cycles, talents, processes, communication, design and other factors also determine the fate of the special effects of this movie. If the special effects of a movie are done well, it means that all links are well coordinated; if the special effects of a movie are not well done, then Explain that at least one of the links has a problem.

Well known. Making movie special effects is a very expensive thing, but specifically, where is the money spent? How much does a movie cost to make satisfactory special effects?

There are many places where money is needed to make movie special effects, and the largest proportion is labor costs. Hollywood commercials such as "The Avengers". Duke needs to use a team of thousands of people in post-production, not just Industrial Light and Magic, just as many major investment film special effects are handled by more than ten or even more than twenty special effects companies and studios, many others The special effects production team has also joined the huge special effects production of Warner Studios.

Many of these people are animators, compositors, etc. with many years of work experience, and the pay is certainly not low.

In the "Avengers" budget. Fifty percent of the budget is used to produce special effects. Duke and the actors and other staff make about 35 percent of the film's remuneration, and the remaining 15 percent is the shooting cost.

To put it bluntly, this film is not only selling stars, but also selling special effects.

The investment scale of a film determines its special effects. This is a truth that will not change in any country in the world.

For example, Duke still remembers that the "five cents special effects" of the online drama "Tomb Raiders Notes" caused heated discussions among netizens. The show claimed that the production cost of a single episode was tens of millions. Scum".

Assuming that the propaganda of the production cost is not mixed with water, the money that should be spent on special effects is also spent. But the three episodes of "Tomb Notes" are already equivalent to a movie, and a movie with an investment of 30,000 yuan is not a big production even on the other side of the Pacific.

For a work like "Tomb Raiders Notes" whose main selling point is visual spectacle, this investment will inevitably be in vain. Who can expect how good special effects will be brought by 30,000 RMB?

This is a very simple truth, but not everyone can accept it.

Special effects production is a highly industrialized industry. A good process can achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort, but a good process is not accomplished overnight. It needs to be polished repeatedly in practice.

Although the process of special effects production is similar, there are often big differences in the execution process. However, the current mainstream Hollywood visual effects team is mature and rigorous in all aspects. They have complete industrial processes, and both post-production management and technical capabilities are already very mature.

One of the representatives is undoubtedly the Industrial Light and Magic, which was acquired by Duke.

At first, Hollywood special effects companies were not very particular about process. Industrial Light & Magic spent a lot of time researching this problem, and then it has almost become a standard for the entire industry. Now every company hopes to use the process of Industrial Light & Magic.

The work of Industrial Light & Magic is continuous, including from development to review, communication, and finalization, each link has a set of strict procedures.

This is also an important reason why Duke's preferred special effects partner has always been Industrial Light & Magic for two decades in Hollywood.

In Duke's crew. The special effects team is a very important member. From the earliest days, he has not separated the special effects team from the crew.

Any work that needs to be completed by multiple people requires communication. This is not limited to the film field, and it is not limited to the special effects industry.

However, due to the natural technical barriers to film special effects, many crews split the pre-preparation, shooting and special effects production into two parts that rarely overlap. This is the taboo of film special effects production. If you want to get good special effects, start from the film project. From then on, the early stage team of the crew must maintain good communication with the special effects team at all times.

Before the production starts, Duke must ensure that all special effects companies have a full understanding of the content being produced.

The visual effects director of Industrial Light and Magic communicated fully with Duke, editor Mike Dawson, and associate director Anna Prinz in the director's studio to confirm Duke's ideas and the production requirements of all shots.

Then they communicated the specific production requirements with other special effects companies responsible for individual sessions. For key sessions, Duke first confirmed key factors such as the environment and location through simple pictures. After the pictures were confirmed, the special effects company produced a primary animation lens, and then He confirmed that the final effect shot was finally made.

Of course, different directors have different attitudes towards special effects production.

Directors like Duke and Steven Spielberg don’t ask too much about the details of special effects production. They just tell the special effects team exactly what they want, and the special effects team has a clear goal. Can accurately produce the pictures and shots they want.

Another type of director, such as James Cameron, is very attentive to the process of special effects production. They want to see different versions and understand the progress of the production. This is also a very good mode of communication.

There are also some directors who know very little about special effects production, and cannot accurately describe the final effect they want to present, or they don’t pay enough attention to special effects production, and they rarely cooperate consciously in the preparation and shooting. The result is that the quality of special effects is naturally difficult to guarantee , Repeated modification will also increase the cost of special effects production.

In addition to the feature film, Duke continued to communicate with his team about the ending of the film.

Just like the movie itself, Duke hopes that there will be many different elements in the ending, so that every character will show up once, and at the same time show their most important characteristics.

It is best not to appear in real-life images, and to let each character's most distinctive objects appear once, such as Iron Man's helmet, Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield, and Hawkeye's bow and arrow.

It’s a bit difficult to keep it from being out of touch with the plot. Characters like Hulk and Black Widow don’t have many objects to show.

The core post-production staff, including the head of the special effects team of Industrial Light and Magic, were gathered together, Duke brainstormed and found some good solutions.

Nick Fury’s pistol holster and Black Widow’s gun can be added to the end of the film. In the actual production, the staff also added her belt.

Hulk is the most difficult character in this regard, because he has neither a suit nor armor, nor even a weapon.

As a result, Duke decided to focus on Bruce Banner before he was transformed. Professor Banner's glasses, laboratory and his clothes will all be added to the end of the film.

Duke hopes that this title will not only catch people's attention, but also make the audience's minds think after the movie ends.

The crew strives to take the audience's gaze from one place to another, so that they can see the magnificent picture. In order to achieve an effect beyond the picture, the characters and plot are also more vivid and interesting.

As the release date of "The Avengers" approaches, the publicity offensives of Marvel Pictures and Warner Bros. have also been carried out step by step. By mid-January, Duke had taken the lead in completing a 30-second commercial. , This commercial will also appear on time in the midfield advertisement of the Super Bowl in February.

In addition, some of the film’s actors also appeared at this month’s Sundance Film Festival, especially Robert Downey Jr. and his car in the film, which easily robbed all independent films from the limelight. The ruby ​​red aura sports car with a market price of 90,000 US dollars, murdered a group of reporters, and brightened the eyes of movie fans.

Afterwards it also caused a huge topic discussion.

The Warner Studios had been busy until the Super Bowl. When the forty-sixth Super Bowl arrived, Duke left Los Angeles and flew directly to Indianapolis to watch the Super Bowl.

His Los Angeles Raiders eliminated the New England Patriots in the American League final and reached the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year. (To be continued.)

ps: Ask for monthly and recommended tickets!