Chapter 111

I thought the crew would be off today, but you actually came?

The Matrix sequel crew, big‑bald Yuan De laughed and said.

He started working with Jiang Heng back when The Matrix 1 was filmed five years ago; you could say every one of Jiang Heng's works has his contribution.

Even though a few films had Hong Jinbao as the action director, Yuan De was also busy following along.

Thus, the two of them had a decent private relationship, and occasionally they would joke around.

Jiang Heng said solemnly, "The daily shooting schedule is already set; I definitely have to come!"

Yuan De chuckled softly, "I thought from now on the king wouldn't hold court!"

Don't talk nonsense; I'm completely innocent with her!

Yuan De smiled, pursing his lips, and nodded, saying, "Mm, I believe you. In our line of work, even if reporters block the door, we can still say we're just ordinary friends, staying up all night to study the script!"

Jiang Heng didn't respond, merely glared at Yuan De.

The latter hastily wiped off his smile and made an excuse to leave.

As for the other crew members, they didn't dare say anything more, and filming proceeded as usual.

Monica's looks were stunning, her figure impressive, and her acting outstanding; the originally planned one-week shoot was completed in just three days.

But she didn't rush to leave; instead, she toured Jingcheng.

Jiang Heng finally gave the crew a half-day off, accompanying this Italian national treasure-level beauty to tour the Forbidden City, and at night saw her off onto her flight.

Afterwards filming continued, and soon came the scene where the male lead battles the "antivirus software" Smith.

The fight between Neo and the hundred upgraded Smith agents is one of the two major highlights of The Matrix Reloaded, its classic status beyond doubt.

In Stephen Chow's Kung Fu, the brothers of the Axe Gang being hit and flying into the sky pays homage to this very shot.

During the original filming, the Wachowski brothers, considering the large number of characters, realized that using "bullet-time photography" would consume enormous manpower and material resources; they therefore decided to abandon bullet-time photography and, for the first time in film history, employed comprehensive "virtual shooting" technology.

To this end, the stunt performers underwent several months of training, mainly imitating every word and deed of "Hugo Weaving", including his various expressions and mannerisms.

When the stunt performers' imitation of Hugo reached the director's satisfaction, the action guidance team and the male lead joined in, beginning rehearsals of the action scenes; using "motion capture" technology, they input into the computer all the movements that Neo and the hundred "Smiths" needed to perform, ultimately creating the iconic special-effects sequence in The Matrix Reloaded.

Of course, Jiang Heng had the Super Microcomputer, so naturally he wouldn't have to go through all that trouble.

He simply found a hundred stunt actors with physiques similar to Yuan De's in advance and only trained them to imitate Yuan De's mannerisms.

As for facial expressions, one only needs to determine how many "agents" will appear on screen, then perform a "face swap" on each of those on‑screen agents.

By conducting the corresponding facial expression motion capture on Yuan De and then inputting it into the computer to combine with the matching "agent", the desired shot can be obtained.

Filming this segment was quite tedious and boring, yet the final result was extraordinarily stunning.

In the blink of an eye it was June; filming of The Matrix sequel was more than halfway done, and post‑production on Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother had been completed.

After passing the review smoothly, they entered the pre‑release publicity stage.

The film's release date was set for July 19; nationwide primary, middle and high school students were on vacation, guaranteeing a boost to box‑office revenue.

As for publicity, Jiang Heng didn't have that much time, nor could he lead a team to the main domestic box‑office cities for advance screenings as before.

In this situation, Han Sanping naturally took up the publicity banner, telling Jiang Heng, "You don't need to worry about publicity; it's just routine work—I'll have my people handle it. As for the premiere, just show up!"

Jiang Heng laughed, "I definitely have to come; if I didn't, the media would surely spread some rumor!"

Han Sanping thought the same: Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother is Jiang Heng's self‑directed, self‑starred work; if he didn't come, it would be as if both the lead actor and director were absent!

Fortunately, this film features many celebrity cameos; we can draft a list later and just need to invite over ten stars to help with publicity for one event.

In his view, the five major domestic box‑office cities definitely need to be visited for advance screenings; as long as each city has two stars in attendance, the event can be held.

It's a pity that the female lead Tang Yan isn't well‑known; otherwise, letting her lead a team to more cities would have yielded even better results.

After the discussion was settled, Jiang Heng called those cameo stars and eventually secured over twenty celebrity friends willing to participate in the advance‑screening publicity.

The film's premiere was scheduled for the afternoon of June 28 at the Capital Workers' Stadium.

In Jingcheng, at Xin Hua Mian Company, Zhang Weiping looked at the invitation in his hand, feeling perplexed and unable to make sense of it.

"When Director Jiang cameoed in Hero, his new film's script wasn't even finished! Yet now his new film is about to be released while we're still doing post‑production—how could the timing be off by so much?"

Zhang Yimou opposite him was also puzzled, having wondered several times why Jiang Heng shoots films so quickly and also finishes post‑production fast.

But when it comes to his own projects, everything seems to get overturned and redone from scratch at times!

After thinking, he said, "Perhaps he's just the heaven‑favored type who has everything figured out no matter what he shoots!"

"Maybe so!"

Zhang Weiping scratched his head, his expression somewhat irritable.

This year's summer slot was taken by Jiang Heng; it's no big deal that Hero's post‑production isn't finished.

But hearing that The Matrix Reloaded is slated for the New Year slot makes one quite anxious.

No need to think—The Matrix Reloaded will surely be a box‑office smash, possibly even surpassing Pacific Rim.

Although Hero is also a big production, they dare not compete with The Matrix Reloaded in the same slot.

Besides summer and the New Year slot, there aren't any other good windows—surely they can't rush to release in October, can they?

"As for the release window, what do you think?"

"At the very least we need to space them half a month apart; otherwise it will definitely affect box‑office revenue!"

Zhang Weiping nodded, agreeing with Zhang Yimou's words.

"That's all we can do; let's hope for a good result!"

In the blink of an eye, it was June 28; long queues formed outside the Capital Workers' Stadium in Jingcheng, almost all of them young faces.

The nearby streets were jammed to capacity, and many police came to maintain traffic order.

Tang Yan came accompanied by her parents; seeing this scene for the first time, she was truly astonished.

"So many people?"

"Yeah, I never expected a premiere publicity event to draw such a crowd!" Tang's mother sighed.

Because there was a red carpet, after entering the stadium Tang Yan went her separate way from her parents.

Wearing a formal gown, she walked the red carpet for the first time, signed her name on a huge poster display for the first time, and was then stopped by the movie channel's beautiful host, Tu Jingwei.

"Tiantian, hello, can you tell me how you feel right now?"

"I'm very happy, and also very excited!"

"Is there anything you'd like to say to the audience?"

"Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother is a very good film; I hope everyone will support it more!"

"Have you seen it?"

Tangyan Tiantian smiled and nodded.

Tu Jingwei looked curious and said, "Can you tell me how the effect is?"

"Well, I think 'shocking' is more appropriate, because many of the fight scenes exceed those in Lion Camel Ridge!"

"Wow!"

Tu Jingwei said exaggeratedly, "Surpassing Lion Camel Ridge is amazing, you know? Lion Camel Ridge is my favorite mythological movie!"

(End of chapter)