Chapter 196

A survey report by the Hollywood film authority AFI in 2001 showed that North American audiences aged 18-40 have the highest degree of sensory stimulation for flying car scenes, even exceeding those big names in the 20 million US dollar club.

So there was the male lead riding a motorcycle being chased by dinosaurs in 'Jurassic World 3';

The male lead driving a war vehicle to hunt down the villain in 'Batman';

In the final part of 'Need for Speed', Saleen S7, Koenigsegg Agera R, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and other cars are speeding on the road;

In 'Fast and Furious', the god car Enzo Ferrari and the god car Carrera GT rolled into the abyss of the valley together, "the car was destroyed and people died".

Not to mention series films like 'Fast and Furious' and 'Taxi', which directly make this subject matter into a movie, rather than a simple fragment.

But it is indeed so effective and so popular.

In Hollywood flying car scenes, French supercars are Bugatti, German is Porsche, and Italian is Ferrari and Lamborghini.

And the representative of the United States must be Saleen S7, a top supercar born in 2000.

According to Lu Boss's design, this flying car scene lasts for 10 minutes.

The very vulgar purpose is to show the unparalleled special effects effect to the audience at the beginning, laying the shocking tone of the whole movie full of coolness.

It is also used as a promotional gimmick to attract the audience group dominated by teenagers.

The literary scenes in the first five minutes took an afternoon to film.

Since the flying car scene involves fire and explosion scenes, it requires an extremely harsh working environment.

This part of the scenes has to wait for the special effects team, explosion and car stunt team to arrive the day after tomorrow before officially starting.

The filming of the first day ended quickly, but Seeing Lu Kuan couldn't leave yet, and Tang Mu Cruise also arrived at the crew.

They have to wait for the insurance company and the completion guarantee company to formulate the filming plan for the next few days together, and check and discuss the few finished films today.

In capitalist countries, those with money are the masters. At this time, Boss Lu is no longer the most awesome when holding a meeting, the insurance company is the most awesome.

They can pass if they say so, and which lens does not meet the requirements, or has the political risk of release, must be cut and refilmed.

According to this filming progress, about a week later, Tang Mu Cruise can be allowed to organize a screening to find distributors in North America and other regions, so the more exciting flying car scenes are placed in the front to film.

The cramped crew meeting room was full of people. The insurance company was checking the crew's accounts today and signing and confirming on the expenditure vouchers, which is also to prevent unrestrained cost overruns.

Generally, directors with higher status modify the budget. As long as it is used for the actual filming needs of the film and is not too excessive, the insurance company will agree.

This system is actually very suitable for introducing co-produced films in the country and Xiangjiang, just like 'Wu Xia' which pitted investors to jump off the building. Can a straw hat worth thousands of dollars appear in the crew under Chen Kexin's control?

It's really pitting people to death.

After reading all the materials, Ryan, the project manager of the insurance company, was noncommittal and began to discuss the arrangement of flying cars and explosion scenes.

"Lu, we suggest that this scene should be filmed as early as possible!"

This is the insurance company's consideration for reducing possible risks, putting the most difficult, most dangerous, and most prone scenes in the front to film.

Seeing Lu Kuan had no opinion.

Originally, he planned to cut the flying car scene into the 15-minute pre-sale film to attract distributors, which is also conducive to price increases and negotiations on distribution costs.

October 3, this most important special effects flying car explosion scene in the first twenty minutes of the movie was prepared in advance and officially started filming.

The filming location for this scene was selected on a temporarily closed highway in the suburbs of Vancouver, for which 120,000 US dollars were paid to the local government for venue rental and maintenance fees.

Don't ask why it is so expensive, the fat white female government official in the city hall will tell you:

Traffic control costs money, the government sending security and police teams to clear the field and patrol the field costs money, garbage cleaning and noise interference fees for surrounding residents cost money...

There are also a bunch of miscellaneous reasons that make Boss Lu have a headache.

Fortunately, money can make ghosts push the mill in capitalist countries. As long as you are willing to spend money, the US military can fly the F22 out as a prop for you.

But not all crews are as well-budgeted as 'Alien Realm', so deserts, abandoned stations, desolate ports, etc. are often rented.

Of course, there are also rich brothers who are inhumane, such as the Wachowski brothers in 'The Matrix 2' who specially repaired a highway of less than 2 miles to film a fight scene...

Seeing Lu Kuan is communicating the plan with the special effects team, fireworks team, and car stunt team.

"Everyone look at my storyboard, the overall process is Zhang Ziyi driving the car to approach the robber from the left rear, Leonardo driving the car from the opposite lane to squeeze and hit, then the robber makes a beautiful tail drift to dodge the two cars, and Leonardo's car rolls over."

"Immediately after, Zhang Ziyi's car continues to chase. After her car is parallel to the robber's car, she breaks the window and enters, and after a fight, she subdues the robber, but the vehicle also rolls forward and crashes."

This is the content of the special effects part. At the end of this scene, Zhang Ziyi will have a thrilling escape in the car, avoiding the ending of perishing with the robber.

Such scenes are generally arranged in the big climax of the film.

But 'Alien Realm' gives such eye-exploding scenes in the first ten minutes, and only treats it as an appetizer, which already shows Seeing Lu Kuan's ambition in the special effects scenes of the whole movie.

"Kevin, our people will observe and assist with your team later, this is content written in the contract, no problem, right?"

Kevin, the leader of the Williams team, nodded with a smile: "Of course, my boss, you paid a high reward."

They are the main fireworks special effects team of 'Band of Brothers' and 'Saving Private Ryan'.

The reason why they were hired by Boss Lu to be responsible for most of the fireworks special effects scenes in 'Alien Realm', in addition to their commendable business ability, is also because they are not precious and are willing to carry out some technical poverty alleviation that is not a trade secret.

In this regard, it is completely opposite to the Korean team in 'Assembly'.

At that time, the fireworks team of the August First Film Studio and the Korean team cooperated to be responsible for special effects. Every time they prepared gunpowder and set explosion plans, they "invited out" the August First Film Studio team.

Fireworks master is an important job in special effects technology, and has a vital role in many blockbuster scenes such as flying car scenes and war scenes.

He is willing to pay extra salary to the Williams team, also to cultivate and improve the fireworks special effects technology reserves of Butian Yinghua.

Today, Yuan Heping's team also arrived, and is talking about the play with Zhang Ziyi, Leonardo, and Liu Yifei.

Except for special effects scenes, the actions of Zhang Ziyi and Leonardo in this process are also a wonderful part.

Especially Zhang Ziyi's thrilling escape at the end is the small climax of the first ten minutes of the movie, which can quickly bring the audience into the blockbuster rhythm.

Seeing Lu Kuan and the special effects director are finalizing the final plan:

"First from the left rear of the car, shoot the robber's Saleen from the perspective of Zhang Ziyi's car, about 30 seconds, give the camera perspective to Leonardo's car coming from the opposite side."

"Give a rapidly approaching camera perspective, like the visual image of a ghost poking its head on the road, and then Leonardo's car rolls over. I want a side roll plus a forward roll here, can it be done?"

The special effects director had already been convinced by his brain hole at the previous discussion meeting, thought about it carefully and made an ok gesture.

"After the forward roll, give the camera from the side, followed by the camera of Zhang Ziyi's car facing the front, three perspectives to shoot Leonardo's car, giving the audience the strongest visual impact!"

Money is willful. This time, in addition to the model cars of advertisers, the crew prepared three spare cars.

If you shoot it, continue to shoot, don't be afraid of waste, what you want is the ultimate effect.

Kevin of the Williams team is ready. Their main work is to install gunpowder on the bottom of the car and press the button when the vehicle reaches the preset position.

The real technical barrier in this line:

One is gunpowder deployment technology. Different movies and scenes need different colors, flame shapes, flame heights, etc. These details are very test of deployment technology.

The second is experience, which can be detonated at the most appropriate time according to the requirements of the director and the crew, otherwise early or late by one second is a flaw.

Seeing Lu Kuan stood on the set with his arms crossed, presetting the scenes of this scene in his mind to check for leaks and fill gaps, Emil suddenly brought a Chinese face over.

"Lu, Lin is here."

Boss Lu turned around and smiled and stretched out his hand: "Welcome, Lin Yibin!"

Lin Yibin, ancestral home in Taiwan, Chinese-American, famous Hollywood director, directed the 3-6 parts of the 'Fast and Furious' series in later generations, an excellent Hollywood commercial film director.

His film 'Better Luck Tomorrow' last year won the Sundance Jury Award nomination. At that time, Seeing Lu Kuan participated in the non-competition unit to cooperate with Harvey's release of 'The Drummer' in North America.

At that time, at the film festival, Lin Yibin watched Lu Boss's Golden Lion Award film and was amazed.

Later, the news of the 'Alien Realm' project spread throughout Hollywood, and he recommended himself to the crew to serve as assistant director, and arrived at his post today.

Lin Yibin looked at this compatriot who was 10 years younger than himself and sighed, but there is a sequence in hearing the Tao, he just came with the purpose of humble learning.

"Director Lu, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity, I will definitely contribute my strength to the crew."

Listening to this is the tonality of Chinese-Americans. White people will only be like Kevin of the Williams team just now, boss, you pay, I will work hard!

Seeing Lu Kuan wants to develop him into another iconic director of the inquiry realm (United States).

After all, Emil's ability is placed here, it is enough to film some low-budget films, but he is still not enough for big-budget commercial films like 'Fast and Furious'.

The two greeted for a while, Lu Boss found Liu Yifei, this is the part he is most uneasy about today.

"Are the actions familiar?"

Liu Yifei was obviously much more nervous than before, and her face was a bit unnatural: "Well! Practiced for two days, it should be no problem."

The young director didn't habitually tease her again: "Remember, safety first, you are here to learn, not really to let you be a martial arts substitute, there are plenty of female martial arts substitutes in Director Yuan's team."

"Well! I know, I want to try it, practiced Grotowski's physical training for so long, I feel my muscle control ability can be competent."

Boss Lu nodded: "Okay, if there is any problem, signal immediately, I will call stop at the first time."

The little girl gave him a knowing smile: "Got it."

Everything is ready.

After all, it is a special effects scene full of dangers. In order to achieve the best visual presentation, Seeing Lu Kuan arranged a top special effects plan.

Return and risk coexist. In this era when special effects technology is not highly mature, such a plan also has to bear risks.

It's just that the risks are borne by the bottom-level field staff and substitutes. The insurance company will not let the superstars who bear huge insurance premiums take risks.

Boss Lu recited a sentence of Fushang Wuliang Tianzun in his heart, praying that everything would go well next, and then calmly shouted to start.

In the lens, first Zhang Ziyi and the robber's car appeared, followed by Leonardo's car walking in the opposite direction.

When driving to the preset position, there will be a green slope on the ground. The car stunt actor drives through here to cause a rollover, and then the green slope is keyed out in the later stage. This is the most common way to film a rollover scene in this era.

At the same time, the gunpowder device on the chassis of the car also exploded rapidly, which belongs to the type of thunder and small rain, looking at the fireworks, but the danger is not great.

Leonardo's car rolled rapidly on the ground, a scarlet flame at the tail rose rapidly in the tooth-sour sizzling sound, followed by a soaring, falling, and terminating with rolling smoke.

"Click!"

The director called stop, the staff on the scene quickly took the fire extinguisher to clean up, and cleared the road for the next filming.

This scene was a bit below expectations, Seeing Lu Kuan called over the heads of several teams.

"From the DIT workstation, you can see that the front perspective lens of the side roll just now has flaws. The main problem is that the entry time is too short."

"Here I want a slow-motion special effect from far to near. Don't let the half of the front face of the car poke directly into the audience's face when entering the scene. It's too hasty, too abrupt, and there is no sense of tension that makes the audience feel in danger!"

The teams in the seat are all the top Hollywood and world-class teams today. Everyone discussed for ten minutes, and they all took orders and returned to prepare for the next filming.

The backup vehicles for side rolls and damage are very sufficient, Boss Lu is not afraid of waste, and wants to shoot until satisfied.

Lin Yibin watched secretly and clicked his tongue, Seeing Lu Kuan's dissatisfaction is more than ten thousand dollars turned into dust, it's too fucking exciting.

I don't know when I can film such a flying car scene, it's simply blood-pumping!

Boss Lu keenly captured his expression.

"Good-looking, right?"

"Well! It's so exciting to film, it's hard to imagine that it's really done through later special effects, how amazing it will be to handle the lens and present it to the audience!"

"Filming in Hollywood is one cent for one cent. As long as you find the right team and are willing to spend money, 1 million is the effect of 1 million, and 10 million is the effect of 10 million."

"Money won't lie!"

Lin Yibin laughed when he heard this, thinking that this Director Lu is not at all like a director who filmed two European film festival literary style films.

With the summary of the last experience, the second filming was exceptionally smooth.

"Click! Passed!"

There was a small cheer on the set. The first step was a success. Below is the fighting scene of the real actors in the car.

Flying car scenes and action scenes are filmed separately. The first stage of Leonardo's car rolling and exploding ends here.

The difficulty of the next stage is relatively large, which tests the action strength of the actors.

For example, Zhang Ziyi needs to break the window from the driver's seat of the right car to the left car when the two cars are parallel. After fighting in the car, as the vehicle loses control and explodes, she escapes thrillingly.

Of course, actors cannot really do actions in the speeding, this part of the content is also done in front of the green cloth and then later edited.

Only the scene of thrilling escape from the robber's car explosion at the end requires actors to pass through fireworks and black smoke.

It is also the part of the play that Seeing Lu Kuan is most uneasy about Liu Yifei, but the little girl insists on trying it herself.

Zhang Ziyi personally went on stage for the part of parallel car breaking the window, because the lens is mostly side face and front face, and the effect of using a substitute is not necessarily good.

"Ready, start!"

Zhang Ziyi's beautiful eyes widened, skillfully driving the vehicle to parallel, and fiercely hit the front wheels to the left, and the two cars sparked.

She grabbed the moment when the two cars were relatively parallel and lightning fast, jumped into the car and broke the window, and fought with the robber in the car.

"Click! Passed!"

"Ziyi, fought beautifully."

Zhang Ziyi also breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, Director."

This scene was completed neatly and cleanly, obviously due to the good foundation she laid in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'Hero' before.

Seeing Lu Kuan picked up the walkie-talkie again: "Next section, little Liu get ready."

Liu Xiaoli had already exhorted her daughter a hundred times before, mainly because this scene was too magnificent, and she could even feel the high temperature of the fire tongue in the waiting area.

Liu Yifei will not be so close during actual filming. As long as she is not crazy and drills into the place where the fire starts, generally speaking, nothing will happen.

But... what if?

What if the car door suddenly won't open?

What if the fireworks are blown onto her hair by the wind?

Although the probability is small, it is not impossible.

"Repeat once, little Liu, safety first."

Liu Yifei heard his prompt, but was too nervous to speak.

She kept repeating the process of the action scene in her mind, striving to pass in one go.

The picture starts from where Zhang Ziyi just ended, and shoots the process of Liu Yifei and the gangster fighting from behind.

Substitute, the side faces of the two are not similar enough, and the side back is barely okay.

She learned simple Bajiquan moves from Yuan Heping, and Yuan Heping mixed some actions from A-Fei who walked out of the underground boxing market.

Refined and summarized a set of martial arts routines very suitable for female performance, to fit the character of the heroine who is proficient in ancient Chinese martial arts.

Because this is the Chinese element in movies most familiar to North American audiences, this part will also be used as a hype and promotional gimmick when the movie is promoted.

This requires very high requirements for action actors.

It must be good-looking, and it must give the audience a visual perception of flesh and blood, and it cannot be like the old-fashioned Kung Fu films with many flower frames.

This is also the requirement of Lu Boss after communicating with Yuan Heping, which is also a challenge for the latter.

Yuan Heping is the number one existence on this track. In his decades-long career, he has also been constantly exploring the reform and replacement of Kung Fu films.

This cooperation with Seeing Lu Kuan is also an opportunity.

(End of chapter)