Chapter 392 Computer Special Effects

  After filming the MV, Ronald returned to Portrait Records with the filming material. Here is the latest editing equipment rented by lawyer Hoffman for free based on his personal relationship. He got it from the producer of the SNL program group. The latest device that has just been unpacked and has not yet been officially launched.

  Ronald is here to prepare, use the new machine to quickly edit and finish this MV, and after the handover, he can get the right to use the episode.

  In the office of Portrait Records, Diane and Donna stopped Ronald, opened the bag they were carrying, and took out two thick printed documents.

"Here are the two scripts I told you about last time. Both producers sent me invitations to call back for another audition (Call Back). I don't know which one to choose." Diane took the two scripts in Hand, handed to Ronald.

  Diane was obviously in a hurry. Instead of waiting for Ronald to finish the MV, she and Donna came to him in advance to ask advice.

   "What did Bert say?" Ronald took two scripts and flipped through them.

  The first thick play was "The Mermaid". Two heir brothers of the New York Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Wharf, one of them named Allen, met a little mermaid after falling into the water when he was playing on a yacht as a child and rescued him.

  Many years have passed, and the grown-up mermaid used magic to transform into a human form, and went ashore to meet Ellen for seven days. Unexpectedly, a few days later, the mad scientist caught the mermaid, and Alan rescued the mermaid. In the end, for the love with the mermaid, she gave up the life in the world, grew gills, and returned to the sea with the mermaid. .

   This script is obviously born out of the classic "The Daughter of the Sea" by Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

  However, the ending of the story is completely opposite. It’s not that the Little Mermaid couldn’t bear to hurt the prince and disappear by herself, but that the human prince (who owns a vegetable and fruit wholesale pier in New York and can live like a prince) abandons the worldly life and returns to the sea with the Little Mermaid. There are also faint environmental themes.

   "Director Ron Howard, he wants me to play the role of The Little Mermaid." Diane pointed to the script.

  Ronald raised his eyebrows. He heard that Ron Howard had already rejected "Full of Strength". It seems that he is more optimistic about this movie. "How much are they prepared to invest?"

   "More than ten million. A live-action movie invested by Disney." Diane said proudly.

   "Hmm..." This production budget is already a big production in the Disney studio. President Ron Miller obviously has no intention of giving up the transformation of live-action movies, and continues to move forward on the path he has determined.

  Ronald raised his head and looked at Diane. Diane didn't have any makeup today, and she was wearing a white shirt under a thick coat. There seemed to be a golden brooch pinned to the shirt. She looked very youthful and looked like a little mermaid.

   "And this one, it's a Universal project with a budget of more than 10 million." Diane brought up the second script and handed it to Ronald.

  The cover of this book says "Untitled Project", Ronald opened it and took a quick look. It was a classic gangster story.

  A female rock star born in a small town was snatched away by a gang leader. The ex-boyfriend of the retired soldier came back and attacked with her current boyfriend and manager to **** the female singer back.

   Then the ex-boyfriend organized the men in the town to stand up together and resisted the counterattack summoned by the gang leader. In the end, the female singer and manager continued their journey to fame, while the ex-boyfriend continued to wander.

  The script is very thin, and there are only more than fifty pages with detailed content. There are no details in many places, just half a page or a page of the script, which generally writes such words as gun battle, heads-up, group fight, etc.

   "Why do I look a little familiar, this storyline is like, like...'North African Spy Shadow'?" Ronald was a little confused, and raised his eyes to ask Diane. The ex-boyfriend broke up with the heroine, and because of a coincidence, he saved the heroine and her current lover, and finally fulfilled the new boyfriend, and went to a faraway place by himself.

"Well, they also said that it is the prototype of the story of 'North African Spy', but with a lot of modern rock content added. Burt said that taking this movie will be more beneficial to my career." Diane's eyes sparkled, As if waiting for Ronald's compliment.

   "Well, if he said so, this is it. The new Ingrid Bergman, hello." Ronald smiled at Diane. From teenager to girl is the most difficult hurdle for an actress to cross. It seems that Diane has made a good transition under Burt's plan.

   But he frowned immediately, is this kind of gangster-themed movie really easy to sell now? Ronald always feels that today's teenage audience doesn't necessarily like this kind of movie. Whether it will be successful or not will be known at the box office of the release of "The Urchin Outside the World" next month.

   "But I hope you can give me some advice, Ronald. You are an accomplished director, and I think your opinion is more valuable." Diane clasped her hands together.

"Don't let Burt hear that. All right, but I'm going to go over the two scripts tonight and give you my opinion tomorrow, okay? I'm busy getting used to the new editing machine now. I'm still I have to help edit this MV before I can switch to..."

   "Really? You want to take a closer look? Of course you can. But don't make me wait too long, the two movies are about to start." Diane was very happy and interrupted Ronald's explanation. Anyway, it would be great if Ronald could give her advice.

   Ronald patted two scripts and put them in the bag Donna brought. Diane starred in two consecutive Coppola movie heroines, it seems that she has already made her name in Hollywood.

  The scripts sent to her now are all complete scripts, not the excerpts that only have their own roles. This shows that Diane has been eligible to pick the project, rather than being picked by the project. This time, there are different movie projects competing for her to be the leading role.

  Two big Hollywood productions let her choose. If "Urchin" and "Betta Fish" can sell well next, half a foot has firmly stepped into the ranks of first-line female stars.

   "I'm going to learn how to operate a new machine, why don't you and Donna go back first? I'll ask the assistant to call a taxi for you."

   "Okay, remember to come back early at night, my mother hasn't seen you for a long time." Donna dragged Diane, and the two went to the door to wait for the car.

   "Is this the machine?" Ronald stepped into the bag containing two scripts and entered the room.

   "Which script do you think Ronald will let me choose?" Diane and Donna whispered.

   "I don't know, but I like that mermaid, it's interesting."

   "Aren't rock stars bad? I think rock stars are cool."

   "It's not bad, haven't you acted in a rock and roll movie?"

   "That film was so bad at the box office, it doesn't count."

  …

"This is the editing machine, equipped with an ADO special effects machine. This is the first machine in America that can use a computer to generate special effects." The technicians sent by the company that purchased the new machine from SNL to train are waiting inside to ask Luo Nader introduced.

  The editing table still looks like a traditional horizontal editing machine, but a large metal table is added beside it, with various knobs and switches on it.

   "ADO (AmpexDigitalOptics, Ronald saw the trademark on the panel.

   "Yes, this is the latest digital film and television special effects machine, and we are the first company in America to produce this product." The staff began to memorize the introduction in the sales brochure.

   "How does this thing work?" Ronald interrupted the endorsement and asked him how to use it.

   "First bring in the tape, and then here are several special effects." The staff introduced him to the usage of the ADO special effects machine.

   "...First input the X-axis data, and the Y-axis data, so..., then you can do this..." The staff worked on the sample tape for a while, and then pressed play.

  The entire monitor screen seemed to be peeled off like an onion, and then the whole picture was flipped over like a book, and finally stopped at the upper left corner, turning into a picture-in-picture.

   "Huh?" Ronald let out a cry of surprise.

   "This is the special effect I just made. Let me show you the demo tape, which contains a display of various special effects." The staff put in a video tape and played it on the monitor for Ronald.

   "This is the effect of turning pages, this is the effect of turning upside down, this is the effect of rotation, this is to turn the picture into a spherical shape, and this is to make several **** collide with each other."

  The staff used the sample tape equipped with ADO special effects machine to demonstrate for Ronald.

   "This machine, if I rent it for the special effects of the movie, is it okay?" Ronald came up with the idea of ​​​​the special effects machine, can it be used for the title of "Night of the Comet"?

   "It is possible, but the film film must be converted into tape first, and then edited with the ADO special effects machine."

   "What if you don't need the pre-shot film? Just use this ADO to make some special effect fonts?"

   "That's very cheap. If it's just a few tens of seconds of the title, it's about 5,000 yuan, and it's converted into film at the end, and it doesn't exceed 10,000 dollars."

   "Okay! Can the effect be like this?" Ronald rubbed his hands, pointed to the special effect font on the sample tape and asked the staff.

"No problem. It turns out that the old-fashioned special effects machine uses old-fashioned analog circuits to deform the picture, and then cooperates with film optical printers to achieve the effect. Lucas used the same kind of Star Wars. Do the simplest horizontal movement and elimination As a result, the man-hour cost is tens of thousands of dollars. His subtitles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make.

Our ADO is a special effect made of digital circuits, so we can directly let the computer use mathematical formulas to achieve the same zoom-in, zoom-out, flip and other effects, just input the parameters, and there is no need to use additional film optical printers to synthesize. There is also the deformation of the sphere, which is difficult for analog circuits to do. "

   "Okay." Ronald was very happy, "Then you teach me, let's use the MV material to achieve the effects you said."

   "Our digital special effects machine has not been officially launched yet. There is only one in America. This MV of yours will be the first time that computer-generated special effects appear in a commercial video."

   "I still have some effects for the subtitles of a movie, can you give me a cheaper price? If possible, I will use all the special effects that ADO can do in the MV, which is equivalent to advertising for you."

   "Is that so? I can give the sales director of the company a call. They may be willing to make movie titles for you for free. Our company also hopes to enter the film production market."

  (end of this chapter)