On a Land Rover SUV in the convoy, Jodie Foster sat next to Eric, with a thick stack of storyboard drawings of "Gravity" on her lap. The shooting was coming to an end, and she finally got her wish and asked for all the sketches hand-painted by Eric, intending to keep them as her own collection.
Looking back from the two helicopters in the sky outside the car window, Judy glanced at Eric who was wearing headphones and watching a video on his laptop, and said: "Eric, if you are so public, you are not afraid of us tomorrow Are you surrounded by people?"
Eric pressed the pause button, took off the earphones and wondered, "What?"
Judy rolled her eyes lightly, and repeated what she said just now, saying: "The last time I filmed an exterior scene of "Contact" in New Mexico, in order to prevent reporters from secretly taking pictures of the set, Robert was completely devastated. Now, North American journalists must be more hungry for news about "Gravity," right?"
Since the project of "Gravity" was established, except for a small amount of official information released by the Firefly Group, the media has hardly received any other information related to the film. Whether it's Eric's super-rich status at this time or his new work after two consecutive global billion-level films, it is enough to make North American media, large and small, desperately want to find out more about "Gravity". It's a pity that most of the shots in the film were shot in a well-secured studio, even if the paparazzi reporters wanted to dig out the news, they couldn't start.
At this time, the entire crew of "Gravity" was dispatched, and it was conceivable that a large group of reporters would flock to the scene next.
In fact, at this time, the team has already had a lot of media vehicles.
Although it is about to be finalized, there is still more than a year before the film is released. In order to keep it fresh, it is not suitable to release too much news related to the film at this time. Judy has been in the circle for so long, so she naturally understands this truth, so there is just worry.
Eric smiled easily and said, "Don't worry, they won't be able to take pictures."
Judy's eyes flickered, remembering the destination of the convoy at this time, and the few words that Eric revealed some time ago, and suddenly said: "You mean, what we are going to now is not the real shooting scene?"
"Yes and no," Eric explained with a smile: "For the overhead shot of the return capsule falling from space, I hope to use the picture of Lake Pleasant in the north of Phoenix, but for the last part of the landing scene, we Filmed in the northern Colorado River valley."
Eric said, and blinked at Judy: "Remember to keep it secret, not many people know this news now."
"I'm the heroine, and you just told me now," Judy gave Eric a blank look, and stopped talking about the topic, glanced at the laptop screen on Eric's lap, and asked curiously, "What are you looking at?" , um, is this Michael Eisner?"
Eric unplugs his headphones and starts playing the video again, with Michael Eisner's voice coming from the laptop.
"... While working on the research and development of CG special effects software and technology, Light and Shadow Times will also invest in research and development of new 3D movie projection technology. 3D movies have appeared for nearly a hundred years. Although the development of related technologies has been very slow, with the development of movie special effects With the advent of the era, we have reason to believe that 3D movies are likely to become a new development trend of the movie industry after sound movies and color movies. Whether it is Universal, Warner or Paramount, they are very optimistic about the future of 3D movies... "
After watching the second half of the video with Eric, Judy said, "This is a press conference?"
Eric nodded and said, "You just heard the press conference of a film special effects company jointly established by Universal, Warner and Paramount, Light and Shadow Era."
"Hehe, now, there are rivals in the digital field, and, 3D movies, Universal and the others will also follow up."
Eric said with a smile: "Maybe, but there is competition to make progress. I always feel that no matter whether it is a person or a company, it cannot be without rivals."
Having said that, the so-called "Era of Light and Shadow" established by the three companies did not actually make Eric feel much threatened. He knew very well that this was just the reaction of the other three companies to the Firefly system's annexation of Columbia Pictures.
This is not because of arrogance, because if special effects companies want to develop, they need special effects film projects. Eric can say with great confidence that the film projects in the hands of the other three companies will definitely not be able to support their ambition to compete with the digital field in the era of light and shadow.
Moreover, under normal circumstances, a movie needs to put forward various special effects requirements before the special effects company can carry out targeted technical research and development. However, Eric has been urging the digital field to reuse the archives of various special effects technologies that have been developed over the years, and has also achieved very good results.
For common CG special effects, such as storms, explosions, motion capture, large-scale war scenes and other technologies, the digital field already has very mature technical solutions, although the digital field has rarely undertaken film projects from companies other than the Firefly system in recent years However, the digital field is very open to the authorization of these general technical solutions.
Under the influence of this special business strategy in the digital field, many small special effects studios have sprung up in Hollywood in recent years. These small special effects studios or special effects companies do not have independent technology research and development departments, but Purchase finished special effects software and related technical solutions from the digital domain.
Compared with setting up a dedicated team and spending a few months to write a piece of storm special effect code, you can buy a fully mature special effect solution from the digital field for only tens of thousands of dollars, which is far superior in terms of cost, time and special effects more than independent research and development. No matter who it is, they all know what choices to make.
On the other hand, the projects obtained by these special effects studios are basically the outsourced shots of the top seven Hollywood, and most of them are the Firefly system itself.
By controlling the trend of project outsourcing, the Firefly system can also indirectly influence and even control the development of these small special effects studios, making them become vassals of the digital field in disguise. Although these small special effects studios can survive relatively well, they will never be able to pose any threat to the digital field.
Even, once the special effects industry becomes sluggish in the future, as long as the special effects outsourcing strategy is tightened, these small attached studios can be easily sacrificed to help the digital field resist risks in disguise.
As for the other three light and shadow eras that have just been established, perhaps they will invest a certain amount of money in technology research and development in the early stage. But when the three found out that for most special effects lenses, not only the cost of self-developed technology would be much higher than those of small special effects studios, but also the human resource cost of subsequent specific CG screen production was also much higher than that of the same industry. It is difficult to sell software and technology solutions for additional income like in the digital field.
Then, after a few years of support, the top management of the three companies will definitely gradually give up their full support for the light and shadow era, and continue to be implicitly controlled by the digital field in disguise. The era of light and shadow will gradually become a tasteless existence. After all, even the basic special effects technology cannot be perfected, and the development in the field of more in-depth special effects technology is out of the question.
Historically, the most cutting-edge special effects technology has always been in the hands of a few companies such as Industrial Light and Magic, and a batch of films with the best special effects in Hollywood have always been produced by these companies.
However, several major special effects giants did not adopt the business strategy in the digital field at this time. The special effects companies that emerged later, no matter how big or small, basically needed to develop new special effects companies on the basis of some basic industry special effects software to meet the differentiated needs of customers. technical solutions, and these technologies are likely to have been repeatedly developed and used many times by other special effects companies.
The repeated loss of resources in all aspects not only greatly increased the operating costs of the entire industry, but also made there no dependence between those small special effects companies and these giants in the digital field. When the cold winter era of the special effects industry comes, the life of all special effects companies is becoming more and more difficult. They can only adopt the method of constantly relocating to tax rebate areas to reduce costs, and at the same time engage in vicious competition on prices. This will undoubtedly cause greater damage to the entire industry. vicious circle.
As for the development of 3D movie technology that Michael Eisner also mentioned in the video, Eric has some vigilance. If there are two completely different 3D playback standards in the entire industry in the future, it will be a bit bad.
However, none of these things can be accomplished overnight, and Eric can only wait and see for the time being.
What Judy can think of, the experienced "Gravity" production team can naturally think about it.
Therefore, although the convoy rushed all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, after entering the urban area, the crew quickly drove directly into a closed private resort in the north of the city. A large number of reporters who were stopped outside the resort watched the convoy disappear, and could only jump around in disappointment and take a few insignificant photos of the back of the convoy. As for the long-awaited core characters of the crew, they didn't even see their shadows at all.
Everyone was exhausted from the six or seven hour drive from Los Angeles to Phoenix, so naturally there was no work today.
After setting up everyone, Eric returned to his residence, and came out of the bathroom after taking a shower. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon.
There was a knock on the door, and Eric walked over and opened it.
Caroline blushed a little when she saw Eric wearing a bathrobe, and said, "Eric, Mr. Stewart is back from Lake Powell."
Lake Powell is where Eric planned to shoot several post-landing scenes. This lake is on the northern Colorado River, about 200 kilometers away from Phoenix.
As for Lake Pleasant, more than ten kilometers north of Phoenix, this is actually a drinking water reservoir in Phoenix. Eric did not choose to shoot the post-landing scene on this lake. In fact, the city of Phoenix did not approve the filming request of the "Gravity" crew due to environmental protection considerations.
As the producer of "Gravity", William Stewart took several assistants to Lake Powell three days ago to survey the shooting site again to ensure the smooth progress of the shooting in the next few days.
"It's almost dinner time. Let William go to the restaurant. I'll go there later." Eric nodded, looked at Caroline's shy little face, and smiled, "You come too."
"Well, then I'll inform Mr. Stewart," Caroline replied, and hurried away with her head down.
The presence of the crew of "Gravity" not only attracted media reporters from all over North America, but even many local TV stations in Arizona specially reported on this event.
Therefore, under the attention of countless pairs of eyes, the movements of the entire crew could not be hidden at all. However, the crew of "Gravity" didn't seem to have any intention of hiding this matter. After resting for one night, the next day, a team of the crew left the resort with great fanfare and rushed to Lake Pleasant.
Although they were stopped outside the location where the crew was stationed, in the unobstructed wilderness, the reporters finally got their wish to photograph Eric, Judy and other main creators.
However, when most of the day passed, many people found that, apart from the conspicuous VH-60 helicopter taking off and landing, sometimes even flying to an altitude of more than a thousand meters, they did not get much information related to the content of the film. Related information.
Of course, it’s not for nothing, at least, Eric Williams and the crew’s photographer Nicole Frank boarded the helicopter, and seemed to be shooting high-altitude overhead shots through the camera, but these simple aerial scenes , It is simply impossible for people to have any practical and useful associations with the content of the film.
Fortunately, the reporters are not impatient. Since the entire crew of "Gravity" has rushed over, it is absolutely impossible for these people to just shoot a few simple aerial shots. Otherwise, Eric Williams There is no need to be here at all. Obviously, in the next few days, there will definitely be specific content shooting.
In the anticipation of everyone, early the next morning, when the sky just dawned, news came from the internal staff of the resort that the reporters had bribed, so they cheered up.
However, when they saw two helicopters take off from the resort and pass over Lake Pleasant without any intention of landing, they were still flying towards the northern mountainous area at a speed of more than 200 kilometers. Everyone was dumbfounded.
Although some reporters reluctantly got into the car and wanted to catch up, everyone made it clear that the wheels of the car could not catch up with the helicopter. What's more, it was still in the mountains, where the helicopter could fly in a straight line, but the car needed to walk on the road.
Fortunately, a tent-sized object hung under one of the helicopters finally gave these people some comfort. Well-informed reporters quickly found out after taking the photos that it should be a spacecraft return module .