Eric left the apartment of Cuskov and Kristana Loken early in the morning, and returned to the residence on Sixth Avenue, preparing to fly to England with his two female assistants, but, it was estimated that it was last night Because of the promise to go back but let the two girls dove, Eric found that Caroline and Melanie had a cold war with him. Although they didn't ignore him on purpose, they talked to him in a business-like manner. look like.
Melanie is fine, Caroline is really showing this state for the first time, seeing that little face deliberately tensed up but always showing a little bit of guilt makes Eric feel a little It was novel, so he also cooperated with the two girls and brought out the boss's airs.
The private plane still took off from MacArthur Airport in the middle of Long Island. The plane entered the clouds and began a long journey of more than ten hours.
Carelessly, Melanie and Melanie flipped through the documents in the mid-section lounge of the plane. After lunch, Caroline finally couldn't help but look in the direction of the front cabin, where the luxury suite on the plane was.
"Mei, tell me, shouldn't we neglect Eric, he, he is our boss after all."
Melanie shook a script in her hand, but it turned out to be "Iron Man": "Carly, how do I feel, you are simply the little pepper beside Tony Stark, sticking by the boss's side and watching him All kinds of nonsense, and then clean up the mess for him."
Caroline has naturally read the script of "Iron Man", and these days she occasionally helps Eric with his lines. She also felt in her heart that Eric was very similar to the guy in the script, um, could it be that the female assistant he wanted looked like Pepper in the script, but the woman who helped him get rid of the ONS, This kind of thing is really embarrassing.
Melanie looked at the flickering look in Caroline's eyes, and helplessly rolled up the thick script in her hand and knocked on her forehead, saying: "Okay, go to the front cabin to see your boss, I really want you no solution anymore."
Seeing Melanie's extremely disappointed look, Caroline shook her head subconsciously: "Then, then I won't go."
"Go, go," Melanie waved her hand again, and then simply stood up: "Let's go, I'll accompany you."
"But," Caroline hesitated again in a blink of an eye: "What reason do we have to go there?"
"I've accumulated a lot of things in the past few days, so I don't need a reason."
Having said that, Melanie took Caroline to the presidential suite in the front cabin.
Although the space of the cabin presidential suite is not large, the layout is very complete. After searching for a while, Melanie and Caroline found in the study that they were concentrating on an octave
Eric drawing something on the manuscript paper.
Without disturbing him immediately, the two women carefully sat down on the sofa next to them, and found that there were already several drawings on the coffee table in front of them, so they naturally leaned over them curiously.
At first glance, this should be the concept map of the movie, but the style is extremely fine, whether it is the space station or the astronauts, it is very detailed. Even, the two astronauts are fragilely connected to the space station by a few thin cables on the screen, making the two women involuntarily worried about the two astronauts who are obviously in danger in the screen.
After carefully savoring the painting in front of her, Melanie raised her head and glanced at Eric. She really wanted to lift the top painting and see what the next few paintings were about. However, she I was also worried that the sound of paper flipping would disturb Eric.
Caroline then also raised her head, but happened to meet Eric's turned eyes, and couldn't help but dodge.
"I said why did I smell a girl's fragrance, so it's the two of you."
Listening to Eric's joke, Melanie couldn't help but rolled her eyes, and said to herself that she admired you a little bit just now, and she revealed her true nature in a blink of an eye.
Caroline blushed and lowered her head, pinching the hem of her clothes and wondering if she should also use Melanie's perfume. In fact, she is not used to wearing perfume.
Seeing that the two women were silent, Eric put down the pencil in his hand, turned the swivel chair to face this side, and said, "Okay, I apologize first, I shouldn't have agreed to go back last night, but let you go."
Caroline shook her head subconsciously and said nothing. Melanie said, "Eric, you really should apologize. Carly prepared dinner for you last night."
Melanie didn't say too much, but Eric could imagine Caroline's disappointed little appearance, so looking at the girl, Eric said again sincerely: "I'm sorry, Carly, I promise I won't do this again, um , I will prepare dinner today, it can be regarded as compensation for last night."
"No, it's okay, Eric." Caroline shook her head again, and the gloom between her brows that started last night disappeared without a trace.
The face of Melanie next to her became a little weird. Due to some preconceived notions, she felt that the scene in front of her was like an incongruous father coaxing his simple and silly daughter: "Hey, Dad doesn't smoke anymore. Dad doesn't drink anymore, and Dad doesn't hang out anymore.
Melanie didn't feel that this was her imagination at all, because her own father often said these similar things to her before, and of course, it basically never came true.
Eric and Caroline were talking, and noticed the strangeness on Melanie's face, and asked curiously, "May, what's wrong with you?"
"It's nothing." Melanie quickly put away her thoughts, shook her head, and then pointed to the paintings on the coffee table in front of her: "Eric, are these the scenes from "Gravity"?"
Eric nodded, took the one that was just completed on the desk, sat down on the sofa opposite the two women, and said, "How do you feel?"
Melanie looked at the picture that Eric had just put down. It was a picture of a woman curled up in a space capsule like a baby. Melanie could even feel the extreme loneliness and despair of the woman in the picture.
"It's great," Melanie said, and she no longer hesitated, and together with Caroline, she admired the concept drawings that Eric had drawn one by one, and then praised again: "Eric, you If I draw more, I think we will be able to hold an exhibition.”
"Oh, thanks," Eric replied with a smile.
Melanie said again: "However, Eric, do you think these pictures can really be perfectly presented on the big screen now? Not to mention other things, it is not so easy to perfectly show the weightlessness scene Things. According to the idea in your memo, this film basically takes place in space, and it is impossible to rent NASA's weightlessness simulation aircraft to shoot like the "Apollo 13" two years ago. If you hang on to the wire, I think these scenes in the picture are even more impossible to realize, and it is absolutely impossible for actors to move freely in the wire state."
For ordinary audiences, after watching an excellent movie, they basically only judge the movie from the performance of the actors, the lines of the movie and the plot of the story, but for the director, the first thing they consider is , basically, how did such an awesome movie come out
As a person who has always wanted to be a film director, the former Eric is no exception. When Eric was excited after watching "Gravity", the first thing he considered was how the film director completed those positions. How does the tricky long shot solve the problem that space movies like weightlessness can never avoid. In the Internet age of the information explosion in the later generations, it is naturally easier to understand these problems.
Hearing Melanie's question, Eric explained confidently: "First of all, the feeling of weightlessness is roughly a feeling of floating without being pulled by force. Usually, because the photographer must be down-to-earth to shoot these things. Therefore, if you want to achieve this floating feeling, you can only hang the actors on the wire, or like "Apollo 13", spend a lot of money to create a real weightless environment."
Melanie and Caroline were still a little dazed, obviously they didn't understand very well, so they had to wait for Eric to continue.
Eric also thought about it, and said: "However, people's visual experience is actually very easy to deceive. To achieve that weightless floating feeling, you only need to adjust the relative displacement between the camera and the actors, giving people a completely The feeling of not being pulled by gravity, so that a realistic weightless environment can be simulated.”
Both Melanie and Caroline are very smart, and Melanie raised her hands and gestured slowly in front of her, then nodded and said, "That's true, but, Eric, you Do you think any photographer can carry a camera over 30 pounds and make any shot change at will?"
As Melanie spoke, she raised her right hand and moved around the angle a few times.
Eric shook his head with a smile, and said, "Of course not, but I didn't say that the cameraman should control the camera himself this time. By the way, have you ever seen an automobile equipment workshop?"
The two women shook their heads together.
Eric had no choice but to explain out of thin air: "You should have seen those sporadic news pictures or pictures. I'm talking about the automatic mechanical arms used in car assembly. As far as I know, some sophisticated mechanical arms are designed After setting the movement trajectory, the final error will not even exceed 0.1 mm. Therefore, to achieve the relative displacement of simulated weightlessness, I only need to find two such precise mechanical arms, and set the relative displacement trajectory. One operates the camera, the other supports the actors to perform, and then these mechanical arms are cut out later, and with the cg scene, it is a perfect space shot.”
Although it was still a little unimaginable for this kind of shooting method, Caroline and Melanie didn't have much doubt. After all, among the three people present, Eric was the most professional one.
However, Caroline still asked curiously: "Eric, in this case, this movie is almost all CG, right?"
Eric naturally knew why Caroline asked this, and nodded with a smile: "Yes, but many CG pictures are large panoramas. In CG production, the more distant panoramas, the cheaper the production cost, because they are not There is no need for too detailed modeling and rendering, so the cost of this movie is not too high, as long as some of the technical difficulties are solved, the production cost can be easily controlled at about 100 million U.S. dollars."
100 million US dollars, although it was still a high-cost production in 1997, and there were still only a handful of movies in Hollywood that cost more than 100 million US dollars a year, but for a top director like Eric who produced two consecutive blockbusters with a box office of 1 billion In other words, even if he is not the boss of the Firefly Group, and now he asks for a production budget of 200 million, there will still be film companies queuing up to send the money.
After staying in Hollywood for a long time, Caroline and Melanie can naturally think of many problems that need to be solved in order to make "Gravity". However, through Eric's explanation just now, they also believe that Eric Rick was able to sort out all these problems, so he stopped talking about the movie and moved on to other topics.
"Eric, Carly and I have watched all the materials of several major theater chains in North America in the past few days. We feel that Firefly is not suitable to enter the theater industry with too much fanfare if it is just to promote 3D movies."
"Well, tell me what you think?" Eric nodded and asked with a smile.
Melanie looked at Caroline with sparkling eyes. In fact, this girl brought up many opinions with her first. However, Caroline may find it difficult to get rid of her shy nympho in front of Eric. She had no choice but to say to herself: "If Firefly enters the theater industry, small theaters will definitely not be able to satisfy the company's appetite. The top three theaters in North America currently have a total of more than 14,000 screens, and they are basically popular screens. Therefore, Firefly can only initiate acquisitions from these three companies. However, once Firefly does this, it will definitely cause a strong backlash from other Hollywood film companies, and they will never let Firefly control thousands of screens in popular locations. Therefore, no matter if we initiate an acquisition of any one of the former three, the possibility of passing the anti-monopoly investigation is very slim under the joint opposition of other film companies.”
Eric thought for a while, then nodded: "Is there any more?"
Melanie continued: "What's more, it's still about promoting 3D movies. I don't think we need to do this just to promote 3D movies. Most of the theaters under the top three theater chains have more than five yuan. It is impossible for us to buy multiplexes above the screen and change all the auditoriums to 3D screens. Therefore, I think, at least in the United States, we can adopt a cooperative approach and invest a fortune in these large theaters. money, get some shares, and select a batch of projection halls in the best locations to transform into 3D theaters, so that we can not only realize our plan to promote 3D, but also won’t cause anti-monopoly issues.” (To be continued.)