si-mexico Chapter 258 The Production Process of the Gaia Cinema Movie
Chapter 258 The Production Process of the Gaia Cinema Movie
Time flies, and the gears of time turn rapidly amidst the roar of the film and television industry.
With the intense clash between Gamu's and Fujimiya's ideals and the increasingly terrifying attacks of the Destruction Summoning Entity, the first season's plot has steadily moved towards its finale.
There are only a few weeks left until the 26th episode, which marks the end of this phase.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Light Chaser Animation Studios is no longer the small workshop that used to be stuck in a converted factory building, cutting corners to make ends meet.
Jinghai City, the new headquarters of Chasing Light Pictures.
Gu Nan sat in his spacious CEO office, flipping through the latest company structure report that had just been submitted by the human resources department.
Looking at the densely packed list of names, a hint of emotion and satisfaction flashed in Gu Nan's eyes.
It has actually been some time since the theatrical film "Gaia: The Great Battle of Time and Space" was officially launched.
This movie was positioned as an epic from the very beginning.
It is expected to be released directly in major cinemas across the country during the holiday season, after the 26th episode of the first season of "Ultraman Gaia" has finished airing and while its popularity is still high.
Currently, the film's location scouting, miniature model construction, and post-production special effects pipeline are all progressing steadily at an alarming rate.
Gu Nan leaned back in his chair, his thoughts drifting back to the last time.
The last time Light Chaser Animation produced a large-scale, long-running film was when they were filming the Ultraman Dyna web movie "Star Warrior".
What was the scale of Chase Light Pictures back then?
All things considered, including the cleaning staff, the security guards at the gate, the logistics staff responsible for ordering boxed meals, and the members of non-core teams such as management, operations, and public relations, the company can barely muster more than 300 people.
And now?
With the rapid revenue generation of "Dyna", the continued income returns of "Tiga" and "OV Seven", and the re-operation of the old Ultraman from the Tsuburaya era... commonly known as reheating old dishes, and now the terrifying commercial empire accumulated by "Gaia", Light Chaser Animation's revenue scale has achieved an exponential leapfrog growth!
Putting aside everything else, the company has a cold, hard 10 billion yuan lying in its accounts.
The company's overall middle platform architecture has been continuously upgraded, and the team has undergone an explosive reshuffle and expansion.
The company's headcount skyrocketed to a massive 600+ people!
The core team responsible for the script, storyboarding, suit making, model sculpting, and special effects rendering alone already has nearly 400 people!
Various specialized departments sprang up like mushrooms after rain: the largest miniature model sculpting laboratory in Asia, a CGI rendering farm with top-notch computing power, a dedicated special effects prop testing center...
With the influx of highly paid professionals from the film and television and special effects industries, Light Chaser Animation Studios is now far superior to what it was when it produced "Star Warriors," in terms of team scale, underlying technical strength, and the speed and quality of content production.
But Gu Nan was still not satisfied.
He was well aware that although the final product of the last film, "Star Warriors," amazed the entire internet, it still left too many regrets in his eyes as the director.
Those regrets were limited by the production costs at the time, the overall technical capabilities of the team, and the rigid specifications of the streaming platforms at the time.
For example, the battle scenes that Gu Nan was most bothered by.
During the filming of "Star Warriors," in pursuit of the ultimate image quality, the production team spent a fortune renting expensive IMAX film cameras on an hourly basis. However, they couldn't afford to use them for the entire shoot and could only use them partially.
Let's talk about the high-speed camera. This thing was too big and incredibly heavy. At the time, the crew didn't have any special equipment to support its complex movements.
As a result, those intense, high-speed combat shots could only be filmed by setting up this expensive camera in a fixed position.
Although the visuals are clear, the camerawork is too rigid and lacks the dynamic, dizzying feeling of monster battles.
Not only that.
Limited by the bandwidth constraints and bitrate compression of streaming video websites, as well as the need to accommodate the screen sizes of ordinary users' mobile phones and computers.
When "Warriors of the Stars" was finally released online, the original wide, stunning, and epic IMAX-format battle scenes were ruthlessly and violently cropped!
This is a murder of cinematic art.
"Before, we lacked resources and confidence."
Gu Nan threw the personnel report in his hand on the table, stood up abruptly, and his eyes revealed a fanatical ambition.
"But this time it's different! Light Chaser Animation now has plenty of money and resources! The Ultraman IP is deeply ingrained in the hearts of the Chinese people!"
"More importantly, 'The Great Battle of Time' is a true big-screen movie that's designed to break into theaters nationwide!"
"We must go all out! High investment! High standards! I want to make the best theatrical blockbuster in the history of Chinese tokusatsu!"
……
The stunt equipment testing center on the ground floor of the building.
Before even entering, the roar of a mechanical engine could be heard from inside.
In the center of the set, a massive, all-black industrial-grade robotic arm, exuding a cold, metallic feel, stood like a steel behemoth.
"Director Gu!"
Upon seeing Gu Nan walk in, the director of photography immediately rushed over excitedly, pointing to the robotic arm.
"All the equipment has arrived and been tested! The same top-of-the-line equipment used in the Grammy Awards ceremony—the GLAMBOT robotic arm!"
Gu Nan walked to the robotic arm, looked at the heavy, locked superslow-motion camera at the front, and nodded in satisfaction: "How was the test result?"
"This is absolutely a game-changer!"
The director of photography was extremely excited.
"We've done extensive customization and adaptation on the front end to perfectly support the weight of this precious camera."
"Even in the terrifying 4K ultra-high image quality and 1200fps ultra-high frame rate capture mode, this robotic arm can still move as flexibly as a human arm!"
"Try it and show me," Gu Nan immediately ordered.
"Attention all departments! Demolition test, Action!"
In the miniature scene testing area not far away, the base of a two-meter-tall building model was instantly detonated.
"boom!"
Within a thousandth of a second of flames shooting into the sky.
The GLAMBOT robotic arm, like a raging steel python, swung its massive body, diving, rotating, and rising close to the edge of the explosion at an extreme speed and at a tricky angle that humans could not possibly achieve!
The complex camera movements flowed smoothly and seamlessly, all in one go!
Gu Nan immediately went to the monitor to check the playback.
In the footage, debris from the building explosion floats slowly through the air in ultra-slow motion, with the patterns of the flames clearly visible.
The camera's perspective moves freely through the explosions, delivering an unparalleled visual impact!
"Great! That's the effect I wanted!"
Gu Nan expressed his highest approval.
"This time, 'The Great Battle of Time' was filmed entirely using IMAX film cameras, except for a few special shots!"
"We will never bow to any streaming format again. We will fight to the death with the theaters. They must schedule screenings for us in IMAX theaters and support the playback of our native IMAX format!"
In addition to the complete revolution in photography equipment, Gu Nan also spared no expense in the most expensive and core area of the film industry: post-production special effects.
Inside the special effects production department's meeting room.
Gu Nan sat in the head seat, listening to the report from the visual effects supervisor.
"Director Gu, the monster in the movie named King Orb is really too big. Even Queen Monera, which we made last time, wasn't this detailed. And the scenes of traveling through the multiverse, our internal computing power and capabilities are really stretched thin. We have to find an outsourcing team to handle the big scenes."
"That's what the visual effects supervisor said."
Without any hesitation, Gu Nan directly stated: "Let's go with Industrial Light & Magic."
"clear."
The visual effects supervisor nodded. "I've already contacted their Asian branch in Korea. We collaborated with them on 'Star Warriors' last time, so we're quite familiar with the process."
"Stop." Gu Nan coldly interrupted him. "Who said they were looking for the Asian branch?"
The visual effects supervisor was stunned.
Gu Nan crossed his arms, his eyes radiating absolute dominance: "Last time we approached the Asian branch because our budget was too tight and our schedule too short. While their technology is top-notch, it's not the strongest. This time, I want the strongest!"
"This time, there's no need to save money!"
"Just add more money!"
"Skip the Asian branch and contact Industrial Light & Magic's headquarters in San Francisco, USA! Specifically request that their core Team A take over our visual effects project!"
The executives in the conference room gasped.
Should we ask their headquarters to handle this?
That price is absolutely astronomical!
But no one dared to contradict Gu Nan's decision.
After all, President Gu is indeed wealthy...
Gu Nan continued to drop a bombshell: "Not only that, this collaboration also includes buying me the full rights to their latest internal special effects software at a high price!"
"Completely overhaul Light Chaser Animation's existing technology pipeline and workflow, migrate the entire post-production workflow, and align it with theirs!"
To make the skill effects and physical impact of Ultraman and monsters more realistic, Gu Nan's revolution even extended to the most traditional suit department.
Leather suit testing venue.
The suit actors, dressed in Gaia suits specially made for the feature film, are engaged in intense close-quarters combat drills on the set.
Gu Nan stood on the sidelines, staring at a high-precision real-time data tablet in his hand.
"Director Gu, the newly upgraded suit has been tested."
The props team leader wiped his sweat as he reported to the director.
Looking at the data frame diagram on the tablet that jumped in sync with the actors' movements, Gu Nan explained, "Traditional special effects suits are made of very thick materials in order to pursue realistic gravity and physical texture."
"This causes actors to appear stiff or even make mistakes when performing high-speed aerial combat maneuvers that exceed human limits or complex transformation maneuvers."
He pointed to the costumed actors on stage.
"But this time, we've added hidden full-motion capture sensors inside the suit for the live-action scenes, at every joint of the lining!"
"Every punch and kick an actor throws on stage, even the rise and fall of their breath, will be recorded in real time with precise skeletal movement data!"
"At the same time, all the physical suits underwent 1:1 high-precision laser scanning modeling!"
Gu Nan turned to look at the special effects supervisor.
"During the actual filming, the physical film cameras on set and the virtual cameras in the virtual scene we built in Unreal Engine must achieve absolute synchronization and data overlay!"
"During post-production, you won't need to painstakingly cut out images and create effects frame by frame!"
"For shots that require real-life depictions of physical damage to texture, just use real footage!"
"Once a scene requires aerial or ground-based movements and the release of light effects, we seamlessly switch to a 1:1 virtual suit model driven by motion capture data!"
"I want the transitions between live-action and special effects shots to be seamless!"
Besides.
Gu Nan also chose to end the era of green screens in this film.
There is no trace of green screen in the newly built Virtual Studio No. 7.
Instead, there is a huge Micro LED display wall that is more than ten meters high and surrounds the screen in a 270-degree ring!
The price of 100 inches of this type of screen is close to that of an apartment in a third- or fourth-tier city.
"Turn on the light!" Gu Nan ordered.
In an instant, the huge LED screen wall displayed the twilight sky from the movie's fierce battle scene in real time.
The fiery clouds rolled and the afterglow of the setting sun spread across the sky.
In front of this screen is a meticulously arranged miniature city complex.
A miracle happened.
Without any post-processing, the red glow of the sunset rendered on the screen was projected incredibly realistically onto the glass of the miniature model building and onto the red and silver body of Ultraman Gaia's suit!
It's like a scaled-down model of an art piece...
It gleamed with a stunning metallic sheen and diffused reflection from the environment!
"So beautiful..."
Looking at the perfect image on the monitor, Gu Nan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
No more painful green screen keying!
The sky and distant views are no longer awkward post-production composites!
Instead, it outputs directly to a real Micro LED screen through rendering software!
Using the latest digital virtual filming technology, perfectly combined with traditional tokusatsu techniques, this is the future of Ultraman!
Gu Nan was filled with emotion.
I have truly brought new possibilities to tokusatsu in this world.