Star Entertainment Tycoon

Making a movie is not an easy thing.

Gu Jingchuan doesn't have any qualifications, not even a student at a film university. Even if he was a famous actor and director in his previous life, he can't tell others about the time-traveling thing. If he does, he will be treated as a lunatic. Who knows who he is ah?With his current status alone, it is absolutely impossible to attract investors to invest in his own movie.So if he wants to make a movie, there is only one way - to invest in the movie himself!

Investing in yourself... is easy to say, but really hard.

The whole body of Gu Jingchuan is only 5 star coins.The purchasing power of star currency is not much different from that of RMB. If 21 yuan of star currency is used as RMB in the 5st century, I am afraid that I will not be able to rent a decent venue, let alone hire actors and various jobs for movies. personnel, rent various equipment, and even provide food and accommodation for these personnel. It is absolutely impossible to make a movie with [-] yuan unless you find a group of actors who don’t need money to make a micro-movie.

As far as Gu Jingchuan knows, the movie with the lowest cost in history should be the dv psychological horror film "Smart: Ghost Story" directed by Oren Peli.But even such a pseudo-documentary film that only used three actors and one apartment cost the crew more than 1 US dollars, which is a little more than [-] star coins, and this is not counting the later publicity costs What about the funds.

Well, if he could find a distribution company to sell the movie, he wouldn't have to pay for the promotion, but the cost of making the movie alone was giving him a headache.

The reason why the cost of "Ghost Story" can be reduced so low is that apart from the short shooting time, all the staff have multiple jobs, the actors are not well-known, and the salary is not much, the most important point is that it uses a dv machine to taking pictures.

Compared with professional video cameras, the cost of using a dv machine is much cheaper, and the rent is much cheaper than professional video cameras, and in order to maintain the pseudo-documentary style, even the money in the later stage is saved, but it has many advantages. A major flaw - the clarity is not high enough!

Because of the limitation of clarity, most of the high-grossing dv movies in the past used pseudo-documentary techniques to shoot horror movies, in order to create a sense of reality of psychological horror to win the favor of the audience. Whether "Ghost Story" or another DV film "The Blair Witch", the reason why it can create a miracle at the box office, in addition to effective publicity, another important factor is that people feel fresh and interesting about DV movies, and feel that they are full of reality.

Because no one has done this before, everyone chooses to watch it. This is a kind of novelty hunting psychology.However, in the past few hundred years, there have been more and more pseudo-documentaries with blurry images, and the audience has long been familiar with it. It is not easy to rely on their novelty-hunting psychology to sell box office.

Gu Jingchuan has spent most of his life wandering around in the entertainment industry, asking himself to understand the psychology of the audience, and understand people's requirements for the film.People's requirements for the quality of movie pictures and sound effects will only become stricter as time goes by, and they will never show mercy out of compassion.

Why do color movies kill black and white movies?Why do sound films kill silent films?Why are high-definition cameras popular?Why is imax so popular?Why is the speed of stereo replacement faster and faster? ...the answer to these questions is simple - the needs of the audience.

Unless a movie with a blurry picture is made into a pseudo-documentary, it will affect the sense of substitution.Such a movie will never become the mainstream, and even if it is made, it will be difficult to find a distribution company willing to buy the movie and a theater to show the movie.Originally, it was difficult for Gu Jingchuan to sell movies because he had no qualifications at all. If he still chose to shoot such vague movies, then the distribution company and theater company would probably drive him out if he refused to even watch them.

There is no way, Gu Jingchuan can only inquire about the rent of the camera before making any plans.Others can be found ways to save, the key is the cost of the camera, this is the key point that determines whether the movie can be shot or not!

"Brother, can't it be cheaper?"

Having worked as a temporary worker on the set for a year, Gu Jingchuan knew a lot about where to rent cheap equipment, and he dragged his luggage to inquire about the camera without even looking for a house.

"This is the latest product of Chameleon High-Tech Co., Ltd. All parameters are ahead of similar machines. Look at the focal length change, look at the lens clarity, plus the built-in trackless suspension technology and remote control conversion mode... so good At least [-] yuan a day, no less." The owner of the rental shop shook his head like a rattle, and he did not agree with Gu Jingchuan's quotation of several hundred yuan a day, "Brother, my price is already very fair, don't believe me Just ask, you can search the entire studio... no, it’s the entire galaxy, and you can’t find a cheaper price than mine. Everyone knows that making a movie is a waste of money, and the ex-factory price of the camera alone How can the rent be so cheap?"

"To be honest, if I didn't have a good impression of you, I would never rent this machine without 100 star coins a day... [-] stars coins a day, really can't be less." The fat boss shook his head and said: "Really Can’t you just rent a cheaper one? I also have a non-professional home video camera here, the quality is not bad, but the definition is a little low, but the price is cheap enough, only [-] yuan a day, and now you can rent it for free and borrow the suspension bracket... ..."

A home camera is equivalent to a dv in the universe. It's cheap, but the movies you make can't be sold.

Gu Jingchuan shook his head, his eyes fixed on the Chameleon brand camera, his gaze was so hot that it almost melted the whole shop.After watching it for a long time, he sighed helplessly. Forget it, he really can’t afford to rent such an expensive machine.

The fat boss heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Gu Jingchuan no longer shot the destructive death light at the chameleon camera, "Why don't you take a look at it first? The price is marked next to the machine, maybe you can find a machine that meets your requirements .”

There is no other way, Gu Jingchuan can only continue wandering around the rental shop. Movies are his lifelong dream, and he really doesn't want to give up unless he has to.

Three thousand and five days, no.

Two thousand and five a day, no.

Three thousand a day, can not afford to rent.

51 days, this one works!Gu Jingchuan wanted to see what kind of machine was rented so cheaply, but when he looked up, he found that it was a suspension bracket for a camera, a thing that replaced the track and tripod in the past.With future technology, levitation technology has been popularized for a long time. A second-hand levitation motorcycle costs only a few hundred star coins, but such an ordinary bracket has to be rented for 51 days. What a profiteer!Gu Jingchuan secretly complained in his heart.

What's the use of a stand without a camera?Gu Jingchuan had to continue looking down.After looking at it, he really found a machine that was cheap enough. It wasn't a stand, but it didn't look like a camera either. It was round, like a football.He had never seen such a thing when he was on the set, so he really didn't know what it was.Many machines in the cosmic calendar look different from those in the Earth era. Gu Jingchuan looked at them for a long time but couldn't figure out what such a spherical thing was.

"Boss, what is this?" Gu Jingchuan asked.

"This one," the fat boss glanced at it, and said, "You don't need this thing to make movies."

"You haven't said what it is yet?" Gu Jingchuan was very curious. You must know that this store is specialized in renting out various equipment for filming. Since it was placed in the store by the boss, how could it be useless.

The fat boss shook his head, and said helplessly: "I bought one of this thing, but after a few years, no one rented it, so you can't use it at all." Seeing that Gu Jingchuan was not giving up, he could only say: " This is a motion capture device, which can record the three-dimensional space coordinate data of the object's movement... This thing is now used by people except for animation shooting and commercial shooting, and it is not used at all at other times, and only game companies like this thing."

Motion capture device?Gu Jingchuan looked at the chubby thing, but he couldn't see how it resembled the motion capture equipment of the 21st century.But motion capture... No wonder he hasn't seen this thing in the set for so long.

Throughout the ages of the universe, all movies have to be done manually by real people. It seems that a movie with a little more machine participation is not artistic.Movies that don't even use special effects naturally don't use motion capture devices.Although the shooting of commercials and animations does not have as many rules and regulations as movies and TV series, but due to the influence of the entertainment industry, few people use motion capture.Nowadays, probably only somatosensory games will use this technology.

Gu Jingchuan looked at the ball in front of him with interest, "How can I rent this thing?"

The fat boss saw that he was really interested, so he said: "This thing has been in my place for several years, and I can't rent it out at all, so I won't cheat you, you can just pay seventy a day... this machine Although it was made a few years ago, the model is a bit old, but except that it does not have the suspension function, other parameters are similar to the latest model. If you are willing to rent the bracket, you can pay a total of 100 yuan a day."

100 yuan a day... Gu Jingchuan thought for a while and asked, "Is there no supporting processor for this kind of motion capture device?"

The fat boss saw that there was a door, and immediately replied: "No processor is needed, the general star brain can process data, and there is no need to rent other equipment. It is absolutely cheap."

Gu Jingchuan thought for a while, and said slowly: "Then rent it and the bracket, and I will pick it up when the time comes."

When the boss heard that the machine that had been there for several years could finally be rented out, he almost jumped up excitedly, "I will debug it for you in the next two days, and I guarantee that there will be no problems at that time, so you can rent it with confidence!"

In the 21st century, the most expensive part of making a movie is doing special effects.If you don't do well, you will be dubbed fifty cents and six yuan, and the whole crew can't lift their heads when they scold.But in the cosmic calendar, with the development of science and technology, the computing power of the star brain and other personal terminals has increased, and the price of special effects has become cheaper and cheaper.

Special effects blockbusters, the most expensive movie in the 21st century, have become the cheapest mode. The rent of the motion capture device is the same as that of a home camera, and the operation has changed from extremely complicated to super simple. Unfortunately, such a convenient mode is not available. People are willing to use it, but Gu Jingchuan willfully wants to try making movies like this.

Of course, Gu Jingchuan's thinking is different from that of ordinary people.If ordinary people use a motion capture device, they probably use it to take pictures of monsters, orangutans, etc., but Gu Jingchuan suddenly had a very interesting idea in the rental shop of the fat boss-he wanted to take pictures of "a person alone." "movie of.

It's not a movie where there is only one character, but a movie where there are many characters, but he is the only actor. By the way, he is also the director, camera, post-production, and editing, and he is the only one involved in the production of the movie!

This idea is crazy enough, but when it appeared in Gu Jingchuan's mind, he couldn't get rid of it no matter what, and the convenient and easy-to-use motion capture device also provided him with the opportunity to be willful.

For a long time, what troubled Gu Jingchuan the most was the problem of insufficient funds. There was only 5 yuan, and it was not enough to spend.Although he can also act as director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and with the help of the current remote control technology, he can also act as a photographer, but a movie can't have only one role, can it?Although there are indeed wonderful movies with only one character in history, Gu Jingchuan doesn't like this type.The fewer characters, the harder it is to show plot conflict, and the greater the chances of adventure.As his first movie in this life, he didn't want to take such a risk.But if there are other roles, he needs to hire actors, and the quotations for actors in the entertainment industry are simply not what he can afford with such a small amount of money.

Of course, instead of hiring professional actors, he can find a few acting students or ordinary people who aspire to be actors. If he does this, the price of actors will go down, but their acting skills will become a problem again.As a director, Gu Jingchuan is not unable to teach the actors how to act from scratch, but in this way, the shooting time will inevitably be extended, and the rent of the camera will double.

Even omitting the rent of the camera and the salary of the actors, the cost of the venue, the cost of costumes, the cost of make-up, the cost of props...all are problems.No matter how he calculated it, his 5 yuan was not enough to spend two or three days, and it was not enough to set up a normal crew to shoot a normal movie.But the motion capture device can help him solve all the problems!

The director, screenwriter, and editor can cover it all by himself, and the actor's affairs are also resolved in an instant.

The motion capture device can completely record the movements performed by the actors, and even the subtle changes in expressions will not be missed, and then through the synthesis of the star brain, the recorded virtual person can be changed into a completely different appearance from the performer. You can create a new role.

In "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", Andy Kaiggins can even play a chimpanzee, so of course it is not impossible for him to play all the roles by himself.As long as all the characters he plays are integrated into one screen in the later stage, it will be no different from a normal movie.As early as the 21st century, some people used makeup technology to play multiple roles and appeared in one shot. Now through new technologies, this method will only become easier.

Playing multiple roles by one person is very demanding for actors, and it is much more difficult than ordinary performances without physical objects.People who don't play with themselves can only play with the characters in their hearts, and they have to perfectly show multiple characters with different personalities in a short period of time, which is simply impossible for beginners.Fortunately, Gu Jingchuan was a powerful film star in his previous life. Although he has never been so self-willed in filming, he is absolutely confident that he can do his best!

Because of the use of motion capture technology, the appearance and clothing of the characters can be completely virtualized, so the cost of makeup and clothing is also gone.In addition to motion capture, relying on the powerful computing power of the Star Brain, Gu Jingchuan didn't even need to rent the location, but could just synthesize it on the Star Brain, which saved the cost of cameras and renting the location.This is simply good news for Gu Jingchuan who is extremely tight on funds!

There is another advantage of shooting movies like this. If it is a normal shooting, even if the remote control technology of the camera is very advanced, if Gu Jingchuan is not standing behind the camera, there is no way to control the subtle focal length changes of the lens. If it is not done properly, it will easily lose focus.

And if you rely on the star brain and motion capture device to shoot, there is no such problem at all. The focal length can be set on the star brain, and everything can be adjusted to his satisfaction, such as color, light, and focal length, so that it will not be ruined by some small mistakes. the whole shot.

If it was the 21st century, if he made movies so capriciously, the time spent in post-production would be an astronomical figure, but now is the cosmic calendar, the age of the explosion of science, what is more convenient and quicker than making movies on the astral brain What about things?The only one faster than the astral brain is the optical brain in the parallel world.

Gu Jingchuan raised the corners of his mouth, let's do it like this.