Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 325 Filming Begins

Before film production begins, the production team needs to conduct thorough pre-production preparations.

This includes revising and improving the script, defining the characters and casting the actors, designing and setting the scenes, preparing costumes and makeup, and so on.

For the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean," the pre-production stage is particularly important because the film is full of various fantasy elements and special effects scenes, which require careful planning and preparation.

Compared to the more than six months of preparation for "Inception," the preparation for "New Pirates of the Caribbean" was incredibly easy and effortless.

The reason is simple: although the previous "Pirates of the Caribbean" film was a box office failure, it was still a big-budget production costing $1.4 million, with complete props and a full set of studios.

After the film's box office failure, Disney shelved the live-action adaptation, but the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride remained, so the props and studios were all preserved.

For example, the most important set, Barbossa's cave where he hid his treasure, was built in Studio 2, the largest studio in Disney films. The production company hired 100 craftsmen and spent five months building the set.

Then it took another three or four days to fill the 30-gallon tank with water, and the final renovation took another three weeks.

This set, which would normally take six months to complete, was preserved by Disney and can now be used with just a few minor repairs.

For example, the "Dauntless" ship needed for the movie was built based on the "Victory" ship, a victorious warship in the British fleet, and was completed on a floating barge at Long Island Wharf.

It took 150 craftsmen three and a half months to build the boat, which was 170 feet long and 34 feet wide, using nearly 4 pounds of steel and 1 square feet of canvas.

This Disney location was preserved, which saved time in building the ship.

There's also the important "Black Pearl." The filming of this "pirate ship" actually used two ships, one of which was a rented two-masted ship that had been in service for over sixty years.

Built in Finland in 1948, this "pirate ship" primarily served in the 1970s by transporting goods in the Caribbean and as a tourist attraction.

There was also a replica of the Black Pearl, which was a complete replica of the front half of the ship, while the rear half was replaced by a trailer, specifically for filming parts that were inconvenient to film at night.

The "Black Pearl" bi-masted ship has been booked for three months, and the replica ship is also being preserved at Disney.

In this way, the preparation work is really simple and easy, and doesn't waste any time.

In fact, in addition to props and a film studio, Cao Yang also hired many former crew members from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" crew for convenience.

These staff members are mainly focused on art design, costume design, and set design.

For example, the art design was done by the original Drake R. Hill and James Toch.

The costume design was also done by the original Penny Rose.

The set designer was Larry Diaz, the original set designer.

Cao Yang mainly analyzed the reasons for the failure of the original "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Simply put, the plot is too clichéd, relying on a romance storyline, and it doesn't dare to innovate by turning the film into a fantasy movie. It also lacks a unique and compelling character like Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp.

According to current Disney CEO Robert Iger, the Disney CEO at the time of filming "Pirates of the Caribbean" was Michael Eisner, a somewhat extreme individualist who was known as a "tyrant."

Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of "Pirates of the Caribbean," considered making the film a different kind of pirate movie, wanting to add supernatural elements and break away from the traditional pirate movie.

Michael Eisner was initially supportive, but later, for some reason, changed his mind, thinking it was too risky, and rejected Jerry Bruckheimer's idea.

He insisted on making a traditional adventure film, more historically accurate, with love as the main theme, and incorporating elements of adventure, treasure hunting, and naval battles with pirates, without adding fantasy elements.

That's why, even though the movie flopped, the art design, costumes, and sets were all done with great care, so Cao Yang decided to continue with those elements, which also saved him a lot of trouble.

The other staff included director of photography Gu Changwei, and two Hollywood cinematographers.

The assistant directors included Liu Shan and Li Mingyi, who had been working with Cao Yang, and Steven Bader, who was hired by Disney and was mainly responsible for location shooting.

The score was composed by Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer, who has worked with Cao Yang on two films before and they are quite familiar with each other.

In order not to be deceived by Hollywood's art direction, costumes, and set design personnel, Cao Yang also established the position of art director, which should be given to someone he trusts.

So he called Yip Kam Tin.

Yip Kam Tin is considered one of the best in this field in China. He has worked with many great directors and also collaborated with Cao Yang on two films.

Ye Jintian was very happy to receive Cao Yang's call.

He is a top-notch art director in the country and won the 73rd Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

However, the position of art director is different from that of director; the fields are different. He is mainly strong in the Chinese-speaking world, and it is very difficult for him to develop in Hollywood. He must rely on the director. Obviously, Cao Yang is the best choice for him now.

However, he hesitated when he learned that Cao Yang wanted him to be the art director for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2".

He also really wanted to follow Cao Yang, and ideally become a regular member of Cao Yang's team, like Gu Changwei.

However, he rarely dealt with things related to Europe and America, and he was afraid that if he messed things up, he would lose his connection with Cao Yang.

He has a clear understanding of himself.

So, he said to Cao Yang with a wry smile on the phone, "Director Cao, I really, really want to work with you, but you know that my expertise is in the Chinese-speaking world. I'm afraid I won't be able to handle things in Europe and America."

Cao Yang smiled; he liked working with people who knew their place.

"It's okay. Your role as artistic director is mainly to supervise. I've hired many staff members from the original crew. After all, we've worked together for almost a year and know each other. But I'm not familiar with them."

You should understand what I mean. My main problem is that I hate trouble and dealing with these trivial matters. You've been in this industry for twenty years; you should be very familiar with this. So, how about it, would you like to come and help me?

Cao Yang didn't hide anything, mainly because there was no need to.

For a seasoned veteran like Yip Kam Tin, who has seen it all, preventing and dealing with this kind of thing is quite simple.

Ye Jintian understood that Director Cao didn't want to waste his energy on such petty squabbles within the crew, so he made him the artistic director to oversee the crew and prevent unnecessary trouble.

Then Ye Jintian laughed. Could it be that Cao Yang was treating him like one of his own? He probably was.

Ye Jintian was very familiar with the underhanded tactics his subordinates used, and he was certain he could handle this.

"No problem, Director Cao. You can rest assured that this matter will be handled by me. There will be absolutely no trivial matters that will affect the filming."

Ye Jintian assured.

He was determined not only to do this job well, but also to seriously study the clothing customs of Europe and America, so that Director Cao wouldn't need him when he needed to do something but he wouldn't know these things.

Although there were many scenes in the ocean during the filming of this movie, Ludong Island was clearly unsuitable. The environment there did not match the movie, so it was impossible to film some scenes on Ludong Island this time.

The officials of Ludong Island regret that they missed such a good opportunity for publicity.

Cao Yang, along with the actors, some domestic staff, and sixteen interns selected by the Beijing Film Academy as assistants, boarded a flight to the United States.

After discussions with Robert Iger, Cao Yang decided to place the main filming locations in several island nations around the Caribbean Sea, which were also the main filming locations for the original movie. With Disney's arrangement, it was a familiar and easy place to film.

Cao Yang didn't know much about the island nations around the Caribbean Sea. It wasn't until he was making a movie that he learned the two most important filming locations were St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica.

How big are these two Caribbean island nations?

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines covers an area of ​​less than 400 square kilometers and has a population of less than 10.

Dominica is an island nation located in the northeastern Windward Islands of the eastern Caribbean Sea. It has a land area of ​​751 square kilometers and an even smaller population of only about 7.

Okay, many small counties in China are larger than these two island nations in terms of both area and population.

Filming for "Pirates of the Caribbean 12" began on December 4th.

Instead of starting filming in the island nation where the location was chosen, Cao Yang opted to shoot the Death Island scenes first in Studio 2 at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

This place was built into a perfect pirate hideout, an extremely luxurious cave surrounded by waterways, trenches, small caves and dangerous rocky terrain, filled with gold coins and various "antiques".

The caves on this island are modeled after the "Dead Man's Cave" from Disney's River Rapids, and the original waterfall scene has also been preserved.

Furthermore, 30000 gallons, or approximately 114 tons, of water were added to the cave beforehand, creating a "natural" treasure cave.

Of course, this "Death Island" and all the props that were previously preserved were not given to the film crew for free. Although these are Disney's assets, one thing is one thing, and the film crew has to pay rent to use them.

Priced exactly according to market rate, with no discounts.

Renting is much cheaper than rebuilding, and it also saves a lot of time and production costs.

Cao Yang plans to use the money saved on special effects to make the film even more magnificent.

On the first day of filming, Cao Yang did not let the actors get into character. As usual, the first day was for them to get used to the role and shoot a few simple scenes. Then, in the evening, the actors would be given more "intensity" training to get into character.

(End of this chapter)