Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 701 Suffering is also suffering for himself

Fun fact: Mojing Tianhe's Chengdu headquarters and Coco Animation are located in the same digital cultural and creative industrial park, and the two companies are only 100 meters apart as the crow flies.

This means that dumplings can completely drain the resources of Mojingtianhe!
Li Qiutang first went to Mojing Tianhe to watch "The Wandering Earth". Coincidentally, she ran into Jiaozi who came to Mojing Tianhe to see the effects.

Li Qiutang also joined in.

The post-production special effects teams for "Ne Zha" and "The Wandering Earth" overlapped to some extent.

According to them, "Working on your two projects was a kind of desperate feeling of wanting to die but not being able to."

Because the two films mobilized nearly 100 domestic special effects and animation companies to do their post-production work, "If you don't work here and switch to another company, you'll still be taking over your projects."

Li Qiutang said she was helpless and even felt a little amused.

Mojing Tianhe was a co-production company for "Ne Zha," responsible for the special effects of some key scenes and providing post-production compositing services.

Dumplings have very high standards for detail. He didn't say anything nice just because Li Qiutang was there. He still emphasized his requirements to the engineers at Mojing Tianhe and the shortcomings of the current results.

Can't do it? Then find a way to do it. If 50 people can't do it, hire 60, and if that's still not enough, keep hiring.

Dumplings are all about the result.

Every director works this way.

After watching the production of "Ne Zha", Jiaozi stayed behind to watch the post-production of "The Wandering Earth".

The visual effects supervisor of Mojing Tianhe explained to Li Qiutang, "In order to work on your two projects, the company specially recruited 37 more engineers."

Li Qiutang only cares about results. If you don't have enough people, you can recruit more. He doesn't care about these other things.

The budget for "The Wandering Earth" was quite ample. Although Li Qiutang didn't directly handle the accounts, he knew the general cost allocation.

The total cost of "The Wandering Earth" reached 5 million yuan, with the ratio of filming, post-production, and publicity roughly 2:2:1.

Some people suggested to Li Qiutang that the publicity and distribution costs should not be so high, since Li Qiutang is already a famous director, and less publicity and distribution will not affect the effect.

However, Li Qiutang disagreed with cutting the marketing budget—although the money had not yet arrived in his account—there are countless examples in the Chinese and foreign film industry where big-budget films by renowned directors have been ruined by poor marketing.

My wife's "Pacific Rim" is a bloody example. The movie quality was good, but Warner Bros.' poor marketing led to the film's global box office failure.

From another perspective, the staggeringly high marketing and distribution costs of weight-loss movies have undoubtedly contributed significantly to their high box office returns.

Therefore, Li Qiutang was very reluctant to cut the publicity budget; if possible, he would even like to increase it.

Because science fiction films are still a niche genre in China, Li Qiutang wants to use viral marketing to attract as many viewers as possible to the cinema.

What? Director Jia can use viral marketing, but Director Li can't?

The only encouraging thing about the Chengdu Production Center is that they have completed a segment of the film.

It's not the main feature yet; it's the ending animation before the end credits, used to introduce the core creators.

There was no background music or subtitles; it was just animation.

Even a short clip would be fine, Li Qiutang glanced at it. There wasn't anything wrong with this clip either.

The ending animation, using printed lead blocks and book pages as its core visual elements, showcases the artistic ingenuity of the startup team. Although the story of the film "The Wandering Earth" is no longer related to the novel, Li Qiutang still chose to return to the book through film, as a tribute to Liu Cixin's original novel.

The design team has always emphasized that "The Wandering Earth" is a local science fiction film, so they chose the traditional technique of movable type printing as the theme to highlight local characteristics and also to show the importance of writing to the continuation of civilization.

This ending animation looks simple, but it wasn't something the engineers could create in a few strokes. To present the realistic state of paper in low light and the fine structure of metal and paper, the post-production team conducted extensive experimental research, referenced real-world images, and meticulously sculpted and cut the 3D model.

The team even filmed particles moving at high speeds in space to present a realistic space environment, all in an effort to achieve a wonderful fusion of traditional printing techniques and science fiction.

"At least give me a clip from the main movie; this ending animation is so boring."

"The collected footage can be combined into clips for the main feature, but we've been busy these past few days and haven't had time to do it yet. If you come back in ten days or two weeks, you'll be able to see about a minute or two of the main feature."

“It’s only a minute or two,” Li Qiutang said. “That’s no fun at all.”

Li Qiutang informed the special effects director in Rongcheng in advance: "The company is already studying the release date of 'The Wandering Earth' and wants to set it for the Spring Festival next year. You know how important the Spring Festival is. Once it's set, it can't be changed. If you have any difficulties, you must tell us in advance."

The visual effects supervisor quickly estimated the time in his mind and nodded: "There should be enough time." The production team had given them enough money; Mo Jing Tian He was well-funded this time.

"Okay, your words are enough."

After leaving Mojing Tianhe, Li Qiutang strolled over to Coco Animation. After three years of work, they already had a half-hour clip of "Ne Zha".

Nezha's image as a demon child does challenge the audience's established aesthetic, but Li Qiutang doesn't think it's a big problem.

The investor, Almond Pictures, really did a great job. Jiaozi didn't want the company to interfere with his creative process, so the company only sent a producer in charge of budget and schedule to accompany the "Nezha" crew.

Of course, Li Qiutang knew very little about how the producer got along with the dumpling team, and he had no way of knowing whether the producer had interfered with the dumpling team's creative process through his own means.

However, Li Qiutang estimated that this was very likely. He wasn't new to the business, and it was impossible for him to be without conflicts.

So when the producer gave him a report, he instructed him: "Now that things have come this far, you need to focus on the big picture and give him plenty of creative freedom. As long as he doesn't make the film 170 or 180 minutes long, don't argue with him about certain things."

Did you talk to him about the progress?

"Not yet, we only have half an hour of the actual footage so far, so it's hard to set a schedule. What are the company's thoughts?"

“The company isn’t pressuring him to start for now.” But after a moment’s thought, Li Qiutang felt it would be better to have a definite date; otherwise, if they let him do it, they didn’t know when he would finish.

He asked, "What are your projected progress figures?"

"Based on the current work efficiency, it will take at least another year before it is finalized."

“A year,” Li Qiutang thought for a moment and said, “Then you should tell him it will be released in July or August next summer. That should be enough time.”

"Okay, I see."

"Do you have enough money?"

“The budget is not a problem. Sometimes I even feel that the budget is not enough. These people who work in animation are really working too hard.” The production budget for “Ne Zha” was only 6000 million yuan, but Jiaozi has persisted for 3 years and he will continue to persist until next year.

Li, the capitalist, said coldly, "He himself is also an investor in 'Ne Zha,' so he is the one who suffers."

(End of this chapter)