I'm not a drama freak, I can really see through the script

Chapter 429, The Presentation of Five-Dimensional Space
"A performance without props, and so smooth at that—that's a real skill."

At this moment, Ye Feng was shocked. It wasn't that he hadn't participated in big productions like "Avatar" and "The Matrix." Their immersion in the roles and filming were actually quite fragmented.

Filming with a green screen is not that easy.

They wanted to create something called 'acting' in the face of special effects.

Even the most professional actors would find it difficult...
However, the superior special effects technology of the West has to some extent masked the shortcomings of the acting skills—Ye Feng can say that most special effects blockbusters don't have any acting skills at all.

It's difficult, and relatively 'unnecessary'.

Even though he graduated from an Ivy League school and most of his friends are Westerners, he still came to this conclusion.

Western special effects films don't really have the concept of acting.
Especially in "The Matrix," Keanu Reeves' acting was so bad it was almost a nightmare to watch. Luckily, he's handsome enough and that's just how his character is.

But there's basically no 'emotional expression' involved.

But this group of people in front of me.
So 'immersive' when facing a performance without any props.

It didn't feel like playing house at all; it felt like we were actually inside a spaceship in the depths of space.

Even without special effects, the acting is still palpable.
It seems that "Interstellar" does indeed look somewhat like... well, you know.
Even he, who works on special effects, couldn't get immersed in it.
At this moment, Li Xuan was also immersed in filming.
Xiang Huaqiang left without lingering, after all, he really didn't understand science fiction very well.

The version without special effects is still quite challenging to master.
"Do you know why I don't visit the set? Because I know I wouldn't understand it even if I went."

"Then you certainly had foresight."

Xiang Huaqiang went to greet Han Ping, only to find that the 'loser' was also there.

Wang Lei, dressed in kung fu attire, was in his office at China Film Group, sipping light tea, looking completely at ease.

Old, yet serene and unperturbed.

“Indeed, one can only see Li Xuan’s talent; he is top-notch as both an actor and a director.” Xiang Huaqiang paused and said, “Whether it’s Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Huang Xiaoming, or Andy Lau, they all performed their actions under his guidance as the director and lead actor.”

Han Ping and Wang Lei remained relatively calm upon hearing this.

This point has long been clearly known.
As a director.

As an actor.

He is among the best of this era—at the age of less than thirty, he can sit at the same table as Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen. With such strength and talent, is there any need to doubt?

And it's a science fiction genre—

There's even less need to visit the set.

Without special effects, you wouldn't understand this at all.

Things made with green screens, without special effects, just those dazzling terms and words with 'communication barriers' make it difficult for people to truly understand the meaning.

The final product is what determines quality.

“Those special effects talents are all excellent, but they also have immense ambition.” Wang Lei took a sip of tea and said, “After all, they jumped out of the world’s top circles and out of their comfort zones. Only ambitious people would do that.”

Both income and other objective conditions are better abroad.

Only 'status'.

Especially considering that the special effects team was predominantly Chinese, it goes without saying that their status is something they can never achieve in the Western world.
Top talents with ambition and a domineering spirit.

To truly subdue them.

You also need to use your real skills.
“Even I haven’t been able to truly subdue them; we’re only in a ‘cooperative’ relationship.” Wang Lei paused and said, “It all depends on whether Li Xuan can make the sum of its parts greater than the sum of its parts.”

Top-notch special effects team.

With Li Xuan's talent and the acting team.

Can we succeed on this uncharted path of hard science fiction?

To forge a path.
At this moment, Ye Feng was deep in thought behind the green screen.
"Five-dimensional space."

We live in three-dimensional space all the time.

Three-dimensional space has length, width, and height.

Adding a dimension to four-dimensional spacetime, which is three-dimensional space plus the time dimension, forms the time plane.

That is, five-dimensional space
What gave Ye Feng a headache was this.

How do we present the feeling of this five-dimensional space?
This is science fiction.

It was even 'harder' than he had imagined.

It's a bit beyond his capabilities.

"No, it's still not right."

Ye Feng took off his gold-rimmed glasses and pressed his throbbing temples hard with his knuckles.

On the giant screen in front of him, a "hypercube" composed of countless lines was slowly rotating. It was geometrically perfect, with every edge and every angle being precise, but it was cold, rigid, and lifeless.

“Boss, we tried using different textures and lighting effects to represent the flow of time, but it looks like… a gorgeous kaleidoscope.” A veteran special effects artist said wearily, “The audience won’t understand it, they’ll just feel dizzy. This thing can’t tell a story.”

Another member of the rendering team chimed in, "Yes, Mr. Ye, we can create a mathematical projection of five-dimensional space onto three dimensions, but that's just a dry model. The kind of 'time becoming a entity' and 'touchable past' described in Director Li's script... This... this is too abstract, it's practically a philosophical problem, not a technical one. What are we going to do about it!"

Ye Feng's brows furrowed even more.

He knew his team members were telling the truth.

The setting collection provided by Li Xuan is comparable to a physics paper, so rigorous it's outrageous. However, the rigor of the text and the visual presentation are two different things.

How can we make the audience feel the presence of time, rather than just glimpse a complex geometric shape?
They were stuck in a dead end.

How to portray a dead end.
Just then, the studio door was gently pushed open, and Li Xuan walked in.

He wasn't wearing a director's vest, just simple casual clothes, and carrying several bags of steaming hot late-night snacks.
Filming during the day.

I watch the special effects at night.

Ye Feng felt a complex mix of admiration and confusion when he saw Li Xuan—was his body really made of steel?

Although it is true that film production requires money.

But this is going too far.
"Looks like I've arrived just in time." Li Xuan's gaze swept over the rotating hypercube on the screen, then he looked at the worried expressions on everyone's faces and said with a smile.

"Director Li," Ye Feng stood up, his tone carrying an undisguised sense of frustration, "we've hit a bottleneck regarding the visualization of five-dimensional space."

of course.

Ye Feng didn't really think Li Xuan could completely solve this problem.

This visual presentation.

This has never happened before.

Perhaps, like in "The Matrix"? A cool, high-end production would be just as good.
That's what hard science fiction is all about.

It's not about making things up, unlike fantasy blockbusters or soft science fiction films where you just need to tell the audience, 'That's how the world is.'

Science fiction has to convince the audience.

This is our 'future'.
Based on current physical theorems and real-world principles, this presentation and expression will be based on existing physical laws.
It's harder to create something from something than to create something from nothing.

In fact, Avatar's presentation was simpler than Interstellar's.

So hard science fiction is either unpopular, but as long as it can be made into a film, its potential is extremely high—as long as you can truly convince the audience that this is the 'future'.

“I saw it.” Li Xuan placed the late-night snack on the table, gesturing for everyone to rest for a bit, then walked to the screen, pointed at the model, and said, “You’ve gone astray. You’re trying to explain to the audience ‘what five-dimensional space is,’ but the task of a film isn’t to popularize science, it’s to let the audience experience it.”

He looked at Ye Feng: "Ye Feng, forget about the hypercube, forget about the complex geometric projections. Let's try a different approach."

Li Xuan picked up a whiteboard marker and drew a simple rectangle on the whiteboard next to him.

"Imagine time is a book. We three-dimensional beings can only read it page by page sequentially, from birth to death. We can never go back to the previous page, nor can we jump to the next page."

Everyone in the studio was captivated by the analogy and listened quietly.

A director.

How is he supposed to explain five-dimensional space?

Even if he has the talent to imagine such a concept.

But how can we present that he really can do it?
Ye Feng also had some doubts.
But I still listened.

Based on the filming process over this period.

He was his 'new boss'.

That's definitely not simple.
“However, the ‘five-dimensional beings’ who created this space are future humans.” Li Xuan’s voice carried a strange guiding quality. “What they built for Yun Tianming is not a book, but an infinitely expanding library.”

He drew countless squares of the same size around the rectangle, forming a huge grid. "The bookshelves in this library are what you see as the 'hypercube.' And each 'book' placed side by side on the bookshelves is a three-dimensional spatial slice of Yun Tianming's daughter's room at different points in time."

Ye Feng's eyes suddenly lit up.

“The library…” he murmured to himself, as if a bolt of lightning had pierced through the fog in his mind.

“That’s right,” Li Xuan affirmed. “Yun Tianming is no longer a character in the book; he has come to the back of the bookshelves. He can move freely, pull out the ‘book’ of his daughter’s childhood from this bookshelf, and then pull out the ‘book’ of her youth from that bookshelf. He can see all the ‘past’ at the same time.”

"So, the focus we're presenting isn't the cold, geometric structure representing the 'bookshelf,' but rather the warm 'books' filling the shelves—that is, the rooms of countless daughters!" Ye Feng excitedly continued. "The audience doesn't need to understand five dimensions; they just need to see a father navigating a 'room maze' composed of all his daughters' memories! We'll use this visual effect to present the feeling of five-dimensional space."

“That’s exactly what I mean.” Li Xuan nodded approvingly. “Visually, we can arrange these ‘rooms’ like books, forming infinitely extending time corridors. The light doesn’t come from the lamps, but seeps out from the ‘gaps’ of time itself, carrying a texture that doesn’t belong to our dimension. When Yun Tianming touches the boundary of a ‘room,’ he’s not touching the wall, but touching ‘time.’ His hand will create ripples, like plucking a string.”

"Gravity!" Ye Feng's mind was completely activated. "Those 'strings' are gravity! By plucking these strings of time, he can transmit gravitational disturbances back to a room in the past, thereby pushing the books on the bookshelf!"

"Correct!"

At that moment, the atmosphere in the entire studio became lively.

The previous depression and confusion vanished, replaced by a fervent excitement after finding a breakthrough.

The special effects artists started discussing it amongst themselves.

If this is how you define 'science fiction'.
“We can use procedural generation to construct this ‘room matrix’! The timestamp of each room is a variable that controls the lighting, dust, and character movements within it!”

"Those gravitational strings can be made into a semi-transparent, iridescent visual effect, which is not visible under normal circumstances, but will only appear when Yun Tianming interacts with them!"

"As he moves from one point in time to another, the surrounding 'rooms' flash by like pages turning quickly in a book, creating a powerful visual impact..."

at this time.

Ye Feng looked at Li Xuan
This is a renowned director in the Chinese entertainment industry.

What a prodigy!

An absolute prodigy.

The visual presentation is exceptionally clear.

To convince the audience that this is the future.

This is science fiction.
Maybe
Following this person who is younger than me, I can really create hard science fiction.
Really!

Filming is still ongoing.

The special effects team and the cast are still operating.
But at this time.

You can tell from Zhou Xun's performance that even the special effects team got into character.

"What a prodigy, my brother!"

Zhou Xun sighed slightly.

Science fiction was a completely foreign concept to her.

Or perhaps it's a field that the national film industry simply cannot penetrate.

But that's how it was filmed.

Even if she doesn't know what the final result will be, she is satisfied with this sci-fi film.

At this moment, the film set fell into an extreme silence.

All the cameras and everyone's eyes were focused on that hospital bed.

Gao Yuanyuan was lying there.

Special effects makeup added the marks of time to her face; every wrinkle and age spot seemed to be a mark sculpted by time itself.

Her hair was gray and sparse, her skin clung loosely to her bones, and her once clear eyes were now murky and deep, as if they had carried the dust of nearly a century.

She is no longer the radiant and beautiful national goddess; she is Yun Miao, a centenarian nearing the end of her life, waiting for her father who has been gone for most of her life.

When Yun Tianming, played by Li Xuan, entered the ward, the sense of temporal and spatial dislocation reached its peak.

He looked exactly the same as when he left, with black hair and black eyes, and a tall and straight figure; it was as if time had been paused on him.

His daughter, however, was already very old.

"dad……"

When Gao Yuanyuan spoke, her voice was no longer clear and bright, but rather hoarse and trembling, characteristic of the elderly with unsteady breathing.

Just those two words were enough to elicit admiration from Zhou Xun behind the monitor.

She acted so well.

That wasn't imitation; it was a sense of aging emanating from the depths of one's soul.

With difficulty, she focused her gaze and saw the "young" father before her. A childlike surprise flashed in her cloudy eyes, which was then covered by endless vicissitudes and relief.

Li Xuan strode to the bedside, knelt down on one knee, and gently took her wrinkled hand with the IV tube in it. His fingertips trembled, and his eyes churned with guilt, heartache, love, and a longing that seemed to transcend light-years.

"I'm back, Little Flower..."

He used the nickname of the daughter in the script.

Gao Yuanyuan smiled, her wrinkles crinkling together like a dried chrysanthemum. She struggled to raise her other hand, wanting to touch his face, but it fell limply halfway down.

“I knew you would come back…” Her breathing became rapid, “The ghost… my ghost…”

She didn't cry, but the long wait hidden beneath that calm, a wait that had been stretched by time for a lifetime, was more heart-wrenching than any loud wailing.

"Dad shouldn't have left." Li Xuan's voice choked with sobs as he pressed her hand against his cheek.

“No.” Gao Yuanyuan shook her head with all her might, her eyes looking into the void behind him, as if she could see through the walls and into the boundless universe. “You shouldn’t stay here. She… is still waiting for you.”

The "she" she refers to is the woman played by Zhou Xun, who traveled with Yun Tianming to the depths of space and is now waiting alone on another planet.

A daughter, in the last moments of her life, urged her father to go find another woman.

What a magnificent understanding and letting go this is.

Behind the monitor, Huang Xiaoming and Chen Kun were speechless.

They knew the script for this scene, but the impact of the words was far less than one ten-thousandth of the power of Gao Yuanyuan's performance at this moment.

She perfectly blended a daughter's deep affection for her father and a scientist's descendant's sense of responsibility for the future of humanity in her eyes that were about to go out.

"Card!"

When Li Xuan uttered that word, tears welled up in his eyes.

The set remained silent for several seconds, as if everyone's soul had not yet been pulled out of that time-space-distorted hospital room.

The next second, thunderous applause erupted!

All the staff, from lighting and photography to production crew, spontaneously applauded. Ye Feng and his special effects team also stood at the back of the crowd, clapping vigorously. For the first time, they felt so directly how much raw human emotion their cold data and models were meant to carry.

Gao Yuanyuan lay on the hospital bed, her shoulders heaving violently. The sobs she had suppressed for so long were finally released, and she was unable to break character for a long time.

Li Xuan walked over and gently patted her back.

"Thank you." Gao Yuanyuan looked up, tears mixed with makeup on her face, making her look a little disheveled, but her eyes shone brightly. "Thank you... for giving me such a good role."

"Yes, you acted very well."

Gao Yuanyuan also has complicated feelings.

Now, many people in the entertainment industry know about Li Xuan and Liu Yifei's relationship.

Off-screen, he ultimately 'lost'.

However, although.

I may not be able to play the leading lady in your life, but I will try my best to play the leading lady in your script.

"The new generation..."

Not far away, Zhou Xun watched this scene and let out a heartfelt sigh.

She looked at Chen Kun beside her, her eyes filled with admiration and a hint of barely perceptible pressure. "In this scene, her performance was no less impressive than any of ours."

Chen Kun nodded emphatically, deeply impressed by Li Xuan's judgment.

Who would have thought that Gao Yuanyuan, who has always been defined as a "pretty face," could unleash such amazing energy in Li Xuan's film?

This is not only due to her own potential, but also to the director's discovery and guidance.

Li Xuan stood up, looked around at the excited, tired, yet satisfied faces, took a deep breath, and shouted with all his might:
"I hereby announce that filming for the cast of 'Interstellar' has officially wrapped!"

(End of this chapter)