This actor has something

Chapter 482 The Avatar Attack

He Daqi didn't want to move, not even a little bit.

For a lazy person, if they suddenly get motivated and work hard for almost a whole year, and then suddenly stop working, they will definitely be lazier than before.

To be honest, this is similar to weight loss in that it mainly focuses on rebound.

I woke up once at six in the morning, checked the time on my phone and thought it was still early, so I squinted and drifted back to sleep. When I opened my eyes again, I saw my two little darlings standing by the bed, cautiously watching me. When they realized I was awake, they were so happy they almost jumped for joy, bouncing and shouting towards the door:
"Daddy's awake! Daddy's awake!"

"Did you two wake up Daddy again because you were being naughty?"

Zhou Huimin's voice came from afar, accompanied by the clattering of cotton slippers. Soon she poked her head in, smiling as she patted the two mischievous monkeys' little heads.

"No! We didn't wake Dad up, he woke up on his own!"

"It is! It is!"

The two little ones looked up and quickly explained, not wanting to be wrongly accused, not realizing that their mother had just made a casual joke.

With his wife and children blocking his way at the head of the bed, He Daqi still didn't want to get up. He thought it was fine this way, at least someone could give him orders.

"What time is it? Huanhuan and Lele, you two bring me those two phones that are charging on the computer desk. What did your wife have for breakfast? If it was steamed buns, bring me two."

He Daqi didn't get up. He stretched and yawned, lying on the bed directing his wife and children to do this and that.

The two little ones were obedient and went to get He Daqi's phone with their short legs. Zhou Huimin, however, didn't want to serve He Daqi. She rolled her eyes at him and said irritably, "You want to eat steamed buns in bed? If you spill soup on the blanket, I'll make you make sure you make your bed and sleep on the floor tonight."

"Then I won't eat."

He Daqi, with a grin, took the phone from the two children. He didn't rush to check if there were any new messages. Instead, he tickled the two little ones under their armpits. The two children immediately ran away, giggling and making faces at He Daqi.

Zhou Huimin poked He Daqi's forehead with her finger, somewhat speechless, and said with a hint of disgust, "Stop fooling around, get up quickly, it's almost ten o'clock. Grandpa and Grandma came over early this morning and told us to go to our uncle's house for lunch today, and to go over early to help make dumplings, today is New Year's Day."

Oh right, today is New Year's Day...

A new year has begun; 2009 has passed in the blink of an eye.

It's true, after being busy for almost a year, I finally have some free time to relax at home and it feels like time is flying by. It seems like just a few days ago I finished helping Lu Yang with his roadshow and was preparing to come back and take a good rest, but it turns out that almost half a month has already passed.

He Daqi smacked his lips, unprepared, and decided to take his wife and children to his uncle's house for a free meal while still wearing his cotton pajamas and slippers. However, he was punched and pushed by Zhou Huimin and sent to the bathroom for a good cleaning.

Zhou Huimin also felt that she had had enough. Before, when He Daqi was busy, she complained that he didn't care about the family. Now that He Daqi is lying at home all day, she complains that he is too lazy.

After all that fuss, by the time we arrived at He Bing's house with the child, it was almost 10:30. Grandpa He, Grandma He, and He Bing and his wife were already making two trays of dumplings.

Actually, this is enough for one meal. The main problem is that He Daqi's family doesn't provide meals, so the old lady gets everyone to prepare more so that when He Daqi leaves after lunch, they can pack some to take back and put in the refrigerator, and then cook it whenever they want.

After He Bing finished rolling out the dough, he clapped his hands and wanted to go out for a smoke and chat with He Daqi. But when he turned his head, he saw He Daqi leading three little ones to play happily. They even fell down. He Daqi was sitting down, and the three little ones were hugging his neck and twisting his arms, all pressing down on He Daqi.

"How old are you? Why are you still arguing with the kids? Come out and have a chat."

He Bing walked behind He Daqi and used a clever push to knock He Daqi over. Now the three little ones thought they had won and danced around He Daqi happily, jumping and shouting.

He Daqi lazily got up, smiled and flicked each of them on the head, then followed He Bing out of the villa.

When will our variety show premiere?

"At least after the Spring Festival, they are still working on post-production. Lu Yang was delayed for a while because of his promotional tour. The two new directors were slow and hesitant to take the lead, so the progress was average. Now that Lu Yang has time, with his guidance, the speed has increased."

He Bing nodded upon hearing this, took a puff of his cigarette, and said with some emotion, "You young people these days are so quick-witted. Knowing that I've filmed another variety show, a lot of old acquaintances have come to me asking for advice. It seems that variety shows have great potential in the future. You should pay attention, kid. I reckon there are quite a few people eyeing this industry right now, all ready to get in and make a living. You're ahead now, so don't let yourself be slowly overtaken."

He Daqi didn't take it seriously. He wasn't filming variety shows to make money, but he couldn't tell He Bingming that, so he just nodded and said "uh-huh" without saying anything else.

He Bing had plenty to talk about, and he chatted with He Daqi about everything from stage plays to TV series, and then from TV series to movies. That's the downside of middle-aged men; they like to reminisce about the past. He told He Daqi a lot of interesting stories about what he encountered on set.

As they were chatting, He Daqi suddenly remembered something and asked, "Uncle, do you know what Uncle Hu Jun has been busy with lately? You can call him and ask him when you have time. I might need to talk to him in the second half of this year or the first half of next year."

"What's wrong? Can't you call and ask yourself?"

“You two are close, why don’t you call and ask first? I’m not sure yet. I’ll call him after I’ve decided. If I call him directly and then change it later, wouldn’t that offend someone? There’s nothing I can’t say. I’m planning to make another variety show, similar to Infinite Challenge, with several regular guests doing tasks.”

"Okay, I'll tell them for you."

……

……

He Daqi thought he could stay home for at least two months at the beginning of 2010. He had a good plan: he would wait for his two children to have their winter vacation, then take them to the Northeast for a few days, and then prepare for the Spring Festival. After the Lantern Festival, he would start getting busy again.

Unfortunately, plans don't always go as expected. Not long after New Year's Day, he had to return to Asia for a company meeting. The reason was simple: Avatar was too ruthless, leaving everyone reeling. The box office was phenomenal; from the 4th to the 7th, the daily average was 25 million, and on the 8th and 9th, it reached 50 million per day. At this rate, the opening week's box office would be around 250 million, and judging by the situation, it would likely rise even further in the second week.

The wolf is coming!
At this moment, all the senior executives from Asia and Vietnam were present in the small conference room. There was no one chairing the meeting, and they were basically discussing things one by one.

How much do you think Avatar will gross at the box office?

"I estimate it will be worth more than Painted Skin, right? Painted Skin cost over 800 million, and Avatar looks like it will cost over a billion."

"One billion? That's so high? Painted Skin was made with ticket subsidies back then, but Avatar didn't have ticket subsidies. Maybe it will just rely on piracy and the box office will drop."

"There's nothing we can do. It's a new 3D movie, so it's hard to pirate. Everyone's just looking for something new. But their technology is so advanced that the ticket prices are high. A regular ticket is over 80 yuan, and an IMAX 3D ticket is over 200 yuan. And you still can't get one. To be honest, I think even 1 billion is too low."

"Now a bunch of film companies are jumping out and saying they want to make our own 3D movies. They make it sound nice, but do they know how much they're actually investing?"

"I went upstairs to the graphic design and color department today. They told me about a technology that can convert ordinary movies to 3D, something about layering materials to reconstruct a 3D perspective?"

The speaker was the head of the finance department. Because Ya Yue had many projects in cooperation with Tu He Se Cai, they had to reconcile accounts almost every month. They often had to run to each other's places. Fortunately, they were all in the same building, so it was quite convenient.

Her words made Wu Nannan's eyes light up, and she leaned over to ask He Daqi, "Daqi, did Sister Liang just say that this technology is easy to implement?"

The discussion immediately stopped, everyone wanting to hear what He Daqi had to say. After all, He Daqi was the real expert in special effects technology, and he was the one who taught them the techniques of image and color.

"It's quite easy to implement, but it's rather tedious. If we were to reconstruct the 3D effect from the layers of a regular movie, it would be easier to just use a dual-lens 3D camera during filming, which would save us a lot of trouble."

Ok?
He Daqi's answer made everyone realize a problem: it seems, perhaps, that He Daqi is capable of 3D filming.

Why hold this meeting? It's because Avatar is so appealing that everyone wants a piece of the action. No matter how well the 3D modeling is done, as long as the slogan is out there, and given that the technology is currently nonexistent in China, everyone can take a bite.

The original plan was to invite all the top executives of Asia Film Group to the event, and let Asia Film Group follow the example of other film and television companies, shout slogans, and then find a project to work on casually. With pictures and color as a guarantee, at least Asia Film Group would be able to do much better than other companies in the end.

This meeting is for the purpose of unifying the narrative.

Now that He Daqi has said that, these people are getting more and more confident.

"Everyone, let's disperse for now. No need to be the first to stick your neck out. We can observe how things go in Asia and Vietnam first." Liu Ying clapped her hands, making a perfunctory excuse to end the meeting.

No one said much, knowing that Liu Ying and the others wanted to have a good talk with He Daqi, so they all quickly got up and left the small conference room.

Once the door was closed, Wang Jinghua couldn't wait to ask, "Daqi, can our Asia-Pacific region achieve the shooting techniques you mentioned, including image and color?"

"Of course we can! Our graphics and color are the best in China and top international special effects company. If others can do it, we can do it too. The shooting technique is also simple. We use a special camera. I know that when Avatar was filmed, they made a custom camera with Sony. That was several years ago. Now Sony's technology has been updated several generations and they have new 3D cameras. Filming Avatar again would be much easier than before."

Liu Ying, Wang Jinghua, and Wu Nannan were all incredibly excited by He Daqi's words. These days, it's not about having the courage to do things; as long as you produce genuine products, you can shout slogans until the sky falls.

It was also because He Daqi made it sound so easy that Liu Ying asked without even thinking, "How about we make a similar movie? As the leading film company in China, only we can do this! Daqi, what kind of subject matter do you think would be suitable for the new project?"

“No subject matter is suitable,” He Daqi said dejectedly. He didn’t play the riddle-maker and immediately explained, “Filming is easy, but special effects are slow. I’ve looked into Avatar. Only 40% was filmed on location, and the remaining 60% was all special effects. Those special effects were made frame by frame. The slowest part required three teams to work together for an hour to make one frame. One second is 24 frames. Although not all special effects are this difficult, if even 10% of the special effects need to be done this way, you can easily calculate the time required.”

A bucket of cold water was poured on them, and Liu Ying and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

Seeing that they were speechless, He Daqi continued in a cheeky tone, "Of course, this is only necessary when making a movie similar to Avatar. We can start with something simple. For example, Avatar is 40% real scenes and 60% special effects. We can be 90% real scenes and 10% special effects. This way, we can make a high-quality 3D movie in just two or three months longer than a regular movie."

He Daqi's confidence in the design and color scheme likely stems from the fact that it's his own company, allowing him to control costs. If other film and television companies tried to do the same, they would probably lose a fortune.

By now, Liu Ying and the others knew that He Daqi was just joking around for fun, so they all glanced at him sideways and didn't want to pay any attention to this brat.

Fortunately, things still need to be discussed, and the project still needs to be done. So Wang Jinghua took over the conversation, asking with a hint of reproach, "Daqi, you've been talking for so long, when do you think this movie should be filmed?"

"At least filming will be done after the Spring Festival. By then, I'll have finished my 'After the Flowers Bloom, the Hundred Flowers Kill' series and the 'Painted Skin' series. I'll send over the new scripts later. The third and final installment of 'After the Flowers Bloom, the Hundred Flowers Kill' is called 'Phantom Prison Break,' which tells the story of the mystery of the death of the Tianqi Emperor. The third and final installment of 'Painted Skin' is called 'The Mysterious Tang Dynasty Dream,' which is set against the backdrop of An Lushan's rebellion."

He Daqi had already come up with the script, but at the time he thought of making it like Chen Kaige's previous film, The Promise, with more special effects and two big productions, as a final installment to give back to the fans, with Lu Yang ending both.

Unexpectedly, 3D is so popular now. Ho Ta-kei followed the trend and immediately changed his plans. It was the same script, just a different shooting method. It wouldn't delay giving back to the fans. It would just take a few more months of post-production.

"Approximately how much were invested in these two films?" Wu Nannan asked, frowning slightly.

"Each one costs at least 200 million, well... that's not quite right. If they weren't filming at the same time, the second one would probably cost half as much as the first."

Liu Ying pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Let's try making one first. Let's use 'After the Flowers Bloom, the Hundred Flowers Kill 3' as the first one. I estimate that Lu Yang will finish the post-production of 'Infinite Challenge' after the Spring Festival, and he'll have time to prepare for this movie."

“Lu Yang still has a movie called ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’ to film,” He Daqi reminded him.

That is indeed a problem, but Liu Ying and the others don't care too much. It's just a youth film. If He Daqi hadn't been urging them, they could have just found any director. It's such a simple movie. If all else fails, they could have the hardworking Zhang Yimou put "The Flowers of War" aside and film it in a month. As for youth films, Zhang Yimou probably has more experience than Lu Yang.

(End of this chapter)