Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 564, Section 562: Internal Screening

The day after the closing ceremony, Wang Sheng, along with his entourage, boarded a private plane and left the ancient city on the Aegean coast, crossing Eurasia and returning to Beijing, where it was late summer and early autumn.

The day after returning to the capital, Wang Sheng went to Shenyang to work on a rough cut of "Havoc in Heaven".

This truly original blockbuster, which embodies his years of planning, technological accumulation, and market ambitions, is a tough battle in which he attempts to break free from his reliance on being a "prophet" and truly rely on his current industrial strength to challenge the ceiling of Eastern mythological epics.

Although he has already proven himself in the field of fantasy special effects with "Night at the Museum", the cultural weight, technical difficulty and artistic ambition of "Havoc in Heaven" are far beyond the former.

The internal screening was arranged at a flagship cinema in Haidian District that belongs to the "China Film Shengshi" cinema chain.

This cinema is equipped with the most advanced giant screen projection system and Dolby surround sound system in China, which is sufficient to present the initial audiovisual effects of the film.

At 2 p.m., the lights slowly dimmed in the largest IMAX theater in the cinema.

Wang Sheng sat in the best viewing spot in the center of the cinema, next to Han Sanping, who had come especially for the occasion.

At this moment, the two leaders of China's film industry are more like the most demanding audience and the most anxious partners.

In addition, only director Xu Ke, executive producer, and a few key post-production supervisors were present, creating a solemn and focused atmosphere.

The giant screen lit up, and after the dragon logo appeared, the opening sequences of Shengying Media and China Film Group flashed in turn.

Then, the scene plunges into a chaotic, undeveloped darkness, with deep, ancient drumbeats and mysterious Eastern wind instruments slowly rising, as if from the very beginning of time.

The film does not begin by directly depicting the earth-shattering birth, but rather uses a two-minute long take to slowly reveal the entirety of the "Heavenly Court".

This is not an abstract set design on a traditional opera stage, but a grand spectacle built on the basis of Chinese classical mythology and the art style of Dunhuang murals, combining large-scale physical miniature models with digital painting technology.

Amidst the swirling clouds and mist, pavilions, towers, and magnificent palaces appear and disappear, their architectural style blending the grandeur of the Han and Tang dynasties with the exquisite beauty of the Song and Ming dynasties, and is extremely rich in detail.

This is a miniature model of the core scene built by art director Huo Tingxiao's team over nearly a year, after referencing a large amount of ancient building materials, in the "Jackie Chan Happy Garden" film studio in Huairou.

Precise frame-by-frame shooting is achieved using motion control cameras, which are then seamlessly composited with dynamic digital backgrounds drawn and rendered by hundreds of digital artists.

"This South Heavenly Gate...it's impressive." Han Sanping nodded slightly and whispered to Wang Sheng.

He had seen artifacts brought to life in "Night at the Museum," but that style, which leaned more towards fantasy and comedy, was completely different from the solemn and majestic celestial scroll before him, full of Eastern divine majesty.

This grand narrative visual construction was an unprecedented attempt in domestic films at the time.

As the story progresses, the spirit stone shatters, and Sun Wukong is born.

The essence of Liu Xiao Ling Tong's portrayal of Sun Wukong lies in the trinity of "monkey form, human nature, and divinity".

In order to preserve the classic stylized performance of traditional Chinese opera while giving the characters a stronger visual expressiveness, the team adopted a number of cutting-edge technologies.

The film extensively utilizes motion capture technology based on optical markers to depict Sun Wukong's bewildered leaps at birth, his throngs of monkeys surrounding him when he became king of Flower Fruit Mountain, and his later battles showcasing his extraordinary abilities.

Professional gymnasts and martial arts athletes were hired to collect basic movements. Then, animators used Liu Xiao Ling Tong's performance as a blueprint to carry out meticulous secondary creation and integration, ensuring that every leap and turn, scratching and scratching of the CG Sun Wukong not only conforms to biomechanics but also contains the soul of "Zhang's Monkey Play".

Especially in the scene "Borrowing Treasure from the Dragon Palace", the underwater battle between Sun Wukong and the shrimp soldiers and crab generals was completely completed in a "water tank" soundstage built with blue screen.

The actors simulated fighting in a weightless state with the help of wires. In post-production, underwater environments such as water flow, bubbles, and coral reefs were added using CG technology, and CG aquatic creatures were created frame by frame.

Although it still lagged behind later pure fluid simulation technology, in 2004, this combination of live-action and CG was already top-notch in China, aiming to create a realistic yet imaginative underwater dragon palace spectacle. "Havoc in Heaven," as the climax of the film, featured extremely complex scene staging.

Faced with the grand spectacle of 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals, the film did not adopt a pure human wave tactic of live-action shooting—that would have been an almost impossible task in terms of cost and scheduling—but instead introduced the basic principles of Massive software, which had already shone brightly in "The Lord of the Rings," and the Sheng Ying technical team independently developed a simplified version of the CG group animation system.

By setting simple behavior patterns (such as charging, surrounding, and scattering) for different types of soldiers (celestial soldiers, strongmen, giants, etc.), the system can automatically generate tens of thousands of digital celestial soldiers to interact with foreground characters played by live actors.

At the same time, it is combined with a particle effects system to represent the flames of spell clashes, the air currents of rising clouds, the sparks of clashing weapons, and the flying debris and dust when the South Heavenly Gate collapses.

Wang Sheng observed it with particular care.

He noted that in some wide shots, there was room for improvement in the individual details and movement diversity of digital soldiers, and the physical feedback of particle effects was somewhat formulaic.

However, this solution, which is based on existing technology, has successfully created the oppressive feeling of war, like "dark clouds pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it," and the magnificent momentum of a mythological epic, far surpassing the simplistic feel of previous domestic mythological dramas.

In addition to its cutting-edge special effects technology, the film also put a lot of effort into color management and lighting rendering.

Xu Ke and Wang Sheng jointly established a core principle: color must serve the narrative and emotion.

The bright and beautiful Huaguo Mountain, the cold and glorious Heavenly Court, the scorching heat in the alchemy furnace, the gloomy despair when suppressed under the Five Finger Mountain... each main color scheme has been strictly designed.

The post-production colorist used the state-of-the-art DaVinci color grading system to meticulously process each frame, striving to restore the charm of traditional Chinese landscape painting, including its green and blue hues, gold and green landscapes, and ink wash aesthetics, in the digital age.

After nearly three hours of rough cut screening, the end credits slowly rolled, and the lights in the theater came on.

There was a brief silence.

Xu Ke looked at Wang Sheng and Han Sanping with some nervousness.

This work consumed a great deal of his energy and was the most technically challenging project of his directing career.

Han Sanping let out a long sigh of relief and spoke first, his voice filled with barely concealed excitement: "Great! Excellent! This is the spirit that Chinese films should have! From 'Night at the Museum' to this 'Havoc in Heaven,' Wang Sheng, you've led us to truly grasp the threshold of the blockbuster industry!"

He turned to Xu Ke: "Director Xu, you deserve all the credit! This Sun Wukong, this Heavenly Court, this great battle... it was so exciting! Minor technical shortcomings are minor, but they don't detract from the overall brilliance! The overall effect is stunning!"

Wang Sheng nodded in satisfaction.

He stood up, walked over to Xu Ke, and shook his hand firmly: "Director Xu, thank you for your hard work. Your foundation is excellent, exceeding expectations."

Wang Sheng then walked to the screen, turned around and said to the core team present: "With the technology, talent and system we have accumulated over the past few years, we can create a visual spectacle that is no less than Hollywood's. 'Havoc in Heaven' is a concentrated showcase of the current strength of China's film industry."

He then changed the subject, saying, "Of course, the rough cut also exposed some problems. The texture of the CG characters' hair could be more refined in close-up shots; the particle layers of some spell effects could be richer; the material reflections of the celestial buildings look slightly 'plastic' under certain lighting conditions... These are all details that we need to work on in the later retouching stage."

Wang Sheng's gaze swept over everyone: "What we want to do is not just make a blockbuster movie. We want to make 'Havoc in Heaven' a touchstone to test the resilience of our industrial chain, the limits of our technical team, and, more importantly, the market's acceptance of a top-notch visual feast that truly belongs to our Eastern culture and is created by ourselves."

"There's still time before the scheduled release," Wang Sheng concluded. "I hope everyone will continue their efforts and do their best in post-production. We want everyone to see that 'Made in China' films can not only tell stories, but also create miracles."

This film is going to be the opening film of the first China-US International Film Festival, so it definitely can't be a disappointment.

Xu Ke immediately took the lead, expressing his determination to continue working against the clock to achieve the most perfect state supported by the current level of technology.

(End of this chapter)