tearjerker director

The project "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was established quickly. Li Yi is not particularly clear about the box office of the original film.

However, he knew that the movie had a very good reputation.

In fact, this movie is indeed not that kind of commercial blockbuster. Even if the production cost is not low, the script itself is not the kind of movie that will use force to sensationalize, create conflict, and give people a sense of satisfaction.

In other words, the movie really isn't that entertaining.

In fact, the movie has a lot of plots, and it can be stepped up to make the plot more sensational. At the beginning, Li Yi was also thinking, would it be better to do this?
For example, the plot of Benjamin Button's adoptive mother's death can actually be quite sensational. No matter what the plot is, life, old age, illness, death, life and death are always the easiest to stir up the emotions of the audience.

But Li Yi soon shook his head, because overall, the style of the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is not like this.

Because although the story of Benjamin Button is his story, in fact, the movie shows his magnificent life. The key is this process, not his personal emotions at each stage of this life.

If you watch this movie carefully, you will find that although it tells the story of Benjamin, in fact, many times, some emotional things do not give people an unforgettable feeling. On the contrary, there is a sense that time is passing. Regardless of happiness, anger, sorrow, or joy, time still won’t stop.

Therefore, there is no need to be sensational, because this movie is not the kind of movie that is sensational for the sake of sensation.

He is happy, unhappy, joyful, joyful and sorrowful, etc. These are the nodes in his life, but these will become the past with the passage of time.

However, although this movie does not use many special effects, and there are not many scenes, there is one special effect, which was mentioned before, and that is, if this movie creates the effect of "rejuvenation".

Benjamin Button, a weirdo with "negative age growth", had gray hair and wrinkles when he was born. However, as the years passed, he became increasingly youthful and radiant.

Li Yi also found that what he thought before was too simple, but in fact, it was not simple at all.

Because, when Li Yi was writing the script and drawing the director's shots, as we all know, when the director was drawing the director's shots, he actually needed to have a composition and even a picture in his mind.

Although Li Yi had the original version as a reference, he was not that proficient in technology. He just felt that the special effects technology in the era when the movie "Rejuvenation" in his memory was born was not as advanced as his current era, so he took it for granted. I think that if I could do it back then, it should be easier now.

But the result was not like this.

After he learned about it, he discovered that the development of special effects technology does not mean that it is now higher than that of the past era in that world.

Why do you say that?

Because special effects involve all aspects, such as bullet time special effects, explosion special effects, apocalyptic flood special effects, etc., etc.

It can be said that special effects also involve a variety of aspects.

Researching special effects technology requires money, and it’s a huge cost.

Special effects technology does not come out of thin air, and is very different from other technology research and development.

Special effects usually serve the graphics of movies, games, etc.

For movies, special effects companies usually produce according to the requirements of Party A after receiving certain orders. During the production process, they will have a direction, such as using some old things and using old technologies. It can be solved, which naturally saves time and effort. However, some effects may be the first time such a request has appeared, so they will conduct research in this direction, how to achieve such effects, and how to satisfy Party A, and New technologies are usually involved here, so usually some new special effects may cost more, and may not necessarily mean the picture is more perfect, but may just be because the requirements are weirder.

For special effects companies, it is impossible to blindly develop new technologies, because if no one pays for them, then the technology may be worthless.

Going back to the movie "Return to Youth", how to turn the handsome and tall protagonist into a wizened old man has become the prerequisite for whether the film can conquer the audience!

Because of this matter, Li Yi came to North America in advance and met Mike King, the head of Jinta Special Effects Company.

"What I hope is that the elderly babies you see, or the Benjamin Button of elderly children, are all the same person." Li Yi stated his thoughts and requirements.

"This can be achieved but it is very difficult to achieve because of the different age groups and the unique reverse rejuvenation of your character. Therefore, it is almost impossible to shoot!" Mike King himself is a technical expert, so he thought about it He answered quickly.

"Can we let a young actor play the role first, then film the leading actor, and then use digital stunts to place his head on other actors?" Li Yi asked.

Mike King shook his head immediately and said: "This is impossible, because doing so can be said to be just the simplest face change. However, the biggest problem is that such a simple method will inevitably destroy the continuity of light and shadow and the integrity of the plot. What makes the audience believe that it is the same actor before and after is not only the appearance of the character, but also the posture when speaking, the tendons in the neck and chest that are pulled when smiling, and the pauses in breathing. They are all part of the character, perhaps more distinctive than the appearance.

Therefore, the method you mentioned is absolutely impossible to achieve the effect you want! "

"To give a simple example, Benjamin was originally a short old man. Simply making the adult actor shorter will not make the audience believe that he is the same person." Mike King added.

"So with your technical experience, how do you think we can achieve the effect I want?" Li Yi asked.

"I do have an idea. First, we will draw the appearance of the characters in three different stages of life, such as 60 years old, 70 years old, and 80 years old. Then, we will take pictures of the shoulders and heads of the different actors who play Benjamin. Next, after combination and adjustment, different appearances of the character's three life stages were designed. Then, these appearance designs were scanned and adjusted again, and they were seamlessly integrated with the actors' real-life performances.

The first thing we need to do is to collect various expressions of male actors, and then process this information into different 3D models to create thousands of character models.In this way, 3D stereoscopic technology and real-time images can be used to connect the performances of various actors together, so that the audience cannot tell that the actors have actually changed.The audience has the impression that every move and every subtle expression of the elderly Benjamin is performed by the actor himself.This technology is called "expression capture" technology. This technology is very mature. Of course, we have also used it in other previous projects. The only difference is that most of the time, other projects do not require real faces. So your request will be more difficult. "

“But I believe that by combining the captured expressions of the male protagonist with those of real actors, and adding CG modifications, a “real” Benjamin can be born!
The next problem is how to make the digital model move.We will use software tools to compare the similarities and differences between the actor's live performance and the images in the expression database frame by frame, thereby building a CG model and connecting it to the live performance.Of course this sounds easy, but it is very difficult and a lot of work.

When filming first, the lead actor must stand motionless in the center of the stage, and we will surround him in a semicircle with four cameras.At this time, there is no need for any makeup on his face, because the collection of expressions has been completed.

After completing this, the picture analysis and production are generally completed, and only fine-tuning is needed, such as raising eyebrows and blinking eyes, to match the real person with the image in the database.Our character director and his team specialize in this.Then, we need to adjust the timeline again.Because, if a certain muscle is usually pulled after raising an eyebrow, the misalignment of the timeline allows the audience to see this muscle twitching first, and then the character raising an eyebrow.Although they are not technical, they subconsciously feel that something is wrong. "

After listening to Mike King's words, Li Yi couldn't help but frown.

"So, most of the time Benjamin Button actually stars, he will use his "face" and special effects?" Li Yi asked.

"You can say that!" Mike King nodded.

"Of course, makeup is equally important. We need to know that the physical differences between different age groups are huge. If we want to show his age difference and physical differences at different time periods, we first need to make CG hairstyles. Benjamin The character's age spans as long as 35 years in the film, and he needs a considerable number of hairstyles to match his age and identity changes," Mike King added.

Lee Sparta.

Because this is completely different from what he imagined before.

His original thought was that with today's special effects technology, it should be easy to do it.

But according to what Mike King said, the workload of this special effects is definitely not lower than that of some blockbusters.

Thinking about it now, the cost of the original version was so high. Li Yi thought it was spent on the scenery before, but now that he thinks about it, he probably spent more on special effects.

After all, according to Mike, the actor Benjamin will basically only appear in full body in the last period of time, and most of the movie will be a combination of CG avatar and real body!

In other words, the time to produce CG will be very long.

This can be said to be the first time Li Yi felt, or discovered for the first time, that special effects are really more than just visual special effects.

But it’s quite interesting to think about it. To be honest, after knowing how the special effects were done, Li Yi was even more impressed, because before that, he couldn’t even tell which scenes of Benjamin Button were in the original version. It's special effects.

Now it seems that those special effects shots are really too realistic, so realistic that it is almost impossible for anyone to guess it unless you tell them.

However, even so, at most it is just a waste of time and money, as long as it can achieve the effect Li Yi wants.

Moreover, this special effect is not easy to show to Li Yi, because first the expression needs to be captured, a database created, and then synthesized.

These require a lot of time, effort and money.

However, once the special effects are done, the rest becomes much simpler.

Of course, this does not mean that there are special effects. When shooting, there is no need for people to act, and everything relies on CG and model synthesis.

In fact, when filming, people still need to act, but now it is really just to ensure that other actors act more naturally.

Li Yi still finds this rather special shooting method quite interesting, even though it is his first time to shoot such a movie.

Of course, in this case, many storyboards will have to be redone.

But this story is really interesting.

It is said that this story will make people think about what is more important in a person's life in an age of wealth and luxury?
It also includes that every time I watch it back, I can discover a new interpretation from a new perspective. I think this is the biggest secret of a movie, a story, and a classic that is deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Some people also say, "One of the happiest moments in life is when you are a parent and hold your newborn baby."

Watching the baby with pink and plump skin grow up little by little, it feels like I have regained my youth, and I feel an indescribable sense of joy.

This is because what we see in the process of caring for our children is hope, so we are motivated.

But if things go against expectations, your newborn child will have degenerated joints, pale complexion, wrinkled skin, sparse hair, and be out of breath, as if his heart is at risk of stopping at every moment...

What can you see in him?You can see the smell of death.

Some people say that Benjamin here not only represents a child born with a weak constitution, but also reflects the support problem of the elderly.

Because to a certain extent, the lives of the elderly and children are as fragile and need care. Even if we only see death coming in the person being cared for, we cannot give up love. Love is hope.

But often people's attitudes towards children and the elderly are completely different.

Of course, look deeper, because children represent the starting point of life, while the elderly represent the life that is about to end.

In the eyes of children, growing up is a natural thing, so they do not know how to appreciate maturity; in the eyes of old people, aging is expected, so they envy youth extremely.When a person reaches middle age, it is not an age full of crises, it is an age when everything is just right.

What about Li Yi himself?
He had no opinion, because the interesting thing about this story is that it allows different people to have different opinions.

For a movie like "Return to Youth", it is necessary to make a plain story so that different people have different emotional resonance points. It has to be said that it does require a lot of hard work. Fortunately, Li Yi has the original version as a reference, but it is not Need to go too hard.