China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

In April 1998, three major events occurred in the Chinese entertainment industry. First, "Titanic" was released in mainland China on April 3, triggering an even more enthusiastic movie-watching frenzy, far exceeding that of "The Matrix" .

After all, what resonates most with young girls is undying love.

Unfortunately, this love story was performed at a cost of up to 200 million US dollars.

It is really easy for a movie with both stunning visual effects and touching love to earn tears and box office.

However, when it was first released in North America, people were not optimistic about it. Even Fox, one of the producers, openly shouted that the box office prospects would be "a disaster no less than the sinking of the Titanic itself."

When "Titanic" premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival, the media gloated and described it as "a deserted scene and a deserted scene."

When the film was released on December 19, although the New York Times called it "the only masterpiece in years comparable to [Gone with the Wind]", most publications, including the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, The media didn’t buy it, and they all said the same thing: Is this movie really worth 200 million?

What's worse is that the film's box office in its first week was 27.6 million, which was an outrageously low result compared to the production cost.

Fox executives were probably wondering which way to die would be more dignified, jumping from a building or being shot.

Then, they waited for a miracle.

In the second week, it was more than 60 million, and in the third week, it was more than 70 million. The film has been released in North America for 281 days, setting a record for the most days of release in North America.

And its box office results are even more astonishing: 659 million in North America and 1.8 billion US dollars globally, making it the envy of filmmakers around the world.

As for "The Matrix" filmed by Jiang Heng, it currently only has more than 300 million US dollars. I am afraid it will be difficult to reach the global box office result of the original work of 460 million US dollars.

After all, there are no European and American actors, and the global distribution is far inferior to Hua Na Company. It is normal for the box office to be smaller.

But for the Chinese entertainment industry, a film's global box office of more than 300 million U.S. dollars, converted into RMB, is more than 2 billion, which is almost twice the total annual box office of the mainland film market, which is also quite shocking.

And for such a director to make a new film, it is definitely the biggest news of the year.

Beijing, Beijing Film Studio.

Major entertainment media across the country gathered to attend the press conference of Jiang Heng's new film "One Hundred Million Years Before History".

As for the film's title, people from Beijing Film Studio wanted to capitalize on the popularity of "Jurassic Park" and suggested calling it "Jurassic Dream", but Jiang Heng rejected it directly.

Dreaming back?

Why, at the end of the film, the male protagonist wakes up in the mental hospital and discovers that the female protagonist is the nurse who coaxes him to take medicine every day, and the Tyrannosaurus Rex is the nurse who bullies him!

According to this idea, the reputation can drop to 2 or 3 points.

After all, he is considered an internationally famous director, so I can’t afford to disgrace that person!

"One Hundred Million Years Before History" is naturally based on the 2008 science fiction film "Ten Thousand Years Before History" by Huana Company, which can give the audience a rough idea of ​​what the movie is about.

Anyway, it hasn't been released yet, and there were many name changes before it was released. For example, "Titanic" was changed several times before it was released, and it was finally called this.

To his surprise, a lot of media were looking forward to this name.

"Hello, Director Jiang Heng, I am a reporter from the movie channel. Looking at the title of your movie "One Hundred Million Years Before History", it should be from the Jurassic period, right? Is this a movie about dinosaurs?"

Jiang Heng smiled and said: "Yes, the Jurassic period was about 199.6 million to 145.5 million years ago. The rulers of the earth during that period were the dinosaurs that later became extinct."

"Wow!"

The reporters exclaimed and couldn't believe that the Chinese film market could produce high-quality films about Jurassic dinosaurs.

"Hello Director Jiang, I am a reporter from the "Film Works" magazine. I would like to ask what the budget of this film is. If the investment is small, it will be difficult to shoot a perfect Jurassic scene!"

Jiang Heng glanced at Han Sanping beside him and said with a smile: "Director Han, you are also their old leader. Are you going to answer this question?"

Han Sanping once served as the deputy director of Emei Film Studio. The director of Emei Film Studio sponsored a magazine, "Film Works".

However, in 1998, this magazine was still very niche. In 1999, it merged with other companies and was renamed "Watching Movies", gradually becoming the most distributed and influential film journal in China.

But at this moment, the magazine is still very weak and has to be taken care of by Director Han.

Han Sanping stretched out a finger and said domineeringly: "Beijing Film Studio and Youteng Pictures jointly invested 100 million yuan in this film, just to create the best monster genre film in China..."

Han Sanping was so impassioned that he thought Beijing Film Studio was the main investor in the film without knowing the truth.

Afterwards, Wu Yanzu and Li Meiqi came on stage and immediately murdered a bunch of films.

The reporters also kept asking questions and were unwilling to let these two people leave.

After that, there are Hong Jinbao and Yuande, who are also very popular.

When Uncle Ge appeared, he made a lot of witty remarks and caused bursts of laughter.

As for Wu Jing, because he was not well-known at this meeting, he came out with Yuan Hua and Hong Tianming, and almost no reporters asked about him.

Jiang Heng originally wanted to invite Xiao Yanzi and Jin Suo to participate in the show. After all, "Huanzhugege" had a huge viewership after it started airing on Baodao at the end of April. By the end of the year, when it was broadcast in mainland China, it became famous all over the country overnight.

However, considering what the two of them did later, they gave up the idea.

After the opening ceremony, the entire crew drove to the border town of Jiayin to prepare for the filming of modern archaeological and gunfight scenes.

The mercenary team sent by the international antique dealers invited a group of foreign extras, focusing on saving money and low pay.

The arrival of the crew caused a huge sensation in this border town.

Jiang Heng was not good at dealing with local people, and the people from the Beijing Film Studio came forward to coordinate and solve the problem.

The next day, the film officially started shooting. Jiang Heng first ordered people to find a suitable "fossil pit" location in the nearby mountains and forests and arrange the relevant props.

He led a group of cast and crew to finish the scenes of the characters in the county town first.

This kind of daily scene is not difficult for people with certain acting experience. It took less than a week to finish shooting.

However, the excavation of the "fossil pit" and the battle in the mountains and forests were somewhat difficult to shoot.

Fortunately, the crew had two action directors, Hong Jinbao and Yuan De, and they were all completed without any danger.

The real difficulty is that they need to go back to the digital studio being built at the Beijing Film Studio Film and Television Base to shoot their performances in front of a green screen.

This is quite difficult for actors who have never had this kind of shooting experience.

Taking this into consideration, Jiang Heng ordered the props team to make some realistic dinosaur models in advance, and shoot them in combination with CG special effects to show the fantasy world of 100 million years before history.