The Director's Road of Airflow

Before the official launch on September 9, Lu Ming has been busy with the same thing: looking for a screenwriter.

It is very difficult to find a satisfactory screenwriter to make a movie. It must not only have a strong professional level, but also agree with the director's concept. This is a small probability event.

This task was even more daunting when filming "Mother Planet".

Because it is a matter of luck to find a film and television screenwriter who can adapt science fiction.

The domestic film industry has achieved rapid development in the past few years, and various types of films have accumulated relevant reserve talents, but this does not include science fiction films.

Not to mention the screenwriters of sci-fi movies, even the authors of sci-fi novels, there are only a small group of people in China, and the popularity of foreign sci-fi IP may be greater than that in China.

If Hollywood superhero movies are also included in the discussion of science fiction works, then science fiction IP has a large audience in China, but in fact hard science fiction in the strict sense is still a niche hobby.

Lu Ming chatted with several screenwriters recommended by the company and introduced by others, including many well-known screenwriters in the industry, but he couldn't find a satisfactory one.

Among them, a middle-aged screenwriter who is quite prestigious in the industry, when talking about the main story line with Lu Ming, mentioned that the plot about the outer space scenes in the movie should be greatly deleted, and the "modern man" and The conceptual conflict of "future man" is portrayed as a key point, which reveals an important proposition about human nature.

Lu Ming accompanied him from the old village of Confucius and Mencius to the Ehu meeting between Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan. When he was about to stimulate his words and comment on whether ancient Chinese philosophical thoughts were considered philosophy in the strict sense, Lu Ming called Cut him off, and slipped away first on the pretext of having something to do.

After escaping from the closed meeting room with turbid air and standing under the sun, Lu Ming felt a bit of refreshment.

Human shortcomings and emotional entanglements are not the real selling points of science fiction films at all.

Why do people look up at the starry sky, staring at a star hundreds of millions of light-years away, is it to explore themselves?Isn't it just putting yourself under a grand proposition about the universe, and then forget where you are, forget your current troubles, and be moved by an eternal, unchanging, quiet and great power?

Lu Ming dare not say that all sci-fi fans are like this. Anyway, he likes sci-fi works because they logically deduce a possibility about the future and the universe, allowing him to imagine an extremely vast, limitless, In the ever-expanding space, realizing the insignificance of oneself as a person, thinking that the entanglement of oneself is just a momentary emotion, which is nothing compared to the vast and mysterious universe.

What are the advantages of science fiction films over science fiction novels?Isn't it just to make use of the current level of technology as much as possible and use the infinite imagination to make some extremely advanced equipment and concepts visualized?

Delete the most soulful content of a sci-fi film and leave an inactive emotional line. What kind of sci-fi movie is this?

Lu Ming was so helpless that he had no choice but to take up the post by himself again and make another movie he wrote and directed.

What is before him now is a very practical question: What should we do at the end of the movie?

Luo Xingguo's "I Come From a Painting Hundred Years Ago" is a series of works, and only the first one has been published now.

Lu Ming and Professor Luo communicated to see if it is possible to release the content at the beginning of the second part in the movie, so that the story of the movie can be more complete, and it will not give people the feeling of ending abruptly and talking halfway. The movie experience is really unpleasant.

It's a pity that Professor Luo Xingguo is also a coo, he also let the editor dove, he said to Lu Ming: It's not that I don't want to tell you the content of the second part, it's just that I didn't think about it myself.

This is very embarrassing.

After Lu Ming repeatedly confirmed that Professor Luo was willing to authorize him to adapt the last part of the novel as the end of the movie, he began to create boldly.

It is said to be a bold creation, but in fact it is still dancing in shackles. Every time Lu Ming thinks of a possibility, he quickly denies himself.

"This ending is really stupid. If it is put on the big screen like this, it will definitely be called a dog's tail."

Netizens are also very concerned about this issue:

[Can I see the content of the second part in the movie first?That's great. I don't know when I'll see the second part when the author writes it. When the first part was published, I was about to take the college entrance examination. Now that I've graduated from university, the second part hasn't been released yet. 】

[Thinking too much upstairs, I heard that Uncle Luo seems to have authorized Lu Ming to rewrite the ending of the first part.I'm panicking right now, I don't know what Lu Ming will write.I was very afraid that the ending of Lu Ming's version would give me a preconceived impression, and I would have been dismissed before the second part was published. 】

[Mua, I have a hunch that Lu Ming will add an emotional ending to the movie, which is in line with his usual movie style in the past. He pursues some beautiful but useless things, whether the audience can understand them or not, anyway, his own aesthetic experience got satisfied. 】

There are also some people who are creating their own endings, and their whimsy has also sparked various discussions.

Lu Ming didn't dare to go online anymore. He was afraid that the ending he came up with would conflict with netizens, so he didn't dare to write it.

Finally, still in a quiet evening, Lu Ming sat alone at the desk in the study, marked the last period with a black pen, and completed the final version of the movie ending. After copying Luo Xingguo for review, the final decision was made.

When Lu Ming made up his mind, "This is it", he was quite courageous, and then he began to waver. Fortunately, the film officially started a week later, and the ensuing problems occupied Lu Ming's entire time, making him There is no time to worry about whether the ending I set will make the whole story collapse, and it will look like a cold joke.

The end of Lu Ming's design is:

The human interstellar fleet confronted the shape fleet head-on, successfully defeated the enemy and captured prisoners of war.

The appearance of the aliens on the alien spaceship is unexpected and seems to be the case. They are like mutants, carbon-based creatures whose skin color, body shape, and facial features are not the same as humans, but they are more human-like than previously imagined. .

After the genetic identification, a temporarily blocked result was obtained: the alien genes are as high as 99.7% similar to ordinary human genes, and it was found that 2%-3% of the genes of these aliens were Neanderthals Genetic component contribution.

In the last scene of the movie, news from all over the world is broadcasting the news of the human fleet's overall victory. The human scientists of the International Joint Research Institute look solemnly at the news broadcasts from all over the world and the people who have already started to play tricks on this interstellar war.

Seeing this, the audience will understand why this movie is called "Mother Star".Each viewer may interpret this plot differently.

Lu Ming's own idea is: the "ancient humans" who exhausted the earth's resources hundreds of millions of years ago left their home planets and started the era of interstellar colonization. In the hundreds of millions of years, the civilization relics left by the "ancient humans" disappeared without a trace. He thought he was the first generation of advanced intelligent life forms that appeared on this planet.However, the ancient human beings who left their home planet hundreds of millions of years ago and wandered among the stars finally solved the problem of resource depletion and embarked on the way home. The small troops who experienced wear and tear on the way had no idea that "there may be new humans on the earth." Ready to be annihilated by the most elite troops of the fully armed new humans on Earth.

During the filming process, Lu Ming has been worrying about whether this will appear too pseudo-scientific. After all, this is very similar to the urban legend that "the pyramids were built by aliens coming to the earth".But when you open the bow, there is no turning back.

No regrets, as for the audience's comments, this is not something that Lu Ming, who has not finished filming, can guess.

One of the major challenges faced in the later stage of filming is how to express the various avant-garde mechanical equipment in the novel.

Some scenes can be completed in green screen, and the special effects will be produced later, while for other scenes, it is necessary to determine the shape of the battle mech driven by the protagonist before shooting, which is related to the design of action performances.

Talents in film and television art design are rare, and those who can guide the creation of science fiction films are even rarer. Many film and television art design practitioners have a background in art. This seems natural and no problem at all. When most film productions are completed , and it is true, but science fiction movies are an exception.

For some avant-garde machines that appear in science fiction, it needs to emphasize the sense of industrial design, consider product materials, structures, and surface processing, and perform relevant calculations to determine whether it is theoretically feasible. A machine that violates the basic laws of physics appears in science fiction films. In this case, it will greatly weaken the sense of substitution of the movie and the shocking experience of future imagination.

Lu Ming finally found a research team of Tongji Industrial Design, and cooperated with several social personnel with experience in vehicle engineering and product design, and finally finalized the design plan for the important mechanical devices that appeared in the movie.

The post-production cycle of sci-fi movies is very long. Lu Ming found a leading domestic studio and a Hollywood team to participate in the post-production. The whole team rushed to catch up. It still took 301 days to finally complete the film, catching up with 2028 National Day movie files.

In the process of film production, people who claim to be in the industry come out from time to time to reveal some gossip, most of which are based on bad news.

Lu Ming doesn't need to guess, he knows that it's his peers who dismantled the film. Their company invested a lot in the early stage of this movie. The box office of "Mother Star" largely determines whether Haoyue Films' final financial statements in 2028 are good or not, and affects Haoyue Films. share price.

In the process of waiting, there are often marketing accounts and mysterious industry saying some obscure and vague words on various platforms, such as "the possibility of the second "Space Walk" is not ruled out, but the post-production effect of the sci-fi film has not been seen. , can’t make a conclusion”, “It’s best for fans of the original work to lower their expectations, and listen to reviewers who have watched the original film say that the plot has changed.”

After Lu Ming read the news, he was really angry and funny. The samples hadn't been sent out yet, so where did the review industry break the news?

However, Lu Ming himself was not sure how the movie would turn out in the end, and he didn't dare to speak out directly.

When the movie was just finished shooting, Lu Ming was full of confidence. He felt that "Mother Star" won the annual crown without any problem. It was all right. The final ending directly gave people goosebumps. Can this plot be convincing and filmed? Technique, scene scheduling, atmosphere setting, and special effects have a lot to do with each other. Lu Ming feels that he has done everything well, and he has buried all the foreshadowings that should be buried. The audience should feel their scalps go numb after seeing it, and they are completely shocked. up.

After the post-production was completed and the samples were submitted for review, Lu Ming began to worry again. As the movie was about to be released, he was a little bit lost in thought.

Although Sun Sifan and Qiao Siyu were his trusted friends, he didn't dare to take the risk of revealing the plot to them. What if?Then it is not clear.If such a big investment in a movie happens unexpectedly, it will hurt feelings too much.

Even the leading actors of the movie didn’t know the complete plot line, and the ending script they got was fragmented. Everyone filmed their part and performed according to Lu Ming’s request. What's up with the ending.

Lu Ming became more and more nervous, and he could only bear this nervousness by himself. From the very beginning, he expected the movie to be released soon, and finally, after the movie was confirmed to be released on September 9, he felt a little close to his hometown, and he didn't dare to think about the audience's evaluation. .

Before the movie was released, Lu Ming celebrated his 28th birthday. His wish was: at least not to be scolded as a bad movie, at least not to lose money.

The night before the film's release, someone from the Douban team started a post to suppress the box office again.

Someone opened a post and said bluntly, "If the box office of "Mother Star" exceeds 30 billion, I will copy the IDs of everyone in the building."

Some people also sip poisonous milk, "I think the box office of "Mother Planet" easily exceeds 50 billion. After all, the traffic director has a high cost and big production. Didn't he always say that Lu Ming has a lot of people? Then I would like to draw 50 yuan to support it. Director Lu Isn't it easy to break 50 billion at the box office?"

It seems that they are full of confidence in "Mother Planet", but in fact they are positively criticizing and secretly criticizing. They hope that after "Mother Planet" hits the box office, netizens will turn up this post and mock Lu Ming.