Chapter 111 Summer Season

"I thought the crew would take a break today, but you're here?"

From the crew of the sequel to "The Matrix", the bald Yuan De said with a smile.

He started working with Jiang Heng since "The Matrix 1" five years ago. It can be said that he has contributed to every work of Jiang Heng.

Even though there were several films where Sammo Hung served as the action director, Yuan De was still busy with the work.

Therefore, the two of them have a good relationship in private and occasionally joke with each other.

Jiang Heng said seriously, "The daily shooting schedule is set, so we must come!"

Yuan De laughed softly, "I thought that from now on, the king would not hold court early in the morning!"

"Don't talk nonsense, she and I are innocent!"

Yuan De smiled and nodded, "Yes, I believe it. In our business, even if we are blocked by reporters at the door, we can still say that we are just ordinary friends who study the script all night long!"

Jiang Heng didn't say anything, just glared at Yuan De.

The latter quickly stopped smiling and left with an excuse.

As for the other people in the crew, they didn't dare to say much and all filming went on as usual.

Monica has stunning looks, a great figure, and outstanding acting skills. The filming, which was originally scheduled for a week, was completed in just three days.

But he was not in a hurry to leave, but instead traveled around the capital.

Jiang Heng finally gave the crew half a day off, accompanied this Italian national treasure-level beauty to visit the Forbidden City, and sent her to the plane at night.

After that, the filming continued and soon it was the scene where the male protagonist fought against the "anti-virus software" Smith.

Neo's fight with a hundred upgraded Agent Smiths is one of the two highlights in "The Matrix 2", and its classic status is unquestionable.

The scene in Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" where the Axe Gang brothers were beaten into the sky is a tribute to this scene.

When filming the original work, the Wojcicki brothers took into account that if they used "bullet time photography" to deal with so many characters, it would consume a huge amount of manpower and material resources. In the end, they decided to abandon the use of "bullet time photography" and used comprehensive "virtual shooting" technology for the first time in film history.

To this end, the stand-ins underwent several months of training, mainly imitating Hugo Weaving's every word and action, including his various expressions and movement habits.

When the stunt doubles' imitation of Hugo reached a level that satisfied the director, the action guidance team and the male lead joined in and began rehearsing the action scenes, using "motion capture" technology to input all the movements that Neo and the one hundred "Smiths" should perform into the computer, ultimately creating the famous special effects scenes of "The Matrix 2".

Of course, Jiang Heng has a "super microscopic computer", so it wouldn't be that difficult to take pictures.

He simply found a hundred stuntmen with a similar body shape to Yuande in advance and trained them to imitate Yuande's movements and habits.

As for facial expressions, you only need to determine the number of "agents" who will show their faces, and then perform the "face-changing" operation for each "agent" who shows his face.

By performing "motion capture" on Yuan De's facial expressions and then inputting them into the computer and combining them with the corresponding "agent", the corresponding footage can be obtained.

The filming of this scene was quite tedious, but the final effect is amazing.

In the blink of an eye, it is already June. The filming of the sequel to "The Matrix" has been more than half completed, and the post-production of "Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother" has also been completed.

After successfully passing the review, it entered the pre-screening promotion stage.

The film's release date is set for July 7, and all primary, secondary and university students across the country are on holiday, so it will definitely contribute to the box office.

As for promotion, Jiang Heng doesn't have that much time, and he can't lead a team to several major box office cities in the country for preview screenings and promotions like he did before.

In this situation, Han Sanping naturally had to take up the banner of publicity. He said to Jiang Heng: "Don't worry about the publicity. It's all routine. I'll arrange for my subordinates to do it. It's just the premiere. It's OK if you can come!"

Jiang Heng smiled, "Of course I have to come. If I don't come, the media will spread rumors!"

Han Sanping thought so too. "Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother" was a work directed and acted by Jiang Heng. If he didn't come, it would mean that both the male lead and the director would be absent!

"Fortunately, this play has many guest appearances by celebrities. We can draw up a list later. We only need to find more than ten celebrities to help promote it!"

In his opinion, the five largest box office cities in China must hold preview screenings for promotion. As long as two stars are present in each city, the event can be held.

It was a pity that the female lead Tang Yan was not well-known, otherwise she could lead the team to visit more cities, and the effect would be better. After the discussion, Jiang Heng called these guest stars and finally found more than 20 celebrity friends who were willing to participate in the preview promotion.

The film premiere is scheduled for the afternoon of June 6 at the Workers' Stadium in the capital.

Beijing, Xinhua Noodle Company, Zhang Weiping looked at the invitation in his hand in confusion, his mind a little confused.

"When Director Jiang guest-starred in Hero, he hadn't even finished writing the script for his new film! His new film is about to be released, but we're still doing post-production? How can there be such a big time difference?"

Zhang Yimou on the opposite side was also a little puzzled, and even wondered several times why Jiang Heng's filming progress was so fast and his post-production was also so fast.

Why is it that when it comes to me, I always have to start all over again?

After thinking for a while, he said, "Maybe he is the kind of person who is blessed by God. He is confident in everything he shoots!"

"Maybe!"

Zhang Weiping scratched his hair, looking a little annoyed.

This year's summer schedule was occupied by Jiang Heng, so it's okay that "Hero" was not completed in the post-production stage.

But I heard that "The Matrix 2" will be released during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is quite worrying.

It goes without saying that "The Matrix 2" will be a box office hit, and may even surpass "Pacific Rim".

Although "Hero" is also considered a big production, it does not dare to compete with "The Matrix 2" in the same period.

But apart from the summer vacation and the New Year's Day, there are no other good schedules. We can't rush to release it on National Day!
"What do you think about the schedule?"

"We need to increase the time interval by at least half a month, otherwise it will definitely affect the box office!"

Zhang Weiping nodded, agreeing with Zhang Yimou's words.

"That's all I can do. I hope I get a good result!"

In the blink of an eye, it was June 6th, and there was a long queue in front of the Workers' Stadium in Beijing, almost all of which were young faces.

The nearby streets were jammed with traffic and many police officers came to maintain traffic order.

Tang Yan came here accompanied by his parents. It was the first time he saw this scene and he was really surprised.

"A lot of people?"

"Yeah, I never thought that so many people would come for a premiere promotion!" Tang's mother exclaimed.

Because there was a red carpet, after entering the stadium, Tang Yan walked separately from his parents.

It was her first time walking on the red carpet in a dress, her first time signing on a huge poster board, and then she was stopped by the beautiful host Tu Jingwei from the movie channel.

"Hello Tangtang, can you tell me how you feel right now?"

“Very happy and very excited!”

“So what do you want to say to the audience?”

"Splitting the Mountain to Save Mother" is a very good film, I hope everyone will support it!"

"Have you seen it?"

Tang Yan smiled sweetly and nodded.

Tu Jingwei looked curious, "Can you tell me what the effect is?"

"Well, I think shocking is more appropriate, because many of the fighting scenes are better than those in Lion Camel Ridge!"

"Wow!"

Tu Jingwei said exaggeratedly, "To surpass Lion Camel Ridge is really amazing, you know? Lion Camel Ridge is the best mythological movie in my heart!"

(End of this chapter)