"It's really good."
Nanaya took off his 3D glasses and said to Cameron beside him: "This should be the most shocking video clip in the world, right?"
"Nanaya, are you bragging about yourself or are you talking about my movie?"
Although his tone was full of sarcasm, Cameron had a confident smile on his face.
Today is the second day of returning to New Zealand after a seven-night trip from the United States.
After checking the production progress of "Madoka Magica" during his absence, Nanaya went to the special screening room of Weta Workshop with Cameron.
During the time when Nanaya was away, both crews completed some 3D samples.
Nanaya and Cameron came specifically to check the samples.
There are not many completed samples of the two films, only about 30 minutes in total.
This is not because the crew was lazy, but because this part of the sample film was specifically used for testing.
The 3D special effects of other clips will be completed at the end.
Although the movie-watching time was not long, Nanaya had a very good viewing experience, which could even be said to be the best one since his rebirth.
Of course, compared to "Avatar", which he had already watched several times, "Madoka Magica" shot by Nanaya himself made him more excited.
"James." Nanaya played with the 3D glasses in his hand and said, "The closer we get to the completion of the movie, the more I feel that our original decision was correct."
James Cameron nodded in agreement and said, "I have said it countless times, we will change the world."
"Your Madoka Magica and my Avatar will be miracles in the history of film."
Nanaya rolled his eyes and said, "Speaking of miracles, James, it's even more of a miracle that you got the money from Fox to make a movie, right?"
"Humph, those money-hungry guys." Cameron immediately expressed his displeasure. "They actually rejected the original 'Aliens of the Deep'!"
Although Cameron and Fox have always cooperated, their relationship is far less harmonious than the outside world imagines.
Between "Titanic" and "Avatar", Cameron actually released two more works as a director.
One is the TV series Dark Angel, but Trucker only directed a few episodes.
The other is the documentary film "Deep Sea Alien".
This movie can be seen as an experimental film of "Avatar".
Many special effects and 3D technologies were perfected through this movie and then applied to "Avatar".
It's a pity that this movie is a science and education documentary and has no commercial future.
With no prospect of profitability in sight, Fox simply refused to release the film.
In the end, Cameron used his connections to find Disney, which allowed the film to be released to the world.
But Cameron and Fox have a direct feud.
So when filming "Avatar", Cameron's attitude towards Fox was just like ordering people around like a servant.
It was to retaliate against Fox's previous greed for money.
It can be seen that the conflict between Cameron and Fox is indeed serious.
In fact, it cannot be said that way. Cameron and Fox have always been in a love-hate relationship.
Fox hated Cameron's lavish spending style; and Cameron was also very dissatisfied with Fox's greed for money.
In the original history, the two sides would have maintained a situation of mutual dislike and would have continued to cooperate with each other with difficulty.
It wasn't until Fox was acquired by Disney that "Avatar" became Disney's IP.
These things are no secret in the circle, and Nanaya naturally knows the delicate relationship between Cameron and Fox.
So Nanaya decided to add fuel to the fire: "I know that movie. It's a loss for Fox to reject such a masterpiece."
Cameron said dissatisfiedly: "They are always like this! When I was filming Titanic, they almost wanted to fire me!"
"That's because you're over budget." Nanaya said with a smile, "But even so, they can't do anything to you!"
"Nonsense! They are just a bunch of wimps, not even qualified to shine my shoes!"
Cameron has a bad temper and says whatever he thinks.
Even if there were Fox employees around, he would still curse them.
Anyway, this isn't the first time that Fox and I have had a fight.
Because of the incident involving the heroine of "Titanic", he overturned the table in front of Fox executives.
As for the seven nights.
After seeing the shit-eating expression of the Fox employee in the corner, he smiled with satisfaction.
Sometimes cracks are created bit by bit.
You may not see the effect immediately, but in the long run you may get unexpected benefits.
But that was the end of the story of trying to please Fox.
After watching the sample film, Nanaya returned to the post-production editing of "Madoka Magica".
Editing a feature film is never an easy task and is often even more time-consuming than shooting.
Nanaya might be clumsy in doing other things, but he always maintains extreme patience when it comes to making movies.
During the time that Nanaya was away, Weta Studio had completed the preliminary special effects for the entire film.
But it's still a long way from being a finished film.
Of course, it is impossible for Nanaya to only allow the special effects scenes from the "Three Years of Learning Animation Series" to appear in his own movie.
After he took over again, he naturally had to polish the special effects more finely.
At the same time, temporary dialogues, music, sound effects and other content related to the film are also inserted into the shot sequence one by one to present the screen image that the audience finally sees.
Since the filming was completed last year, the post-production of "Madoka Magica" has begun for more than 5 months.
However, there are too many special effects shots that need to be processed in the film, and there are still many special effects content that have not been completed.
But time waits for no one. If the film is to be released simultaneously around the world in 2009, Puella Magi Madoka Magica must be completed before the end of the summer vacation.
Otherwise, we will not be able to keep up with the review schedule of other countries and regions.
For this purpose, Nanaya has drawn up a detailed timetable for the next six months, and will make changes at any time based on the completion status in the later stage.
But being in a hurry does not mean poor workmanship.
Nanaya still maintains its usual strict standards for all aspects of the camera.
The schedule Nanaya made is essentially just an optimization and adjustment of the post-processing of film shots.
Although Madoka Magica's post-production shots did go in a sequential order, the battle shots in the Witch's Barrier came before the day-to-day and final battles.
But the special effects production for the last two parts has more or less started.
For example, QB accounts for 80% of the special effects work in daily shots.
Not only did Weta Studio complete the modeling work long ago, it also had a dedicated team to do the rendering.
Nanaya's requirement for QB is simple, that is, a cute creature that can make people all over the world fall in love with it - provided that this beast does not speak.
"Shonan, how's it going?"
Walking into the editing room, Nanaya saw Shonan Rantaro had just finished checking a shot, so he went over to ask questions.
"Have you edited the scene where Sayaka and Kyoko fight?"
"Is the cutting already done?"
Shonan pressed the replay button to play the clip that had just been edited.
"But it's a bit long~?"
Looking at the images playing on the monitor, Nanaya frowned slightly.
Although Shonan made a fine edit of this footage, the sound effects have not yet been added.
Just watching this scene feels like watching a dumb show.
But these are secondary. Nanaya's attention is all focused on the time count at the bottom of the monitor screen.
Just like Shonan said, this paragraph is really a bit long.
"Shonan, cut this part out."
Nanaya pressed the pause button. This is the shot of QB and Madoka communicating.
"Cut out this whole scene, as well as the close-up shot of Madoka. Only keep the two panoramic shots, No. 15 and No. 72. Cut out the rest."
"But didn't QB have a conversation with Madoka~?"
As the assistant director of the film, Shonan naturally knew the script by heart.
Compared to the battle between the red and blue duo, QB's persuasion of Madoka to become a magical girl is indeed dispensable in this plot.
But it's very important to the whole movie.
This is to strengthen the audience's impression and make them wonder "Why do we have to sign a contract with Madoka?"
Nanaya knew it, but he still said, "Cut it out, otherwise the tempo will be too slow. As for the conversation between QB and Madoka, just keep the audio."
Even though he tried to cut out as many unnecessary shots as possible, Nanaya still felt that the movie was a bit over budget.
After all, the plot twists in "Madoka Magica" are a major highlight of the movie.
If some content is not explained clearly, it is very likely that it will not play the due role when the plot turns around.
Fortunately, the suspense of QB proposing a contract with Madoka has always existed.
Moreover, even in the most mediocre first 20 minutes, there are also gorgeous special effects battles to enjoy.
I believe these elements are enough to attract the audience to keep watching until the final reversal occurs.
In the following time, Nanaya and Shonan edited and discussed at the same time.
After working hard for most of the day, the shot of the first fight between Blue Hair and Red Hair was finally finalized.
The edited video material was put into the crew's public material library, and Nanaya also added a note that the sound effects should be completed within 2 days.
After doing all this, Nanaya and Shonan left the editing room together and walked into the CGI special effects room diagonally opposite.
All the staff in the special effects room were staring at the screen in front of them, working on the CG production for their respective parts.
Nanaya didn't disturb them and walked straight to the innermost part of the room.
The special effects team there was responsible for producing the appearance shot of Witch Night, and Sugiyama stood behind the staff.
However, this guy was not sent by Nanaya to supervise, but to learn.
CGI will become more and more important in film production in the future. If Sugiyama really wants to be a director, this part will be a compulsory course for him.
Nanaya didn't expect Sugiyama to become a special effects master, but he must be familiar with the CGI production process.
Since all the shots about Witch Night were shot using a green screen, the special effects artists needed to cut out the background of each frame and then replace it with the scene in the set map in their hands.
This is a very traditional and formal CGI image production process, and is the best tutorial for beginners like Sugiyama.