What do you think of the nine-story demon tower?

What is the relationship between "Nine-story Demon Tower" and "Ghost Blowing Lights"? -It's the biggest question for many viewers after watching the movie. Objectively speaking, apart from the names of a group of protagonists, the relationship between them is really subtle, and the movie is just another adventure of the characters in the book in the parallel world.

For the tomb-robbing theme like "Ghost Blowing Lights", it has a super IP. Although the structure of the characters and the world is clear enough, there are many restrictions on the theme in practice if a fantasy world of grave robbery wants to be perfectly presented in the novel. Therefore, Lu Chuan changed his mind. As filming is about to break through, a more bizarre world has emerged: Hu Bayi is no longer a captain who touches gold, but only a descendant of ancient human heroes. The queen and the ghost cave clan (changed to the ghost clan) incarnated as alien descendants, while the nine-story demon tower became an alien base, guarded by exotic animals, fire bats, red scorpions, Kunlun monsters and so on. , and was brutally slaughtered. The film also created a 749 bureau devoted to the study and exposure of supernatural phenomena. According to Lu Chuan, this organization does exist, and he himself has been engaged in video recording. This change is quite bold. After all, it takes a lot of courage to change a well-known novel world. Fortunately, more than 1500 special effects shots escorted the nine-story demon tower, giving this well-known story a brand-new film thinking and viewing experience in the film.

This kind of rolling adaptation is not the original intention of Lu Chuan, but the result of constant adjustment. At the beginning, he also wanted to make a fuss about the original work, especially to play the edge ball on the elements of grave robbery. When the review didn't show at all, he simply gave up the inheritance of the original work, constantly strengthened foreign exploration and adventure, and finally produced a monster disaster movie. In this way, the story from the original fantasy to the point of no return of science fiction, from a string of Sugar-Coated Berry dipped in China's ancient culture into a fried steak with a western flavor, which is equivalent to letting a group of China people play a very westernized story (similar to raiders of the lost ark and Kingdom of Crystal Skull). If we don't consider the crude exploration of Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s and the ugly low-cost horror films in recent years, this type of Chinese film was basically blank in the past.

However, I think there is no need to entangle IP, and we obviously have something more worth talking about. As the first domestic visual blockbuster facing Hollywood, its iconic innovation in production technology and special effects is undeniable.

Shooting such an "unprecedented" theme, Lu Chuan invited foreign aid with self-knowledge. Before and after the crew hired a number of special effects directors, and set up more detailed departments such as CG, animation, lighting and material under them. Each department is equipped with its own director, and three China are responsible for coordinating the communication between the director and the special effects director. There are also 15 production assistants under the three co-ordinators, who manage more than 1500 shots of the film. The structure of the whole production team reflects a high degree of industrialization. As the highlight of the monster, the crew spent the greatest effort. It took more than a year to design the world outlook, sort out biological systems and formulate their appearance characteristics, action styles, every roar, every expression, subtle movements of claws and so on. Then compile it into a map and translate it into English for designers to see. In addition, 3D movies use a large number of wide-angle lenses, which requires higher fidelity and clarity of monsters and challenges special effects personnel. It is not easy to achieve the effect of confusing the fake with the real. Large-scale disaster action clips, such as avalanches, can't be filmed first and then thrown into later repair, so dynamic preview technology is used. Lu Chuan drew his own shots, which were discussed by the crew and then given to foreign special effects personnel for dynamic preview, plus background music. With the preview, the shooting effect is twice as good as the original one. In Lu Chuan's own words, filming "Nine-story Demon Tower" made him seriously study "full process management" and experience the mature industrial production process in Hollywood. These experiences are invaluable for the promotion of special effects films in China.

For example, a scene of Hu Bayi and Yang Ping underwater in the film was shot by hanging Weiya on land. In order to realize this plan, there must be an electronic monitoring motor worth millions. When shooting, the crew found some martial arts players to pick up Mark Chao to simulate swimming, and then wiped off the villains later, which was close to zero cost. It takes hundreds of thousands of days for people to jump off a cliff, and it also takes hundreds of thousands of days to rent professional equipment. The crew temporarily set up a set of equipment to set up cameras and shock absorbers, which were pulled by Wu Hang to shoot. It took more than 20 thousand to do more than one million things. There is also a scene where the red hen attacks the bus from many angles. It took only a few thousand dollars for extras to smash cars and scrap iron. With the on-site special effects as a reference, the efficiency of digital processing in the later period is much higher, and everything makes foreigners stunned. This "history of blood and tears" is enough to boost the confidence of domestic filmmakers. Even without strong financial support, the RMB can bear the burden of US dollars, and China can also produce film products with special effects comparable to Hollywood. Lu Chuan also announced that China filmmakers can do such things, and the era of special effects blockbusters has arrived. After all, there are fewer and fewer movies that are really worth going to the cinema, and it is rare to enjoy the real audio-visual experience in the cinema.