Chapter 181 - Stabbing Through the Windowpaper

"There have been bets in the media." Stirring his small spoon with interest, Ecks watched his coffee swirl in his cup at an even pace and said slowly, "At first they were betting on how long you'd stick with Michael Bay."

"And then?" As the filming of Transformers was nearing its end, the schedule was very tight, and Lin Ming Yang had managed to get a half-day vacation from Michael Bay, but he hadn't come here to listen to Eckles' boring "crap".

"Transformers should come out with a sequel without any surprises, and they're now betting on whether or not you'll continue to appear in the sequel." Ecks could see the impatience in Lin Ming Yang's eyes, but he continued to speak slowly. "Michael Bay is a famous temper tantrum in Hollywood, how does it feel to work with him?"

"Don't you think that as my agent, it's a bit of a dereliction of duty for you to raise this question when the movie is almost finished shooting?" Lin Ming Yang grunted in a humorless manner, "I had a great time working with him!"

"Alright, I accept your criticism!" Ecks shrugged helplessly, "So have you gotten anything out of this period of time?"

"Gains?" Lin Ming Yang stared at Ecks, "My role is a complete sidekick, the real protagonists of this movie are those Transformers, okay?"

"But your price is much more expensive than their cost!" Eckles laughed, "Okay, I admit that your role in this movie doesn't have many redeeming qualities, but Michael Bay's directorial talent in commercial movies is undeniable, haven't you learned anything from it?"

Lin Ming Yang bristled, "Directors like Michael Bay who pursue big scenes and extreme special effects all have a common shortcoming, which is that the movie doesn't show enough substance, in my opinion, his style is more or less flashy."

"But he has utilized this flashy style to the extreme, and the audience is willing to buy it, which is the most important thing." Ecks shook his head, it had been a long time since he had talked to Lin Ming Yang in such a preachy tone, but today was an exception. "Without Spielberg, there wouldn't be this Transformers, but do you know why he asked Michael Bay instead of directing it himself?"

Lin Ming Yang thought the answer was obvious, "Because Michael Bay is good at this kind of action movie."

"When it comes to Hollywood's grasp of big scenes, who can pat themselves on the back and say that he can surpass James Cameron?" Eckles asked further.

"Cameron would definitely overspend on this subject matter, and if it was handed over to him, Dreamworks wouldn't know how many days they'd have to tighten their belts before they could earn back their investment."

"That's one of the reasons, Spielberg himself isn't exactly a money saver, that War of the Worlds, despite being wonderfully shot, cost no less than $200 million dollars to produce, and DreamWorks is a bit strapped for cash right now. If you're holding a hot potato in your hand and you can't afford to lose it, what would you do in your place?"

Lin Ming Yang had never considered the issue from this perspective before, "If it were me, I would throw it to someone I could control!"

"You and Spielberg made the same choice, it seems that Michael Bay didn't take this 'black pot' unjustly, and of course he needs a movie to turn it around now. Judging from Michael Bay's past style, he was born to make a hot-blooded, explosive movie like Transformers. The bottom line is that Michael Bay knows how to save money on this movie!"

"Save money?" Lin Mingyang froze, Michael Bay could never be associated with the word "save money" in his mind. He knew that visual effects based on "computer-generated images" were a bottomless pit of money, but Michael Bay had always favored on-set effects, which were real money.

"You were right there on the set, and you were actually able to tell something with a little bit of attention!" Eckles naturally didn't come up with these statements out of thin air, although he hadn't been on the set of Transformers, he had carefully studied Michael Bay's previous movies and finally came to this conclusion:

"The way Michael Bay saves money has to do with his style of cinematography, think about it, compared to James Cameron, do you cite Michael Bay's as really a director who goes for details?"

Lin Mingyang was silent, and Ecks gave the answer himself.

"I don't think so, in his previous films he directed, there were far more localized scenes than panoramas, and the close-ups that showed details were far fewer than the distant scenes. This would have reduced the visual effects animation portion of the workload by a large margin. I believe that there will be a lot of distant shots in the Transformers film, and the digital modeling doesn't have to be too detailed to the extent of laboring, probably the outlines are passable even if the audience is in the mood for the excitement and the camera's flickering, it is absolutely not true to look at it."

"His films have always been known for their quick-cut flash style, which is very different from James Cameron's kind of director who strives for perfection in details, you just need to think back to the shooting process of this movie and you should be able to understand what I mean."

Ecks didn't say, Lin Mingyang didn't feel it on his own, but after he reminded him, Lin Mingyang suddenly woke up, he had seen a few of the already edited fight scenes. The most typical is "Bumblebee" and "Roadblock" PK battle, when shooting, the director camera has always been aimed at him, and should be one of the main drama "Bumblebee PK Roadblock" The director's camera was always on him, and what should have been one of the main scenes, "Bumblebee vs.

Considering that it may contain large and complex dynamic scenes, as well as "Bumblebee" firing the "arm cannon" and "Roadblock" dancing the "rotating knife wheel", it's not surprising that the director's camera was always on him. "The savings in visual effects costs are significant, considering that the movie will likely include large, complex motion scenes, as well as slow-motion shots of Bumblebee firing his arm cannon and Roadblock dancing with his spinning knife wheel.

In addition to simply do not show after, even for those who are in the performance of the battle scenes, Michael Bay will also use his handheld camera, seemingly immersive, but in fact, is lazy lazy work "missed" some of the big dynamic scenes. For example, at the end of the film in the battle, "stun" light "rotor crusher" wildly sweeping the streets of the scene, "Destroyer" in the center of the street to show their power, crazy pouring bullets, shells, The "Destroyer" is in the center of the street, pouring bullets, shells, and rockets, but in less than a second, the camera pans to show American soldiers "fighting hard".

Although the whole movie seems to be lively, but there are few images that can really impress people. But you can't really blame Michael Bay for that, because he does at least show the battle, just not enough, and within the movie's budget, that's a pretty good thing to do. Thinking about the masterpiece that James Cameron may already be secretly shooting, Lin Mingyang suddenly felt that Michael Bay's shooting budget on hand was indeed a bit shabby.

Michael Bay in the heart of Lin Mingyang's glorious image, but also with this layer of windowpaper broken and faded a lot, at least he is no longer as blind as before "worship" each other. From the general trend, Lin Mingyang from actor to director tendency has been very obvious Eckles said this to Lin Mingyang, the original intention is to remind Lin Mingyang more pay attention to observe Michael Bay's shooting skills, because the other side of that set in the commercial movie is very practical.

But Eckles often did not expect is that Lin Mingyang because of his "reminder", later embarked on a very different path. Of course that's an afterthought, this time Eckles came all the way to Los Angeles, naturally there are more important things.

"Jimmy, the co-chairman of Universal Studios, gave me a call yesterday."

"Problems on Kate's side?" As soon as Ecks mentioned Universal, Lin Ming Yang, for some reason, thought of Kate, who was filming in China, as his first reaction.

"So you still know you're the executive producer of The Mummy 3?" Ecks said flirtatiously.

"But my mission has already been completed, the filming of the movie is something the producer should worry about!" Lin Ming Yang thought about it and then felt that it wasn't right, he had only spoken to Kate on the phone yesterday, if there was any change in the crew, he should have received the news in the first place.

Ecks didn't sell himself short anymore, "This has nothing to do with Kate, they called me, they actually want to find you to shoot a new movie."

"Another commercial blockbuster?" Lin Mingyang instinctively frowned. The Oscar's Best Actor recognition had allowed Lin Ming Yang to completely remove his title as an idol star and become a new generation of Hollywood's powerhouse actor, and he had higher requirements for picking his movie roles.

With the rapid development of Facebook and YouTube, the amount of wealth Lin Ming Yang had in his hands became more and more enormous. Now that he has fame and is not short of money, movie pay is no longer his criterion for choosing roles. If it wasn't for Spielberg's kind invitation, it was estimated that he wouldn't even be willing to take over this Transformers.

"The script is about a group of killers, Luc Besson has left Hollywood, apart from him, there shouldn't be many directors who can turn this subject into a literary movie, right?" Echolls made a snide remark in what he thought was humor, but the effect wasn't very obvious.

"I wish the director was really Luc Besson, then maybe I could still be somewhat interested in this movie."

Hearing the resistance in Lin Ming Yang's words, Ecks' tone of voice became cautious, "You said before that you have a killer complex, I thought..."

"But I don't want to amuse the audience by killing people!" Lin Mingyang's attitude was formidable.

"So you don't want to take this movie?" Ecks asked in a strange tone. Normally, he wouldn't have drawn a line in the sand to ask such a question one more time, but he was a bit strange today.

Lin Ming Yang asked curiously, "Do you think that I shouldn't give up, and that refusing would result in a huge loss?"

"That's not true!" Ecks shook his head, "There's no loss for you if you don't perform, but I think you might have regrets!"

"Regrets?" The puzzled look in Lin Ming Yang's eyes grew stronger.

"I've heard that the female lead of this movie is Angelina Jolie, and according to the original intention of the producers, they want to pair you and Jolie up again to recreate the divine beauty of Sister and Brother Agents, and this time, there's no longer a sibling relationship between you...I mean, you get the idea."

After saying that Ecks also shook his head in mock regret, "Looks like the producers are destined to be disappointed this time!"