While Shu Han came up to film the scene of investigating the deceased's body, Xiao He ran to the side to study it, trying to take apart the structure inside to take a look.
Unfortunately, his eagerness was thwarted by the props assistant.
The prop assistant was more vigilant than ever before, holding the robotic arm prop and guarding against Xiao He's movements: "Teacher Xiao, this can't be taken apart, it will break if it is."
Xiao He said awkwardly, "I'm just taking a look."
Most importantly, the quality of this robotic arm is truly worrying.
Xiao He seriously suspected that the device would break down after only a few days of filming.
Moreover, the joints of the fingers are really made of plastic! Xiao He felt that the springiness of the joints was not even a spring, but more like a rubber band.
If this is the level of a custom-made prop, then Xiao He can only say that he is extremely disappointed with the prop maker.
"How many of these props did the production team prepare?"
Xiao He returned the items to the props assistant, and casually asked a question at the same time.
"Teacher Xiao, our crew currently only has three sets of this equipment."
The props assistant answered.
Xiao He: ...My God, our crew has three sets of such rubbish props!
Smoothing the veins on his forehead, Xiao He asked tactfully, "Which prop-making team did you book here? Who on our side handled the liaison? Was there any inspection?"
"Teacher Xiao, please rest assured, we have carefully inspected everything, and there are no problems at all."
The props assistant explained earnestly, "I can call the master craftsman over to take a look."
"Okay, call your master over and ask him. I'm just curious, I don't mean anything by it."
After the props assistant called the person over, Xiao He chatted with the prop master in detail, and then he was shocked to find that such plastic props were actually the highest quality finished props they could find at the moment.
Xiao He was momentarily bewildered.
Perhaps it was because he had seen a real mechanical arm at Song Zhe's place and personally experienced the power of cutting-edge technology that he was now disappointed by the poor quality of the prop arm.
“Teacher Xiao, the difficulty with robotic arms lies in disguising a real hand as a prosthetic one. A large part of this work is in makeup and post-production. Robotic arms are generally only used in close-ups and extreme close-ups, and the overall movement still requires post-production special effects adjustments,” the prop master said. “If we were to achieve the realistic robotic arm effect you want, it would significantly increase the cost and budget...”
By grafting and misaligning, they can indeed use real robotic arms, but the cost of the props is dozens of times higher than these simple pieces of sheet metal, and it requires much more time to customize. Currently, there are almost no companies in the industry that can take on this job. They either need to inquire with mechanical-related industries or find overseas teams.
After all, science fiction films... are truly a large untapped area within the industry.
Xiao He understood what the prop master meant and sighed inwardly.
Okay, so it turns out he's seen good things before, which raised his psychological threshold.
It seems that making my own request is pointless; finding a prop master won't help.
Xiao He gave up struggling, waved his hand to let the prop master leave, and stopped dwelling on the matter.
However, soon after, in the afternoon, Xiao He's first fight scene began filming.
As a mechanical ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) assassin, almost every appearance of his involves killing someone, or being on his way to kill someone, so his action scenes are undoubtedly the most numerous throughout the entire story.
Just as Assassin A raised his hand again, and the weapon in his hand began to flash with a dangerous light, a metallic piece of sheet metal fell to the ground with a glistening sheen.
"Click!"
He Jinnian quickly called for a stop.
Xiao He raised his hand to look at his arm, then looked down at the deformed sheet metal on the ground, and his lips twitched: "Is the quality of this really okay?"
He hasn't even started fighting yet, and his equipment is already dropping!
The props assistant quickly ran over, looked at the disassembled props, and couldn't help but mutter, "Teacher Xiao, you have to be careful with these props."
Xiao He: "Hehe, I've done my best."
During action scenes, he also had to protect the "weapons," what kind of nonsense is that?
So after filming was completed in the afternoon, Xiao He's first set of props, which had been in good condition, broke.
The prop master looked at the broken robotic arm and then at Xiao He's innocent face, not daring to say anything, and could only sigh deeply from the side.
He Jinnian also told Xiao He that he felt Xiao He's action scenes were not as smooth as before.
Xiao He also had a headache: "I've tried my best, but this prop is really terrible."
He can't just be a stationary turret, standing still and "battling magic" with the protagonist!
He Jinnian also checked the props again, his expression somewhat complicated: "If all else fails, we'll have to do special effects makeup first. If the effect isn't good, we'll just wear green gloves and wait for post-production."
If the desired effect cannot be achieved in reality, then we can only rely on powerful special effects in post-production.
However, if Xiao He's fight scenes are too numerous and complex, the post-production costs will be very high, and the realism and quality will be greatly reduced.
Everyone says that making science fiction films is difficult, but when filming actually begins, everyone realizes that the complexity involved far exceeds their imagination.
Moreover, to be honest, this production team was built and developed by themselves. Some of them were from "The Imperial Decree", some were from Linghui Entertainment, and some were people that He Jinnian found through his connections.
Many of these people have never participated in a formal, large-scale science fiction film project.
To put it bluntly, everyone here is a complete novice, with no experience whatsoever in dealing with these kinds of project problems, so we have to figure it out on our own.
"Old Qian, come here, see if this works—"
He Jinnian pulled the prop master aside and explained his solution.
This prop master had worked with He Jinnian many times before, so he treated He Jinnian better than he had treated Xiao He. After listening carefully to He Jinnian's solution, he nodded reluctantly and then took his assistant to the back to urgently modify the props.
He Jinnian then apologized to Xiao He: "I'm sorry, Teacher Xiao. I did confirm the prop beforehand, but I didn't expect it to be so bad. I'm sorry for wasting your time."
Xiao He quickly shook his head: "It's okay, it's okay. We can solve problems together."
However, the matter was ultimately not handled very well.
The next day, the prop master repaired the modified arm, and Xiao He could barely use it. However, this thing was really of disposable quality. Basically, after Xiao He finished using it, the prop master would start repairing it. Then, he would take turns using several prop arms, repairing them and then filming them, and then repairing them again.
After a few days, the prop master looked quite haggard, and Xiao He was also extremely tired.
The atmosphere on set became oppressive.
Finally, He Jinnian had no choice but to suggest to Xiao He, "Why don't we just use motion capture equipment and build a separate model for you later?"
Xiao He also had a bit of a headache: "Alright, let's start filming."
His expectations were too high. It's impossible to actually make such a high-tech robotic arm. In the end, we'll have to see how it's made in post-production.
He only verbally agreed, but after returning to the hotel that night, Xiao He began to study the structure of the robotic arm.
He originally wanted to learn from foreign mechanics and create a simple code-based robotic arm. He would then input pre-written code to make the robotic arm move in the order he requested, replicating the actions he needed.
Then, unsurprisingly, Xiao He, who had endured until the next morning, chose to give up.
Guess why he didn't study mechanical engineering but instead studied computer science?
He's just not cut out for this!
Finally, Xiao He shakily opened the system interface.
Damn it, he's got a cheat code now, why doesn't he use it!
Why torture yourself in a completely unfamiliar field!
