I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 522 - 522 521. Mixed feelings of happiness and sorrow_1

Chapter 522: 521. Mixed feelings of happiness and sorrow_1 Chapter 522: 521. Mixed feelings of happiness and sorrow_1 In a group related to domestic film and television practitioners.

On May 1st.

The release of Lu Ban’s new film trailer was, for people in the industry, like celebrating the New Year, with mixed feelings of sorrow and joy.

The joy was that there was a new good movie to watch. A film by Lu Ban would be repeatedly viewed and analyzed by industry professionals. Whether it was the actors’ performances that seemed so natural they appeared to be part of the film’s world, the divine special effects that felt like recordings of real events, or the richly detailed and comprehensive worldview that seemed transported from Another World, all were worthy of study by practitioners.

Even the performances of Amber in “Peaceful Days in Spring” and Ancient Capital in “The Madman’s Mouth” were included in the textbooks of film acting courses.

Many method actors attempted to display such complex and genuine performances but fell slightly short, because it was a very contradictory state. When you try hard to act, you lose naturalness; when you seek to return to naturalness, you lose the focus of the performance.

Take crying for example. Everyone knows that shedding tears is crying, but the method of shedding them, the amount of tears, whether to include mucus, and the volume of the crying all have their own considerations.

Not to mention those young actors who need eye drops to cry, even seasoned actors generally master just a few common crying methods. For instance, the way one cries for the death of parents might also be used in a scene with a dead lover, which is roughly similar and usually undetectable by ordinary audiences.

Some more delicate actors ponder over the emotions of their characters to present subtle differences.

But just as there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand readers’ minds, everyone perceives the same scene differently. Some think the acting isn’t forceful enough, while others think it’s too much. There are always various comments to critique an actor’s performance.

However, in Lu Ban’s movies, no one could judge the acting.

Even though no one had ever seen a person with firm beliefs being burned by flames, when they watched the mages sitting atop the tower, burning themselves on the Spirit Torch, all the audience would not question their suffering or their steadfast faith.

There are two styles of performance: one is to let the audience empathize by objectively reflecting reality, and the other is to create a virtual scenario that leads the audience into uncharted territory.

The former is often used in realist works, evoking resonance, while the latter is often used in the realm of fantasy, inspiring imagination.

Lu Ban’s films undoubtedly belong to the latter.

His works offer so much for study that mastering even thirty percent of the techniques employed in Lu Ban’s films would be enough to produce a commercially successful movie, and fifty percent would be sufficient to win awards with ease.

The reason why there is sorrow when facing Lu Ban’s films is that they greatly raise the audience’s aesthetic standards while also squeezing their wallets.

For instance, during certain prime movie-going periods, if a Lu Ban film is released, most other films at the time can expect a significant drop in box office receipts. They would have to settle for second place, and there’s even a chance they won’t surpass a family-friendly animation. Moreover, even if another film of the same genre is exceptionally well-made, it inevitably gets compared to Lu Ban’s work: the special effects fall short, the atmosphere isn’t as immersive, and the acting is not as skillful. The only advantage may come from plot twists in the script. And in terms of box office, they can’t possibly outperform Lu Ban’s films – it’s exhausting and thankless.

Therefore, a saying circulates in certain circles of practitioners: “There aren’t many themes left for us after Lu Ban.”

Fortunately, Lu Ban generally sticks to fantasy themes such as horror, thrillers, adventures, and mysteries, and has not yet ventured into areas like romantic emotions, biographies, coming-of-age stories, or corporate maneuvering. Those who specialize in these genres can breathe easy for now.

In the group, faced with the newly released trailer by Lu Ban, everyone had different opinions.

[Hengdian Xiaozhi]: Lu Ban is really challenging the ultimate in special effects with disaster movies. Thankfully, thankfully, our group has no plans involving stuff like this lately. Dodged a bullet there.

[Ordinary Screenwriter Ah Xiang]: I actually think disaster movies limit Lu Ban’s creativity. As everyone knows, his works are all interconnected now. The subtle presence of divine beings and the overarching world view are the core attractions, not the industrialized, formulaic model of disaster films. It’s not suited for him to showcase his talents.

[Movie Laborer]: Exactly, the format of disaster movies is too fixed. You can figure out how to shoot them with your eyes closed. The only big expectation from Lu Ban now is the special effects.

[Red Bean Popsicle]: Still, to be fair, the volcanic eruption effect in the trailer is pretty well done. I’ve had the chance to see a live volcano before, and the magma texture is indeed just like that.

[Yannan Xiaoliu]: Huh? Volcano? Wasn’t it a super typhoon?

[Actor Zhao Kuo]: ??? I thought it was a major earthquake?

[Movie Laborer]: No way, I saw the trailer, and it was a tsunami?

Suddenly, everyone in the group chat was stunned.

They quickly opened up their browsers and did some searching.

Little did they know until they searched, and wow, just wow.

Lu Ban had actually uploaded four different trailers.

Volcano, earthquake, typhoon, tsunami—each natural calamity corresponded to a different trailer. Although the formats were similar, the special effects were completely different.

The distribution of these trailers followed different logic, leading many people to see different trailers if they came across them randomly.

[Movie Laborer]: In all my life, I’ve never seen anything like this. Is Lu Ban going for a doomsday scenario?

[Ordinary Screenwriter Ah Xiang]: This is quite thrilling. We only see disaster movies of this scale every few years, and in the past, it was a privilege of foreign studios. Now, we can produce them too.

[Red Bean Popsicle]: Am I the only one curious about how Lu Ban is going to wrap this up with so many disasters happening at once?

[Yannan Xiaoliu]: That’s the gimmick. Think about it, in a normal disaster movie, from the trailer, you can guess the protagonist is going to save the world. But with this movie, the more trailers you watch, the more desperate it becomes—you can’t imagine how they’re going to win. Isn’t that a reason to go see it in theaters?

[Hengdian Xiaozhi]: Hiss, this guy is truly terrifying.

Soon, everyone became aware of Lu Ban’s four trailers, as in the internet age, a simple search would do. Various social media accounts and self-media were also frantically riding on the buzz, dissecting every shot in the trailers, which in turn were copied by others, leading to quite a few disputes.

Before long, a consolidated article appeared online, claiming to have fully decoded Lu Ban’s new movie.

“A Comprehensive 10,000-Word Article Deciphering Thirty Details in Lu Ban’s New Movie ‘Doomsday’.”