The 12-minute short film ended quickly, and Ronald was shocked.
The story of the short film is very simple. It tells the story of most of the human race being extinct. A man and a woman escape from the earth and go to space on a spaceship with artificial intelligence. The man wakes up on the spaceship and is attacked by a huge sweeping robot when he walks around. The woman drives a combat robot to rescue him.
The plot of this story is incomplete and seems to be only a small part of a larger story. But the editing is very good, and Ronald, as a viewer, feels on the edge watching it.
The scenes inside several spacecraft are very impressive, and it feels as if the spacecraft is dozens of times larger than a person.
Most importantly, the two robots are incredibly realistic. Ronald couldn't figure out how Jim Cameron spent $24,000 to film such realistic robots.
Not only can they move around freely, but they also feel very human, making people feel that they have intelligence. In the end, they get stuck and can't move, which is a little funny.
"What do you think?" Cameron asked when he saw that no one was talking.
"Your short film has the qualities of 'Star Wars'. The lighting is superb, and a very simple method was used to capture the feeling of space." The cameraman commented, "Star Wars was filmed at Pinewood Studios in the UK, where I have worked. If you have the opportunity to film there, the image quality of the film you shoot will exceed that of Star Wars."
"I think the heroine is amazing. She can drive a combat robot to save the hero. This is rare in Hollywood movies. In today's movies, women usually sit there looking pretty and wait for men to rescue them. It's time for Hollywood to have a female hero." Gale praised it from a woman's perspective.
"What do you think, Ronnie?" Cameron actually wanted to hear his opinion the most.
"How did you make this model? Was it made of plastic?"
After watching Cameron's performance, Ronald began to doubt whether he really had the talent to be a director.
"How was this shot taken? It's the shot where the male protagonist is climbing on a cliff in front of the robot vacuum cleaner to avoid being scanned by the robot."
"How was the scene with the heroine in the cockpit of the battle robot filmed? Did you build a model of the robot's interior?"
"How was the interior of this huge spaceship filmed?"
…
Ronald asked more than a dozen questions in one breath, and Cameron answered them one by one.
It turned out to be a plastic model, which was filmed in close-up with a camera and then edited to create the illusion that the robot was very tall.
The heroine is in a small room, playing with a "spaceship joystick" modified from fitness equipment and then using lights to create a dim effect in the cockpit. Finally, the shot of her driving is edited together with the shot of the combat robot model in motion so that the audience will think that the heroine is driving inside the robot.
The huge internal structure of the spaceship is a background painting. Cameron drew it for a perspective effect, at the right angle, with dim lighting, to make the audience mistakenly think they were seeing the ceiling of the spaceship.
The shot of the male protagonist hanging on the cliff to avoid the robot was edited. The male actor clung to the edge of a high platform to show the feeling of fear. Then, through post-production editing technology, it was combined with the shot of the robot.
The robot is also amazing. Its head can move and is driven by the motor of an electric toy.
The most surprising thing is that the entire short film was edited using the copying function of two VCRs. Due to insufficient funds, Cameron could not afford a professional editing machine, so he used two VCRs to edit.
When I reached the editing point, I paused the copying, then fast-forwarded to the content to be continued, and then resumed copying. In this way, I was able to edit such a highly completed short film.
"I think you might change the landscape in Hollywood someday, Jim."
Ronald said to Cameron: "George Lucas can't shoot an intelligent machine with a sense of apocalypse like yours. His robots are just clowns. But your robot is the main character of the movie."
"You're exaggerating, Ronald." Cameron laughed happily. Finally, someone saw the part he put the most effort into. Although the subtitles of the short film mention the male and female protagonists, the main characters of the whole film should be the robots.
The core of the movie's story is the routine of good robots fighting against evil robots.
"Let's go," Gale suggested. Ronald nodded. It was time to go. He hadn't gotten off work on time for a week. He should go home early today.
Ronald raised his hand to turn off the TV, and everyone prepared to go home.
"Jim, does the new film you're involved in have this kind of robot?" Ronald suddenly asked.
"There are no robots, but there are some spaceships and alien creatures that require stunt models."
"Oh, movies like your short films don't require too many lines and dialogues. Maybe your future movies can be sold internationally," said Ronald.
Cameron's eyes lit up: "You are right. Action and mechanics are the film language that all human beings can understand. Only such films can be sold to non-English speaking countries."
"See you tomorrow afternoon at Mount Carmel High School?"
"See you tomorrow afternoon."