"Director Liu, did you just say that *The Martian* will be filmed right here on location to recreate the Martian exterior?"
"Mars is nothing like Earth. How could we possibly film on location?"
"Is *The Martian* really just a drama? You aren't even going to do special effects for the Martian surface? Is the space sci-fi angle just a gimmick?"
...
Watching the reporters below the stage eagerly firing off the questions on their minds, Liu Zhou knew he had to say something.
He stood on the stage for a moment. When the murmur of questions began to subside, he raised the microphone and said with a smile:
"It seems you all have a lot of questions, but I know what you care about most. First of all, I can tell you quite definitively: *The Martian* is not a gimmick. It is a genuine space science fiction film."
"Director Liu, then why use physical locations instead of special effects?"
"How do you know we aren't using special effects? In reality, this *is* special effects—just practical effects. Practical effects, as the name implies, are effects created using physical methods, which still require post-production and rendering. What's more, we have already secured the National University of Defense Technology's Tianhe-II supercomputer to handle the rendering for our post-production."
Watching the reporters murmur among themselves, Liu Zhou continued:
"Don't let Hollywood blockbusters lead you astray. Practical effects are not inherently inferior to CG effects; on the contrary, practi…
Chapter 276