The realistic education-themed film Looking Up achieved a gross of nearly RMB 800 million During the first two weeks of its release. The film has maintained a steady gross growth and strong word-of-mouth despite the competition from multiple newly released films. The film has earned ratings of 9.5 on Maoyan and 9.0 on Taopiaopiao, along with favorable comments from the audience. The spectacular soundtrack and the special effects of the outer space in this exquisitely-made film have left a deep impression on the audience: “The most stunning part is Bai Yu’s performance in the outer space. Both the music and special effects are a great enjoyment mixing excited and thrilled feelings”.Soundtracks tailor-made by the winner of the Academy Award for Best Sound Effect, offering fully immersive Dolby panoramic sound effects
Looking Up tells an affectionate, moving story of a father and son in their spiritual journey. Sound in a film serves as a bridge connecting the story and emotions of the audience, because good images are not enough and sound also plays a crucial supportive role. For this reason, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, the directors of the film, personally flew to Vienna, Austria, where a team of 80 top-tier musicians was assembled to produce soundtracks for the film. Yu Fei, a prominent soundtrack producer in China, led the music production team consisting of the currently most recognizable music producers from Hollywood to bring an audio feast to the audience: Hans Zimmer served as the executive music supervisor of the film, Lorne Balfe was responsible for creating the main theme, and Steffen Thum composed the incidental music. Steffen Thum, who once composed scores for Mission Impossible: Fallout and Ghost in the Shell, said that he was honored to be a part of the effort to tell this story.
The music of the film consists of two themes: the heart-warming father-and-son theme and the anthemic outer space theme. Michael Hedges, a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects currently serving as the sound mixer of the film, was also full of pride for the production of sound effects: “We have applied Dolby panoramic sound mode in the Looking Up. To fully bring the sound effects out in theatrical spaces, we employed different tools to let sound come out from different locations”. The final result is that the surround sound effect is perceivable from any corner of the theater. For example, the audience are able to detect the trajectory of the sound when a flying object is approaching from afar.
Special effect supervisor of Salyut-7 joins the top-tier production team to reproduce the massive changes over the past 30 years
The scene of the vast outer space in Looking Up, especially the scene of how the astronaut Ma Fei starred by Bai Yu saves himself in the space, looks stunning: “intense feelings are instantly aroused by the breathing sound of Bai Yu, and the outer space scene is so lifelike that it evokes a sense of immersion in the universe”. Notably, the special effect supervisor for the outer space part of the movie is Alexey Gousev, who is also the producer of the special effects of Salyut-7. Deng Chao and Yu Baimei are excited about having such a top-notch team to work on the special effects: “We have found an excellent team to assist us with the shooting of the outer space part, because we need to convince the audience that they are seeing the real outer space.” Not just the outer space but some of the large-scale historical scenes spanning 30 years in China have also been created by the special effect team comprised of 500 specialists from both home and abroad.
Former judge of the Academy Awards serves as the montage director, as the standard of good films knows no boundaries.
In the nationwide roadshow, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei were asked about the length of the film. Yu Baimei said, “It's been a struggle for us when it comes to deciding the length of the film. 2 hours and 30 minutes is indeed a long time, but the montage director believed that only with such a duration could we successfully convey what we truly want to express to the audience.” Ballu Saluja, the montage director of the film, once worked as the judge of the 2018 Academy Awards and also the montage director of the Indian movie Dangal. Both films portray the greatness of fatherly love. Ballu Saluja expressed how he felt about the film: “I like the genre very much. There are no boundaries in terms of people’s perception towards these stories, no matter where they come from. These stories send out the same emotion that all fathers across the world are the same; there are many scenes in the film that just give you goosebumps.”
The intention of directors Deng Chao and Yu Baimei to convey the power of love and belief has been realized to the highest extent with the support of the extraordinary team, enabling them to present the film flawlessly to the audience.
