hollywood melon man

Chapter 286 Shooting Sets and Props

In addition to Andy Serkis' motion capture technology, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has a lot of special effects production scenes.

One of the difficulties is the handling of size proportions, because the heights of the characters in the film will be very different, the most important one is the Hobbit.

The main difference between hobbits and humans is the difference in size and proportion.

As far as special effects are concerned, the biggest goal is to achieve visual reality.

"Okay, Kieren, prepare for a rehearsal." Little Gilbert directed.

In the processing of some scenes, director of photography John Schwartzman experimented with camera angles and actors' sightlines.

In order to study what camera angles and lighting methods they should use, Little Gilbert required that the techniques used must achieve a realistic effect, and that the effect must be achieved quickly, without leaving any flaws in the shots.

As long as the characters in the film can clearly show different sizes, the problem of size ratio can be solved.

Before filming, the crew did a lot of preliminary testing, such as making large props. By enlarging the proportion of props, the effect of reducing the proportion of characters can be achieved.

This is a good method, and the crew used this method many times during filming.

For the shots shot at the Prancing Pony Hotel, the crew built separate sets for the shots of the big and small doubles, creating effects with different proportions.

Using the effect of optical illusions, the crew found several different ways to try out the shots to find the right one.

In this way, when the actual filming begins, the actors can perform according to the preset plan without wasting time.

Another difficulty is the problem of the characters being in the same frame. Ian McKellen is 1.8 meters tall, while Elijah Wood is 1.68 meters tall.

There is a height difference between the two, so this crew was a big help.

However, not everyone has the height difference between Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen. When the height difference is not big, the crew studied several methods.

One is a traditional technique, which is to use optical illusions.

If you want one of the two people to look smaller, move him further away from the camera. People who are closer to the camera appear larger, and people who are closer to the camera appear shorter.

However, the prerequisite for using optical illusions is that the camera must be stationary, and the use of the lens is limited to up and down and left and right panning.

Before filming began, Gilbert Jr., director of photography John Schwartzman, and the engineers at the special effects studio explained his ideas for the use of the lens.

"Look here, I'm standing here, and Anna is standing there. When I stand in the back, I look almost the same figure as Anna.

If I were to stand further back, I would look smaller than Anna. "

After the trial shooting, John Schwartzman said to Little Gilbert: "This will cause the picture to be unbalanced. We must be more precise in the setting."

Gilbert Jr. agreed and continued: "The biggest advantage of optical illusions is that all elements appear in the lens, which is very beneficial to our shooting."

The ratio of humans to hobbits is about 1:0.75, so the distance between a human and the camera is about one and one-third times farther than a hobbit.

If you wanted Gandalf and Frodo to stand together and they were ten feet away from the camera, Frodo would have to be one and one-third times that far away.

For the art and prop teams, props and scenery are key.

They need to make props and scenery of different sizes, and make the scene props larger or smaller according to the size ratio required for the shooting.

Take the interior of Bag End as an example. For the same set, the art team made two identical ones, only with different size and proportions.

So when filming, Elijah Wood used a normal-sized version of Bag End, while Ian McKellen used a scaled-down Bag End house.

The small-scale set is like the inside of a submarine. When filming, the crew was squeezed into a small space every day.

The same goes for props. In a small-scale set, all props are scaled down in equal proportions. So you can see some cute little tables, chairs, fireplaces, etc.

Every book, every piece of parchment and every prop in Bag End must be made into two proportions to adapt to different proportions of Bag End.

Even Gandalf's carriage is a carriage of two different proportions.

During filming, the seats in the carriage were split in half so that Gandalf and Frodo felt like they were sitting side by side.

But in fact, Elijah Wood was some distance behind Gandalf when he was performing.

Just by making this arrangement, you can create the illusion of different sizes.

There are many similar methods used. Before the official shooting, the crew did a lot of trial shooting work before applying it to the official shooting.

Doing this work is about creating a real feeling.

The serious attitude of Hollywood colleagues towards their work and their professionalism in studying shooting techniques were eye-opening to the Chinese colleagues who were studying on the set.

At the same time, Chinese colleagues discovered that little Gilbert was not arbitrary in the crew and actively listened to the opinions of his subordinates.

One thing that proves it is that when filming the scene in the mines of Moria, a Chinese staff member made very good suggestions. People on the side said: "We are all professionals in Hollywood, how can we not understand? Can we listen to your opinions?"

Unexpectedly, little Gilbert, who could understand Chinese, heard the staff member's suggestion and immediately found someone to try it out, and it turned out to be effective.

So little Gilbert took decisive action and shot the scene according to the Chinese staff member's style.

It was this scene that greatly improved the enthusiasm of the Chinese staff. It can be seen that at least in Little Gilbert's crew, Little Gilbert can listen to suggestions and there is no discrimination.

Later, everyone discovered that not only little Gilbert, but also all departments of the "Lord of the Rings" crew were not discriminatory and looked down upon the behavior of the Chinese staff.

On the contrary, maybe because of Little Gilbert's relationship, or maybe because they are on Chinese soil, these foreigners are very friendly to them.

Even in the art team and props, the Chinese staff played an important role and were praised by Little Gilbert.

This distinguishes the "Lord of the Rings" crew from the Chinese crew.

In the Chinese film crew, seniority and status determine everything. No one will listen to you unless you reach a certain status.

Of course, things are not absolute.

Hollywood crews are also ranked based on seniority, and Chinese crews are also treated equally with the "Lord of the Rings" crew.

It's just that the perspective is different, and the results you see are different. This does not mean that the crews of Hollywood films are any better than the crews of Chinese-language films.

Producer Charles Rowan told little Gilbert that under the same quality, he found that the Chinese staff were more efficient, more diligent, and more able to endure hardships than the American staff.

Charles Rowan feels that given time and the development of Chinese-language film crews, hard-working Chinese people will soon be able to lead the growth of Chinese films.

Little Gilbert smiled, noncommittal.

Although people are hard-working and good, in many cases the decision-making power for the development of the industry is not in the hands of these backbone talents.

Only the big guys at the top can determine the direction and development of an industry.

The situation is basically the same anywhere in the world. These thousands of professional talents form the foundation of Hollywood.

But what determines the development of the industry is the big shots who control and dominate Hollywood.

Otherwise, the trend of political correctness in Europe and the United States would not have caught on. It would be the result of the promotion of big shots.

In addition to these special effects and special lens shooting, the crew used a large number of real shots to capture a large number of beautiful scenery.

Viewers may be a little surprised when they see the finished film, as if it is a promotional film for Chinese tourism.

In fact, Little Gilbert plans to mark every attraction for fans to browse when the DVD version is released later.

If any movie fans become interested and then travel to China, it will be a big contribution to China's tourism industry.

In addition to film shooting, Gilbert Jr. is most concerned about Howard Shaw's score creation.

Perhaps due to the time difference, Howard Shaw's team did not create the soundtrack in the studio in Los Angeles. Instead, they came to China to communicate with Little Gilbert at any time and create the soundtrack.

Howard Shaw rented a studio in Beijing and reached a cooperation with the China Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonic Orchestra will participate in the entire recording of the soundtrack.

The Philharmonic Orchestra was established earlier than in its previous life. It was established at the end of 1998 and is affiliated with Scissors and managed by Yang Ma.

After the spring tour, the Philharmonic joined Howard Shaw's team to participate in the recording of the score.

Movie soundtrack is very important because it can affect the audience's emotions when watching the movie.

During filming, actors and directors will work hard to convey the atmosphere and emotions. But music can be very powerful and make the audience feel the emotion at the right moment.

Little Gilbert requested that some of the soundtrack written by Howard Shaw be provided first so that the actors could listen to it and feel the emotions.

He believes that actors can get into the mood better by listening to Howard Shaw's scores.

It is true that each scene creates a different soundtrack, allowing the actors to feel different emotions and perform better.

Even Orlando Bloom, whose acting skills are relatively poor, felt the emotions while listening to the soundtrack, and his performance was much better than at the beginning of filming.

This is the role of the soundtrack. It not only brings the audience into the movie, but also enhances the quality of the actors' performances.

Of course, the soundtrack is still being created.

In the movie, there are also female voices singing in the background, or in English, and there are a lot of songs sung in elven languages.

And these works were all recorded by singers from some European orchestras, which sounded very good and enjoyable.

(End of this chapter)