Made in Hollywood

A tall light box stood in the middle of the studio. Countless people were busy surrounding the light box. After Duke started, the scene quickly returned to silence, leaving only the light box running and the friction sound of the camera hanging on the robotic arm sliding down. ",

Being hung by twelve pressures on the cradle of the light box, Scarlett Johansson felt uncomfortable. The light box was stuffy and hot, and it made people feel very isolated. The shooting time was often very long, and the whole process was very Hard work, if she hadn't been practicing yoga and exercising since last year, she would have been unable to bear it.

Although she felt bad, Scarlett did her best to perform. She knew that Duke had too many expectations of her and didn't want to disappoint Duke.

From the beginning of the filming to the present, she only complained to Duke during that lunch, and that was the only time she complained.

The cradle was spinning, and Scarlett felt a bit spinning. Right above her, the camera controlled by the robotic arm quickly rotated and slipped. The heavy ima camera was so fast that it seemed to hit her face.

Scarlett did not move...

"Ut!"

The stop sound sounded, Duke stood up from behind the monitor and shouted into the light box loudly, "Pay attention to your eyes, you have a motion of closing your eyes!"

This is an instinctive reaction of human beings. When performing the effect of the actors "smashing into" the camera, in fact the actors basically do not move much, but let the camera "smash into" the actors under the precise control of the robotic arm. This scene In the scene, the camera hits Scarlett Johansson at a speed of 40 miles per hour and stops 3 inches away from her. In the process, Scarlett must remain motionless.

An excellent actor can control any of his expressions and instinctive reactions. After Duke's reminder, Scarlett will successfully complete the scene next time.

Subsequently. Duke let the crew rest and prepare for the super long shot of the first half of the film.

In the opening scene of "Gravity", a nearly 18-minute space camera captured everyone, even the most demanding and demanding movie fans would be extremely complicated and imaginative about the movement of this camera. , G to make a seamless long lens worship service.

But the crew did not plan to shoot such a long shot, but split the shot in two. It is formed by stitching together two long lenses. The previous lens takes about 12 and a half minutes, and then another lens is connected to form the entire long lens.

If it is not difficult to create a zero-gravity effect, then these long lenses can be considered a real challenge. This is a long lens without gravity.

The lack of gravity is the tricky part of this lens. Not only is it tricky to express zero gravity, it is inherently difficult for long lenses, but also zero gravity. Adding the two of them together, it's not right, they are not adding together, they are multiplying together, and things get harder.

Duke and John Schwarzman have done a lot of discussions and experiments for this.

When these shots are taken, the camera movement is also recorded by the motion capture system to match the g scene. Duke wanted the camera's movement to be as natural and smooth as possible, so he chose to use a virtual camera system in a small motion capture studio instead of doing key frame animations frame by frame. John Schwarzman and his four camera assistants can walk around with this small bracket to control camera parameters and composition. Then make some modifications to the recorded trajectory to make it more like a shot in zero gravity.

Unlike in the past, Duke believes that long lenses can well substitute the audience into the film. The key to long lenses is to be on the scene. For such a special film, the whole picture can become more realistic and more realistic. Appropriate and more straightforward.

The fewer editing points. The more interaction between the audience and the character, it is like what the audience experiences in real-time watching the character.

During the discussion a few days ago, Duke wanted to try more camera trajectories, but John Schwarzman and Mike Dawson who participated in the discussion both advised him not to do so.

According to Duke's plan, the opening shot ends with the heroine floating into the vast space. When she started floating far away, I didn't need to set the editing point. The camera could follow her in the same shot, so that the two opening shots could be combined into one shot.

However, John Schwarzman and Mike Dawson do not recommend this. They think that when the heroine floats out is the best editing point. If this is a chapter of a book, this should be the end of the chapter. One sentence.

The lengthening of the lens means that the difficulty of shooting has increased by a geometric multiple. They easily convinced Duke, and it only took one reason that time was not allowed!

Yes, time really does not allow it. The production cycle of this film is inherently very tight, and Duke has no time to waste.

Moreover, he is not the kind of paranoid person. Both long shots and editing must be suitable for the actual situation of a film at the time. The plot itself is equivalent to photography, sound, performance and color. They are all a kind of film production tool. So the director has to serve the movie, not the story.

Another difficulty is to make this long lens eye-catching.

The purpose of filming is not to let the audience sit there silently, not to let them sit there waiting for someone to float up and take a close-up.

A long shot is like a ballet, and one second to be processed cannot be boring.

The director uses the camera to tell the story, from beginning to end, whether it is from the big perspective of the environment to the dialogue shot to the single shot to the action shot to another big perspective shot, they are all speaking with the lens, if If you want to finish everything in one shot, you must figure out a way to include all these types.

During the time-consuming and labor-intensive preparations, the visual preview was approved by Duke, and the lighting simulation was done. The entire special effects team will do a technical visual preview again to assist Duke in deciding how to shoot each shot. Decide how the images in the preview should be shot on the mechanical equipment and light boxes.

After George Clooney and Scarlett Johansson were ready, the crew kicked off the filming. Except for the shooting by John Schwarzman and the four camera assistants, the special effects team used the i-day s robotic arm to operate everything. The camera pan, the actor's movement time points and the displacement of the camera's perspective are all accurately calculated and arranged. This is a length that has never been reached before.

In a continuous long shot, to show panoramic, close-up, and action scenes one after another, it is necessary to find a plan to show various plots in a single shot at the same time. This is definitely the most difficult place, so zero The combination of gravity and long lens is really very, very difficult.

The whole shooting process was not smooth. I was stopped by Duke several times. Any small negligence in the shooting would cause everyone's efforts to be in vain. The length of the shot and the complex effects to be displayed determine the actor to the technology. Departments will keep making mistakes.

From a sensory point of view, this lens needs to be impeccable, and everything must be taken care of.

In the early preparations, Duke, who was demanding for details, also referred to the ima documentary "Hubble Telescope", and worked with NASA astronaut Katie Coleman who served as the consultant for this film to study the flight trajectory of the Hubble Telescope. , Make the relative position of the sun and the moon according to the set time of the movie, and make the earth model.

At the location of the Hubble Telescope at the time, what did the Earth look like? What is the position and angle of the sun? He considered them one by one.

In addition to Duke, his director of photography and special effects director spent the most time and energy in shooting.

For many scenes in the long shot, the special effects team needs to make a visual preview in advance, otherwise they don’t know where the light should come from, or they don’t know what special effects picture to use at what moment, Tim? Weber's team spent a lot of time simulating lighting, and the boundary between special effects and photography became blurred.

The two cross, but there is no strict boundary.

As a photographer, John Schwarzman has to deal with more special effects issues than any photographer, and for Tim Webber, a special effects artist, he has to deal with more photography issues than any special effects director.

Because in the shooting of such a movie, the two need not be so clear.

These two long shots were taken for nearly ten days. From the director of Duke to John Schwartzman and Tim Webber to Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney, two actors were tortured. Exhausted.

When these two long shots, which add up to nearly 18 minutes, are finally completed, it is like a graduation ceremony for the makers of these films.

Duke also admitted that the remaining shots of the entire film are not as difficult as these two shots together.

These two shots, which are close to 18 minutes, contain all the film preparation and technical efforts of the crew and breakthroughs in the robotic lens, new lighting methods, and new rendering technology in g-space, realizing real shots of arbitrary movement. Perspective, randomly changing role lighting and grand and calm universe beauty.

In the words of Tim Weber, when these two long shots are over, it is declared that weightlessness and space will no longer be problems in the movie screens.

During the filming process, Duke and his technical team solved many problems of weightless shooting. With technical assistance, the filming of most of Hollywood's space exploration films relied on the "WIA + green screen + post-g" method. .

It is no exaggeration to say that after this, the only thing that can surpass this shooting is really to go to space for real shooting.

The completion of the two long shots also let Duke breathe a sigh of relief, and specifically put a two-day vacation for the crew, but when the crew regrouped for shooting, a special visitor came to his studio. (To be continued.)

ps: Sum recommendation ticket!