Made in Hollywood

Warner Studios Studio 12 is heavily guarded, and the film crew is preparing to shoot a shot in a surreal set.

A huge cavern with a high ceiling and black walls is divided into several areas by thin white grid lines. More than 100 high-altitude lights are suspended in the air, with a layer of soft light cloth and a thin and transparent gauze underneath. The cast of light was neutral, clean, without shadows, and actor Cillian Murphy was kneeling on the floor under the light.

With an "Action" command, two IMAX cameras began to operate, one to capture the entire scene with a wide-angle lens, and the other to record the action.

Suddenly, a crack appeared on the floor, and a large piece of strangely shaped set fell down. Cillian Murphy and the set fell into a hole in the ground, and the dust was flying for a while. After the director Duke yelled "Cut", it didn't take long , the hydraulic machine returns the collapsed floor to its original position, ready to take the second shot.

After returning to Los Angeles from Canada's Mount Whitler ski resort, Duke returned to the studio to film the remainder of the scene.

Like the previous shooting, although the setting of the whole film is absurd, Duke still pays attention to the realism of photography.

"In the final analysis, when we dream, we feel that the dream is real, and this is also a line in the film,"

During the shooting interval, Duke said to Sofia Coppola who came to visit the set, "This is very important to the photography and to every aspect of this film. We don't want the dream scenes to reflect super-realism. I want these Paragraphs are as solid as the real world. So our approach is to make dreams seem real."

Sofia Coppola had read Duke's script, and nodded slightly at this time. Duke is not only her friend, but also her teacher. Come here every time. There is always something to be gained.

"Sometimes characters don't know what they're seeing is a dream, so the visual connection between reality and dream has to be seamless, except at certain points, and I want the audience to know the difference," Duke added. To Sophia, “Most of the time the surrealness in the film comes from the environment. It’s not from the cinematography. By maintaining a sense of realism, I believe it’s possible to create a subtle sense of strangeness or uneasiness when needed, rather than the cinematography. The audience needs to be brought out of the story."

"Why not use film?"

Taking advantage of Duke's time, Sofia Coppola couldn't help asking, "You have always been interested in high-definition and high-quality formats. Film has a very high exposure latitude and dynamic range. Has a more High creative flexibility, I can underexpose by 3 stops and overexpose by 5 stops in the same frame, and finally show the whole range on the screen.”

Facing his friend, Duke has no need to hide, "Because the cost of film is too high. Especially the cost of post-processing, and digital technology represents the future."

In the past few years, Duke has not only looked at digital technology, but also paid attention to other aspects.

He had seen the legendary master Douglas Trumbu. See a demonstration of Showscan - a high-speed capture and projection technology for 65mm film invented by Trumbull - and examine 70, a system devised by Robert Weisberg. Capable of shooting and projecting at 48fps, the 70 is only marginally better than HD despite its superb clarity...

There is another factor that Duke cannot ignore, and that is cost. They all cost much more than digital technology.

Then Duke started shooting again, and unlike before, the next shot was some high-speed slow motion.

A large number of shots in this film use high-speed photography. Duke mainly uses Photo-Sonics 4ER and Panavision lens to shoot, the frame rate can reach 360fps, and Photo-Sonics 4E Rotary Prism, the frame rate can reach 1500fps, in some high-speed photography scenes PanArri 435ESA and HD cameras were also used.

High-speed slow motion is an integral part of "Inception", because the time relationship between the dream world and the real world is very special. Duke hopes to use high-speed photography and drastic changes in speed to achieve narrative effects, not just to pursue Visual wonders.

Next, Duke asked the crew to switch to another set location for shooting. In the film, this is a hotel bar, where the gravity inside will change suddenly, and the weather outside the house will also change suddenly.

The scene built by Hannah Serena's team is tilted at 30 degrees, with a green screen outside the window, which will be replaced with a real street scene later.

In order to achieve the lighting changes, Duke had all the rigs hooked up to a dimmer board. The scene started with a sunset light, so I used a Molebeam light with a CTS filter and a 60-foot long soft light. The box was filled with maxi-brute lights and covered with a diffuser to create an overcast light.

This is a surreal scene with photography skills and lighting. It is a technique of naturalism. All light sources are well-founded. What is extraordinary is the way it changes. Combined with the original tilt of the set, it can create A very uneasy feeling.

Duke always tries to keep the picture from being too complex, and doesn't want to look too heavily lit - or not at all, the secret is to work as quickly and easily as possible without messing it up rush to work.

Another scene, filmed on the third floor of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, has Leonardo's Cobb stepping back into a tub filled with water, awakened from his dream...

In order to improve the effect and show that Cobb returned from a dream to a waking state, Duke required a drastic change in frame rate, reaching 1000fps, and a faster Photo-Sonics camera must be used.

After a busy week of filming in Los Angeles, the filming has come to an end. All the main actors gathered again in the Warner Studios in Burbank, sitting on the set in the inner cabin of the plane, to shoot the last scene play.

"start!"

After Duke's order, the filming kicked off. The main camera first gave Leonardo DiCaprio a close-up, and he opened his eyes. Looking around in a daze and horror...

"We will arrive in Los Angeles in twenty minutes," a flight attendant walked up to him. "Do you need an immigration application form?"

"Thank you." Leonardo was a little dazed.

Then, he looked at the opposite row of seats. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson made eye contact with him, and then smiled. Ken Watanabe immediately picked up the phone and made a call...

"Cut!" Duke shouted to stop.

All the cast and crew looked this way, as if they were waiting for Duke to announce that the filming was over.

However, the words didn't escape Duke's mouth. He stood up from the director's chair, took a turn in front of the set, and said loudly, "Do it again."

then. Duke waved to Leonardo and the others, and several of them walked over one after another and stood nearby.

"Leo, you still maintain the performance just now."

Duke turned to look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson, "Attention you two. In the next filming, you two will look at Leo the way you look at a stranger."

"Looking at strangers?" Neither Joseph Gordon-Levitt nor Scarlett Johansson quite understood Duke's meaning.

Duke didn't give a detailed explanation, and said directly, "You have fifteen minutes to adjust."

Go back to the director monitor. Duke looked at the replay of the shooting just now, but his mind was not on it.

Numerous movie fans enthusiastically participated and interpreted. It can be said to be an important reason for the success of "Inception" at the box office. What he just did was to add a new interpretation. As for whether these interpretations are related to the setting of the film, it doesn't really matter. There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people, and interpretation is only part of the promotion and marketing of this film.

Just like the interpretation of countless fans when "The Matrix" was released, the interpretation will only become a booster for the film's box office.

After Leonardo's hero wakes up from a dream, leaving the characters of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson without any eye contact or facial expression, Duke is trying to expand more possibility of interpretation.

On the one hand, their targets are still sitting in the same cabin, and it is normal that there is no communication between them.

On the other hand, it’s easy to make people think. In fact, Cobb is not a dream stealer at all. The stop or stop of the spinning top has nothing to do with dream stealing. All the stories about dream stealing are about the male protagonist on the first-class plane. A bizarre dream in which the hero simply returns to America to meet his children.

The subsequent shooting had just started, and Duke called to stop again. He made Leonardo aggravate the panic expression when he woke up from the dream, as if he was surprised why the passengers on the plane became dreamers...

Everything is a dream, a wonderful dream that Cobb had on his way home, the so-called story of his wife, his crimes, Dream Stealer, all are things in dreams and have nothing to do with reality.

As long as someone can make such an association, Duke has achieved his goal, and even if no one sees it, he has a huge online army, and it is a breeze to publish this interpretation.

The audience has watched some movies with vague answers to a certain extent, and they always want to seek the truth, but their search for the truth just fell into the trap of the director, production and distribution party's publicity and marketing.

This kind of viral marketing strategy is more clever than the overwhelming advertising bombardment.

Of course, whether it is a film or a related publicity strategy, one must grasp the degree of it. Viral marketing is a double-edged sword. Once done too much, it will only arouse people's disgust.

Fortunately, the publicity and distribution department of Warner Bros. has rich experience in this area, and the strategies formulated are complete enough, so Duke is not too worried about this issue.

The next shooting went smoothly. After two more shots, Duke announced that all the shots of "Inception" were over. Others can enter the holiday, but Duke does not intend to give himself too long. False, because this year's plan is quite tight, just three days later, Anna Prinz joined other post-production team members and transferred to the post-production of "Inception". (to be continued ~^~)

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