Made in Hollywood

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

Being hung on the cradle of the light box by twelve coercions, Scarlett Johansson didn’t feel well. 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 painful. It was hard work, if she hadn't been practicing yoga and exercising since last year, she would not have been able to bear it.

Despite feeling bad, Scarlett still did her best to perform. She knew Duke expected too much of her and didn't want to disappoint Duke.

From the beginning of filming until now, she only complained to Duke at that lunch, and that was the only time she complained.

The cradle was spinning, and Scarlett felt a little dizzy. Directly above her, the camera controlled by the robotic arm quickly spun and slid down. The bulky IMAX camera was so fast that it seemed to hit her in the face.

Scarlett didn't move at all...

"Cut!"

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

This is a human instinctive reaction. When showing the effect of an actor "smashing" the camera, the actor basically does not move much, but let the camera "slam" the actor under the precise control of the mechanical arm. In the play, the camera will hit Scarlett Johansson at a speed of 40 miles per hour, stopping at a position 3 inches away from her, and Scarlett must remain motionless during this process.

Excellent actors can control any of their expressions and instinctive reactions. After Duke's reminder, Scarlett successfully completed the scene next time.

subsequently. Duke gave the crew a break to prepare for a super long shot for the first half of the film.

At the beginning of "Gravity", a nearly 18-minute space shot shocked everyone. Even the most picky and demanding movie fans will be full of imagination for the extremely complicated movement of the camera and the scene scheduling. , CG production seamless long shot worship.

But the crew did not plan to shoot such a long shot, but split the shot into two. It is composed of two long shots spliced ​​together. The previous shot was about 12 and a half minutes long, and then another shot was added to form the whole long shot.

If creating a zero-gravity effect isn't too difficult, then these long shots are a real challenge. This is a long shot in zero gravity.

The absence of gravity, which is where this shot is tricky, is not just zero gravity. Long shots are inherently difficult, and so is zero gravity. Add them together, no, they are not added together. When they are multiplied together, things are even more difficult.

Duke and John Schwartzman have done a lot of discussion and experimentation on this.

The camera movement of these shots was also recorded by the motion capture system in order to match the CG scene. Duke wanted the camera movement to be as natural and smooth as possible, so he did keyframe animation frame by frame. He opted to use a virtual camera system in a small motion capture booth, a small rig that John Schwartzman and his four camera assistants could walk around with. Control the camera parameters and composition, then make some modifications to the recorded track to make it more like it was shot in zero gravity.

Different from the past, Duke believes that long shots can well substitute the audience into the film. The key to a long shot is to be on the scene. For such a special film, it can make the whole picture more realistic, more appropriate, and more straightforward.

The fewer editing points, the more interaction between the audience and the characters, as if the audience is watching everything the characters experience in real time.

During discussions the other day, Duke wanted to try more camera trajectories, but both John Schwartzman and Mike Dawson, who participated in the discussion, advised him not to do so.

According to Duke's plan, at the end of the opening shot, the heroine floats into the vast space. When she starts to float into the distance, I don't need to set an editing point. The camera can follow her in the same shot, so that As soon as the opening two shots can be combined into one shot.

John Schwartzman and Mike Dawson don't recommend it though, they think the best cut is when the heroine floats out, and if it's a chapter of a book, it should be the end of the chapter In a word.

The length of the lens also means that the difficulty of shooting has increased exponentially. They easily persuaded Duke, and they only used one reason-time is not allowed!

Yes, time did not allow it. The production cycle of this film was already extremely tight, and Duke had no time to waste.

And he is not the kind of paranoid person, whether it is a long shot or an edit, it must be suitable for the actual situation of a film at that time. The plot itself is equivalent to photography, sound, performance and color. They are all a filmmaking tool. So what the director has to serve is the movie, not the story.

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

The purpose of filming is not to have the audience sit there dead silent, not to have them sit there and wait for someone to float up and take a close-up.

A long take is like a ballet, not a single second of it has to be tedious.

The director uses the camera to tell the story, from the beginning to the end, whether it is from the big perspective of the environment to the dialogue shot to a single shot to the action shot to another long shot, they are all talking with the camera. If you want to tell everything in one shot, you have to 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 completed. The entire special effects team will do another technical visual preview to assist Duke in deciding how to shoot each shot. Decide how those images on the preview will be shot on the mechanical equipment and light box.

When George Clooney and Scarlett Johansson were ready, the crew kicked off the shooting. Except for John Schwartzman and the four photography assistants, the special effects team used the IRIS robotic arm to operate all the shots Panning, all the timing of the actors’ actions and the displacement of the camera’s perspective, are all precisely calculated and arranged, which is a length that has never been achieved in the previous programmed shots.

In a continuous long shot, showing panoramas, close-ups, and action scenes one after another, it is necessary to find a plan that can show various plots in a single shot at the same time. This is definitely the most difficult part. Gravity and long shots combined are really, really hard.

The whole shooting process was not smooth, and was called to stop by Duke several times. Any small negligence in the shooting would cause everyone's efforts to come to naught. Departments make mistakes all the time.

From a sensory point of view, the lens needs to be impeccable, every detail must be taken care of.

Duke, who is demanding on details, also referred to the IMAX documentary "Hubble Telescope" in the early preparation, and studied the flight trajectory of Hubble Telescope together with NASA astronaut Katie Coleman who served as a consultant for the film , according to the set time of the movie to make the relative positions of the sun and the moon, and make a model of the earth.

What did the Earth look like when the Hubble Telescope was there? What is the position and angle of the sun? All of them were considered by him.

During the shooting, apart from Duke, it was his director of photography and special effects director who consumed the most time and energy.

For many scenes in long shots, the special effects team needs to do a visual preview in advance, otherwise they don’t know where the light should come from, or what special effects should be used at what moment, Tim? Weber's team spent a lot of time simulating lighting, and the line between special effects and cinematography blurred.

There are intersections between the two, but there is no strict boundary.

As a cinematographer, John Schwartzman has more VFX issues to deal with than any cinematographer, and as a VFX guy, Tim Webb has more cinematography issues than any VFX supervisor.

Because in the shooting of such a movie, the two do not need to be so clearly distinguished.

These two long shots were shot for nearly ten days. From the director Duke to John Schwartzman and Tim Webber to the two actors Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney, they were all tortured. exhausted.

When the two long takes, which add up to nearly eighteen minutes, were finally completed, it was like a graduation ceremony for Duke and other filmmakers.

Duke also admitted that the rest of the shots in the movie, taken together, are not as difficult as these two shots.

These two shots of nearly 18 minutes include all the efforts and breakthroughs of the crew in the preparation and technology of this film - robotic arm shots, brand-new lighting methods, and new rendering techniques in CG space. Real shooting perspective, arbitrary character lighting and grand and calm cosmic beauty.

In the words of Tim Weber, when these two long shots are over, it is announced that from now on, weightlessness and space are no longer difficult problems in the movie screen.

During the filming process, Duke and his technical team solved many problems in weightless shooting. With technical assistance, they completely refurbished the method of "wire + green screen + CG post-production" that most Hollywood space exploration films rely on. .

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

The completion of the two long shots also made Duke heave a sigh of relief, and specially took two days off for the crew, but when the crew regrouped for shooting, a special visitor came to his studio. (to be continued ~^~)

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