Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After returning to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, Ronald went straight to an open space in the suburbs without resting. This is where the special effects artists of Industrial Light \u0026 Magic study the shooting of fighter models. This is the most important part of the next shooting.

Several special effects artists have seen the aerial footage shot by Ronald and have studied it here for several weeks.

"We tried many methods, and finally decided to use a slow-motion lens to solve the problem of aerial shooting of the model."

The F-14A model, which is larger than a person's outstretched arm, is lying quietly on a table.

This large model aircraft is equipped with two small gasoline engines and remote control facilities. The sunshine in California is very good. Against the background of blue sky and white clouds, the camera is shot from a long distance, and the viewfinder of the telephoto lens is also small.

In this way, only part of the model aircraft can be photographed in the viewfinder, and with the background sky, it is not easy for ordinary audiences to tell that this is a model aircraft.

It is not easy to see the distant view, but many people can see the close view, especially when the model aircraft lens and the real shot lens are edited together, there is always a different feeling. In order to make the picture more realistic, the special effects artists of Industrial Light and Magic also thought of two ways to deal with it.

"This is a special paint. The texture on the film is very similar to metal." The special effects artist asked Ronald to look through the lens at the effect of the metal paint on the wooden model.

"Very good." Ronald closed one eye and looked through the camera lens for a long time. The model looked like a real plane in all aspects, but it was not heavy enough and a little light. However, this was determined by the characteristics of the model, and there was no good way.

"We prepared this," the special effects artist seemed to see Ronald's thoughts and brought an electric drill.

"Woo... woo..." He turned on the electric drill, and the high-pitched sound scared Ronald, "What are you going to...?"

"This is the method we thought of when Lucas was filming Star Wars," the special effects artist inserted the electric drill into a round piece of wood. With a "woo..." sound, the drill bit drilled in.

"This is a little off-center," the special effects artist put the wood on the table next to the lens.

The wood was driven by the electric drill, and the eccentric round wooden board vibrated again and again, causing the table to vibrate slightly, which in turn caused the lens to vibrate slightly, and the filmed picture also shook slightly.

The up-scaling lens switch was turned on, and the fighter plane shot against the background of blue sky and white clouds now had a slight tremor of a real engine, which immediately made the sense of reality full.

"Very good, I can't even tell the difference between the model and the real shot, except for the noise of the electric drill."

Ronald praised with satisfaction, the noise of the electric drill can be easily replaced with the pre-recorded engine sound during the post-dubbing.

"Why add a little vibration, I feel that this is not a model, but a real plane?" Ronald felt very mysterious and asked the special effects artist for advice.

"We have carefully compared the model shots and your actual shots. The main problem is that the model will appear light and floating under the interference of the wind, and the actual aircraft will vibrate slightly under the action of the engine.

We use slow motion shooting and then add vibration, so that the floating will not be noticed by the audience, and the vibration will be discovered by the audience as the main feature of the picture. It took us several days to experiment with how to use this electric drill to maintain the appropriate vibration."

Ronald felt that the special effects fee was worth it. Industrial Light and Magic is worthy of being the most experienced model stunt team in the industry.

"This is a model prepared for the explosion and missile launch scene."

The special effects artist took Ronald to another corner of the open field.

The two aircraft were also painted black and lay quietly on the table. These two models have no engines and remote control facilities, but there are several hooks with steel wires installed.

"We expect that after being hit by the missile, this F-14A and this MiG-28 will be disconnected at the right place, catch fire, and explode."

The special effects artist pointed to the pre-made gap on the model and explained to Ronald. "Flash and explosives are installed here. After remote detonation, it can break at the place we want in advance."

"Very exquisite." Ronald reached out to touch the model.

"Don't use force," the special effects artist quickly stopped Ronald, "In order to ensure that it breaks here, we used a patented material called 'eggshell' to make this part of the fuselage and wings."

"Oh? Eggshell?" Ronald squatted down and looked at the material of that part carefully. If you don't look closely, you can't see the difference.

"Yes, it means that eggshells are fragile. Once there is an explosion, it can be guaranteed to break here."

"Then," the special effects artist took Ronald to a large screen.

"We tried the effects of blue screen and green screen, and the effect of steel wire under blue sky and white clouds is not very good." He gestured to the staff to put down the screen, and there was a scene of blue sky and white clouds on it.

"So we just used the model to shoot the effect of missile destruction against the background of blue sky and white clouds."

Ronald took out the director's viewfinder and looked at the screen carefully. Sure enough, in the camera lens, the model and the screen were real enough, especially under the backlight of the sun, many details were concealed. It was just in line with my own photography style. "

"What about the steel wire?" Ronald asked the model maker. Without the steel wire, how can we shoot the plane in the air?

"We have William." The model called to a staff member on the crane, "Show it to Director Ronald."

"Three, two, one!" The staff member named William reached out on the crane and threw a smaller model airplane.

The plane was given an initial speed, passed through the blue sky and white clouds, and then landed steadily in a safety net.

"William is the most accurate among our team of more than 40 people. He is the only one who can throw into the safety net ten times out of ten."

"Thank you, you did a good job, William!" Ronald stretched out his hand to say hello.

William smiled honestly at him, he was a very shy person.

"When the weather is bad, we will add a headlight, a 10K strong light, through a filter, to simulate the lighting of the sunset. However, it still seems to have less power. You know, artificial lights are always inferior to the sun."

The special effects artist turned to Ronald to explain a big light on a stand next to him.

"Fortunately, our explosion scenes don't have high lighting requirements, so they won't interfere."

"I'm very satisfied. It seems that you did a very good job when I was shooting other shots." Ronald expressed his appreciation for the professionalism of Industrial Light and Magic.

"George said, you are also an expert, we must show some real skills."

Ronald shook hands with more than 40 special effects artists one by one, "I will put your names on the subtitles at the end of the film. This is a small tribute from me."

"Oh, director, you are so kind. I want to marry you and give you a son." Two female special effects artists screamed.

Everyone is very happy. Not every director and producer in Hollywood will add subtitles to the name of everyone in the team. Lucas is the first person in the industry to do this, but Industrial Light and Magic has taken over other companies' business. Sometimes, sometimes only the name of the person in charge can be included in the subtitles.

"Keep dreaming, Jenny." The bearded special effects artist next to him began to tease Jenny about taking advantage of Ronald.

"We film directors are similar to you. Our work is very irregular and it is difficult to find a girlfriend. Let's hug each other." Ronald simply hugged several female special effects artists. It made them grin with joy, as if they were being greatly respected.

In the eyes of artists, these special effects artists are all nerds. They ignore them as long as the effect is achieved, and there are many directors who scold them if the effect is not achieved. Few directors take them so seriously.

…

"It's Art Shore," Don Simpson and Bruckheimer enlisted the famed aerobatics star.

"Leave it to me. I can simulate all the special effects subjective shots for you with my super chipmunk propeller plane."

Art Scholler was America's most powerful aerobatic pilot. In the 1960s and 1970s, he represented America many times, defeating Union and East German aerobatic pilots and winning the aerobatic championship.

After becoming famous, he opened a flying school and toured the states of America performing various stunts. He is known for getting on planes with his dog and performing stunts.

Many pilots in the Navy and Air Force first fell in love with flying because they saw him perform at a carnival in their hometown when they were children.

Several people went through the aerobatic events one by one. The camera was mounted in the cabin of Art Shore's Super Chipmunk, and many of the pilot's subjective shots were simulated using this propeller aircraft. Anyway, the Super Chipmunk is not slow enough to look real.

"For this horizontal spiral, let's use a model. I don't want to film such a dangerous action." Ronald saw in the table a shot of the Lone Ranger and the Goose falling into a horizontal spiral.

"It doesn't matter. Although it is not easy for Super Chipmunk to make a horizontal spiral, it is as easy for her to make an inverted horizontal spiral as drinking water. At that time, just put the film upside down, just like the subjective shot taken on a plane that spirals horizontally. Blue sky , ocean, blue sky, ocean." Art Sholer made a spinning motion with his hand.

Seeing that Ronald was still unsure about paying attention, Art Shore assured him, "I have to do this move every time I perform. I have been doing it for nearly thirty years. You don't have to worry."

"Okay, but please pay attention to safety. I would rather use a model to handle any action that is too dangerous. I have seen that their models are very effective." Ronald turned to explain to the two producers.

"This director values ​​​​models so much. He is so young and may not have seen my stunts. Only aerobatic flying is the closest to the actual situation." Art Sholer remained silent. He wanted the director to get to know himself well. Strength.