Made in Hollywood

The set of Gravity is very different from the set of other movies!

Accompanied by an executive from Warner Bros., Christopher Nolan walked into the studio, probably because Warner Bros. people had already greeted him, and no one came to stop him. When he walked near the light box, He took the initiative to stop, because the crew was filming, and he was also a director. Although he was only hanging out in the independent film circle before, he knew that no director likes others to interrupt his filming.

Standing here, Christopher Nolan watched the intense filming of the crew, without saying a word, just observing carefully.

The reason why he appeared in Warner Studios is because a film project about space was chosen by Legendary Pictures, and Legendary Pictures will cooperate with Warner Bros. This film will be a commercial masterpiece with an investment of more than 100 million US dollars , whether it is Warner Bros. or Legendary Pictures, they have a little lack of confidence in him.

Christopher Nolan also knows that this is his first time entering the mainstream film industry, and he must not mess up, otherwise he may not have a second chance, so he specially asked people from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. to come to Duke Luo Senberg's visit to the space film set can also be regarded as accumulating experience for the subsequent shooting.

After watching it for a while, Christopher Nolan found that the design of the light box was very ingenious. In the scene of Scarlett Johansson being filmed, there was only the light box on the set, plus the mechanical equipment and the camera, and there was no more.

The big cranes and large props that were needed on the space film studios in the past are gone. Here, Duke Rosenberg seems to only need actors, a light box, the main creators, and a group of technicians with laptops. enough.

Arms folded. Christopher Nolan went around and looked at the studio with light boxes as the main body with interest. During shooting, the actors and the camera would move a little bit. On the right, you can see a basket-like thing. The actors can stand in it and be controlled by the computer. Control rotation and alignment.

But Christopher Nolan watched for more than ten minutes. It is found that this device rarely turns 45 degrees, and it seems that the crew is deliberately controlling it.

Thinking that the crew was shooting a space movie, Christopher Nolan quickly understood why. Once that happened, you would see the tension between the muscles on the actor’s body, and the shooting had to be completely without tension. , because that's how it should be in a zero-gravity environment.

If the actor is completely upside down. Then all the blood will run to their heads, and all the muscles will be pressed to their necks.

So always try not to move them, try to give the action to the camera, and let the camera move around them.

Christopher Nolan couldn't help secretly admiring this idea after flashing through his mind. Duke? Rosenberg what a brilliant means!

The filming entered a short interval. Christopher Nolan saw that the crew was preparing for the next scene, so he didn't bother him, and had a few words with the Warner Bros. executive.

The other party obviously comes here often. Very knowledgeable about the crew and filming.

When he asked if there were other ways to shoot the zero-gravity scene, the Warner Bros. executive said. There is another technique to create the zero-gravity effect.

Pointing to Christopher Nolan on the other side of the studio, he said, In some shots, Scarlett Johansson would be suspended from a contraption. And then manipulated like a puppet to make zero The effect of gravity.

The stuntman hangs her up at four points, and each point is connected by three different sensor lines. He explained in detail, So basically the point of her is divided into triangles, and the stuntman only needs to shake And wiggle it to control her.

The crew switched to that side at this time, and after the filming started again, what Christopher Nolan saw was just like what the people from Warner said, the stunt personnel were really manipulating Scarlett Johansson, Scarlett Johansson was They can really turn it upside down, and they can move the whole device skillfully up, down, left, and right.

And this is obviously a device that combines manual and computer control.

Therefore, the team of this crew has to coordinate and manipulate the work of different parts of the personnel, the work of the computer personnel, the work of the camera personnel, the use of lighting, the performance of Scarlett Johansson...

As a director, in Christopher Nolan's eyes, these have to be viewed as a whole.

He naturally thought of the space film he was preparing, which also had similar scenes. It seemed that Duke Rosenberg's shooting method was the best solution.

Although he is well-known in the independent film circle as a real-time fanatic and a supporter of traditional technology, Christopher Nolan understands that it is impossible to make space films without using computer technology.

Before coming here, Christopher Nolan considered many traditional weightless shooting methods, such as letting actors hang wires, etc., but these most basic methods are only suitable for shooting simple shots.

He also made an in-depth study of the weightless shooting methods in the two famous Hollywood classic space films 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13.

In the past, among the many shots expressing weightlessness, one of the most classic methods should be the early film master Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey, in which a camera is fixed in a circular room, and then let The actor runs, and the camera looks as if the actor is running along the rooftops.

This method, born in 1967, made Christopher Nolan admire Kubrick's ingenuity, but the problems it solved were very limited. It could only express a few shots, and it couldn't solve the problem of weightlessness of objects other than people. .

After that, almost no one has used a similar method again.

Another great space movie Apollo 13 once again showed the magical and extremely realistic weightless shots on the screen.

In Apollo 13, the shooting of the shots inside the space capsule was all done in NASA's training device Vomit Comet. Christopher Nolan specially asked someone to investigate. It was a Boeing KC135. Take all the crew members to a high altitude and then fall freely for a period of time. During this period, all objects and environments in the cabin are relatively weightless, and a flight can obtain about 25 seconds of weightlessness.

Director Ron Howard extravagantly played 612 weightless flights, and shot a lot of weightless time shots here. This method completely solved the weightlessness problem, but it was unable to shoot the weightless shots outside the cabin.

And not everyone can rent and afford NASA equipment.

Christopher Nolan asked himself no such weight.

Compared with these two methods, Duke Rosenberg's shooting is obviously more realistic, and can actually solve many problems. Nolan can also realize the principle of using these settings after the other party has finished shooting. Appropriate modifications that meet his shooting needs can be directly applied to future shootings.

Christopher Nolan confirmed that it was indeed a worthwhile trip by himself. Just standing by and watching, Duke Rosenberg gave him a lot of inspiration.

Especially the light box, it really opened Christopher Nolan's eyes, and he can only praise him as one of the representatives of Hollywood technical directors.

There are a huge number of LED lights in the light box, which is basically like a huge hanging TV screen. Nolan understands these very common technologies, based on the same kind of giant screens commonly used in rock bands and gymnasiums. But it is these ordinary technologies, after proper modification, it greatly facilitates and simplifies the shooting process. The most direct effect is that if the lights here or there on the set are darker or the color needs to be changed, the crew does not have to go to Move the lights around, and just control them directly on the big screen.

And looking at the shooting for half a day, Christopher Nolan also saw other benefits. This thing is not just as simple as the correct lighting, but also gives the actors a sense of reality about the surroundings. When filming Scarlett Johansson descending to the space station , she could indeed see the space station getting closer to her through the LED screen, and she had a sense of what was happening around her.

Also, in the shooting just now, the director Duke? Duke Rosenberg asked her to look at something on the screen and reach out to grab a doorknob, so she could really see these things on the screen.

The LED lights themselves are rough and not well blended.

As soon as the Warner Bros. executive finished speaking, another voice sounded next to him, Jamie, it's not a big deal, because it looks better when there are more lights mixed together.

Hey Duke, you bastard...

After saying hello to Jamie Johnson, Duke turned to look at the British director next to him who was about the same age as himself. In fact, he noticed the other party when he first entered the studio, but he has been busy with work until now. time.

Hi, Director Rosenberg, I'm Christopher Nolan, and I'm also a director.

Christopher Nolan offered Duke his hand, and Duke shook his hand, Hello, Director Nolan.

Duke is very calm, as if he had never had any relationship with Christopher Nolan in the past. In fact, he is also very calm. Some things are done, he will neither feel guilty nor feel guilty, and Christopher Nolan It is also related to him that the project can get the support of Warner Bros.

When I went to Warner Bros. a few months ago, Duke heard about Christopher Nolan and the name of a space project, so I asked Tina Fey to check it out, and then recommended him to Warner Bros. Otherwise, an independent film director , there may be a huge investment of $160 million from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. in the first project to enter the mainstream film industry. (to be continued ~^~)

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