The tall light box stood in the middle of the studio, and 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 of the camera hanging on the robotic arm sliding down.》,

Scarlett Johnson was hung on the cradle of the light box by twelve pressures. The light box was stuffy and hot, and it made people feel very isolated. The shooting time was often very long. The whole process was very hard. If she hadn't been practicing yoga and exercising since last year, she wouldn't be able to bear it.

Despite the bad feeling, Scarlett still performed with all her strength. She knew that Duke had too many expectations for her and did not want to disappoint Duke.

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

The cradle was spinning, and Scarlett felt a little dizzy. Just above her, the camera controlled by the robotic arm quickly rotated and fell. The bulky IMA camera was very fast and seemed to hit her face.

Scarlett didn't move at all...

“ut!”

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

This is a human instinctive reaction. When showing the effect of the actor "slamming" the camera, the actors basically don't move much, but let the camera "slamming" the actor under the precise control of the robotic arm. In this scene, the camera has to smash it at 40 miles per hour at Scarlett Johnson, stopping at 3 inches away from her, and during this process, Scarlett must remain motionless.

The outstanding actor can control any of his expressions and instinctive reactions. After Duke's reminder, Scarlett successfully completed the scene next time.

Duke then asked the crew to rest and prepare to shoot the super long shot of the first half of the film.

In the opening of "Gravity", a space shot that lasted nearly 18 minutes shocked everyone. Even the most picky and demanding movie fans would be extremely complicated to move this camera, and the scene schedule was full of imagination. G made seamless long shots to admire.

But the crew did not plan to shoot such a long shot, but divided the shot into two. It was made of two long shots. The previous shot was about 12 and a half minutes, and then another shot was connected to form the entire long shot.

If it is not difficult to create a zero gravity effect, then these long lenses are really a challenge. They are long lenses without gravity.

Without gravity, this lens is the tricky part. It is not just that zero gravity is difficult to express. Long lenses are difficult, and zero gravity is also. Adding them is not right. They are not added together, but they are multiplying together, and things are even more difficult.

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

When these lenses are shot, the camera's movements must be recorded by the motion capture system to match the g scene. Duke wants the camera's movement to be as natural and smooth as possible, so he chose to use the virtual camera system in a small motion capture studio than a frame of keyframe animation. John Schwartzman and his four photography assistants can walk around with this small bracket to control the camera parameters and composition. Then make some modifications to the recorded trajectory to make it more like shooting under zero gravity.

Unlike in the past, Duke believes that long shots can well immerse the audience in the film. The key to long shots is to be immersive. For such a special film, it can make the entire picture more realistic, more appropriate and more straightforward.

The fewer editing points are, the more interactions the audience has with the characters, just like what the audience experiences when watching the characters in real time.

During the discussion a few days ago, Duke wanted to try more camera movement trajectories, but John Schwartzman and Mike Dawson, who participated in the discussion, both suggested that he should not do so.

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

But neither John Schwartzman nor Mike Dawson recommends doing this. They think that the heroine is the best editing point when she floats out. If this is a chapter of a book, this should be the last sentence of this chapter.

The lengthening of the lens means that the shooting difficulty increases in geometric multiples. They easily convinced Duke, and only used one reason for not allowing it!

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

Moreover, he is not the kind of paranoid person. Whether it is long shots or editing, 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 kind of filmmaking tool, so the director needs to serve the movie, not the story.

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

The purpose of filming is not to let the audience sit there in silence, nor to let them sit there waiting for someone to float up and take a close-up.

A long shot is like a ballet, and it cannot make people feel bored for a second to deal with.

Directors use cameras to tell stories from beginning to end. Whether from the big vision of the environment to the dialogue lens to a single lens to the action lens to another big vision lens, they are talking with the lens. If you want to finish everything in one lens, you must come up with a way to include all these types.

In the time-consuming and labor-intensive preparation, the visual preview was recognized by Duke and the simulated lighting was completed. The entire special effects team will also make another technical visual preview to assist Duke in deciding how to shoot each lens and how the preview images should be shot on mechanical equipment and light boxes.

After George Clooney and Scarlett Johnson were ready, the crew kicked off the filming. In addition to shooting by John Schwartzman and four photography assistants, the special effects team used the i-day robotic arm to operate all the camera shakes. All the action time points and the displacement of the camera's perspective angle were accurately calculated and arranged, which was a length that had never been reached by the programming lens before.

In a continuous long shot, panoramic, close-up, and action scenes must be shown one solution to show various different plots in a single shot. This is definitely the most difficult part, so it is really, very difficult to combine zero gravity and long shots together.

The entire shooting process was not going smoothly, and Duke called it to stop several times. Any minor negligence in the shooting would cause everyone's efforts to vain. The length of the shot and the complex effect to be displayed determine that from the actors to the technical department, they will make mistakes constantly.

Sensoryly, this lens needs to be impeccable and must be taken care of in every detail.

Duke, who was demanding details, also referred to the IMA documentary "Hubble Telescope" in his early preparations, and worked with NASA astronaut Katie Coleman, who was the consultant of the film, to specifically study the flight trajectory of the Hubble Telescope, and to create the relative position of the sun, the moon, and the model of the earth according to the set time of the movie.

At the Hubble Telescope's location at that time, what was the Earth like? What was the position and angle of the sun? He considered it one by one.

In addition to Duke, the one who consumed the most time and energy during the shooting was his photography director and special effects director.

For many scenes in the long shot, the special effects team needs to preview the visually in advance, otherwise they will not know where the light should come from, or what special effects pictures should be used at what moments. Tim Webber's team spent a lot of time to simulate lighting, and the boundary between special effects and photography became blurred.

There is a cross between the two, but there is no strict boundary.

As a photographer, John Schwartzman has to deal with more special effects problems than any photographer, and for Tim Weber, the special effects expert, there are more photography problems than any special effects director.

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

The two long shots took nearly ten days, from director Duke to John Schwartzman and Tim Webber to Scarlett Johnson and George Clooney, both of whom were tortured and exhausted.

When the two long shots that were added together, which were nearly eighteen minutes, were finally completed, it was like a graduation ceremony for the producers of Duke and other films.

Duke also admitted that the rest of the film, combined, is not as difficult as these two shots.

These two shots, which are nearly eighteen minutes, include all the efforts and breakthrough robotic arm shots in the crew's film preparation and technical work, a brand new lighting method, and a new rendering technology in g space, real-time shooting perspectives, arbitrarily changing character lighting and grand and calm cosmic beauty.

In the words of Tim Webber, when these two long shots end, it is declared that weightlessness and space will no longer be a problem in the film.

During the filming process, Duke and his technical team solved many problems of weightless shooting, and with technical assistance, they completely renovated the shooting of most Hollywood space exploration films relying on the "Wia + Green Screen + G late stage" method.

It is no exaggeration to say that after this, those who can surpass this shooting may have to go to space to take real shots.

The completion of two long shots also made Duke feel relieved and specially gave the crew two days off. However, when the crew gathered to shoot again, a special visitor came to his studio. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!