Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Jeffrey L. Kimball is a middle-aged photographer with messy hair. He has a mustache and large transparent plastic glasses. His speech is very organized and logical.

"Anamorphic widescreen has a unique temperament. I am watching some old films to learn the shooting techniques of this format of film. Is there anything you can teach me?" Ronald asked him.

"The anamorphic screen has something that audiences call a 'cinematic feel', but that is just a misunderstanding by some filmmakers. The so-called 'cinematic feel' is actually just some flaws of the anamorphic widescreen lens. The optical technology at that time used anamorphic Lenses can cause serious distortion, so directors and directors of photography often use some techniques to cover up the distortion in order to avoid it.

Over time, the audience has become familiar and accustomed to blockbusters with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and they always have some special feeling, so they default to the way commercial blockbusters are shot, which is the so-called "movie feel". "

"Very good, I can understand everything you said. I couldn't quite understand what the previous candidates said." Ronald smiled at Kimball. This technically expert photography director candidate seems to be the most compatible with me.

"Let's find a time then, and you can tell me all the taboos about using anamorphic widescreen."

"Actually, lens distortion has improved a lot now. It's just that when actors enter and exit the frame, they have to be careful not to hit the corners of the lens distortion. And when the camera pans, don't go too fast. There's also the anamorphic width. The lens of the screen has a more drastic horizontal stretching effect on the actors. Those actors who are not very thin should not take close-ups of their faces."

"Okay, we'll talk about it then." Ronald shook hands with Kimball and sent away this expert who was very willing to share his knowledge.

This spirit of sharing made Ronald feel good. Kimball's temperament is similar to that of his mentor Walter Murch, with the spiritual dominance of an old-school hippie.

"How's it going?" Bruckheimer, one of the producers, came over and asked Ronald, the choice for the director of photography.

"Just him," Ronald nodded, agreeing to choose Kimball as director of photography. The main reason why I chose this middle-aged man who didn’t have much experience in directing cinematographic films was for Ronald’s sake.

This was Ronald's first time shooting a movie in the 2.35:1 anamorphic format, which required the cooperation of an expert director of photography who was familiar with the situation. Kimball had previously worked in different positions such as lab technician, film editor, stills photographer, second unit photography director, etc., and he was familiar with the one-stop technology of anamorphic widescreen from shooting, development, and editing.

As for artistic control, the two producers were very convinced of the quality of the Saab commercial shot by Ronald.

I believe there is no one in Hollywood who is better at shooting fighter jets than him.

The so-called anamorphic wide screen is a new technology that Hollywood used on a large scale in the 1950s to resist competition from televisions. In order to attract audiences to the cinema, Hollywood at that time tried 3D movies, but the results were not good and the audience did not buy it.

Panavision took a different approach and created a wide screen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Obviously, the audience is more receptive to this kind of screen spectacle that can be viewed without wearing glasses. They were able to see a wider picture on the screen than older films.

This is better than the 1.37 to 1 ratio in the golden age of Hollywood, and the 1.85 to 1 ratio that was used a lot later, and is more acceptable to the audience. Because the technology is relatively expensive, this model is generally only used in blockbusters.

"Where's Don?" Ronald asked Bruckheimer about the whereabouts of his partner.

"He went to negotiate with Paramount's new CEO. Frank Mancuso didn't trust Ned Tanin's vision, so he summoned Don and asked him to report on the progress of the crew."

"Okay then, let's settle on Kimball. If Don doesn't object, I'm going to watch David Lean's movie."

"Or go see Spielberg?"

"Yes, he has the most complete collection. Steven agreed to lend me his studio screening room."

Spielberg began to take a vacation. He was often busy and rarely had the opportunity to go on vacation abroad with his fiancée.

Ronald asked him for help, and Steven agreed to lend him all the copies of David Lean's films he had in his collection.

Spielberg is a fan of David Lean, and David Lean has always shot 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Watching the master's creations allowed Ronald to learn many anamorphic widescreen techniques. .

Christopher Columbus waits for Ronald in the studio next to Spielberg's Universal Studios. He was responsible for the security of the copies and was a guest projectionist showing movies to Ronald.

"Are you working on a new movie again?" Ronald pulled Columbus, who was going to the screening room in the back, and went with him. The two of them were close friends, so it wasn't appropriate for him to be the projectionist, so they simply went to the screening room to chat and watch together.

"Yes, my last screenwriter's movie in Amberlin is already filming." Columbus was very happy with Ronald's friendly gesture and spit a lot of bitterness on Ronald.

After writing two films, "Gremlins" and "Young Sherlock Holmes," Columbus was not favored by Amblin's manager, Kathleen Kennedy, and was assigned to write another film. This is "The Goonies" being filmed

This is another children's adventure story. Columbus racked his brains to come up with many plot points that are different from the gremlins, making this movie very interesting.

But he didn't get the chance to direct, and Amblin also gave him the job of screenwriter. This made Columbus dissatisfied. He happened to be unhappy living in Los Angeles and wanted to return to his hometown in New York.

"You have to know that Ann Bolin is a small studio and they can't take risks. Since you have shown great talent in screenwriting, their safest way is to let you continue to be a screenwriter. But your talent will be As people can see, I think someone from the seven major producers is already interested in you, giving you the opportunity to independently direct a small-budget film."

Ronald admired Columbus very much. It was very difficult to write a children's movie well. This may be why Amblin was reluctant to let him direct.

"It's a pity that my screenwriters are all children's films. My agent told me that the top seven companies in Hollywood now think that children's films are Mr. Spielberg's specialty. Others want to make them, but there is no chance. Besides, I have nothing here. Friends, the parties are loud and noisy, I want to go back to New York and find a job where I can be quiet, and my wife also wants to go back to New York.”

Ronald had no choice but to tap Columbus on the shoulder, and David Lean's masterpiece "Lawrence of Arabia" appeared on the screen.

"Do you like David Lean's movies?" Ronald asked.

"It's okay. Steven likes it very much. He said this was the movie that gave him the idea of ​​becoming a director. You'd better go to the screening room and watch it. I'll sit here later. Steven has upgraded the automatic projector. You can watch it. Go to midfield and change."

"I like it too, but I don't know how to shoot this kind of masterpiece that inserts my own thoughts into a historical story." Ronald began to look at the screen. "Lawrence of Arabia" is a blockbuster parody of a classical drama, with a five-minute break in the middle.

"I borrowed these movies mainly because Lean shot a lot of anamorphic widescreen movies, and I came to learn from them." After the intermission, Ronald chatted with Columbus, who was sitting in the front.

"That's it, I've seen it many times. Amber Lin is also the latest 'The Goonies', and has just started to use anamorphic widescreen. The previous ET and Gremlins are all 1.85. You see, the framing is actually very interesting. This There are close-ups of three figures in a row in the shot.”

Columbus pointed to the shot on the screen. Generally, a 1.85 wide screen would be full with three close-ups of characters, but in a 2.35 anamorphic wide screen, more than one third of the screen would be blank.

Ronald nodded and took note of this knowledge. Since the anamorphic wide screen is said to be specially developed for screen spectacles, it must remember to give the audience enough spectacles. In his notebook, he drew a few strokes on the back half of a fighter jet, and then drew a much longer flame behind the engine. The composition here can actually open up some patterns.

…

"Actually, I've seen you before." After Kimball signed on as the director of photography for "Top Gun," he followed Ronald to the Navy's Miramar base to check out the cameras modified by Grumman on the Tomcat fighter jets. lens.

"Oh, what should I say?" Ronald didn't remember seeing this person before.

“My last job was as a DP on ‘The Billionaires,’ and I was behind the camera watching the whole thing when you showed up and scared Christian Slater away.”

"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed a little awkwardly, and Kimball saw his jealous scene.

"Helen is a girl who is very suitable for filming. Her appearance and face shape do not look too big even when shot with a 2.35 anamorphic lens. She is a natural screen beauty."

"Yeah, what do you think of the performance of the heroine McGillis in front of the anamorphic widescreen lens?" Fortunately, Kimball is a technology geek, and the conversation always revolves around technology.

"She is very good, but not all angles are suitable. The right side of her face is more suitable for the photo, and the framing is slightly sideways, which is also in line with the shooting characteristics of the anamorphic widescreen lens. It just so happens that the left side of Tom Cruise's face is more photogenic, and they shot A couple scene is the most suitable, as it won't steal the other's limelight and will be harmonious. It would be terrible if you find two celebrities whose more photogenic faces face the same direction."

The two discussed the technical details all the way to the tarmac. There Grumman engineers are waiting for Ronald to come over to accept the modification project.

Kimball climbed under the landing gear, carefully inspected the external pod, and even broke it twice hard. The lens of the pod did not move at all. He gave Ronald a thumbs up, a very good sign.

Then he climbed into the cockpit of the plane and sat in the radar officer's position in the back seat, which is where the actors would stay during filming.

"Ronald, there's a big problem here," Kimball shouted from above.

Ronald quickly climbed up the ladder with the Grumman engineer and asked Kimball in the cockpit, "What's going on?"

"Look," Kimball twisted his body from side to side, "the space in the cockpit is very small, and your camera can't fit here. We may not be able to capture the pilot's subjective perspective in the air battle you mentioned."

"No, I specially selected Alai's new model camera for modification. Their camera is one size smaller than Panavision's. I tried it and it works." The engineer took out the modification drawing and looked at the camera in the back seat of the cockpit. Give them space to explain. "

"We are using an anamorphic lens," Ronald said with a gloomy face. He did not have a strong technical background and had forgotten the huge size of the anamorphic lens.

Anamorphic widescreen film is still 35mm normal film color film. In order to produce a 2.35:1 super widescreen effect on the film, the photographic lens equipped will create a distorted picture.

Normal scenes were deliberately distorted through anamorphic lenses and stored on film with an aspect ratio of 35mm. When it was shown in the cinema, a restoration anamorphic lens was added in front of the projector to restore the distorted picture to the normal ratio of 2.35:1.

Therefore, anamorphic lenses are all aspherical lens groups, which are much larger than normal 1.85 widescreen spherical lenses and cannot fit in the cockpit.

"What should I do? How about you use a normal lens to shoot this air combat shot, and then enlarge it to 2.35 when developing it?" The engineer came up with an idea.

"That won't work. The distortion of the anamorphic lens is very unique, and its focus is also different from that of a normal spherical lens. The audience can see the difference between the two at a glance. There is something going on here." Ronald slapped the chair on the cockpit. .

The engineer only modified it according to Ronald's ideas, but the director of photography was the person who had the deepest understanding of photography from an overall perspective.

Ronald looked at Kimball. If he had been asked to join earlier and take charge of technical issues in photography during the preparatory stage, there might have been a solution.

"I have a way. There is a new technology called Super 35, which can use a spherical lens on 35mm film to shoot shots that store a 2.35 aspect ratio."

"Is this impossible?" Ronald looked at Kimball. "There is a synchronized audio track next to the 35mm film. The width that can actually be used to store images is narrower than the film. It cannot fit the 2.35 picture unless you……"

"Yes, unless the audio track is removed. This is the method used by the Super 35. You first use the Super 35's small spherical lens to shoot this set of subjective shots of the pilot. When we develop and print in the later stage, we can also use optical The purge method is to use an optical printer equipped with an anamorphic lens to print on 35 film with a sound track."

"Really?" Ronald was overjoyed. It would be good to have a technical expert. "Take me to see it and let's do an experiment."

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