Made in Hollywood

"The battle of "The Dark Knight Rises" begins, revealing secrets on set and behind the scenes!"

Just entering October, news like this is flooding the Internet to remind movie fans that the new work directed by Duke has entered the shooting stage.

Websites such as Yahoo Entertainment and Instant Share also received a lot of information from Warner Bros. on their own initiative.

"Duke Rosenberg's production team will now be shooting in Los Angeles for a period of two weeks. Therefore, the paparazzi in the City of Angels are all ready to go. I believe there will be a lot of new news hitting your vision every day. nerve."

The next day, the "Los Angeles Times" revealed, "According to the latest inside information, an important supporting role in "The Dark Knight Rises" will die, which directly leads to the unpredictable direction of the film."

Subsequently, Yahoo Entertainment published a photo of Cillian Murphy entering the Hughes Aircraft Factory with the caption "Reappearance of the Scarecrow".

"The scarecrow played by Cillian Murphy appeared in Duke's first two Batman movies, and he will appear again this time! In "The Dark Knight Rises", his ostensible identity is that of Gotham City. New judge! When he takes office, he will sentence the rich and the social elite to death or exile, which may be why Gotham is in turmoil."

These are the news released by the crew on their own initiative, which will not cause spoilers and can attract the attention of the public.

The Hughes Aircraft Factory, where Duke has already started filming, is a restricted area for media reporters. The entire crew is busy filming intense and complex action scenes, and has no time to deal with media reporters.

Duke first shot the film's aerial action sequences, in which Bane planned and executed a deadly hijacking and kidnapping that sparked a riot.

Most of this part of the scene was shot in the huge hangar of the Hughes Aircraft Factory. Anna Prinz has led a team to shoot the location material, and then use CGI technology to replace the background green screen with real scenes in post-production .

In the studio. A huge C-130 Hercules transport plane and a small business jet model have been built long ago, and with the assistance of more than a dozen crane arms, the "flying" in the air has been realized.

The stuntmen hung the wires, seemingly thrilling, but in fact they completed the hijacking action from one plane to another safely in front of the camera surrounded by green screens.

Sitting behind the monitor, Duke focused on the real-time transmission.

A huge model of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft was suspended from above the hijacked aircraft. Four stuntmen playing terrorists were tethered by cables, flew out of the cargo hold, landed on the wing of the CIA plane, and then fired violently at the windows of the plane.

Then, they tethered the special plane that was completely out of control to the Hercules transport plane.

Duke's directing style is to use post-production places to absolutely not take risks for on-site shooting, so most of the opening scene. All done in front of a green screen in the studio.

Even so, this action still has great difficulty and danger. From the beginning to the end, it all depends on the high degree of cooperation between various departments in terms of timing and precision, and it is carried out in an orderly manner.

In order to successfully film this high-altitude opening scene and ensure the personal safety of all staff. The crew started various preparations several months in advance, and did many things that challenged historical records and even broke traditional practices, but Duke was still very cautious in filming. Because he firmly believes that all protective measures are necessary.

before shooting. The visual effects team from Industrial Light \u0026 Magic created a soundtrack, a low-resolution computer animation, to give a preview of the work of each department, so as to catch possible problems in time.

Via preview visual effects animation. Special effects team, special effects team, visual effects team and other departments can clearly know which part of their functions will play a role in real shooting, which can be of great help to the team to better complete their respective work.

Before filming the hijackers leaping from the C-130 Hercules transport plane to the CIA's business jet, the stunt director Jimmy Carter also did a lot of preparations to ensure the maximum personal safety for the high-altitude stunt performers.

Don't look at just four people grabbing four ropes, flying out of the cabin from the tail of the plane, and landing on another plane, but it is not an easy task to cooperate with the filming of the crew, especially the safety issue, which is a must for the crew. to consider.

Before shooting with real people, Duke asked Jimmy Carter to make countless simulation demonstrations with dummies and various equipment, and took various emergency precautions, including cutting the rope at any time, and double-protected wires, etc. .

Fortunately, God willing, none of these measures have been used so far.

Due to the setting of the script, the fuselage of the CIA's special plane will eventually fall, so the crew's preparations on the ground must not be sloppy at all. The power falling from above the studio cannot be ignored by anyone.

When everything was in place, Duke and director of photography John Schwartzman took an open elevator and captured all the shots in the air. Adequate preparation and extreme professionalism resulted in efficiency and precision. The original plan was to take nine days. The aerial drama completed in the film was actually filmed in only two days.

In the desperate struggle in the cabin, Duke moved to the airship hangar of the Hughes Aircraft Factory to shoot. Hannah Serena and her team made a section of the fuselage on a gimbal, which can be vertical It can be turned upside down freely in the horizontal direction, and can be tilted quickly, which thoroughly tested the balance ability of everyone in front of and behind the stage of the crew.

"I don't know why when Duke was directing the set, the actors would always do somersaults or turn them on their backs," DP John Schwartzman apparently recalled when he was filming "Gravity." You Xin, "Obviously, shooting like this is very strenuous and difficult, but the effect on the big screen must be very good."

His words also gave Dwayne Johnson and others a little bit of comfort when they were turned over.

These opening action scenes are completely shot with IMAX cameras. In addition, during the entire filming process, IMAX cameras will also play their part as the protagonists, completing most of the action plots.

Regarding the cooperation with IMAX, Duke also told the media when he was interviewed in and out of the Hughes Aircraft Factory.

"I'm a big fan of shooting with IMAX cameras,"

Facing the reporter's recording pen, Duke emphasized, "Because it can zoom in and relax the picture, and maximize the scale and proportion. In the last "Dark Knight" and other films, I have already experienced its extraordinary Skills, through continuous learning and research, our technology has become more and more mature, and the exposure index and other aspects can better serve the film. The continuous update of technology has continuously improved our shooting standards."

Nowadays, a film is shot with a large number of IMAX cameras, which is already one of the selling points, and Duke's words are also for publicity.

John Schwartzman, who was interviewed with Duke, fully agreed with Duke's statement, "In terms of picture and sound quality, IMAX provides an immersive viewing experience because the format and clarity of the picture are presented in front of human eyes. The expansive, immersive feeling, combined with the high-fidelity surround sound, is hard to forget. We spent three months working with Panasonic and IMAX to reorganize the viewfinder on the camera, and The lens has been improved so that even in the dark environment of the machine, it can shoot extremely high-quality images. All these improvements have achieved many details that we could not achieve in the previous two films."

However, during the shooting of the film, the bulky cameras caused a lot of trouble for John Schwartzman and his camera team. Re-cut the welds to hold these hulking guys even tighter.

When shooting ground scenes, the crew placed thick aluminum plates on micro-moving rails to create a level working platform for the cameras.

In all scenes shot with IMAX cameras, Duke requires two-camera shooting. At least one of the three technicians stationed by the IMAX company on the crew must be on the set to assist John Schwartzman's camera crew in dealing with some high-speed shooting. Difficult shooting operations, and temporary repair work to ensure the smooth progress of the crew's work.

Generally speaking, the camera is no different from other cameras in terms of film loading, film movement and operability, but there will be many accidents when changing film, which will lead to card failure. If the card phenomenon is too serious, this camera The camera can only be temporarily removed from work and dragged to the workshop of IMAX's branch in Los Angeles for professional disassembly and repair.

To a certain extent, these bulky big guys are more delicate than ordinary cameras, and the number of IMAX cameras in the world is extremely limited. If all three cameras fail, Duke can only either suspend shooting or switch to ordinary cameras. digital video camera.

In the hands of Duke, the camera is mainly used to shoot action, panoramic and impactful shots, and other ordinary shots are mainly taken by ordinary digital cameras.

Even now, the cost of IMAX cameras remains high, and it is inconvenient and too extravagant to use IMAX cameras throughout the process.

This is the third part of the series. The cost of the cast and crew is close to 100 million U.S. dollars. Duke has to guarantee the cost of post-production. Don’t look at the estimated production cost of the film as high as 250 million U.S. dollars. The funds are not particularly large.

After the opening scene, Duke led the crew back to Warner Studios, and the most mysterious Margot Robbie also appeared on the set, and the crew prepared to shoot her part. (to be continued ~^~)

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