As a director, Duke's understanding of space would directly impact the final effect of the film. He and his scientific consultant maintained close contact with the Aerospace Administration. During the entire pre-production phase, Duke continuously consulted the experts at the space agency about cosmic scenes. However, as their discussions deepened, he ended up feeling like a fool, realizing his understanding of space was simply insufficient. If he were to film entirely according to real space conditions, the film might not even start shooting by this time next year.
After enduring various painful revisions, Duke made a decision: accuracy do as much as possible, but no need to nitpick.
Duke shifted his main focus back to the design of special effects and the refinement of the key prop for filming weightlessness scenes—the "lightbox."
The team's simulation of space lighting effects needed to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and precision, and the large number of CG shots in the film naturally brought about another challenge: how to seamlessly integrate live-action footage with CG environments.
Lighting during actors' performances often differs from CG environments, and if the lighting isn't right, the final composited shots will look unnatural. This required finding a way to match live-action lighting with CG environmental lighting.
Duke's cinematographer John Schwartzman and visual effects supervisor Tim Webber eventually came up with a bold solution—manipulating the LED screens of the lightbox.
The four walls of the lightbox were all composed of LED screens. During shooting, these screens displayed videos or images simulating the surrounding environment. A camera mounted on a robotic arm rotated flexibly within this space, and the VFX team projected virtual scenes onto the LED screens, matching the actors' point of view…
This allowed the images displayed on the LED screens to illuminate the actors, placing them in the environment—it was as if space was revolving around the actors.
Originally, Duke planned for only half of the scenes to be shot inside the lightbox, with the other half relying on mechanical lighting setups. But after actual testing, this setup proved to be effective, efficient, and delivered excellent image quality, completely solving the lighting problem for space scenes.
These LED screens could create unprecedentedly realistic lighting effects. When Scarlett did test shoots in this space, the light directly reflected on her body, solving all the diffuse reflection and lighting issues on her clothing.
To capture a shot of an astronaut spinning in space, it was very troublesome to set up lighting under green screen conditions. But in the lightbox, they only needed to adjust the content displayed on the LED screens each pixel of the LED screen was a light source, roughly 1.8 million in total. Each one could be controlled individually by the crew.
However, everything has two sides. For post-production, keying out all these LED screens was much more troublesome than green screen keying.
Nowadays in Hollywood, for productions with such a large number of CG environment shots, it was rare not to use green screens. But Duke still decided that many shots would be filmed in the lightbox. Compared to green screens, the lightbox provided an advantage—it created an environment that could assist the actors, allowing them to know what kind of environment they were in, thus helping them give more appropriate performances.
Gravity was undoubtedly a very complex project, requiring a highly creative integration of virtual and live-action footage. The tight schedule further increased its complexity.
Apart from paying attention to assembling a professional team and connecting with Lucasfilm, Duke handed off all other tasks to Tina Fey, devoting all remaining energy to the film's preparation.
All sorts of tasks awaited him.
Together with the team from Industrial Light & Magic, Duke worked out the movement trajectories above Earth shown in the film, which would determine how Earth appeared on screen; he collaborated with John Schwartzman and a group of animators to create a low-resolution animated previsualization of the film to determine the virtual camera's movement; and worked with a group of technical directors to design the lighting effects of each virtual scene in the film, optimizing the existing CG assets so that completed shots could be quickly rendered and reviewed during filming.
In addition to all this, Duke also needed to communicate with the two lead actors this was the only thing he found fortunate. Unlike Inception, this film didn't require a large cast. Only three actors appeared on screen, and Duke himself would cameo as one of them. The one with the most screen time, Scarlett Johansson, had actually started preparing for the role right after the Cannes Film Festival and had frequent exchanges with Duke.
To play the role of an astronaut, George Clooney, like Scarlett Johansson, was also practicing yoga to make his body more flexible.
"This is all worth it."
In Warner Studios' training facility, George Clooney said to Duke, "Even though my character dies very early…"
Duke didn't respond to that. Instead, he looked at Scarlett walking toward the changing room and asked, "I heard from Scarlett that you're inviting her to an event?"
"Yeah, we share similar ideals." George Clooney also glanced that way.
Duke understood very well that George Clooney was referring to political ideals. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The White House wants to invite me to attend a formal dinner next year, but I don't have the time. I recommended you to them."
"You recommended me?" George Clooney was first surprised, then smiled—this was the kind of opportunity he had dreamed of. "Thank you, Duke, I really don't know what to say."
"You're welcome," Duke just smiled.
George Clooney had always wanted to follow Ronald Reagan's path in life and had a keen sense of strategy. Soon after, he said, "If you ever need help with anything, just let me know."
Duke reached out and lightly patted his arm. "If I need anything, I'll call you."
The sound of high heels hitting the floor echoed as Scarlett Johansson click-clacked over. Seeing Duke and George Clooney exchanging knowing smiles, she couldn't help but ask, "What are you two talking about? You seem to be getting along really well."
Before George Clooney could answer, Duke said, "I just told George that if he runs for president, I'll definitely vote for him."
George Clooney couldn't help but laugh. If that day ever came, he would certainly need the support of someone like Duke.
The three of them chatted and joked a bit more before leaving Warner Studios one after another. Duke and Scarlett returned to their home in Malibu. As soon as they walked into the eye-shaped villa's hall, Scarlett turned on the stereo, and soothing classical music filled the entire living room.
This had become a habit Scarlett forced herself to adopt since Gravity was greenlit. Her role required her to erupt emotionally in silence, and her performance had to match the eerie quietness of outer space.
In truth, Duke knew very well that although Scarlett's personality had changed significantly after her family tragedy, at her core, she wasn't someone who liked silence. Like all young girls, she was full of passion through and through.
Listening to classical music was a way for Scarlett to adjust herself.
In addition to that, she had also been practicing some slow dances as a form of amateur relaxation. Scarlett had always been the kind of person who followed through on whatever came to mind. In her words, these things helped her relax and get closer to the mindset of an astronaut.
In reality, even though Duke never said anything, Scarlett was well aware that she was going to endure an extremely grueling filming process. She knew Duke would demand a lot from her so much that it would border on harsh.
But she had confidence in herself. She was certain she wouldn't lose to anyone, not even Natalie Portman who was widely recognized both inside and outside the industry as the best actress born after the 1980s!
Portman's Black Swan was about to premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, directly targeting the Oscars. Although influenced by Duke, Scarlett didn't put much stock in the Oscars either and definitely wouldn't become an awards-obsessed maniac like Leonardo DiCaprio. Still, becoming the first post-80s Best Actress winner seemed pretty great.
Moreover, she'd heard from Tina Fey that this fellow New York actress had acted out at the Cannes Film Festival against Duke. Duke's enemy was Scarlett Johansson's enemy.
Scarlett had Tina Fey look into it Natalie Portman had already gone to Venice.
Though August in Venice was still before the film festival officially opened, many filmmakers from all over the world had already arrived. Natalie Portman and her mother, Shelley, had come early. Black Swan had her entire heart poured into it. It was her greatest hope for achieving one of her life goals.
The film had already had a small-scale test screening in Los Angeles, and her performance had earned praise from many influential figures within the Academy. According to her mother and the consensus within the Hollywood Jewish circle, as long as the timing and the work were right, what belonged to her would eventually fall into her hands.
But sitting on the balcony of the hotel, Natalie Portman looked out at the streets and waterways of Venice. Her thick eyebrows remained slightly furrowed, as if she wasn't happy at all on the contrary, she seemed to be in a rather poor mood.
"Sweetheart…"
Her mother, Shelley, walked out onto the balcony and placed a glass of juice in front of her. "You haven't eaten anything since we left the airport. Come on, drink this."
Natalie only took a small sip before putting the glass back on the table. She slumped into the rattan chair, clearly distracted.
Before flying in from New York, she had already been informed by her agent, Martin Miller, that Duke Rosenberg's new film was nearly ready for production and was about to start filming. Rumor had it in the industry that this tightly-prepared film might help Scarlett Johansson make a run for the Best Actress Oscar.
Upon hearing the news, Natalie Portman's heart sank. Being as smart as she was, it was easy for her to connect the dots.
Natalie knew very well that if she wanted to win the Oscar for Best Actress, she would have to do more.