The set of Gravity was very different from other movie sets!
Accompanied by an executive from Warner Bros Christopher Nolan walked into the studio. Perhaps because the Warner Bros. people had given prior notice, no one came to stop him. When he reached the lightbox nearby, he stopped on his own, as the crew was filming. Being a director himself though he'd only mixed in the independent film circle until now he knew that no director liked being disturbed during a shoot.
Standing there, Christopher Nolan silently watched the crew's intense filming. He didn't say a word, only observing carefully and seriously.
The reason he showed up at the Warner studio was because a space-themed movie project had caught the interest of Legendary Pictures. Legendary Pictures would be working with Warner Bros and the film would be a commercial blockbuster with an investment exceeding $100 million. Neither Warner Bros nor Legendary had full confidence in him.
Christopher Nolan understood as well this was his first time entering the mainstream film industry. He absolutely could not mess it up, or he might never get a second chance. So he specifically asked people from Legendary and Warner Bros to allow him to visit Duke Rosenberg's space film set, partly to gain experience for his upcoming shoot.
After watching for a while, Christopher Nolan realized the lightbox design was very clever. In the scene currently being filmed with Scarlett Johansson, the set only had that lightbox, some mechanical equipment, and cameras nothing else.
The large boom trucks and bulky props that space film sets used to require were nowhere to be seen. Here, it seemed Duke Rosenberg only needed the actor, the lightbox, the main creative team, and a group of technicians holding laptops.
Arms crossed, Christopher Nolan circled the lightbox-based set with great interest. During filming, both the actors and the camera would move a bit. On the right, he noticed a basket-like device. The actor could stand in it and be rotated and aligned by computer control.
But after watching for more than ten minutes, Christopher Nolan noticed that the device rarely rotated past 45 degrees. It seemed the crew was intentionally limiting the movement.
Considering that the crew was filming a space movie, Christopher Nolan quickly understood why. If they went that far, the muscle tension between the actors' bodies would become visible. The filming had to show zero tension because that's how it should appear in zero gravity.
If an actor were completely upside down, all the blood would rush to their head, and the muscles would all press against the neck.
"So they try not to move the actors much, and instead let the camera do the work, moving around them."
This thought flashed through Christopher Nolan's mind, and he couldn't help but admire it. What a brilliant technique Duke Rosenberg had!
When the filming paused briefly, and the crew began preparing for the next scene, Christopher Nolan didn't go over to disturb them. He chatted a bit with the Warner Bros. executive.
The other party clearly visited here often and was very familiar with the crew and the filming process.
When Nolan asked whether the crew had other methods of filming weightless scenes, the Warner Bros. executive said, "There's another technique to simulate zero gravity."
He pointed to the other side of the studio and said, "In some shots, Scarlett Johansson is suspended on a rig and manipulated like a puppet to simulate zero gravity."
"The stunt team uses four points to suspend her, and each point has three different sensing wires connected," he explained in detail. "So they basically divide her anchor point into a triangle, and the stunt team only needs to sway or tilt it to control her."
The crew had moved to that side. When shooting resumed, Christopher Nolan saw exactly what the Warner executive had described. The stunt team really was manipulating Scarlett Johansson. She would be inverted, and the entire rig could be skillfully moved up, down, left, or right.
Moreover, it was clearly a hybrid of manual and computer-controlled equipment.
This meant that the team had to coordinate multiple aspects: the rig operators, the computer technicians, the camera crew, the lighting team, and Scarlett Johansson's performance...
As a director, Christopher Nolan viewed all of this as one integrated system.
Naturally, he thought of his own upcoming space film, which also featured similar scenes. It seemed Duke Rosenberg's filming method was the best solution.
Although known in the indie film scene as a hardcore practical effects enthusiast and traditional techniques supporter, Christopher Nolan knew that nowadays, you simply couldn't make a space movie without computer technology.
Before coming here, Christopher Nolan had considered many traditional ways to shoot weightless scenes, like wire work and so on. But those basic methods were only suitable for simple shots.
He had also deeply studied the techniques used in two of Hollywood's classic space films, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13.
Previously, among all the techniques for depicting weightlessness, one of the most classic was from 2001: A Space Odyssey by master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. In a circular room, a camera was fixed in place while the actor ran around. The footage made it look as if the actor was running along the ceiling.
This method, created in 1967, impressed Christopher Nolan greatly. But it only solved very limited problems, useful for a few shots at most. It couldn't portray weightlessness for objects other than people.
Since then, almost no one had used that technique again.
Another great space movie, Apollo 13, showcased stunning and incredibly realistic weightless scenes on screen.
For the spacecraft interior shots in Apollo 13, all of them were filmed aboard NASA's training device—the "Vomit Comet." Nolan had specifically asked people to look into it. It was a Boeing KC135 that would take the whole crew into the air and then free-fall for a short time. During that window, all objects and people inside the cabin experienced relative weightlessness. Each flight could offer about 25 seconds of weightless time.
Director Ron Howard lavishly conducted 612 such zero-gravity flights to capture a large amount of weightless footage. This method solved the problem of simulating weightlessness very thoroughly, but it couldn't film scenes set outside the spacecraft.
Moreover, not everyone could rent or afford NASA's equipment.
Christopher Nolan admitted to himself he didn't have that kind of clout.
Compared with those two methods, Duke Rosenberg's filming approach was clearly more practical and solved many issues effectively. Nolan could also adopt a form of "creative borrowing" after the other side finished shooting, he could take the setups, adapt them slightly to suit his own shooting needs, and use them directly for future filming.
Christopher Nolan was convinced that this trip was definitely worthwhile. Just standing by and watching, Duke Rosenberg had already given him a lot of inspiration.
Especially that lightbox it was a real eye-opener for Christopher Nolan, who couldn't help but marvel that the other truly deserved to be considered one of Hollywood's representatives of tech-savvy directors.
Inside the lightbox were a huge number of LED lights. It basically resembled an enormous wall-mounted television screen. Nolan was familiar with this commonly seen technology, and understood that the principles behind it were the same as those huge screens often used by rock bands and in sports stadiums. But it was precisely these ordinary technologies that, after being suitably modified, greatly facilitated and simplified the shooting process. The most immediate benefit was that if the lighting on set needed to be dimmer in some area or the color needed to change, the crew didn't have to haul lights around like before they could just control it directly on the big screen.
After watching the filming for most of the day, Christopher Nolan also saw other advantages. This thing didn't just provide accurate lighting it also gave the actors a sense of realism about their surroundings. When filming Scarlett Johansson descending toward the space station, she could actually see the space station getting closer through the LED screen, which gave her a real sense of what was happening around her.
Also, during the earlier shooting, Director Duke Rosenberg asked her to look at something on a screen and reach for a doorknob and she could really see those things on the screen.
"The LED lights themselves are rather rough and haven't been well balanced."
Just as the Warner Bros. executive finished speaking, another voice chimed in, "Jamie, it doesn't matter once you have enough lights mixed together, it looks fine."
"Hey, Duke"
After greeting Jamie Johnson, Duke turned to look at the similarly-aged British director standing beside him. In fact, he had already noticed the man when he entered the soundstage earlier, but had been too busy to speak until now.
"Hello, Director Rosenberg. I'm Christopher Nolan. I'm also a director."
Christopher Nolan proactively extended his hand to Duke, who shook it calmly. "Hello, Director Nolan."
Duke remained calm, as if nothing had ever happened between him and Christopher Nolan. In truth, he was very much at peace. What's done is done he felt no guilt or remorse. In fact, it was partially thanks to him that Christopher Nolan's project had received Warner Bros backing.
A few months ago, when Duke was visiting Warner Bros., he overheard someone mentioning Christopher Nolan and a space-themed project. He specifically had Tina check it out, and then recommended him to Warner Bros. Otherwise, how could an independent film director have possibly secured a massive investment of $160 million from both Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros for his very first mainstream movie?
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