Large-format cameras like the IMAX-M**-9802 are designed primarily for documentary or landscape photography, not sci-fi action movies like Firefly. Although the results are amazingly attractive, they really require more effort and talent on the part of the director. Unlike the traditional 35mm format, directors and cinematographers had to follow and create a new set of guidelines to compose 65mm format film with 15 perforations per frame.

Under the clear blue sky, a rolling green valley, the camera equipment carried from the hillside is ready, and the scene is properly arranged, but this is not the signal to start shooting. Wang Yang, who was wearing the uniform of the rank of sergeant of the independent faction, stood behind the huge camera, bent over with one eye closed, aimed at the electronic viewfinder of the photographic display system, looked at the direction of the remote performance area to make a design, and said to Valey First and others next to him: "There is a problem with this focal length, and you can't use a shallow depth of field." ”

Shallow depth of field is a commonly used shooting technique, and the depth of field is the range of distance between objects measured in front of the camera lens or other sensor on the axis of the sensor that can obtain a clear image, the longer the focal length, the shallower the depth of field, and the shorter the focal length, the deeper the depth of field. Shallow depth of field simply means that the subject in focus is clear, and the background is blurred, which can better highlight the subject and make the picture softer and more beautiful.

This is a footage of Mar, Zoe, Tonado and others coming out of the cave barracks, looking at the sky to watch the information of the surrender and defeat of the various planets, the characters standing side by side, and the barren and dilapidated background. If you are using 35mm film, you must use a shallow depth of field, focus on Marl and others with dull faces, and push it from panorama to medium and then to close-up in slow motion, and then cooperate with the mournful soundtrack to create a sad and blank atmosphere.

But now it's 65 mm, and it doesn't seem to be the same way it works. Hearing the director's words, cinematographer Valley Slent, visual effects supervisor Sean Walsh of the graphics engine special effects team, producer and first assistant director Joss Whedon and others all frowned, IMAX film is too much trouble! But everyone was not the slightest impatient, looking at the entire crew around them, or the people talking or working behind the scenes, or the actors rehearsing and walking or reading the script...... There are a lot of problems on the set every day, some of them belong to this department, some belong to that department, and all belong to the director. The directors are not impatient, when will it be their turn? It is this benefit that charismatic young directors can bring energy and energy to everyone in the crew. Like Steven Spielberg, who was 27 years old at the time of Jaws, as it is now. Drew Petrota has often found this interesting, his father, Bell Petrota, who helped make Jaws a success, and now works for one of the most promising young geniuses of the era.

Vary-Pfister is the person who proposed the use of IMAX film for some scenes of "Firefly", and is also the main cinematographer, so he naturally has to share the responsibility for the director, seeing Wang Yang get out of the way, he bent down to look at the electronic viewfinder, and suddenly felt a little speechless, every time he looked at this viewfinder in the past two days, he had this feeling, it was too dark! Almost completely unable to see the picture in the performance area, he had to ask again: "First increase the brightness of the light hole, I can't see it." ”

"If you use a shallow depth of field, the details of the picture will definitely be a mess. Wang Yang talked about his judgment and discovery just now, glanced at Joss Wheddon, Sean Walsh and others, and made hand movements to explain why: "I think when I show it, it may make most of the focus of the screen out of tune, which is not good." The audience will find it very confusing and uncomfortable, and in that case it is really better to use Super8. ”

Assistant Harry George pressed a few times on the camera system to increase the brightness of the aperture from T16 to T32, and Valey First could barely see the picture clearly, but it was still too dark, I really don't know how Wang Yang could see clearly at the T16 level! He couldn't help but whisper: "Oh, it's black, it's not wearing glasses?" Wang Yang was a little surprised: "I can see it, it won't suddenly break, right?" Everyone's hearts suddenly rose: "Won't it?"

"No, no, no, it's not bad, it's Jan's eyes that are too good. Vare-Pfister quickly smiled and explained that he didn't have this talent anyway. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they were really afraid of this little princess! If it suddenly broke down and didn't send it back to IMAX, who would repair it here? There are only three in the world. Wang Yang, who was also a false alarm, said angrily: "Maybe you're too old, Harry, give him a T800!" Everyone couldn't help but chuckle, and Valey smiled: "It's okay now, it's okay now." ”

After quieting down and staring at it carefully for a while, Vare-Pfister also noticed a problem with the dissonance of focus.

There's a very distinctive piece of frosted glass on the electronic viewfinder that marks the sharp focus area of the image, which is where Marr and the others should be standing, about the bottom third of the screen, up a third of the screen, mainly in the center. This is the way most IMAX projection theaters are designed, because in an IMAX theater, most of the audience sits at the bottom of the screen a quarter up, and the most comfortable position for the eyes in that seating range is slightly lower in the middle, which is the location of the focus zone.

Since the 65mm film captures more detail and scope of the picture, if you use a shallow depth of field, especially in the middle of the panorama, it looks like a large blur, only a small area of clear focus area, and the dissonance part is more prominent than the clear part, which not only does not lose the essential meaning of the shallow depth of field technique, but also will be very weird and uncomfortable. Valley Pfister understands that this is what Wang Yang is talking about about focal length.

So with the depth of the panorama? The whole picture can be shot clearly? A new question arises: where should the audience look? How to attract their attention to the original focus area to complete the whole atmosphere? How does the depth of field directly affect the effect of the whole scene?

In fact, Wang Yang's storyboard script for the camera crew Vary-Pfister and others has fully considered this, and the lens design on the script is very careful, so that the audience's eyes can naturally follow the movements of the characters, and they will look at the clear focus area of the image, and unconsciously receive the techniques and intentions instilled by the director. This requires avoiding placing a lot of action at the edge of the frame, as well as at too high a position, and not moving too fast through the frame, so as to maintain the viewer's attention.

Considering the scope of the shot, the amount of detail in the frame, it is important to carefully design the focus area and the composition of the movement, so that the viewer can know without thinking about what to see in the frame, and then they will be engaged and felt. So you can't use a shallow depth of field, and you can't use a depth of panorama that is full of focal points. Unfortunately, in addition to the problem that this electronic viewfinder is too dark, the marking of the rules that guide the composition also causes great trouble for directors and cinematographers who are not used to this format.

Wang Yang didn't seem to be affected by anything, and quickly got used to it, but the old guy Varay Pfister had a headache about it, and adjusted the brightness of the aperture of the lighting system to T32, and finally saw the problem clearly, he agreed: "Yes, the shallow depth of field will become terrible, well, we can only adjust the focal length and aperture one by one to see the effect......" To find the most suitable depth of field blur level, which highlights the focus area and is not ugly.

"TRY THE 80MM FOCAL LENGTH FIRST, I THINK 80MM WILL BE GOOD. Wang Yang took a few glances at the director's viewfinder and expressed his judgment in combination with the electronic framing just now. Vary-Pfister adjusted the focus on the M**-9802, looked at it for a few seconds, and said, "It does look much better." Very close to a normal view. I'm not so sure, it's too dark. He moved out of the way, and Sean Walsh and Joss Whedon both looked at it, and they were too dark to draw any conclusions.

You can't raise the brightness to another level, because the camera lighting system is on the T16-T32 when shooting, and the effect is different. Fortunately, the decision-makers have a good eye, and they still have to be directed.

"Not bad. WANG YANG BENT DOWN TO AIM AT THE VIEWFINDER, T32 LEVEL BRIGHTNESS LET HIM SEE MORE CLEARLY, ALTHOUGH HE HAS NOT SEEN IT ON THE IMAX SCREEN, BUT IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT 80MM IS THE IDEAL FOCAL LENGTH, AND THE DEPTH OF FIELD CAN BE RELATIVELY SHALLOWER IN CLOSE-UP SHOTS, HE SAID: "TRY 110MM, AND REDUCE THE APERTURE BY ONE STOP." The scene in front of him suddenly changed, and the trees in the distance on the left edge of the frame were so distracting that he asked nonsense while composing the picture: "Sean, can the trees on the left be erased by the computer?"

It doesn't work to let the crew and set team run up and cut them down, they don't want to destroy the environment at will except for the law, and this quiet valley shooting location has been selected for a long time, and the nearby terrain is not suitable, so they can only count on CGI technology, erasing a few trees is naturally a piece of cake. Sean Walsh replied without thinking, "Yes." WANG YANG CLAPPED HIS HANDS AND LEFT THE CAMERA, AND SAID, "VALEI, THE FOCAL LENGTH IS 80MM AND 110MM." He took the speaker microphone from the assistant and shouted, "Ready!!The world is ready!!"

“OK。 Vary-Pfister answered the camera, and Robert Downey Jr., who heard the director's shout, and a few other leading actors walked over, and Jessica put down her book full of compositions, smiled and got up to get ready to watch the excitement.

As on the set of the past, acting, script lines, sets, cinematography...... the magical director of "all-purpose glue" has solved another troublesome problem, stifling the bad IMAX projection effect in the cradle, but a new problem is coming soon, and it seems to be more tricky than the little princess M**-9802's temper.

“Action。 As first assistant director Joss Whedon called to start, the M**-9802 camera set up on the smooth green hillside was suddenly turned on by Valey Pfister, the camera was facing the hill ahead and a wave higher, and the film disc with only 3 minutes of film began to rotate, and the camera team operated the entire camera system to work, while a digital film camera HDC-F950 was shooting 35mm footage aimed at the actors.

Images shot on IMAX film cannot be watched immediately on set, but with digital cameras, they can be watched almost as much as they want, and the film crew no longer has to worry about the goofs in the background, because the quality of the tapes used to be used for on-set playback is not good, and it is difficult to express the details in the frame, but the digital images can be seen in great detail on a large color HD monitor, even if they should not be seen, they will be seen clearly. When Wang Yang scared Jessica, he said, "Why are you having an extra person behind you?"

No matter what the lighting quality of this HDC-F950 is, the main purpose is to let the director observe and check the actors' performances and movements, and directly make modification instructions, of course, it also means that a 65mm film has just been obsolete.

"No, NG......" A reel of film was reimbursed, everyone stood in front of the 26-inch monitor, the power supply cable on the ground extended to the power supply car in the distance, only to see the screen on the hillside, wearing a military uniform, the gray-haired Robert Downey Jr., Wang Yang on the left and the right, Gina Torres, and several group performers behind slowly walked a few steps forward, staring blankly at the distant sky. Wang Yang, who was holding the remote control in front of the screen, pressed the playback again, and frowned dissatisfied: "No, no! The rice bucket on the left is too bad." ”

The rice bucket on the left was too anxious at first when he walked, but then he slowed down abruptly in order to keep up with everyone's rhythm...... What did the casting director do? Where did he find such an unprofessional rice bucket?

"I think it's good!" Jessica said quickly, obviously so handsome, and the way she was stunned by the news of defeat and surrender was heart-wrenching, and she looked left and right at Alan Page, Michael Pitt, and others for support. Not many people seemed to agree with her, and Alan Page raised an eyebrow: "ELL, the rhythm of the body swing is a little stiff......" Michael Pitt said in a heavy voice: "Maybe it's a personal performance style." ”

Heath Ledger has never liked to join in the fun, this time he didn't know what he was crazy about, he didn't have too much sense of being out of place, touched his chin, and said his opinion: "Jan, could it be that you are not enough to be in the play? Joss Whedon and Wu Yanzu were embarrassed to hit their big directors again, and Robert Downey Jr. gloated a little: "Director, you just haven't found the key to unleash your acting talent." ”

"Robert, maybe I won't act, but I'll hit you. Wang Yang's warning seemed full of helplessness, it turned out that his acting skills were still so stinky, wasn't the cameo enough to be completed? Why? There was not much feeling of being in this mountain, he knew that it was Heath Ledger who said "not in the play", the speed of moving and the swaying of the limbs were only secondary, and the expression was the biggest problem. Thinking of this, Wang Yang said to Donny: "Robert, your expression just now is not enough. ”

"I knew you wouldn't let me go. Robert Downey Jr. shrugged his shoulders, and Wang Yang said, "This is serious. Donnie and the others suddenly got serious: "OK." After pressing the playback again, when the picture stopped in the middle of the three of them, Wang Yang pointed and said: "Look, you are completely sluggish now, and you have a little bit of surprise, which is good." But then, what about the level change I asked for earlier?" I pressed the remote control, and the screen was pushed to a close-up and stopped, and sure enough, there was no obvious change.

Wang Yang looked at Robert Downey with a pensive face, and said: "You know this is slow motion, don't be afraid that the camera won't be able to capture your micro-expressions, I need that moment, the moment Marl knew that the defeat and surrender was real, you were about to cry, and suppressed it!" patted Donnie's shoulder, Wang Yang continued: "Don't forget that Marr is a hard-mouthed and soft-hearted person, he has a sensual personality, understand?"

Donnie didn't have a different opinion this time, and nodded: "Got it, but I need to brew my emotions." Wang Yang smiled: "Yes, so am I." "He's an unskilled actor, and Greta Garbo can't stand the sight of a large number of people in front of him just now! Ignoring these people, he picked up the microphone and shouted: "Clear the scene, clear the scene! All the idle people stay away from the performance area! Don't surround you, go away, put too much pressure on me! Jessica, you can stay ......"

"Hehe!" Alan Page and the others, who were in the fun, walked away with a smile and went back to the crew's RV; Jessica talked to Wang Yangmi excitedly. Heath Ledger shook his head with a smile, and Miraculous Young stood on the stage facing thousands of people, hundreds of millions of people in front of the TV, and was "pressured" in front of the camera, and couldn't get into the play, isn't it interesting? In fact, the director has the best understanding of the whole story and the most into the play, and understands the heart of each character, but it is indeed another thing to perform it.

“Action。 After the clearance, the set was soon put into shooting again, and with Joss Whedon's order, everyone got into action, and the little princess M**-9802 got to work. Jessica, behind the camera, looked nervously at the performance area, if a cameo on ordinary film could be a joke, IMAX film put pressure on her, and she couldn't help but stroke the two wedding rings on her left ring finger: "Young, come on!"

This is a performance without lines, Wang Yang hurriedly walked out of the "cave" with Donnie and others, and the whole world slowed down as soon as he saw the scene of the sky, he told himself to ignore the film crew in the distance in front of him, his eyes looked at the blue sky, imagining the scene after the special effects, as if he saw a spaceship and a fighter plane flying by, and then the sky became dark, and there were different images like TV screens everywhere, covering the entire sky.

Each image is a different planet and a different place, conveying the same message, the independence faction has surrendered! Dejected cowboy soldiers, Covenant officers with their heads held high, and people cheering in the prosperous streets of the Covenant Center, the war is over!

"From now on, we will officially take over this planet, and those who surrender will not die! You can switch to the Star Alliance, and the Star Alliance will arrange a job for you!", "The Star Alliance is not your enemy, the Star Alliance will bring a better life!", "I accept ......", "I accept ......"...... Suddenly, there was a faint sound in the sky, clear or faint, and one after another, the voices of surrender of the independence officers from all over the country came one after another, and all the independence, what fought to the death, and what dreams were pursued, all of them were all in vain, and all of them were abandoned like pieces. Wang Yang felt that he had suddenly touched Tonado, that sad and confused mood, and the anger of being broken and betrayed and abandoned by others...... He trembled almost uncontrollably, and he didn't know what his expression was.

This is the independent! So ridiculous, so idiot! There is no need to act, and for a moment, Robert Downey Jr. only felt something hit in his eye sockets, so many people paid for this, so many families lost their loved ones, in exchange for surrender! The corners of his mouth naturally moved as if he was about to cry, and he pursed it tightly, and his eyes looking at the sky did not blink, and his expression became more and more blank.

"Wow......" Joss Wheddon, who was paying attention to the real-time performance, secretly admired, Donnie's emotional investment was like an explosion, and even more explosive was the all-purpose glue on the left, trembling very naturally, it seems that he has found the key?

Summer has entered a new week, June 18-24, "Furious Speed" and other films continue to fight in cinemas, and three new films have embarked on the journey this week. Disney's 110 million cost action-adventure comedy "80 Days of Circulation Earth", starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and others, 20th Century Fox's new 20 million cost rotten boy gang, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and others starring "Crazy Dodgeball", and the new work "Happiness Terminal", which is regarded as the successor of the champion, 2 years after "Get Away", super director Steven Spielberg's new work "Happiness Terminal".

This latest comedy drama with a cost of 60 million from DreamWorks can be described as star-studded, with Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci and others, and it seems that it will not hit the Oscars when it is released in the summer vacation, but everyone thinks that this will be another light comedy box office bomb, and even many fans shouted: "Let Spielberg teach young people how to make light comedy." ”

According to the official website, the crew has completed the filming work in Alberta, Canada, and will leave the country of maple leaves to go to Texas to shoot some desert locations. The official website also did not forget to announce the latest batch of stills, which made fans who have been following "Firefly" very excited, and the most attractive stills this time are tantamount to the appearance of M**-9802, as well as Wang Yang's cameo.

I saw that on a still released, Wang Yang on the left, Robert Downey in the middle and others all stared at the sky, as if they saw something terrible. While collecting pictures, fans also know that this mysterious person who will make Wonder Young's "acting career take a major turn" turns out to be Captain Marr's wartime subordinates! Unless the whole movie is about the war between the Star Alliance and the independents, otherwise, they can't think of any twist?

"Aha, wahahaha......" Browsing the website to see the news, looking at his stupid appearance, Natalie laughed wildly uncontrollably, the more she laughed, the funnier it became: "Hahaha, ahaha...... How many times did he NG this time? I laughed to death...... "All performances like "MIT-21-TEAM" have been NG nearly ten times. Natalie picked up her phone and called, and asked with a smile: "Hey Yang, it's me, how many times have you seen your stills?" Wang Yang's laughter came from the mobile phone: "1 time, yes!"

Natalie was surprised and shouted, "What!!, just once, you just woke up, or do you think I'm Jessica? Please, I don't believe it." ”

(To be continued)