Sending Emma Watson away, Matthew returned to the crew and continued the filming of "Inception" in London, because all the scenes in Paris were changed to London, and he also needed to stay in London for a while.

Rewinding Paris was one of the film's iconic shots, and as the filming location changed, the rewinding city became London.

As we all know, Christopher Nolan is known for his live-action shooting, and has repeatedly resisted computer CGI technology in public, but shots such as the rewinding London scene and the collapse of the city on the edge of the subconscious of the Daum Cobbs can only be achieved by CGI technology.

It's not impossible to model a live action shot, but it's hard to achieve the effect that Christopher Nolan wants, and if you want a live action shot like CGI, it will cost several times the budget.

As a commercial film director, cost is an issue that must be considered, and no company can let a director shoot regardless of the cost.

In the media coverage, Christopher Nolana is a film maniac and extremely resistant to and even contemptuous of digital technology, which is true from a certain point of view, but it does not see the whole truth.

As a very smart director, Nolan is right to resist digital technology represented by computer CGI, but that doesn't mean he won't use it.

Any useful technique is a helping thing for the director to shoot and produce.

Computer CGI special effects have been widely and critically used in the filming and production of "Inception".

The reality is that the rewinding London can only be generated in CGI, and Matthew and Christopher Nolan have talked about it in between shoots, and the CGI shots used in the whole of "Inception" are expected to be between 600 and 1,000.

Like rewinding London would be a 100% digital special effect.

Out of curiosity and the need for a profession as a producer, Matthew earned Christopher Nolan's agreement to often go to the special effects department to watch the special effects processing of various shots when he was not filming.

Especially in terms of computer CGI technology.

For him, it was also a rare opportunity for a long experience.

As a producer, you don't have to be proficient in special effects, but at least you have to know what's going on.

In terms of computer CGI special effects, the crew hired a special effects technical team from "Industrial Light & Magic".

Since Christopher Nolan changed the shooting plan, ILM's special effects team has rushed to London, where they have taken a T-sized photograph as footage, from the building's exterior structure to the rooms inside, down to the smallest detail.

These high-resolution photos are eventually pasted onto the 3D model as "baked maps" to make the entire virtual scene believable.

Christopher Nolan has very high requirements for special effects scenes, according to him, it is not enough to only have real textures, the whole scene needs to consider the changes of many elements, including the light source - the whole scene takes place during the day, and the simulation of sky light is very difficult - shadow casting, perspective, etc., but also how to hide the penetration between buildings.

While the city curl would be cut into several shots, the preliminarily finished special effects that Matthew saw were just a complete shot.

In fact, the special effects team could have cheated by switching cameras, but they rose to the challenge and handed over Christopher Nolan a beautiful answer sheet that exceeded expectations - there were no duplicate neighborhoods, as small as street lamps, curtains, and even the interior structure of the building.

ILM and Christopher Nolan can be said to be representatives of the two styles of Hollywood, but it is not that they cannot cooperate.

Christopher Nolan becomes a commercial film director, sometimes he has to compromise, and ILM doesn't like Christopher Nolan, a director who despises digital technology, but he doesn't have to deal with money.

For special effects lenses like this, ILM is charged per frame.

To convince the audience that the Daum Cobbs spent 50 years building the city on the edge of the subconscious would mean that the film would require a huge number of buildings.

Shooting with traditional modeling would not be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but a digital VFX artist can complete 50 years of work by the Daum Cobbs in just a few months.

And it costs only one-third of the money of traditional modeling.

Whether it's rewinding London or subliminal fringe cities, it's all up to digital special effects artists who don't have a high standing in the industry.

Although there are thousands of digital special effects shots at every turn in box office productions, the position of the digital special effects team is quite awkward.

On the one hand, they are important contributors to VFX films, and on the other hand, Hollywood, which has not fully adapted to the way digital filmmaking is done, does not give them the attention they deserve, as can be seen from the fact that digital special effects technicians are always at the bottom of the end credits.

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with the Hollywood filmmaking model knows that most film crews shoot with little regard for how the original footage works in harmony with the VFX, and just throw what they finish to the digital effects department, which is why digital effects are often referred to as "post-processing".

Of course, the shooting in London was also indispensable for Christopher Nolan's favorite live-action special effects shooting.

After Emma Roberts came to London, the first scene that Matthew filmed with her involved a lot of special effects shots, and it was live-action special effects.

Next to an open-air café by the River Thames, the crew's stunt crew is busy doing the final checks, and in the next scene, Christopher Nolan wants to create a visual spectacle in the future film with a high-speed slow-motion live-action shot.

"I need you to keep your composure the whole time. ”

At a small round table in an open-air café, Christopher Nolan said to Matthew and Emma Roberts, who were seated, "There may be some noise, but all that flies out are pieces of paper, you don't have to worry." ”

Matthew picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, and didn't speak, just cocked a thumbs up at Christopher Nolan.

Emma Roberts pinned her long blond brown hair behind her ears and said, "I'm ready." ”

Christopher Nolan nodded lightly and turned to leave.

Matthew and Emma Roberts stopped talking and were ready to start filming.

Two minutes passed, and the shooting officially began.

"It's all said that we've only developed a fraction of the brain's potential, but that's only when we're awake. ”

In front of the camera, Matthew holds a cup of coffee and says to Emma Roberts, "When asleep, our brains can do almost anything. ”

At the beginning of the shooting, he became the one who hated the bitterness, "So, when I fell asleep, there would be a lot of strange dreams." ”

Emma Roberts picked up her coffee cup and took a sip, seemingly still savoring the taste, and after a while, she asked curiously, "For example?"

Matthew put down his coffee cup, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and said, "Imagine when you design a building, you consciously design each part, but sometimes it feels like the building is building itself, you know what I mean?"

Emma Roberts put down the coffee cup and nodded in succession, "yes, I just need ......"

For a moment, she couldn't seem to find the right adjective.

In dreams, the brain keeps it like this. Matthew took a pen out of his pocket and scratched it on the napkin on the coffee table, "Creation and perception, these two processes happen simultaneously. ”

"Our brains are so amazing that we don't even realize it." ”

Looking from the outside of the set, the maturely dressed Matthew and the young and petite Emma Roberts are together, quite like the big bad wolf seduces Little Red Riding Hood.

This peculiar contrast of characters is also the effect that Christopher Nolan wants.

It's not that Nolan deliberately wants to create a role match between Uncle and Lori, but this kind of role matching is very attractive to the audience many times.

Maybe the petite Emma Roberts doesn't fit the traditional Western aesthetic, but Yan Zheng has a good figure, a particularly sweet smile, and always looks comfortable and natural.

Of course, many people in the crew know it, and it's just what it seems.

"You're actually sleeping in the middle of the Dream Workshop!" Matthew said, looking at Emma Roberts, "This is your first lesson in sharing dreams!"

Hearing this, Emma Roberts looked around in a panic, and her face changed.

Matthew reminded, "Calm down!

Emma Roberts was a little calmer, but still nervous.

Suddenly, the newsstand on Matthew's left suddenly made a "bang" sound, as if it was a cannon, and countless books and magazines flew into the sky.

Matthew sat still, and Emma Roberts looked around in surprise.

With the two of them as the center, the entire street along the river seemed to explode, but instead of fire, it was a flurry of paper.

Immediately after, the ground also exploded, and Matthew and Emma Roberts also exploded to the left and right, and countless pieces of paper floated past them.

Emma Roberts looked at this in surprise, but Matthew was always very calm.

Eventually, no more sounds were heard, and the paper began to fall, as if it had fallen in a colorful snowfall.

In the heavy snow, Christopher Nolan's voice shouted to stop, and the shot passed smoothly.

A cleaning team hired by the crew immediately drove into the set to clean up the trash from the shooting.

This scene is very gorgeous, but there is too much garbage created, but fortunately, the crew has been prepared for a long time, and basically no producer floated into the Thames River not far away.

Otherwise, if you can't wait for tomorrow, environmental protection organizations will come to the door to find trouble with the crew.

Matthew went to Christopher Nolan's side to see how the filming went, and he had already gotten permission from Nolan.

In high-speed slow motion shot by six cameras from different angles, the explosion fragments float in the air like suspended objects, which is enough to create an extremely shocking visual impact.

I have to admire the power of the film's stunts, the crew tested it for several weeks in the early preparations, and the actual shooting effect was also very good, you must know that he and Emma Roberts were in the epicenter of the explosion, but they were not affected at all during the shooting, and even the paper cups on the table did not move.