The crew is located in Jiuquan, which is rented from a large factory building and renovated, and the nearest star-rated hotel is also more than 20 kilometers away, so it is very inconvenient to eat, wear, and live.

But the benefits brought by the crew setting in Jiuquan are not brought by any amount of life convenience.

In 1993, a great space movie, Apollo 13, showed magical, extremely realistic weightless shots on the silver screen, which are still hailed by many fans as an unsurpassed classic.

How was it filmed?

The shots inside the capsule in "Apollo 13" were all done in NASA's training facility "Vomit Comet": it was a Boeing KC135 that took the entire crew high into the air and then fell in free fall for a period of time, during which all the objects and environment in the capsule were relatively weightless, and a flight could gain about 25 seconds of weightlessness.

With the budget of Chen Ergou's crew, it is absolutely useless to create such an environment.

The production cost of the original work is claimed to be 150 million US dollars, even if there is an exaggeration, it will not be less than 100 million. He has an online plug-in, and he has cut off the biggest head-burning special effects cost. In addition, the shooting environment is in China, and the cost is greatly reduced. I thought that the budget cost of $50 million was appropriate, but it still seems to be a little tight.

The backing of "Gravity" is not as good as NASA's, but as the first domestic space movie to cooperate with the China National Space Administration, the Jiuquan Space Center has given them far more support than NASA has given to American films.

Astronauts usually train similar to space capsules, although there is not much time available for filming, and it costs a lot of money to open it once, Chen Ergou also counted the days with his eyes, and immediately went in to shoot enough books to see when the capsule was free.

The opportunity is rare, and on-site shooting is naturally the most difficult shot.

A long shot, 18 minutes, a long shot beyond imagination.

For this shot, the entire crew made full use of talents, and also invited the commissioner of the command center to serve as a consultant. It's hard enough to create a zero-gravity scene, and it's ten times harder to show a zero-gravity scene with a long shot.

Working with the robotic arm every day, using the IRIS robotic arm to operate all the camera pans, all the actors' action points and camera angle shifts, all of which are precisely calculated and arranged, which is a length that has never been achieved before programmed shots.

After this set of shots was filmed, the entire crew couldn't help cheering in unison.

Even Gilmour was impressed, and when he faced the interview with the tidbits, he sighed: "To show panoramas, close-ups, and action scenes in a continuous long shot, you have to find a solution that can show different plots at the same time in a single shot, which is definitely the most difficult part." So it's really, really hard to combine zero gravity with a long lens. ”

"Different industries are cross-border self-directed and self-acting, but Chen is not at all like a rookie director, he seems to have a whole story in his mind playing back all the time! Even the editors are asking me if the resources sent over have been cut, and even the superfluous shots are pitiful. It's the first time I've been making a film for so long, and this is the first time I've encountered this situation. ……”

At the beginning, he mostly joined the crew for investment and "American knives", but now he has more confidence in movies.

Of course, there are also grievances.

Hollywood is a producer system, but Chen Ergou is too authoritarian, as a boss plus director, screenwriter and starring, Gilmour, no matter how big the producer's name is, he has to stand aside, so that many opinions are not adopted.

However, the post-production also proves that Chen Ergou's opinion is not bad or even better.

It's all bearable, the only thing I can't bear is that "Chen is a workaholic, and it makes me feel bad...... Can you imagine being pulled together by the director and consulting in his room for hours after each day's work? He basically only sleeps three or four hours a day, mean, ho crazy can you get?"

He's a little worried about whether he'll be able to go home for the holidays before Christmas?

When this 18-minute long shot is finally completed, it will be like a graduation ceremony for the entire crew.

Chen Ergou also breathed a sigh of relief and admitted: "The rest of the shots in the whole movie are not as difficult as this shot. After this level, it will be much easier to follow. ”

"These 18 minutes contain all the technical breakthroughs of this film: robotic arm shots, new lighting methods, and new rendering technology for CG space. It realizes the real-life perspective that moves arbitrarily, the character lighting that changes at will, and the grand and calm scenery of the universe. ”

When this long shot ends, what is announced is: from now on, weightlessness and space are no longer problems in the film picture.

The weather is getting colder, and Jiuquan is already cold in December, and it looks like a winter snow is missing.

However, the bitter cold of the winter did not stop the enthusiasm of the nearby residents...... It was about the first time that a crew had come here to shoot a movie, and the onlookers were wandering around the neighborhood when they had nothing to do. Even the local TV station came to join in the fun, even though they didn't even get through the crew's door. …… It's not the so-called media confinement move of some big-name director, it's really-

"Time is money, my friend. ”

Just the millions of LED lights, a day of light is 100,000 US dollars.

Li Shishi is slow to enter the state, and Chen Ergou is very serious about his first film directed, often making more than a dozen NG adjustments in one shot.

Time passes in a back-and-forth adjustment, and the cost remains.

Settle accounts every night, and when I see the producer Miss Xia Meng, I can't help but want to go into battle in person.

But Master Li's progress is also obvious, the last time Cai Yinong came to see the finished film, he doubted that he was dazzled, "This is still our teacher~!"

"It's like a fake!" Master Li looked smug. At this moment, she felt that the hard work of this time was completely worth it.

Meiyan glanced at a certain dog who was staring at the monitor seriously: There is a rumor in the circle that a good director can make actors enter the role more deeply, and after acting in a play, it is a kind of sublimation of acting skills. Therefore, many actors like to follow the big directors to film.

She has also been filming for several years, and she can't say that she doesn't work hard. To this day, the biggest gain is still in watching the superficial performances of the cameras...... Maybe it's a little self-deprecating, anyway, no audience praises her acting skills.

This time filming "Gravity", Chen Ergou was not merciless at all, and she really learned a lot.

There are hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the crew, and there are cutting-edge talents in various departments, costumes, props, lighting, special effects, ...... Especially when it comes to the technical aspect. Maybe the domestic team is a little clever, but the gap between the mature Hollywood industry is still visible to the naked eye.

Chen Ergou seems to be interested in cultivating his own team, mixing and matching the two teams. The Hollywood team did not cherish itself, and some situations of looking down on people were inevitable, but they were forcibly pressed down by him, "I am in charge of my territory." Everyone listened to him, even Gilmour.

"Maybe he's a genius. ”

Master Li glanced sideways at Chen Ergou, who was seriously discussing with Gilmour, and picked up the script to carefully experience the next scenes. The director carefully wrote various character guides with a red pen, which helped her a lot...... I felt that my mouth was a little bland, so I took out a snack from my bag and took a bite.