Warner Studios Studio 12 is heavily guarded, and the film crew is preparing to shoot a shot in a surreal setting. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

A huge cavern with a high ceiling and black walls is divided into areas by thin white lattice lines, and more than 100 high-altitude lights hang in the air, underneath a layer of soft cloth and a thin and transparent gauze, casting a neutral, clean, and shadowless light. Murphy knelt on the floor.

With an "action" command, two IMAX cameras are activated, one capturing the entire scene with a wide-angle lens and the other recording the action.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the floor, and a large piece of the oddly shaped set fell, Cirian? Murphy and the scene fell into a hole in the ground, and for a moment the dust was flying, and after listening to Duke, the director, shout "cut", it was not long before the hydraulic press sent the collapsed floor back to its original position, ready to shoot the second one.

After returning to Los Angeles from Mount Whitler Ski Resort in Canada, Duke returned to the studio to shoot the rest of the scenes.

As with previous shoots, although the setting of the whole film is absurd, Duke still pays attention to the realism of photography.

"At the end of the day, when we dream, we feel that the dream is real, which is also a line in the film,"

In between filming, Duke said to Sophia, who came to visit the class? "This was very important for the cinematography and for every aspect of the film, and we didn't want the dream passages to be surreal, I wanted them to be as solid as the real world." So our approach is to make dreams feel real. ”

Sofia? Coppola read Duke's script, and nodded lightly at this time, Duke is not only her friend, but also her teacher, even though the two are very different from the production concept to the filming style, but every time they come over, they can always gain something.

"Sometimes characters don't know that what they're seeing is a dream, so the visual articulation between reality and dream has to be traceless, unless there's a specific point where I want the audience to know the difference." Duke also told Sophia, "Most of the time the surrealism in the film comes from the environment, not the cinematography. By maintaining a sense of realism, I believe in times of need. It can create a subtle feeling of bizarre or unsettling without taking the viewer out of the story. ”

"Why not use film?"

While Duke has time, Sophia? Coppola asked, "You've always been interested in high-definition and high-quality formats, and the film has a very high exposure latitude and dynamic range. With more creative flexibility, I was able to underexpose 3 stops and overexpose 5 stops in the same frame, and finally show the entire range on screen. ”

In the face of his friends, Duke did not need to hide it, "because the cost of film is too high, especially the cost of post-processing, and digital technology represents the future." ”

Over the past few years, Duke has not only looked at digital technology, but also looked at other aspects.

Has he met the legendary master Douglas? Trumb visited the showscan demonstration - a high-speed shooting and projection technology for 65mm film invented by Trumb - and also studied. Is this Robert? Weisberg designed a system that shoots and projects at 48 fps, and despite its exceptional clarity, its image quality is only slightly better than that of HD......

Another factor that Duke can't ignore is cost, which is much higher than digital technology.

Duke then started shooting again, and unlike before, the next shot was some high-speed slow motion.

The film used a lot of footage to shoot at high speed, and Duke mainly shot it with Photo-Sonics4er and Panavision lenses. Frame rates of up to 360 fps are possible, as well as photo-sonics 4erotaryprism up to 1500 fps, and the Panarri 435ESA and camera are used in some high-speed shooting scenes.

High-speed slow motion is an integral part of Inception. Because of the very special temporal relationship between the dream world and the real world, Duke wanted to use high-speed photography and upheaval of speed to achieve a narrative effect, not just a visual spectacle.

Next, Duke had the crew move to another set to shoot in a hotel bar where gravity changes suddenly. The weather outside can also change abruptly.

Hannah? Serena's team built this scene at a 30-degree angle, with a green screen outside the window, which will be replaced with a real street scene later.

To achieve the change in lighting, Duke had all the devices connected to a dimmer panel, and the scene started at sunset, so a Molebeam lamp with a CTS filter, and a 60-foot-long softbox filled with Maxi-Brute lamps and covered with a diffuser to create a cloudy light.

It's a surreal scene with photographic techniques and lighting, a naturalistic approach where all the light sources are justified, and what is extraordinary is the way it changes, which, combined with the original tilt of the set, creates a very unsettling feeling.

Duke always tries not to make the picture look too complicated, and doesn't want to look too heavily lit – or not at all – the secret is to work as quickly and easily as possible, without rushing into the work.

Another scene was filmed on the third floor of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where Leonardo's Cobb wakes up from a dream as he steps backwards into a bathtub filled with water......

In order to improve the effect and show Cobb returning from a dream to a waking state, Duke asked for a drastic change in frame rate to 1000 fps and a faster photo-sonics camera.

After nearly a week of filming in Los Angeles, the shoot came to an end, with all the main actors once again gathering at Warner Studios in Burbank to sit on the set in the airplane cabin for the final scene.

"Let's go!"

After Duke's order, the shooting kicked off, and the main camera was given to Leonardo first? A close-up of DiCaprio as he opens his eyes and looks around with a little dazed and frightened......

"We'll be in Los Angeles in twenty minutes," a flight attendant walked up to him, "Do you need an entry form?" ”

"Thank you." Leonardo was a little dazed.

Then, he looked at the other row of seats opposite. Joseph? Gordon? Levitt and Scarlett? Johnson made eye contact with him one after another, then smiled slightly, and Ken Watanabe immediately picked up the phone and dialed......

“cut！” Duke shouted to stop.

All the cast and crew looked this way, seemingly waiting for Duke to announce that filming was over.

However. But the phrase didn't jump out of Duke's mouth, and he got up from the director's chair, spun around the set, and said loudly, "Shoot again." ”

Then. Duke beckoned to Leonardo, and several of their actors came over and stood nearby.

"Leo, you're still in the same state as you were just now."

Duke turned to look at Joseph? Gordon? Levitt and Scarlett? Johnson, "You two pay attention, and when you shoot next, you two look at Leo the way you look at strangers. ”

"Looking at strangers?" Joseph? Gordon? Levitt and Scarlett? Johnson didn't quite understand what Duke meant.

Duke didn't explain in detail, and said, "You have fifteen minutes to adjust. ”

Back on the director's monitor, Duke looked at the replay of the shot he had just taken. But the mind is not on this.

The fanatical participation and interpretation of countless fans can be said to be an important reason for the box office success of "Inception", and the intention of what he just did is to add a new interpretation, as for whether these interpretations are related to the setting of the film, it doesn't really matter, there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people, and interpretation is just a part of the promotion and marketing of this film.

Just like the interpretation of countless fans when "The Matrix" was released, the interpretation will only become a booster for the box office of the film.

After the male protagonist played by Leonardo wakes up from a dream, let Joseph? Gordon? Levitt and Scarlett? Johnson's character doesn't make any eye contact with him, and Duke is trying to expand the possibilities of interpretation.

On the one hand. Their targets were still sitting in the same cabin, and it was normal for them to not communicate with each other.

On the other hand, it's easy to think that Cobb isn't a dream thief at all. The stop or non-stop of the spinning top has nothing to do with the inception, all the stories about the inception are a bizarre dream of the male protagonist in the first class cabin of the plane, and the male protagonist just returns to the United States to meet his children.

As soon as the filming began, Duke shouted to stop again, and he made Leonardo aggravate the horror on his face when he woke up from his dream, as if he was surprised why all the passengers on the plane had become dreamers......

Everything is a dream. A wonderful dream that Cobb had on his way home, the so-called story of his wife, his crime, the dream thief, is all dream stuff and has nothing to do with reality.

As long as someone can make such associations, Duke has achieved his goal, and even if no one sees this, he has a huge online trolls, and it is easy to publish this interpretation.

Audiences watch some movies with somewhat vague answers, and always want to seek the truth, but their search for the truth falls into the propaganda and marketing trap of the director and the producer and distributor.

Compared to the overwhelming advertising bombardment, this kind of viral marketing strategy is more clever.

Of course, whether it is a film or a related publicity strategy, we must grasp the degree of it, viral marketing is a double-edged sword, once it is done excessively, it will only cause people to resent it.

Fortunately, Warner Bros.'s publicity and distribution department is experienced in this area and has a well-developed strategy, and Duke is not too worried about this aspect.

The next filming went well, and after two more shoots, Duke announced that all the shots of "Inception" were over, and everyone else could go on vacation, but Duke didn't plan to give himself too much time off, because this year's plan was quite intense, and only three days later, with Anna? Prinz joined the rest of the post-production team and moved into post-production of Inception. (To be continued.) )

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