Chapter 314: Space Environment Simulation
When September came, half a year had passed, and the filming of Levi's movie finally started.
Taking half a year to prepare for a movie seems a bit long. Many media did not pay much attention to this belated launch news. Although 3D movies are something that many people are paying keen attention to, it seems that Levi spent a long time this time.
For many movie fans, such a long preparation time for filming is enough to make many people lose patience with the movie. However, professionals who know more about the film shooting industry are more confident in this preparation time.
Because people often know that the time it takes to prepare a movie is directly proportional to its shooting level.
Especially for those movies that are not short of money and do not need to worry about financial issues, they will naturally pay more attention to the preparation of the movie itself during filming.
Levi has shot many movies before. Sometimes, he completed the shooting in a month. But this time, it took him half a year just to prepare. The quality of the movie must be very high.
And the closer the people are to his crew, the stronger this idea becomes.
"Very good, that's it," Levi applauded as he watched Tim Roth finish filming a scene. This part has been filmed, and Levi is quite satisfied with Tim Roth's performance.
Tim Roth also breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Levi's attitude. He was relieved that the shooting could be completed.
Tim Roth played the role of a theoretical physicist in Levi's TV series Ball Lightning. Later, when filming the first part of the Three-Body Problem, Levi invited him here.
When filming The Three-Body Problem 1, he readily accepted the invitation, but when filming The Three-Body Problem 2, the process of accepting the invitation was more troublesome.
In the first part of The Three-Body Problem, the character he played did not appear much. He only had less than five minutes in total. He explained to everyone what three-dimensional expansion is, and there was nothing else. Throughout the whole process, what he needed to show was his line skills and verbal organization skills. These things are not difficult for him at all.
But in The Three-Body Problem 2, what he needs to play has been significantly changed. When Levi told him that what he needed to perform was still only about ten minutes, but this time, his appearance was in space. When it was time to shoot in space, he backed down.
As an actor, he does not dislike filming the same role again. Moreover, he also finds it quite interesting to repeatedly bring characters from his TV series to the movie screen. Although Ball Lightning is limited to the length of a novel and was made into a mini-TV series, that series attracted many science fiction viewers and accumulated many diehard fans for him. He is also happy to be able to play this role again.
Although he is happy, shooting special effects scenes is still quite troublesome. In the first part of The Three-Body Problem, there were almost no special effects scenes involving him. In the second film, he was required to participate in special effects shooting, which made him somewhat resistant.
This kind of resistance. It's not because of the actor's artistic pursuits but purely because the special effects scenes are difficult to shoot.
But after visiting the set, he immediately decided to participate in filming this movie.
"This part was shot very well. You did it well. As I said, you will have no problem acting in this part."
Levi greeted Tim Roth, which also made him feel a little helpless. He laughed and said, "There is nothing difficult about this role. It is said to be shooting space scenes, but the requirements for me are not high. I originally thought that you would tie a rope and throw me into the water tank. Who knows, this would be such a simple shooting?"
As he spoke, Tim Roth turned back and looked at the place where he had just shot the scene.
In the studio, a hollow box six meters high and three meters wide was built. Inside this huge box, 196 LEDs covered the six sides, and the scene he had just performed in space was performed inside this huge box.
It was incredible — at least, he had never heard of anything like it before. If he had known this was the case, why would he resist filming stunts?
In the movie, many parts are completed in space. From Zhang Beihai killing people in space in the early stage to water droplets washing human spaceships with blood in the later stage, these parts all require shooting space scenes. And what is the best way to shoot these various action scenes in space? This is the problem people face.
If it were film shooting in the past, the best way was to combine wire, green screen, and underwater shooting. Tim Roth, and indeed all movie actors, are extremely resistant to these methods.
No one likes to swim in the water with a rope hanging and needs to perform while having hundreds of cameras recording their movements and facial expressions.
Such a scene is simply a nightmare.
Moreover, there are some disadvantages to simulating weightless scenes in underwater environments. For example, in terms of lighting, the biggest problem is that it is not realistic enough.
Faced with these problems, Levi has obviously thought about what to do.
He adopted a different shooting method. He had people make this huge LED box. Each of the 196 LEDs is made of thousands of tiny LEDs. They can emit optical fibers of different colors. Under the control of computer programming, they can change the color to simulate various different lights, such as sunlight, planetary reflection, gunshots, explosions, etc., in space.
When people stand here, they only need to perform, and the light source in their background will be realistically simulated by the light of the LED box so that they don't have to worry about anything about light.
After these filming are completed, they are made into a movie through CG scenery and set up with virtual shooting, and the effect will be much better than the original.
This approach is undoubtedly much more advanced than the original green screen technology.
It no longer uses traditional mechanical principles to simulate weightlessness scenes but uses more advanced optical scenes to simulate weightlessness. This alone is enough to amaze people.
Moreover, such shooting has another benefit. Because they have the surrounding light as a reference, when they need to perform some actions, the actors can do it more naturally instead of relying on their own memory.
For example, if you are shot in space, the LED lights here will actually show the picture of the bullet flying. It is much simpler than simulating it all by yourself.
This thing can really be said to be a pioneering work. Director Levi had people make this thing, which can be said to be a significant improvement in shooting space scenes.
What's more, the shooting just now was more than just that.
The camera on the side is also incredibly amazing. In the weightless environment of space, photography of people's weightlessness cannot be fully demonstrated.
After all, the filming is conducted in the earth's environment, and people will involuntarily look for balance. Once they lose their balance, people will naturally tighten their muscles and want to stand.
This has nothing to do with acting but a purely instinctive reaction.
And how can these problems be changed? In this regard, Levi's idea is also very simple. Since people can't move, then just let the camera move. Of course, the photographer cannot carry the camera and run out on the weird shooting route, but it is not difficult to make a crane and let the crane complete the shooting.
In this regard, the crew also achieved it. Surrounding the shooting location is a car converted into a shooting vehicle. When photographing a cosmic object rotating in a weightless environment, it is the object that is moving, not the person. In comparison, this can be said to greatly reduce people's stress.
Like the huge light box, this thing was also made by Levi. As the boss of a film company, Levi has his own special effects company and knows enough equipment suppliers. It is not difficult to find some friends to make these.
Moreover, making these is not particularly tiring for a movie with an investment of 300 million.
Advanced technology not only brings more pictures to movies but also gives actors more room to perform and directors more stages for expression. Tim Roth has actually felt these things.
"Okay, the previous parts are basically finished. The remaining part is the part where you can see the water droplets. The subjective shooting of this part is a key issue. The movie is to be shown from your perspective. Do you want a break? Do you understand the next shooting?"
After hearing this, Tim Roth turned around and looked at another camera: On the miniature model of the spaceship that was manufactured, there was another scene of his own.
Of course, it is better to say that it is a spaceship model than a monster model: several large holes were cut in the spaceship model, and the camera was hung on it for shooting needs. Those photography equipment are also specially manufactured.
On the one hand, they can meet the needs of shooting conversations in a small area where the photographer cannot stand. On the other hand, they can also turn their heads to shoot 360-degree angles to meet the needs of subjective lens shooting. Likewise, that thing was specially made by Levi.
Tim Roth has shot many movies, but making his own equipment for shooting movies still shocked him. For this movie, Levi has invested a lot of money, and his investment is basically surprising.
Better space environment, better-simulated scenes, more help for actors' acting skills, and shooting of astronauts' subjective perspectives that have never been filmed before... These things are not originally necessary for a commercial movie, but Levi did it all.
When shooting a movie, you have to put your heart into it. Whether you are serious about shooting a movie or not, sometimes you can really tell by looking at the equipment.
With Levi so committed, how could the actors lose confidence during the filming of the film?
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
Britanna
Mandy G
Scott DePaepe
Oluwatimileyin Olayemi
Herylle Ian Gloria
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