Van helsing's behind-the-scenes production

Sommers read braam stock's novel Dracula on 1983. In Stoke's novels, Van Helsing is 60 years old and his name is Abraham. Van helsing has appeared in countless films, but none of them are centered on him. Somers wanted to turn Van Helsing into his own version, so he changed Van Helsing's name to Gabriel to make Van Helsing younger and cooler.

Looking for actors

Before writing the script, Summers thought that Hugh Jackman was the ideal person to play Van Helsing, because Van Helsing should be powerful and romantic. After reading the script, Hugh Jackman was also satisfied with the role and agreed to play it.

When looking for an actress to play Anna, Somers insisted on one goal, that is, Anna should not only have a strong heart, but also be interesting, sexy, strong and gentle. In kate beckinsale, creative people found everything they wanted.

While watching a Broadway play, Somers and producer Dasey found Shuler Hensley, the actor of Frankenstein. His understanding of Frankenstein is similar to that of the founder.

Will kemp, the actor who plays the werewolf in the film, was attracted by the director during the audition. Kemp is a ballet dancer who is good at using body language, which just caters to the needs of the role.

Spanish actress Elena Anna, who plays Elena, sent a video to the director on her own initiative. During the audition, Anaya's sexy, gorgeous and slightly neurotic appearance quickly conquered Somers. Italian actress Silvia Colloca won the role of Veronica with her outstanding charm and grace. When Somers saw the model Josh Mailan, his intuition told him that she was Marika.

Photography point

Most of the whole movie was shot in Prague. Prague is chosen because the local cold climate is just suitable for shooting location, and the appearance of extras is also very regional. Those ancient and amazing buildings can turn back the clock for centuries.

Although some locations can show Europe in the19th century, the crew still needs to build many sets. Some of these scenes were shot in the studios of Barandorf and Prague in the Czech Republic, and some were shot in the studios of Praia Vista and Doni in Southern California. The rebuilt Transylvania landscape was built in Kunratice, a suburb of Prague, including town square, two cemeteries, 10 Gothic buildings and so on.

The biggest set in the film was built in Doni Studio, including the lobby of Drakula Castle, two towers and the bridge between them. Because of its huge size, Dracula's lobby is built outdoors and can only be filmed at night.

Shooting process

The film started shooting on June 5438+ 10 in Prague, where Van Helsing's underground armory was built. Subsequently, the crew moved to the15th century castle, 90km outside Prague, for live shooting.

In the film, Drakula's masquerade ball was filmed in Prague's Saint Nicholas Cathedral. To turn a sacred place into a zombie party, we must first tear down rows of benches, spread the floor on the concrete floor, then cover the confessional and decorate it with screens, while the sculptures in the church should remain the same. In addition, the crew also used many candlesticks and mirrors. Because everything can't be fixed on the existing structure of the ancient building, the crew had to adjust the previous shooting procedure. Because traditional candles are forbidden in the church, the crew specially made low-heat fuel candles, and used more than 400 candles at the scene, creating a mysterious artistic conception of light and shadow. During the shooting of the ball, the indoor temperature of the church has been below zero, and all the cast members are enduring the low temperature. In order to prepare for this scene, all departments of the crew participated.

In order to shoot the scene of the vampire bride attacking Transylvania, the crew made full use of real-life shooting, motion capture and digital special effects technology to build a Cablecam aerial photography system. The erected steel wire rises from the ground 10 feet to hundreds of feet in the air, so that the suspended camera can skim the whole set at high speed. In addition, there are many hanging wire stunts over the scenery in Transylvania. In order to capture the details of the vampire bride's movements in flight, Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca and Josh Meilan filmed in front of the blue screen of the studio for two weeks.

The actors had to overcome the weather in Prague when shooting. During the three-week shooting, the dark and cloudy sky rarely appeared, and finally I had to turn to digital special effects.

In the film, the square in front of Notre Dame de Paris was shot in the old town square of Prague, and a thrilling carriage chase was staged. Jackman finished the stunt shot himself, and the most terrible thing was that he would be thrown out of the driver's position. At that time, the carriage of six horses was running very fast. He was going to fall between two horses and mop the floor with his feet at high speed.

In April, the crew returned to the United States to shoot, and set up scenes including the lobby, balcony and skylight of Frankenstein Castle and the laboratory, coffin room and skylight of Dracula Castle in Playa Vista Studio in Los Angeles. Somers, the director, made Dracula walk to the ceiling and hung upside down with three vampire brides.

In mid-May, the film crew moved to Doni Studio, where the lobby of Dracula Castle was built. Alan Cameron, a production designer, said that Drakula Castle borrowed many elements from Indian architecture, hoping to give people a cold and violent feeling.

Special effects production

Before the main shooting of the film began, the special effects designer began the important pre-production.

In order to complete the transformation of the werewolf, Will Kemp rushed to the headquarters of the Industrial Light Magic. His body was thoroughly scanned, and data of various movements and postures were input into the computer. With regard to the flying picture of the vampire bride in the film, the three actresses who finished the special effect makeup should put on motion capture costumes, shoot facial expressions in front of the blue screen and capture all the movements of their bodies. Finally, the computer-generated body will complete the action captured and recorded, and connect with its real head.