Detailed explanation: the lens application and shooting technique of the film Inception. ...

The Universal Studios 12 shed is heavily guarded, and the film crew is going to shoot a shot in a surreal set. A huge cave with a high ceiling and black walls is divided into several areas by thin white grid lines. 100 More than one dome light hung in the air. Beneath them is a layer of soft lightweight cloth and a layer of tulle. The light projection is neutral, clean and without shadow. Actor Cillian Murphy knelt on the floor. With an order, two cameras started shooting. One captured the scene with 35 mm deformation, and the other recorded the action with 65 mm deformation ... Suddenly, a crack appeared on the floor, a large grotesque set fell, and Murphy also fell into the hole with the scene. It was dusty for a while, only to hear the director Chris Nolan stop. Soon, the hydraulic press will send the collapsed floor back to its original position, ready to take a second picture.

This is a remarkable moment in Nolan's latest film Inception with wally pfister and ASC. This film was also written by Nolan. The story pushes the dream experience to the extreme: some people can invade other people's dreams and connect many people to have the same dream. They can manipulate dreamers by making and tampering with dreams. Dom Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) steals dreams for profit. He has made great achievements in business espionage and has become an international wanted man.

Like Nolan and Pfister's previous works, their starting point is still the realism of photography. "In the final analysis, when we dream, we think the dream is real, which is also a line in the movie," Nolan said at the end of filming. "This is very important for all aspects of photography and film. We don't want the fantasy paragraph to reflect the surreal feeling of gilding the lily. I hope these paragraphs are as solid as the real world. So our approach is to make dreams look real. "

"Sometimes people don't know what they are seeing is a dream, so the visual connection between reality and dream must be seamless, unless there are some specific points, and we want the audience to know the difference," Pfister said. "In most cases, surrealism in movies comes from the environment, not photography skills. By maintaining a sense of realism, we believe that when necessary, we can create a strange or uneasy subtle feeling without taking the audience away from the story. "

They are very satisfied with the effect of mixed deformation of 35 mm and 15 hole of 65 mm in The Dark Knight, so this time they want to try to use some big negative in some paragraphs of Inception. "We have always been interested in high-definition and high-quality formats," Nolan said. "We decided to use anamorphic 35mm as the main film format, because it is the best one after all. The camera is very light and efficient, and we have a lot of experience. But we also decided to shoot with big negatives in some big scenes and formal scenes. "

I ruled out IMAX first, because they decided that a lot of hand-held shooting would be the basis of this film. "We want to take a lot of hand-held shots in some small places and have a sense of recording," Nolan said. "There are many physically challenging jobs."

Shooting with film is always a prerequisite. "This film has a very high exposure latitude and dynamic range, which gives us unlimited creative flexibility," Pfister said. "I can underexpose 3 files and overexpose 5 files in the same picture, and finally display the whole range on the screen. None of the digital machines I have ever seen can do it. All digital machines want to simulate 35 mm film, which is why. "

In the process of finding the most suitable large-scale scheme, they met the legendary master Douglas Trumbull and visited the Showscan demonstration. They also studied the Super Dimension 70 system designed by Robert Weisgerber, which can shoot and display at 48fps. "It's strange that despite its high definition, Super Dimension 70 is only better than HD," Pfister said. "We can't use that." They also showed the test films shot by ASC members Bill Bennett and Kees van Oostrum, with a large scene shot of 65 mm and a small scene shot of 35 mm, and then combined them. "We found that 35mm and 65mm cut together very well," Pfister said. "The big scene has rich details and good clarity, although the things on the screen are very small. We decided to use this method at first sight. " They finally decided to choose 65 mm film and 35 mm VistaVision 8-hole film (VistaVision is used for aerial photography and photographed by Hans Bieno) (translation: VistaVision is a wide-screen format of 1.66: 1 invented by Paramount in 1950s, and the film runs horizontally in the camera. Famous movies that use this format include Searcher and Ecstasy. This format was soon abandoned, but Hollywood sometimes still uses it to shoot special effects shots.

Different from their previous works, they also decided to use high-speed photography to shoot a lot. Pfister mainly uses Photo-Sonics 4ER plus Panavision lens with a frame rate of 360fps, and Photo-Sonics 4E rotating prism with a frame rate of 65,438+0,500 fps (some high-speed photography scenes also use PanArri 435ESA and Vision Research Phantom HD cameras). "I rarely used to shoot things with high-speed lenses because I thought it was not true in essence," Nolan said. "But it is an indispensable part of Inception, because the time relationship between the dream world and the real world is very special. We hope to use high-speed photography and dramatic changes in speed to achieve narrative effects, not just to pursue aesthetic effects. "

Pfister knew that he had to deal with the underexposure caused by a large number of cameras, film formats and high-speed photography, so he limited the film to two types: Kodak Vision3 500T 52 19 and 250D 5207. "I don't like to change the negative to achieve different effects. I know it is useful for some photographers, but I prefer to adjust the lighting or exposure. I like the simple feeling of using the same negative. For outdoor scenes, we will add ND.6 or.9 at the beginning. If the light gets dim, we will remove the filter. "

Filming started in six countries, with a total shooting time of 92 days. At first, in Japan, Pfister's work depended on his regular team: Bob Hall and Dan mcfadden, the lampholder Cory Gayak, and the lampholder assistant Ray Garcia. (Ryan Monro, the lighting assistant in the UK, is also an important partner). Imagica in Tokyo, LTC in Paris, Technicolor in London and North Hollywood are responsible for developing and printing 35mm；; During the filming, Technicolor's developing and printing factory in North Hollywood was responsible for developing and printing 65mm film. (Iwerks of burbank made 35mm deformed negative from 65mm negative).

Japan's two-day shooting schedule included aerial photography and some high-speed rail locations, and then the crew moved to an airplane shed in Cardington, England, where most of the scenes of The Dark Knight and Batman Begins were filmed. This is the base camp for shooting the rest of the scenes. Spectacular scenery has been built in the hut, including a hotel bar that can be tilted 30 degrees and a horizontally placed elevator. Special effects director Chris Corbould is responsible for supervising the production. "Chris has been working with us since Batman was born. He is definitely a great engineer and artist, "Fest said. "If it weren't for him, it's hard to imagine how to make such a large-scale movie."

Another scene in Cardington is the hotel corridor, which is used to shoot zero-gravity scenes. This corridor was built twice, and the inside looks exactly the same through the camera. For the first time, the whole corridor rotates 360 degrees vertically like a barbecue grill, and the camera looks at the bottom of the corridor and moves forward unaffected (with the help of Technocrane), or it is installed on a specially designed track system, so that the camera fixed by the gyroscope moves back and forth in a hidden groove (think of Fred Astaire dancing on the roof, or the zero-gravity scene in 200 1 room). The second time, the corridor stood upright, and the camera was mounted on the retractable Towercam platform, looking straight up. The actor hung Weiya to perform in the air. The third way to shoot in the corridor is to put the actor on the cart, and the cart on the picture will be removed later.

Nolan wants the corridor to rotate freely without resetting. Geryak explained: "We found a company and designed a pulley brush system to supply power to the corridor. We told them the specific requirements, so they set up a carousel system to transmit power to the platform. Our dimming silicon box is already on it, which is a new operation scheme. We should balance the weight of wires and silicon boxes to avoid uneven stress on the platform. " Because it takes a lot of light to shoot high-speed shots, and the lights should be strong, because actors may fall on them. The Art Department has designed practical fixing devices, each of which can be equipped with 6 150W floodlights. There are also wall lamps and a bottom lamp around according to the environment. Some 1000W bulbs are hidden behind ivory glass, and the aperture value is generally T2.8 1/2.

Corridor paragraphs need special action rhythm, and the action director Tom Struthers works closely with the actors to judge which actions can be realized and safe. "We have a pair of real KeyRigs, inspired by 200 1, and Kubrick's method of shooting weightless scenes also inspired us," Nolan said. "I am very interested in integrating these ideas, skills and philosophy into action scenes. I inspired the teams of Tom Struthers, Chris Corbould and Wally to concentrate all the energy of an action scene on one plane, so that we can shoot with these excellent equipment. I think the end result is an interesting mixture, surreal and bizarre, but with amazing action rhythm. "

"Safety is very important. The actor is in pain. They had to hit a wall, "Fest said. "They must learn to jump at the right time. Some of us will put our hands on the switch at any time. "

Another beautiful sight is the hotel bar, where the gravity will suddenly change and the weather outside will suddenly change. The scene built by Colbold's team is tilted 30 degrees, with green curtains outside the window, which will be replaced by a real street view later. In order to realize the change of light distribution, people in Pfister connect all the equipment to a dimmer board. The light at the beginning of this scene is sunset, so we use Molebeam lamp and two 1/2 CTS filters. A 60-foot-long soft box is filled with large lamps and covered with soft cloth to create a hazy light. "It's a surreal scene with photography skills and lighting, but it's part of the story," Fest said. "This is still a naturalistic method, and all light sources are well-founded. What is unusual is the way it changes. Coupled with the original tilt of the set, it caused a very uneasy feeling. "

Pfister said it was Nolan's idea to flatten the elevator. "This will give us a perspective that other methods cannot achieve. Ordinary Hollywood movies will definitely become special effects-intensive scenes, but our strategy is to use lenses as much as possible. For reality, the result was very successful. "

After filming in England, the film crew worked in Paris for another week, in Morocco for two weeks, and then returned to Los Angeles to shoot an action scene in the rain of the city. Pfister said that the biggest challenge is to block the sun with vultures and oversized flags. "Ray Garcia did a good job. He has countless ways to keep out the sun and make the rain look very real, "said the photographer. "Sometimes I worry that the harsh sunshine will occasionally sneak into the camera, and Chris, the most efficient, will remind me that it is a dream anyway."

A full-size train derailed and sped along the city streets. In order to achieve this effect, graphic designer Guy Dyas built a fake motorcycle with 18 wheels under it. Pfister said, "The details are great. We shot these shots with 65 mm and oversized rocker arms, and there are many action scenes in downtown Los Angeles. " With the approach of the train, Pfister, who was shooting by hand, used a lot of equipment to shake the picture, but in the end he chose to shake it directly by hand. He smiled and said, "The simplest method is often the best."

In high-speed photography, they often use the maximum frame rate of the machine. Many scenes were shot in the sun, and some were shot with lights. In a scene shot on the third floor of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, Cobb stepped back and stepped into a bathtub filled with water, and his dream was awakened. In order to improve the effect and show Cobb's state of waking up from a dream, Nolan demanded that the frame rate be greatly changed, reaching 65,438+000 fps, a faster Photo-Sonics camera must be used, and the 7-speed exposure was insufficient. Geryak said: "We need a large aperture to shoot 1000fps, but the lens used here can only reach 4.5. Measured at 24fps, I think the edge light is equivalent to f/90. The practice is to frame two vultures outside the window, each with two Arrimax 18K reflective bowl Par lamps, which are less than 15 feet away from Leo. We also installed two 12K Par lights on the ceiling as fill lights, and the actor who acted as his body double suddenly sweated! " Pfister said, "The lens is great. You can see every drop of water clearly, giving people a feeling of transcending the world."

Another complicated shot is to rotate the truck 360 degrees along the horizontal axis. With the target frame rate of 65,438+000 fps, Geryak built a tunnel, which Nolan dubbed "the sky-high tunnel". Geryak explained, "We built a tunnel with steel beams, with six rows of five Fresnel lamps 18K arranged around the truck for direct lighting. The truck rotates in the tunnel, and the effect is like being wrapped in a blanket woven by the sun. We don't distribute light on the ground, so the shadows alternately exposed by the truck during the rotation indicate that it is rolling. "

The crew built the interior of a Japanese castle in Warner Bros.' studio and destroyed it during the filming. This part of the film combines location shooting in Abalone Bay, verdes, palos, California. There is also a joke that Universal Studios built the interior of a winter mountain bunker. In this scene, when the bunker was destroyed, pieces of the floor fell one after another. In order to achieve this effect more practically, the production team made this set higher than usual, so that the floor could fall off one by one at the appointed time, and the set was surrounded by green curtains, which would later be replaced by the snow scene of the Rocky Mountain.

"There must be enough green curtains outside, and there must be a feeling that the sun shines through the window. There must be a distance between the lamp and the green curtain. In other words, the green curtains must be very big, "said Geryak. "We know that the venue is near Calgary, with soft ambient light and the sun behind the mountain, so we got a dozen 20-foot-long soft light boxes that can be lifted. The soft box is specially set to match the shape of the irregular triangular window. " The film crew hung the dome light directly above the window to create a natural feeling of skylight, and when the floor collapsed, the light could flood in more strongly.

The location of this section was shot in Kaninaskis Country, which is in the mountains west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We built two versions of this bunker on the mountain, one is life-size and the other is miniature, which was finally used for blasting. Chris Patterson, the photography director of the skiing team, took wonderful skiing shots. Pfister said, "We were shocked when we saw his excellent works."

In the editing stage, Nolan wanted to play crosscutting, so he asked Pfister to give each different scene a different dream feeling. "When we move from one place to another, we want some color changes," Fest said. "Calgary has a barren and cold feeling. The corridor is warm and the truck is neutral. Even if we cut into a small scene, even if we cut into something isolated from the background, you can immediately know where you are. This is a convenient way to tell stories. "

"The film relies heavily on crossover," Nolan said. "If the appearance of different scenes is completely different, you can relax when editing, but Wally and I don't want to artificially process the picture. On the contrary, we hope to find the natural colors of every place. In the script, I just want different action clues to happen in places where the design and feeling are different. We ask everyone to pay attention to observation, including the art and audio departments, and Wally gracefully integrates this principle into photography. "

"I consider myself a naturalist in the field of lighting," Fest said. "I'm not too stylized. Sometimes, because of the choice of creation or natural beauty, the picture finally looks stylized, but it is actually naturally formed. Chris and I can make a big movie in Hollywood in this way, which is very interesting.

"For this reason, I always try my best not to make the photos look too complicated," the photographer continued. "I never want to look too heavy-or not at all. The secret is to work as quickly and simply as possible, at the same time, don't do it too late. I think this is due to my early training in journalism and documentary photography. When shooting these things, you must look for beauty in natural light. You always start with the simplest aspect: which direction to look from, which time of day to choose, a single light source or multiple light sources. You figure out what works in real life, and then form an opinion according to your own taste. I have always held this view, not only the real scene, but also the shed scene, even if we have the conditions to carefully carve it. "

Pfister insisted that operating the camera was part of his method. "If it is good photography, I can't tell good lighting from good composition, because they are one. If I shoot by hand, I always want to shoot by myself, because I can change my mind and react at any time. Chris and I have a unique way of capturing actions-shooting from the back, shooting from the front, and then connecting them with different scenes. Operating the machine in person enables me to improvise under this principle when the material, plot, lighting and environment change. "

The latter part of the initial stage includes several different processes. According to the late director David Hall, two phantom high-definition shots were added to the final edited version and sent to the London Double Film Company for special effects processing. The 65mm film was scanned by 6K of DKP 70mm Company and personally supervised by David Kigley, president of the company. The scanned 6K file was sent to Technicolor Company in Hollywood, and the staff was asked to extract it from 6K data, punch it into 4K35mm and combine it with the original 35mm. Pfister and his old partner, David Orr, finished all the optical light distribution work in Technicolor. In addition to 35mm and digital copies, Inception will also be shown in some markets in 70mm IMAX format. DKP 70 mm company scans 35 mm intermediate film with light, and then makes IMAX copy.

"Traditional photochemical treatment is very simple and suitable for us," Pfister said. "I am very careful about color balance and exposure when shooting, so I don't need to make any big moves later. If you want a scene to have a stronger contrast, you can find a way from lighting, clothing or art design. We only used three A copies for all light distribution, and the time required was half of that required by the general digital intermediate film process. "

Technical indicators:

2.40: 1

35mm, 65mm and HD

Panaflex Millennium XL

System 65 studio; Panari

435ESA，235； Photo acoustics

4ER, 4E rotating prism;

Beaucam visual research

Phantom HD

Panavision Primo, superelevation

Keywords speed, c series, e series,

G series, system 65 lens

Kodak vision 3 500t5219,250d5207

Professional digital media

Printed on Kodak Vision 2383