How is the weightless environment photographed?

Weightlessness effect: realizing freedom through passivity.

How to show the effect of weightlessness is the most important and difficult point of any space movie. Ordinary filmmakers have two conventional ways to achieve this. One is to shoot in a real weightless environment-obviously, this is difficult to achieve. So far, no feature film has been shot in space; The effect of weightlessness on the earth is fleeting, and it is too short to support the actors to complete a weightless performance. However, if there is a specially designed plane that can fly at high speed in the form of a parabolic arc rising upwards, it can theoretically form a state of complete weightlessness around the top of the parabola for a period of time as a perfect simulation of weightlessness in space. In fact, the weightless scene in the movie Apollo 13 was shot like this: the crew and actors flew in a parabolic trajectory at high altitude on the KC- 135 transport plane provided by NASA, and each time they could experience weightlessness for about 23 seconds, which was enough for the lens to capture some actions of the actors.

However, this shooting method is not suitable for gravity. The weightless effect of shooting a long lens for a few minutes alone, which is required by director Caron, is technically impossible with this flying method. What's more, the total duration of weightlessness required in the film is beyond the reach of airplane shooting.

Another second-best method is to simulate actions. The cheapest way to achieve this "seemingly" weightlessness effect under the normal gravity of the earth is to shoot underwater. The drag of water makes the movement slow, and it can realize suspension and flight-like movement in space. Gravity is also used for underwater shooting, which is mainly used as a special reference for some actors to slide in the space capsule. Most other weightless scenes are not shot like this. First of all, underwater shooting can't really express the expression of actors-the expression of holding their breath and trying to open their eyes is obviously completely different from the performance in space environment; Secondly, the complex reflection and refraction effects of light and shadow under water also make it impossible to simulate underwater space operations by wearing spacesuits.

Gravity finally achieved weightlessness by combining the oldest entertainment skills with the most advanced computer technology: the crew found the owner behind the stage version of War Horse and controlled the actors' limbs to simulate weightlessness through the manipulation of large marionettes. This device has 12 wires connected to the actors' four connection points, and the other end of the wires is either manipulated by three professional puppeteers, controlled by a mechanical system controlled by computer programs, or a combination of the two.

In the interview, Caron and Sa.n.dra Bullock both mentioned the most difficult scene in the film: the heroine finally returned to the space capsule, took off her spacesuit and curled up like a baby. In the actual shooting, Brock sits on the base of a small bicycle to support his body, and one leg is tied to the equipment to help fix it. The slow movement of his limbs and the tumbling and floating movement of his whole body are assisted by puppet masters and program-controlled cable devices. In this process, we have to use computer special effects to make virtual limbs instead of the tied legs of the actors, and make movements that are controlled by wires in coordination with other parts of the body.

This kind of wire control method is also mainly used to shoot scenes in the space capsule in this film. In those spacewalk scenes with spacesuits on, the actors don't even have to do any physical movements-because the whole space background and the spacesuit itself are computer-generated images: the actors are only responsible for providing facial expressions, and most other physical movements are done by computer animators.

Both wire-controlled and computer-generated movements are a conceptual breakthrough in dealing with weightlessness: since it is impossible to float in space in a "native" way, weightlessness should be embodied in an "absolute control" way.

This technical realization way, which completely breaks through the traditional thinking frame, also runs through the production process of Gravity.