Hollywood Road

Back in the studio in Los Angeles, the shooting was completely centered around Superman played by Chris Evans. In all previous shootings, Superman did not have a red cape. Realistic shooting of such a cloak would cause a lot of trouble. Murphy simply let The special effects group will be added during post-production.

And the film will also explain why Superman needs such a large red cloak, not for pretense, but to aid balance during flight.

Almost all the shots in the studio were placed in front of the green screen. Many times Chris Evans couldn’t understand Murphy’s specific intentions for him to do some actions, but Murphy didn’t need him to understand, as long as he was the director. It is enough for the special effects artists from Working Light and Magic to know which digital effects these actions should correspond to.

The shots taken can be said to be very, very rough preliminary products. The degree of completion is not even 10%. The remaining 90% is basically completed by post-production special effects.

This is Murphy's most recent film using digital technology and CGI special effects.

Throughout the December shooting, Murphy led the filming of the crew in the morning and afternoon. Before 12 o'clock in the evening, he stayed with the special effects artists of Industrial Light and Magic. Although he did not understand the specific content of CGI special effects and digital technology, But in this way, the two parties can communicate in time to achieve the results he wants in the shortest time.

It is not easy to turn the shots in front of the green screen into the final effect of the movie.

In the action scene, Murphy gave up the fast and slow handover shots when shooting "Deadpool", and adopted a completely fast fight. At the same time, the Industrial Light and Magic team must not have the feeling of seeing clearly when adding special effects. The movements and editing must be clearly visible.

This is never easy to do. Murphy and the action director team have a special design for the action shooting.

Especially the final battle scene filmed in front of the green screen, after Gal Gadot joined, plus the previous Chris Evans and the Russian actor of the big motion capture villain, it became a veritable one. The Great Brawl.

Often in this kind of chaos, Hollywood will make the characters...different colors in order to make the audience distinguish each character, doesn't it sound very mentally retarded? But it is really useful, such as "Transformers" and "Avengers" that Murphy has seen many times.

The Autobots in "Transformers" are colorful, but the Decepticons are all dark metallic colors. The same setting in "Avengers" is the same. It is not so much about character creation as it is laziness.

In "Man of Steel", although the clothes of Superman and the villain are different, the colors are all dark, and in the fast fight, the audience should be distinguished at a glance without visual illusion. In this lens, this situation did not actually happen, and the follow lens used by Murphy is indispensable.

From the start to the present, Murphy has hardly used aerial photography, as well as the standard shooting methods for blockbusters such as portable photography and shoulder photography. What he wants is an extremely smooth lens, rather than an overly swaying picture, so he uses The most popular ones are the guide rail and Steadicam follow-up, which can not only cut the lens frequently in post-production, but also bring a stable close-up photography option.

Finally, a large amount of smooth lens picture information can be used to form a macro perspective of the fighting scene, starting from small points to develop the level of the entire battle scene.

Another major feature of Murphy’s shooting is that Philip Raschel frequently uses the large zoom lens to automatically zoom. The basic principle of this method is that the large zoom lens can easily switch between the large panorama and the close-up. It is used a lot in news events, and it will be very present.

This shooting technique can significantly increase the realism of the film.

In Murphy's words, "The technique in "Man of Steel" is a rigorous on-site reporting mode of breaking news. It is necessary to show the overall situation in a wide angle and quickly push the protagonist of the news to highlight the main points. The whole action scene must be filled with this. The way."

He came up with all the ways to pull the seriously unbelievable comic book hero "Superman" off the altar and let him land.

Since the film was to be released in the summer of next year, it was quite nervous for special effects production. After Murphy finished the shooting of the final war action scene, he paused the filming work, but together with Jody Griffith, together with the industry. Light and Magic's special effects group, took the lead in completing the early special effects addition for this part of the scene.

After adding special effects, the degree of completion of these shots reached 60% to 70%, but it is still quite far from being completely completed. Anyone who knows a little about special effects will know that the first 8% of special effects are made. Ten, it will only consume 20% of the time and money, and the remaining 20% ​​will consume the remaining 80%!

Many films with small investments and five-cent special effects often complete the previous 80%, regardless of the remaining 20%, and the audience seems to feel that the special effects are very poor.

At the end of the battle, 60% to 70% of the shots were completed, and it didn’t look very good, and some people at Warner Bros. criticized that the action design did not conform to the Kungfu-based development of North America and Hollywood The resulting action mode will deviate from the audience’s basic aesthetics,

In their eyes, the ending of the battle to get rid of Wonder Woman's part is simply bumping, which may indeed be the case.

But Murphy held the power, and with the support of the Warner Bros. board of directors, he insisted on his own approach.

Just like when it was originally designed, for a character like Superman to play those fancy fights is simply to insult the audience's IQ, and emphasize the destructive passages, Murphy will also add some appropriate tricks appropriately.

The action scenes set by Murphy, the place criticized by those Warners, are the destructive power of Superman and Wonder Woman.

Although the degree of completion of the shots in this segment is still relatively low, the amazing destructive power has undoubtedly been demonstrated. This is not only serious in terms of feeling and vision, but also in fact.

For example, the Wayne Group’s building in the Metropolis will collapse like paper in a fight between Superman and the villain, and a large number of buildings will be destroyed by three amazingly capable characters.

This is the effect Murphy deliberately pursued. He wants to make the action scenes of "Man of Steel" break the "ethical bottom line" of the previous actions of Hollywood heroic movies.

In the studio, a few people were sitting together drinking coffee during the break. Gal Gadot, who was barely new to Hollywood, asked curiously, "Hollywood mainstream commercial movie action scenes have a moral bottom line? This is true ?"

"Yes," replied Nicholas Cage, who was very strange-looking, "I can tell you responsibly, it's true! Even the R-rated action movies I have shot in the past have moral bottom lines for action scenes."

Chris Evans knew that Nicholas Cage knew more about this circle than they did, and asked, "Can you tell me more about it?"

"For example..." Nicholas Cage thought for a while, gestured and said, "Everyone recalls the destruction scenes in many mainstream big-production movies. Although they are full of momentum, there are few direct victim scenes of innocent people, bombing the ground. It must be the sea or wasteland, the people in distress will be rescued, and the objects of destruction must not indicate the existence of human beings."

Gal Gadot has seen limited movies and is still remembering. Chris Evans next to him has already begun to nod.

Nicholas Cage continued, "These can all be called the moral bottom line of action scenes, but our film..."

Having said that, he shook his head, "Murphyry broke all this."

In the script, a large number of scenes in which innocent people were implicated were clearly written.

Gal Gadot sighed in a low voice. Just as he was about to say something, an assistant director suddenly came to inform that because Murphy went to the special effects department to communicate with Industrial Light and Magic about the latest problems encountered, today’s shooting ends here. They can It's off work.

While going to the makeup trailer to change clothes, Gal Gadot sent a text message to Murphy, and the response was to tell her not to wait at night. He didn't know when he could go back yet.

Gal Gadot had to leave the Warner Studios first. She knew that if Murphy went to the special effects department, she would be very busy at night.

Murphy went to communicate with the special effects department and came up with a new problem. There are a lot of special effects shots in "Man of Steel", but they must be produced and used with a certain degree of restraint, and they can't become Michael-Bay's naked dazzling skills. .

It's not that this kind of dazzling technique is not good, but that the dazzling technique does not match the theme and atmosphere of the film.

Most commercial film directors in Hollywood have a hobby of showing off skills. Murphy thinks that many directors are like this. There is a growth process for showing off skills. Have a good refreshment, um... it's the nouveau riche mentality.

In terms of special effects, it is to make some special effects that are "visible" to the audience or the owner of the film company. Look...I did spend my money somewhere. When they are almost done, they will start to learn how to use special effects well. .

And those dudes who were "rich" at the beginning did not have this process, such as Spielberg and a few other directors.

The special effects of "Steel Body" can be divided into special effects for living creatures and non-biological special effects as background props.

In the non-biological special effects, Murphy does not intend to use any breakthrough technology, basically the general rigid body collision, particle system, and synthesis, etc.

But in all highly-moving action scenes, these special effects basically have little room for display. Whether it is Superman or Wonder Woman, the speed is too fast, and Murphy does not intend to use high-speed slow motion, and the screen will move with Superman at high speed.

This is a huge difference from the special effects of previous action movies.