Chapter 615 Model special effects and flying stunts

  After returning to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, Ronald went straight to an open space in the suburbs without taking a break. This is where the special effects artists of Industrial Light and Magic studied fighter jet models for shooting. This is the next shoot, the most important part.

  Several effects artists, who have seen the aerial footage shot by Ronald, have been studying here for a few weeks.

  “We tried many methods, and finally decided to use a step-up lens to solve the problem of aerial shooting of the model.”

  The F-14A model, which is bigger than a person's arm, is lying quietly on a table.

   On this large model aircraft, two small gasoline engines are installed, and remote control facilities are also installed. The sunshine in California is very good. Against the background of the blue sky and white clouds, the camera is far away and the frame of the lens with a long focal length is also small.

  In this way, only a part of the model airplane can be photographed in the viewfinder frame, and with the sky in the background, it is not easy for ordinary viewers to see that this is a model airplane.

  It is not easy to see the distant view, but many people can see the close-up view, especially when the model airplane shots and the real shots are edited together, it always feels a little different. In order to make the picture more realistic, the special effects artists of Industrial Light and Magic also thought of two ways to deal with it.

   "This is a special paint. The texture on the film is very similar to metal." The special effects artist asked Ronald to look at the effect of the metal paint on the wooden model through the camera.

   "Very good." Ronald closed one eye and looked through the camera lens for a long time. The model looked like a real airplane in every way, but it was not heavy enough and a bit flimsy. However, this is determined by the characteristics of the model, and there is no good way.

   "We have prepared this", the special effects artist seemed to see Ronald's thoughts, and brought an electric drill.

   "Woo... woo..." He turned on the electric drill, and the high-pitched voice startled Ronald, "Are you going to...?"

   "This is the way we thought of when Lucas was filming Star Wars", the special effects artist inserted the electric drill into a round piece of wood. With a sound of "Woo...", the drill bit went in.

   "It's a little more off-centre", the special effects artist put the wood on the table next to the camera.

  The wood was driven by the electric drill, and the vibration of the eccentric circular plank caused the table to vibrate slightly, which in turn caused the camera to vibrate slightly, and even the captured image trembled slightly.

  The upgrade lens switch is turned on, and the shot of the fighter jet shot against the background of blue sky and white clouds now has a slight sense of tremor that a real engine would have, making the sense of reality immediately full.

   "Very good, I can't even distinguish the difference between the model and the real shot, except for the noise of this electric drill."

   Ronald praised with satisfaction that the noise of the electric drill can be easily replaced with the pre-recorded engine sound when dubbing later.

   "Why is a little vibration added? I feel that this is not a model, but a real plane?" Ronald felt very mysterious, and quickly asked the special effects artist for advice.

  “We have carefully compared the shot of the model with your real shot. The main problem is that the model will appear lightly fluttering under the interference of the wind, and the actual shot of the aircraft will tremble slightly under the action of the engine.

  We use speed-up to shoot, and then add vibration, so that the hair will not be noticed by the audience, but the tremor is now recognized by the audience as the main picture feature. It is how to maintain the proper vibration with this electric drill, let us experiment for several days. "

  Ronald felt that the special effects cost was well worth it. Industrial Light and Magic is indeed the most experienced model special effects team in the industry.

   "This is a model for the explosion and missile launch scene."

  The special effects artist took Ronald to another corner of the empty field.

  The two planes were also painted black and lay quietly on the table. These two models do not have engines and remote control facilities, but there are several hooks for adding steel wires.

  "We expect that after being hit by a missile, this F-14A and this MiG-28 will disconnect at the right place, catch fire and explode."

  The special effects artist pointed to the pre-made gaps on the model and explained to Ronald. "Flash and explosives are installed here. After detonating with remote control, it can be broken where we want in advance."

   "It's very subtle". Ronald reached out to touch the model.

   "Don't use too much force," the special effects artist quickly stopped Ronald, "In order to ensure that the crack is here, we used a patented material called 'eggshell' to manufacture this part of the fuselage and wings."

   "Oh? Eggshells?" Ronald squatted down and looked at that part of the material carefully. He couldn't see the difference unless he looked closely.

   "Yes, take the meaning that the eggshell is fragile. If there is an explosion, it can be guaranteed to break here."

   "Then", the special effects artist brought Ronald to a big curtain.

   "We tried the effect of blue screen and green screen, but the keying effect of steel wire under the blue sky and white clouds is not very good." He gestured for the staff to put down the curtain, and the scene above was the blue sky and white clouds.

   "So we simply used the model to take real shots, and against the background of the blue sky and white clouds, we shot the effect of the destruction of medium-sized missiles."

  Ronald took out the director's viewfinder and looked at the curtain carefully. Sure enough, in the camera lens, the model and the curtain were realistic enough, especially under the backlight of the sun, many details were covered up. Just in line with my own photography style. "

   "What about the steel wire?" Ronald asked the modeler, if there is no steel wire, how to shoot the shot of the plane in the air?

   "We have William." The model called to a staff member on the crane, "Show it to Director Ronald."

   "Three, two, one!" The staff called William, on the crane, reached out and threw a smaller model plane.

  The plane was given an initial speed, crossed the curtain of blue sky and white clouds, and then fell steadily into a safety net.

   "William is the most accurate in throwing the plane in our team of more than forty people. Only he can throw it into the safety net ten times out of ten."

   "Thanks, you did a great job, William!" Ronald said hello, holding out his hand.

  William smiled at him honestly, this is a very shy person.

   "When the weather is bad, we will add a headlight, a 10K strong light, through a filter, to simulate the lighting of the sunset. But it still appears to be less powerful. You know, artificial lights are always inferior to the sun."

  The special effects artist turned to explain to Ronald a headlight on a nearby bracket.

   "Fortunately, our explosion scene does not have high requirements for lighting, and it will not be worn out."

   "I'm very satisfied. It seems that you did a very good job when I was shooting other shots." Ronald expressed his appreciation for the professionalism of Industrial Light and Magic.

   "George said, you are also an expert, we must show some real skills."

  Ronald shook hands with more than forty special effects artists one by one, "I will put your names on the subtitles at the end of the film. This is a little respect I give you."

   "Oh, director, you are so kind. I want to marry you and give birth to a son for you." Two female special effects artists shouted strangely.

Everyone is very happy. Not every director and producer in Hollywood will add subtitles to the names of everyone in the team. Lucas is the first person in the industry to do so, but Industrial Light and Magic takes over the business of other companies Sometimes, sometimes only the name of the person in charge can be subtitled.

   "Keep dreaming, Jenny." The bearded special effects artist next to him began to tease Jenny for taking advantage of Ronald.

   "Our film directors are similar to you. Our work is very irregular and it is difficult to find a girlfriend. Let's hug." Ronald simply hugged several female special effects artists. Make them grin with joy, as if they are greatly respected.

  These special effects artists, in the eyes of artists, are all nerd-type characters. As long as the effect is achieved, they ignore them, and there are many directors who scold them when they fail to achieve the effect. Few directors take them so seriously.

  …

   "This is Art Scholler", Don Simpson and Bruckheimer recruited a very famous aerobatic star.

   "Leave it to me, I can use my super chipmunk propeller plane to simulate all the special effects subjective shots for you."

  Art Scholer is the most powerful aerobatic pilot in America. In the 1960s and 1970s, he represented America many times, defeated the aerobatic pilots of the Union and East Germany, and won the aerobatic championship.

  After becoming famous, he opened a flying school and toured various states in America performing various stunts. He is known for performing stunts on planes with his dog.

  Many Navy and Air Force pilots first fell in love with flying because they saw his performance at the carnival in their hometown when they were young.

   Several people went through the aerobatics project one by one. The camera was installed in the cabin of Art Scholler's Super Chipmunk, and many of the pilot's subjective shots were simulated with this propeller plane. Anyway, the super chipmunk's speed is not slow enough to confuse the real ones.

   "For this horizontal spiral, let's use a model. I don't want to shoot this very dangerous action." Ronald saw that there were shots of the Lone Ranger and Goose falling into the horizontal spiral in the table.

"It doesn't matter, although it is not easy for Super Chipmunk to make a horizontal spiral, it is as easy as drinking water for her to do an inverted horizontal spiral. At that time, just put the film backwards, just like a subjective shot taken on a horizontal spiral plane. Blue sky , the ocean, the blue sky, the ocean" Art Scholler made a twirling gesture with his hands.

   Seeing that Ronald was still undecided, Art Scholler patted his chest and assured, "I do this every time I perform, and I have done it for nearly thirty years. Don't worry."

   "Okay, but you pay attention to safety, too dangerous action, I would rather use a model to deal with, I have seen their models work very well." Ronald turned his head and explained to the two producers.

"This director pays so much attention to models. He is so young. He may not have seen my stunt performance. Only aerobatics are the closest to the actual situation." Art Scholler kept silent, and he wanted the director to get to know himself better. Strength.

  (end of this chapter)