Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 615 Model Special Effects and Flight Stunts

   Returning to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, without rest, Ronald went straight to an open space in the suburbs, where the special effects engineers of Industrial Light and Magic were studying the shooting of fighter models. This is the next shot, the most important part.

   Several special 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 the upgrade lens to solve the problem of aerial photography of the model."

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

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

   In this way, only a part of the model airplane can be photographed in the viewfinder, 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 long-range view, but many people can see it in the close-up view, especially when the footage of the model airplane and the real shot are edited together, it always feels a little different. In order to make the picture more realistic, the special effects engineers of Industrial Light and Magic also thought of two ways to deal with it.

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

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

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

   "Uh...uu..." He started the electric drill, and Ronald was startled by his high-pitched voice, "Are you trying to...?"

  "This is the way we thought of when Lucas was shooting Star Wars", the special effects artist inserted a power drill into a circular piece of wood. "Ugh..." The drill drilled in.

   "This is a little off-center", the special effects artist put the wood on the table next to the lens.

  The wood was driven by the electric drill, and the eccentric circular wooden board, the vibrations caused the table to vibrate slightly, and then the lens also vibrated slightly, and even the photographed picture shook slightly.

  Upgrade lens switch is turned on, and the fighter lens of the plane shot against the background of blue sky and white clouds has a slight tremor that the real engine will have, which makes the realism immediately full.

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

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

   "Why did you add a little vibration, 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 model shots and your real shots. The main problem is that the model will appear lightly fluttering under the interference of the wind, and the real plane will vibrate slightly under the action of the engine.

   We shoot with elevated motion, and then add vibration, so that the fluttering will not be noticed by the audience, and the tremor is found by the audience as the main feature of the picture. Just how to maintain proper vibration with this drill, let us experiment for several days. "

   Ronald felt that the special effects cost was well worth it, and ILM was indeed the most experienced model special effects team in the industry.

   "This is a model for explosion and missile launch scenarios."

  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 have no engine and remote control facilities, but there are several hooks for attaching wires.

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

  The special effects artist explained to Ronald by pointing to the pre-made notches on the model. "There are flashes and explosives installed here, and after detonating it with a remote control, it can break where we want in advance."

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

   "Don't use too much force", the special effects engineer hurriedly stopped Ronald, "We used a patented material called 'eggshell' to make this part of the fuselage and wings in order to ensure that it will crack here."

   "Oh? Eggshells?" Ronald squatted down and looked at that part of the material carefully, but he couldn't see the difference without looking closely.

   "Yes, it means that the eggshell is fragile. Once there is an explosion, it can be guaranteed to break here."

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

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

   "So we simply used the model to take real shots, against the background of blue sky and white clouds, to capture the effect of the destruction of the missile in the middle."

  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 real, especially in the backlit sunlight, many details were concealed. It just matches my photography style. "

   "What about the steel wire?" Ronald asked the modeller, if there is no steel wire, how can I take 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 tossed a smaller model airplane.

  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 our team of more than 40 people. Only he can throw into that safety net ten times out of ten."

   "Thank you, you did a great job, William!" Ronald reached out and greeted him.

  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, and use a filter to simulate the sunset light. However, it still seems to be less powerful. You know that artificial light is always better than the sun."

  The special effects artist turned to explaining to Ronald a large light on the stand next to him.

   "Fortunately, in our explosion scene, the requirements for lighting are not high, and we will not wear clothes."

   "I'm very satisfied, it seems that you did a very good job when I shot other shots." Ronald praised ILM's professionalism.

   "George said, you are also an expert, we have to come up with some real skills."

   Ronald shook hands with more than 40 special effects artists one by one, "I will put your names on the subtitles at the end of the film. This is my little tribute to you."

   "Oh, director, you are so kind. I want to marry you and have a son for you." The two female special effects artists exclaimed strangely.

Everyone is very happy, not every director and producer in Hollywood will subtitle the name of everyone on the team, Lucas is the first in the industry to do so, but ILM is connected to other companies' business 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 director is similar to yours. The work is very irregular and it is difficult to find a girlfriend. Let's hug." Ronald simply hugged several female special effects artists. Giving them a grin with joy seems like a lot of respect.

   These special effects artists, in the eyes of artists, are all nerd-type characters. As long as they achieve the effect, they ignore them, and there are many directors who scold them if they do not achieve the effect. Few directors take them so seriously.

  …

  "It's Art Shorer", Don Simpson and Bruckheimer have found the most famous aerobatics star.

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

  Art Scholler is America's most powerful aerobatic pilot. 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   's success, he opened a flying school and toured the states of America performing various stunts. He is known for performing stunts on airplanes with his dog.

  Many navy and air force pilots liked flying at first because they saw him perform at the carnival in their hometown when they were young.

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

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

"It doesn't matter, it's not easy for Super Chipmunk to make a horizontal spiral, but she is as easy as drinking water to do an inverted horizontal spiral. When the time comes, just put the film backwards, just like the subjective shot taken on a horizontal spiral plane. The blue sky , ocean, blue sky, ocean" Art Scholler gestured with a whirling motion with his hand.

   Seeing that Ronald was still unsure of his attention, Art Schole patted his chest and assured, "I have to do this every time I perform, and I have done it for nearly 30 years, so don't worry."

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

"This director values ​​models so much, he is so young, he may not have seen my aerobatic performances, only aerobatic flying is the closest to the actual situation." Art Schole kept silent, he wanted the director to get to know him well Strength.

   (end of this chapter)