Chapter 766: A Worthwhile Trip

The set of Gravity was very different from other movie sets!

Accompanied by a Warner Brothers executive, Christopher Nolan walked onto the soundstage. Because Warner Brothers had likely given a heads-up, no one came over to stop him. Approaching the Light Box, he came to a halt on his own. The crew was currently filming, and as a director himself—even if he had only mingled in indie film circles before—he knew no director liked being interrupted on set.

Standing there, Christopher Nolan watched the crew's intense shoot without a word, observing everything closely.

He was at Warner Studios because Legendary Pictures had taken an interest in his space film project and would be partnering with Warner Brothers. The film was going to be a major commercial blockbuster with an investment of over 100 million dollars, and both Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures still had some doubts about him.

Christopher Nolan was well aware that this was his first foray into the mainstream film industry. He absolutely could not mess it up, or he likely wouldn't get a second chance. Thus, he had specifically asked the executives at Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers to let him visit Duke Rosenberg's space film set to gather experience for his own upcoming shoot.

After watching for a while, Christopher Nolan realized the Light Box was ingeniously designed. For the scene Scarlett Johansson was currently filming, the set consisted of nothing more than the Light Box itself, some mechanical equipment, and the cameras.

The massive cranes and bulky props required on past space films were nowhere to be seen. Here, Duke Rosenberg seemingly only needed his actors, the Light Box, his core crew, and a group of technicians with laptops.

Arms crossed, Christopher Nolan watched the Light Box-centric set with great interest. During the shoot, both the actors and the cameras shifted slightly. On the right, there was a basket-like contraption for the actors to stand in, its rotation and alignment controlled by computers.

After watching for over ten minutes, however, Christopher Nolan noticed that this device rarely rotated past 45 degrees. The crew seemed to be deliberately limiting its rotation.

Remembering they were filming a space movie, Christopher Nolan quickly understood why. If it rotated too far, the tension in the actors' muscles would become visible. The shot had to look completely tension-free, because that was how bodies behaved in a zero-gravity environment.

If the actors were turned completely upside down, blood would rush to their heads, and all their muscle weight would press down on their necks.

'So they try not to move them, leaving the movement to the cameras as much as possible, letting the cameras move around them.'

As this thought flashed through his mind, Christopher Nolan was secretly impressed. 'What a brilliant method from Duke Rosenberg!'

Filming entered a brief intermission. Seeing the crew preparing for the next scene, Christopher Nolan didn't go over to interrupt. Instead, he chatted a bit with the Warner Brothers executive.

The executive obviously came here often and knew a great deal about the crew and the production.

When he asked if the crew had other methods for filming weightless scenes, the Warner Brothers executive replied, "There's another technique for creating zero-gravity effects."

He pointed to the other side of the soundstage. "For certain shots, Scarlett Johansson is suspended from a rig. She's then manipulated like a puppet to create a zero-gravity effect."

"Stuntmen suspend her using four points, with three different sensor wires connected to each point," he explained in detail. "So basically, it forms a triangle around her pivot points. The stuntmen only need to sway and swing the wires to control her."

By this time, the crew had transitioned to that side of the set. Once filming resumed, Christopher Nolan saw that it was exactly as the Warner executive had described. The stuntmen were genuinely manipulating Scarlett Johansson, causing her to fully invert, and they expertly moved the entire rig up, down, left, and right.

Moreover, it was clearly a rig that combined manual and computer controls.

Therefore, the crew had to coordinate the rig operators, the computer technicians, the camera operators, the lighting, and Scarlett Johansson's performance...

In Christopher Nolan's eyes, as a director, all of this had to be treated as a cohesive whole.

He naturally thought of the space film he was prepping. It had similar scenes, and Duke Rosenberg's filming methods seemed to be the perfect solution.

Although he was famously a practical-effects fanatic and a proponent of traditional techniques in the indie film circuit, Christopher Nolan understood that making a space film nowadays was impossible without computer technology.

Before coming here, Christopher Nolan had considered many traditional ways to shoot weightlessness, such as wirework, but those rudimentary methods were only suitable for simple shots.

He had also deeply studied the weightlessness filming techniques used in two famous, classic Hollywood space films: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13.

In the past, among the many shots conveying weightlessness, the most classic approach was likely from early master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. A camera was fixed inside a ring-shaped room while the actor ran. The resulting footage made it look like the actor was running along the ceiling.

This method, born in 1967, made Christopher Nolan greatly admire Kubrick's brilliance. However, the problems it solved were very limited. It could only handle a few shots, and it couldn't solve the issue of weightlessness for objects other than people.

After that, almost no one ever used a similar method again.

Another great space movie, Apollo 13, showcased miraculous, incredibly realistic weightless shots on screen.

The interior capsule shots in Apollo 13 were entirely filmed inside the America National Aeronautics and Space Administration's training apparatus, the Vomit Comet. Christopher Nolan had specifically asked someone to look into it; it was a Boeing KC-135 that took the entire crew to high altitudes before entering a freefall for a short period. During that time, all objects and environments inside the cabin experienced relative weightlessness, with a single flight providing about 25 seconds of weightless time.

Director Ron Howard extravagantly executed 612 weightless flights, capturing a massive amount of weightless footage this way. This method solved the interior weightlessness problem thoroughly, but it was impossible to use for exterior shots.

Furthermore, not everyone could secure or afford to rent NASA's equipment.

Christopher Nolan knew he didn't carry that kind of weight.

Compared to those two methods, Duke Rosenberg's approach was obviously much more practical and solved many problems. Nolan could even adopt a grab-and-use strategy: after the other party finished filming, he could take these rigs, modify them to suit his own needs, and apply them directly to his upcoming shoot.

Christopher Nolan confirmed that this visit was indeed a worthwhile trip. Just standing on the sidelines watching, he found that Duke Rosenberg had given him a lot of inspiration.

The Light Box in particular was an eye-opener. He could only marvel that the man was truly worthy of being one of the leading representatives of Hollywood's technical directors.

The Light Box contained a massive number of LED lights, basically acting like a supersized wall-mounted television screen. Nolan was familiar with this common technology. The underlying principle was no different from the giant screens usually used by rock bands and in stadiums. Yet, these ordinary technologies, once properly modified, greatly facilitated and simplified the filming process. The most direct effect was that if a light on set needed to be dimmed or have its color changed, the crew didn't have to lug lights around like before—they could just control it directly via the big screens.

Moreover, after watching the shoot for most of the day, Christopher Nolan saw other benefits. The rig wasn't just about getting the lighting right; it also gave the actors a sense of realism regarding their surroundings. When filming Scarlett Johansson descending toward the space station, she could actually see the space station getting closer to her on the LED screens, giving her an awareness of what was happening around her.

Additionally, during the recent take, director Duke Rosenberg told her to look at something on a specific screen and reach out to grab a door handle, and she could genuinely see those things right on the screen.

"The LED lights themselves are relatively rough, and they aren't blended very well."

The Warner Brothers executive's voice had just faded when another voice chimed in from the side.

"Jamie, that doesn't really matter. Because when there are a lot of lights, they blend together and look good."

"Hey, Duke, you son of a gun..."

After greeting Jamie Jensen, Duke turned to look at the British director beside him, who was around his own age. In fact, he had noticed the man the moment he entered the soundstage, but he had been too busy with work until now.

"Hello, Director Rosenberg. I'm Christopher Nolan. I'm also a director."

Christopher Nolan took the initiative to offer his hand, and Duke shook it.

"Hello, Director Nolan."

Duke was very calm, acting as if he had no past connection with Christopher Nolan. In truth, he genuinely was very calm. What was done was done; he felt neither guilt nor remorse. Furthermore, the fact that Christopher Nolan's project had gained Warner Brothers' support was actually tied to him.

When he went to Warner a few months ago, Duke had heard people mention Christopher Nolan and the name of a space project. He specifically had Tina Fey look into it, and then he recommended him to Warner Brothers. Otherwise, there was no way an indie director breaking into the mainstream film circle would have been able to secure a massive investment totaling 160 million dollars from Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers for his very first project.