Vol 2 Chapter 858: Deceive the audience


After a short break and adjustment, Duke quickly moved into the post-production of "The Dark Knight Rises". As in the past, he still chose Warner Productions as his base for post-production.
The special effects team involved in the production also comes from Industrial Light and Magic and its many partners and subcontractors. The special effects director of the team has worked with Duke to produce all the "Batman" series of movies and "Inception". Under his leadership Next, the team has produced many visual effects and animation shots, and the shocking scenes have also been recognized by Duke.
According to Duke's plan, the length of this film is at least two and a half hours, and there will be more than 3000 computer special effects and visual effects shots, and some shots will even be dizzying.
In terms of quantity, the production of these special effects shots is necessary for superhero movies.
This also fully reflects Duke’s production method and production philosophy, which is to make use of special effects as much as possible. Many of the actual shots need to be processed by computer special effects. The advantage of this is that the presentation of the film is as large as possible. And with impact.
And those real shots will also provide sufficient data basis for the production of special effects lenses. This approach can create a high level of reality, that is, the visual effects can match the high quality of the real images, which is closer to Duke's vision. Desired video status.
As early as the early preparations, the later team invested a lot of time in document production, surveying terrain, scanning crew members, and accurately recording on-site lighting. In order to achieve better results, the team also specially developed a key for this film. Tools, that is, a ray tracing rendering system that can work with existing pipelines and lighting settings.
This system can accurately calculate the energy exchange between different curved surfaces and create real lighting effects for different curved surfaces. This process requires powerful computer capabilities to perform calculations, and the effects produced by this technology will be quite perfect because it allows Some objects, such as Batmobiles and Batman's motorcycles, seem to have an inherent sense of realism and can be easily adjusted.
It is worth mentioning that this new toolbox produces effects. There is no need to give precise grading instructions, such as making the surface look brighter, canceling the highlight area, and contrast effects. Now only need to adjust the brightness and darkness can be achieved, and the effect can also meet the requirements of the lens. It not only simplifies the operation steps, but also makes post-production work more efficient.
The visual effects of "The Dark Knight Rises" are divided into several important fragments. The first thing to be delivered to Duke is the aerial hijacking shot at the beginning, in this scene. The actor parachuted from a C-130 to another CIA jet, broke into the cabin, escaped with a prisoner and destroyed the jet's wing, then the fuselage suddenly split in two.
This lens produced high-precision samples in the early stage, including how to show special effects, etc. The fine samples can facilitate Duke to study how to deal with stunt performances and real-life shooting, and what special effects need to be produced to match this lens.
The final effect is also a mixture of a variety of production methods, miniature models and special effects, the production of aircraft wing fracture scenes, green screen scene replacement. Together with the real airplane model and two real-life actors, the parachuting CG animation was added to complete the realization of this difficult shot.
Another clip is the explosion effect of the football field. The Destroyer Bain in the film detonated explosives on the football field to create a scene of collapse of the field. In order to create a realistic on-site effect, the team used visual preview to plan the live shooting. In this scene In the game, the stuntman will fall from the crack in the platform above the field. In order to match the effect, the team produced some extra actors with CG animation, and the entire sports venue was also made by CG.
The difficulty of this shot is that the entire site is physical. The team needs to have high-level production capabilities to control the realism of these simulation effects and synchronize these physical effects with the actors' movements. The crowd was expanded in this shot, and some shots on the court were made based on the crowd of about 20,000 people sitting in the stands watching the game.
Like most visual effects movies, CG is usually applied to the digital substitutes of the main actors, and "The Dark Knight Rises" is no exception.
Digital replacement mainly includes Batman and Catwoman. When a character is driving a vehicle in the screen, many shots actually use digital key frame animation. The digital avatar is not only a character, but some motorcycles can also be used. For example, a scene shot by Duke requires a bat motorcycle. Climb up a and use the as a springboard to escape the trap.
The biggest difficulty with this lens is that because the Bat motorcycle is not a moped, it is not easy to make it look off the slope. This group of lenses was made using a real stunt motorcycle. To shoot stunt performances, and then the visual effects team gradually replaced it with a digital bat motorcycle, and then adjusted it to the physical effect of a real motorcycle jumping.
Like Duke said, movies are often an art that deceives the audience.
Through special effects production, Duke hopes that "The Dark Knight Rises" can present an extraordinarily realistic and elegant picture quality. Those cold and proud colors combined with the fine composition like industrial design give superhero movies another possibility, which is exaggerating. A bridge between the comic style and traditional film noir.
IMAX technology is an important foundation for achieving these.
There is no doubt that the IMAX lens acquired by Duke during the shooting is unprecedented. About 50% of the lens is taken with the large HD format frame, and the data required for the IMAX large frame is 20 times that of a normal 2K image. From the left and right, the operation of these data is a huge logical work, and from a creative point of view, in fact, most people can’t really see what IMAX does, because there is no digital screen that can support it. Image equipment.
What visual effects engineers can see is a proxy image or part of the image. The only way to see the whole image is to output it to IMAX. The output process also takes several days and can only Completed in the Los Angeles branch of IMAX, the first person to see the effect of the film was not the production staff, but the director Duke.
Therefore, the entire film is a huge challenge to the team, whether it is in creation and production.
However, just like not afraid of competition, Duke and his team have never been afraid of any challenge.
Before the special effects work was completed, Duke temporarily handed over all the editing work to Mike Dawson. In addition to his busy special effects production with the special effects team, he also frequently met with Hans Zimmer to discuss matters about the soundtrack.
Due to time constraints, "The Dark Knight Rises" missed the Super Bowl advertisement in early February. Although the Los Angeles Raiders achieved their three consecutive championships, Duke did not have time to pay too much attention to his team.
In early March, Hans Zimmer submitted some first versions of the soundtrack to Duke.
In the final chapter of this trilogy, Hans Zimmer summed up the thematic soundtrack of the first two parts, and then has the first edition now.
In the recording studio, the exciting music ended. When Duke put down his headphones, Hans Zimmer explained in detail,
We chose a completely different soundtrack direction for Bain. I want to use the symphony orchestra to help Emotional endorsement, I have explained to the players, let them put aside everything they know, and become a group of the most primitive drummers.'
Having said this, Hans Zimmer laughed, "The result is very ideal. Everyone feels very liberated, like a musical adventure."
Duke also nodded slightly. Although it was the first version and some areas needed improvement, it already had the effect he wanted.
In addition to the soundtrack, Hans Zimmer also dedicated a remarkable chant for Bain.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Warner Bros. propaganda department specifically asked Hans Zimmer to interact with the majority of Batman fans, so that fans can participate in the production of the original soundtrack of the film and create publicity and hype topics.
Movie fans can send their transcripts through UJAM, a website dedicated to uploading composition, music production and music publishing.
Tens of thousands of netizens around the world responded to this event. After the audio files received were synchronized, they made a strong chant, which was arranged by Duke into the film.
Hans Zimmer said in an interview: "I suggested to Duke that this is a way to give back to fans and movie fans and allow them to actually participate. At the beginning, we still had concerns, but the final result was beautiful. Extremely."
"I have never worked with a person who is so obsessed with a certain idea, who is so desperate, and the idea is almost desperate. But the most dangerous places are often the least risky,"
Later, Duke also expressed some opinions on this matter in an interview, "Hans taught me the way to find the truth even if I go to the wrong side. If you don't go through these sideways, you may never be able to make an amazing performance. He can set brand new goals for every movie, every time it makes you feel unattainable, and even makes you feel completely impossible to achieve."
Like the characters in the film, the music arranged for Selena Kyle is ambiguous and ambiguous. This is much more interesting than judging a person's good or bad bluntly. This film made by Duke In the film, there is a considerable part of the gray area, and Hans Zimmer used music to express this ambiguity.
Connecting each part of the trilogy with a musical string is a movement specially arranged by Hans Zimmer for Bruce Wayne.
The theme of Batman's soundtrack is the simplest and clearest, and the theme of the two identities is almost always the same.
When it is busy until April, the post-production of the film has entered the end, and the release date in May is getting closer and closer. Naturally, the publicity offensive has become increasingly fierce. (To be continued.)
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