On Monday, July 13th, the filming of "Gravity" officially started at Firefly Studios.
After the two super blockbusters of "Jurassic Park" and "Casino Royale" with a global box office of one billion dollars, another new work directed by Eric himself is naturally attracting much attention.
Although Eric did not personally participate in the relevant pre-heating publicity work, the media public relations department of Firefly Group has already done everything in an orderly manner.
Before the filming started, ABC TV had already made a special interview with the two main characters, Jodie Foster and George Clooney. News related to "Gravity" was also spread across the media channels inside and outside the Firefly Group.
Of course, as usual, the news released in advance does not have any substantive information related to the content of the film. All the public can know is that Eric Williams has started filming a new movie, a new movie about space.
In addition, although many people already know the title of Eric's new film, in fact, all the relevant titles appearing in the media are "Eric Williams Untitled New Film".
Keeping the sense of mystery as much as possible and keeping the public's appetite alive is a habitual method often used when all blockbuster films start shooting.
While Eric started filming "Gravity" in Los Angeles, in New York, although the detailed cooperation plan between the two parties is still under discussion, Morgan Stanley has already started to promote the Nasdaq index.
The first article that Morgan Stanley threw out was an analysis report on the false recovery of the Russian economy.
The report published in the "Wall Street Journal" pointed out that in the two months of May and June this year, the scale of capital withdrawn from Russia reached 13 billion U.S. dollars. More than half of the foreign investment scale of more than 100 million US dollars. At the same time, with the continuous decline in international oil prices in recent years, the Russian economy based on energy exports will enter a cold winter again, and the ratio of Russia's external debt to foreign exchange reserves has reached an extremely dangerous figure.
After the outbreak of the Southeast Asian economic crisis, a large amount of funds obtained by international hot money from foreign exchange, stocks, bonds and other markets in Southeast Asian countries have flowed into Russia, a new economy that seems to be recovering. Among them, Soros' Quantum Fund is the most typical representative. Quantum Fund invested half of its income from the Southeast Asian economic crisis in the Russian stock and bond markets.
In fact, of the more than US$20 billion in foreign investment introduced by Russia in the seven years from 1991 to 1997, nearly US$10 billion was completed in the last year.
However, after entering Russia, the capitals of all parties quickly saw clearly the nature of the Russian economy, which is strong outside but capable in the middle. That's why there was a large-scale panic flight of capital in May and June.
This analysis report by Morgan Stanley is tantamount to directly putting on the table the fact that the Russian economy is on the verge of collapse again, causing a public outcry for a while. The media and the public who don’t know the deeper purpose of Morgan Stanley’s article are just Watching the excitement, the capitals of all parties who are always paying attention to the world economic situation also have some misunderstandings about the purpose of Morgan Stanley’s publication of this article. They think that this article is actually Morgan Stanley’s hint that international hot money can launch an attack on the ruble. 'signal'.
In fact, this article is just a foreshadowing made by Morgan Stanley for further arguments about the continued prosperity of the Nasdaq market.
Thoroughly revealing Russia's economic situation, even some capital that can't see the situation clearly and still has expectations for the Russian economy will definitely not enter Russia rashly at this time. Then, in the next step, Morgan Stanley will naturally guide them back to North America and enter the Nasdaq market.
On the day the analysis report was released, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly accused Morgan Stanley of such "extremely irresponsible" false remarks, and the Russian Minister of Economy even held a press conference to vehemently refute Morgan Stanley's views .
The strong influence of international investment banks such as Morgan Stanley on the economies of countries around the world was also quickly demonstrated.
The day after the report was released, the Russian ruble showed clear signs of appreciation.
Under normal circumstances, the appreciation of the currency is a manifestation of the strengthening of a country's economic strength, but at this time, everyone knows that the appreciation of the ruble is definitely not the reason, but it is a very dangerous signal.
Many people have not forgotten that before the outbreak of the Southeast Asian economic crisis, the Thai currency, the baht, experienced a substantial appreciation in a short period of time.
The appreciation of the ruble is obviously a manifestation of the international currency speculators' attempt to short the ruble by absorbing it on a large scale.
Following the economic devastation of Southeast Asian countries, Russia will inevitably encounter this catastrophe.
Under the lobbying of Chris and John Mark, AOL shareholders have agreed to buy 10% of AOL shares in the hands of Firefly Investment for $4 billion. The negotiation between the two parties on the underwriting agreement is also nearing completion, and Morgan Stanley is also methodically laying out plans to create momentum for the Nasdaq market.
Los Angeles, unknowingly, is already the fifth day of filming of "Gravity".
These days, apart from having a phone call with Chris every morning to find out about the progress of all aspects in New York, Eric basically let go of everything else and devoted most of his energy to the filming of "Gravity" .
At this time, it was already Friday afternoon, and the shooting was suspended in the studio of Firefly Studios.
Eric sat in front of a computer in the studio, replaying George Clooney's spacewalk around the Hubble telescope, Nicole Frank, Jodie Foster, George Clooney and the visuals of the film Special effects supervisor Robert Byron stood or sat around Eric, watching the camera in the computer together.
Right now, Eric encountered the first major problem that was not anticipated in advance after filming began, the reflection of the glass helmet of the actor's spacesuit.
Theoretically, due to being in a vacuum environment without any diffuse reflection, the reflected scenery of the actor's space suit glass helmet should be very fine and direct, without any astigmatism problems. Eric had already considered the reflection content of the pupils in the close-up shots of the actors in advance, and specially designed a solution for this.
A few days ago, in order to get in touch with the crew and the actors, Eric chose to shoot some long-range shots first, but today, when it involved some close-up shots of the actors, Eric discovered that even with the real-time environment simulation of the light box, but Due to the inevitable diffuse reflection caused by air particles in the shooting, the reflection of the scene on the glass helmet of the actor's spacesuit cannot reach the level of detail in the real space scene.
After a while, Nicole spoke first: "Eric, maybe we can take off the glass cover, and all this part will be produced in post-production CG."
Eric nodded. In fact, unless he gave up his attitude of striving for perfection, it was almost inevitable to remove the glass cover and use all CG.
More than 99% of the shots of "Gravity" will be shot in this studio, so there is no large-scale crew team. The long-term crew members are Jodie Foster and George Clooney. , no more than twenty people.
However, on the other hand, "Gravity" has a special effects team of 100 people in the digital field serving the film at all times.
Seeing Eric nodding, Robert Byron from the digital field also said: "Eric, it is not difficult to remove the glass cover and make it with CG. We only need to install sensors around the helmet to accurately place the glass The CG model of the hood can be installed, but this part of the work will be very cumbersome.”
Eric thought about it for a moment, and said to Robert Byron: "Bob, let's work overtime for two days on weekends. Let's refit the props and helmets first. As for the CG production in this aspect, it will be placed in the later stage of special effects production, and other scenes It’s much easier to start when you’re done and have something to refer to.”
The glass cover CG that needs to consider the reflection content is naturally very cumbersome if it is completed together with other CG scenes in the shot, but in the later stage, the scenes around the actors have been determined, and then making related CG modules is much simpler and faster .
Everyone expressed their views and discussed the details in detail. Although there is still some time, it is impossible to continue today's filming. Eric announced that he will leave work early. Tomorrow is the weekend, and most of the crew will still have to rest as usual.
Most of the staff in the studio simply cleaned up and left one after another.
Eric and Robert Byron agreed to meet tomorrow morning to study the modification of the helmet, and bid farewell to each other. He was still sitting in front of the workbench, opened his laptop, and typed today's work log quietly.
Although a year of preparatory work has been done in advance, various problems are often encountered during the actual shooting process. Eric has encountered this point a long time ago. The previous "Gravity" can be said to be another pinnacle of film technology after "Avatar".
Even though the memories of the past saved Eric a lot of detours, he never thought that he would complete this epoch-making work smoothly.
I was concentrating on beating today's work perception, and I heard the soft footsteps of high heels in my ears.
Eric looked up and saw that it was Jodie Foster walking towards him from the dressing room. It is always troublesome for women to remove makeup.
Except for the two make-up artists who left quietly and her assistant, Jodie Foster found that Eric was the only one left in the studio that could hold a large Boeing airliner, so she left naturally. Come over and say hello: "Hey Eric, aren't you coming off work?"
Eric tapped a word with his fingers, then looked at Jodie Foster, and said with a smile, "I'm waiting for you."
"Heh, you guys, you're starting to be rude again," Jodie Foster smiled, but simply pulled a chair, sat down next to Eric, and looked curiously at his laptop :"can I see?"
"Of course," Eric nodded, turned the laptop screen slightly towards her, and said, "How about you, how are you feeling these days?"
Jodie Foster pressed the mouse and kept pulling down the document, reading Eric's work log with relish, and at the same time said: "Fortunately, I followed your advice and did a few months of exercise, otherwise it would be a bit Can't stand it."
It is summer, and it is impossible to install air-conditioning facilities in the largest studio in Firefly Studios. In addition, a circle of LED screens radiates heat all the time, and the temperature in the background light box exceeds 30 degrees most of the time.
Although the actors in this film do not need to make any difficult movements, they stay in a high-temperature light box with a very narrow space for three or four hours wearing thick space suits. Many times when they come out, the whole person is basically collapsed up.
However, Eric has never heard any complaints from Jodie Foster since the filming started. Every time, he performed meticulously according to his requirements, which made Eric admire her very much. Professionalism.
In fact, Jodie Foster basically feels the same way about Eric.
This young man who already possessed a huge amount of wealth beyond anyone's reach was the first person to come to this studio almost every day, and he was basically the last one to leave.
Sometimes, Jodie Foster can't help but think, if she has so much money, why do she have to work so hard, it's normal to be a little slack, lazy, and bad-tempered ah.
After a while, Jodie Foster pointed to a passage in Eric's work log and asked: "Eric, why do you think that a relative speed of four meters per second can bring the best weightlessness effect? ?”
"This is the result of many pre-tests with Nicole," Eric replied: "Moreover, it is not that four meters per second can bring the best weightlessness effect, but that the relative The movement speed is limited to the standard four meters per second, so as to give the audience a unified visual experience. In fact, in other collision, flight and other scenes, the relative speed between you and the camera is changing all the time, we only let your various The trajectory of the movement conforms to the laws of physical movement in space, so that the most perfect visual effect of weightlessness can be achieved.”
Jodie Foster listened carefully, and finally said half-jokingly: "If I didn't see it with my own eyes, it would be hard for me to think that you just graduated from high school."
Eric admired Judy Foster's beautiful blue eyes, and said with a smile, "You're prejudice."
Jodie Foster also smiled: "If you mind, then I apologize."
"Hey, I forgive you." Eric was very straightforward, and continued: "Speaking of which, have you thought about the bet we made on the Oscars?"
"No," Jodie Foster almost forgot that she and Eric had bet on the best actress at the Oscars last time. She is a very smart woman, so naturally she would not take Eric's promise that she could make any request too seriously. At this time, hearing Eric bring it up, she couldn't help but said: "However, why do I suddenly feel like I owe you a promise instead."