Before 8:30, the crew of "Gravity" arrived at Lake Powell, which is more than 200 kilometers northwest of Phoenix and connected to the Colorado River.
There are only two scenes left today, one is the actual shot of the return capsule falling into the lake from a high altitude, and the other is the heroine Ryan Stone played by Judy swimming from the lake to the shore. As for the interior of the return capsule and the underwater scenes, they have all been completed in the studio in Los Angeles. Therefore, Eric hopes to get it all done in one day, and everyone can move freely in the next few days.
In the open space by Lake Powell, everyone gathered around Eric to discuss the next shooting plan, because Nicole just temporarily discovered another problem that he had to pay attention to.
"The weather is very good today, which is very suitable for shooting the landing scene. However, because the weather is so good, there is no wind at all. After the return capsule falls, it is easy to be covered by the parachute, which will affect the shooting of the lens. Therefore, we have to temporarily make some The wind blows the parachute open."
After Nicole finished speaking, the other main creators of the crew couldn't help frowning.
If it is at other times, this is of course only a small problem, and it is enough to send a blower over. Even if a parachute with an area of more than one square kilometer is to be blown away, Hollywood can find a corresponding high-power blower. When Eric was filming "Tornado", he even used Boeing aircraft engines to create hurricanes.
However, today's situation is rather special.
Phoenix certainly doesn't have the high-power blowers needed by the crew, so it needs to be shipped from Los Angeles. Even if you use a helicopter to check in, it is estimated that it will be almost noon when you come here. After it is shipped, it will be installed and debugged. It is hard to say whether the lens can be finished in the remaining time.
If we wait until tomorrow, with the ability of a large number of media reporters gathered in Phoenix, it is estimated that hundreds of people will come to 'witness' the landing of the return module in person, and it will be very lively.
Everyone was discussing countermeasures when a voice suddenly sounded from the crowd: "Mr. Williams, if you just blow the parachute, it's actually very simple."
Everyone stopped discussing, and their eyes focused on a big man standing close to two meters tall standing on the periphery of the crowd.
It was one of four helicopter pilots on the VH-60 piloting team, a man named Mark Bierman. Mark Bierman once served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is in his forties this year and has more than ten years of helicopter piloting experience. He also participated in military assistance to Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has rich experience. After retiring from the army, he worked in a helicopter rental company in Los Angeles. He started to help Eric fly the helicopter six years ago, and was later recruited by Eric with a high salary to work for himself. He is now the foreman of the four pilots in Pointe Manor.
Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Mark Bierman smiled a little embarrassedly, pointed to the two VH-60s parked not far away, and said directly: "The wind blown by the wings of a helicopter is comparable to a blower." Much more."
Hearing Mark Bierman's words, everyone's eyes turned to the helicopter again. William Stewart took a few glances and said, "The wind from the helicopter should blow downwards, right?"
Mark Bierman said: "Just turn it sideways."
Eric twirled a pencil between his fingers, without much hesitation, pointed to the open lake in front of everyone, and said: "Mark, I want the wind to blow from west to east, please demonstrate it to me first." Let me see."
Mark Bierman nodded, but then patted the shoulder of another pilot who was younger than him, and said, "Let Tim come, he is more proficient."
Eric glanced at the pilot named Tim Torres next to Mark Bierman, nodded, and did not object.
A few minutes later, the VH-60 took off from the shore, turned to the center of Lake Powell, hovered for a while at a height of seven or eight meters above the lake, and then began to lift its head forward. Slowly climbing up like a gecko, although the height of the helicopter has exceeded the lake surface by more than ten meters, the powerful blowing force of the wings still caused obvious ripples on the lake surface on the east side.
Seeing this situation, Eric had already made up his mind, and at the same time felt that the generous annual salary he offered to several pilots was worth it.
However, the flight or performance above the lake was obviously not over yet. The helicopter slowly climbed up for a while, and then began to flip slowly but flexibly, slowly making a 180-degree inverted U-shaped flight trajectory in the air like a fish jumping over the water.
Seeing that this was obviously a performance in the category of flying stunts, everyone couldn't help clapping their hands, and Eric couldn't help clapping his hands too.
Tim Torres probably sensed everyone's reaction, and he made several difficult moves in a row before driving the helicopter back to the shore. Eric watched the helicopter stop on the shore, and jokingly said to Mark Bierman beside him: "Mark, you tell Tim, if he dares to drive like this when I am on the plane, I will fire him immediately of."
Amid everyone's laughter, Mark Bierman shook his head and said, "Of course not."
After discussing the details of the specific plan in detail, the problem of the parachute was solved, and the crew began to formally prepare for the shooting of the landing scene of the return module.
A VH-60 slowly lifted off with the return capsule and props crew members. Eric and Nickel divided into two photography groups, respectively driving two speedboats prepared in advance to cruise on the lake, waiting for the return capsule to land. lens.
On the walkie-talkie, it was confirmed that the VH-60 had flown to the height determined in advance. After other departments were ready, Eric gave the order to start filming.
The return capsule model was dropped from an altitude of 1500 meters. Under the remote control of the props group, the parachute was accurately opened. Another group of props on the ground was also preparing to implement the ejection operation of the hatch. As for the reverse thrust rocket when it was close to the ground , it is completely genuine, Eric had someone customize it from Russia, and it can be started automatically and accurately when it is one meter above the ground.
A huge parachute like a strange mushroom bloomed in the sky, and another VH-60 hovering not far away also began to wait for the return capsule to fall into the lake and blow the parachute open.
After more than ten seconds, the return capsule and the parachute rushed towards the lake at a speed of more than ten meters per second. Immediately, the bottom of the return capsule exploded at a very short distance from the lake. The next scene was beyond many people's expectations. Everyone obviously underestimated the energy of the reverse thrust rocket when it exploded instantly. At that moment, the lake surface was like a bomb, and it exploded five or six meters up. High waves shot around quickly.
Although the distance has been adjusted, the time is limited. After all, the two speedboats on the lake cannot judge the point too accurately. One of the speedboats is only seven or eight meters away from the landing point of the return module. The waves rolled towards the speedboat like a predator's long tongue protruding from a giant animal under the water. As if with a bang, several people on the speedboat were directly overturned by the waves.
All this happened in only two or three seconds. Caroline, who was standing on the lake and holding Eric's director's script, blinked quickly a few times before realizing that the speedboat washed up by the waves The person standing was Eric. She felt her heart tighten and ran towards the lake involuntarily. Other people who were still in a daze noticed the girl's bunny rushing out and ran towards the lake one after another.
Because of the anxiety in her heart, Caroline didn't even have the heart to pay attention to her feet during the run. She seemed to have stepped on something during the process. The girl's body staggered suddenly and almost fell, but she didn't have the heart to estimate it. Caroline still ran forward with her own help to stabilize her figure.
"I'm fine here, everyone's fine, departments continue. Tim, blow the parachute, watch out, blow to the north. And the props crew, prepare to pop the hatch. Nickel, you do the hatch pop shot, Also, what about your side, the camera on my side is useless?"
After a while, Eric's voice came out from several walkie-talkies in the crew at the same time, and everyone was relieved.
Caroline, whose legs had already stepped into the water on the shore, let out a big sigh of relief. Looking at Eric's figure standing up again on the speedboat in the lake from afar, she felt relieved and felt overwhelmed at the same time. There was a slight tingling pain in her right ankle in the water, and all her thoughts were on Eric's side. The girl thought it was a little twisted, but she didn't care too much.
"Come on, Carly, your pants are wet."
Hearing Mayer calling herself behind her, Caroline realized that she had unknowingly stood in front of everyone, and she was the only one who ran into the water. She blushed suddenly, and the girl shyly dodged everyone's teasing eyes, still holding Eric's director's script to her chest, and walked out of the water with her head down.
"You are really, but there are no shoes for you here," Mayer said, pulling Caroline away from the mud on the shore, noticing that Caroline's footsteps were a little unsteady, and said with concern: "You What happened to your feet?"
Although I felt some pain in my ankle while walking, but everyone was busy busy, Caroline didn't want to cause trouble to everyone, she shook her head and said, "It's nothing, it's just got muddy."
"Oh, let's go over there and clean it up," Mayer didn't suspect him, and helped Caroline to the small area where the crew took a break.
The unexpected situation scrapped all the shots taken by Eric's camera. Fortunately, Nichol's shooting went smoothly. After more than ten minutes, the people on the two speedboats went ashore, and the staff of the props team went ashore again. Take the speedboat, enter the lake and start to salvage the sunken return capsule props. Although the crew doesn’t care about the little money the return capsule sells for scrap iron, if you throw the model in the lake, it will not only be dug up by media reporters afterwards, but may also Will be troubled by environmental protection organizations.
Eric was also drenched after landing, but the crew didn't expect this in advance. He could only take off his wet coat, wipe the water stains on his body briefly, and check the shots taken by Nickel again to confirm The success of the work just now was not in vain, so he stood beside the temporary fire set up by the crew to bake together with the other unlucky eggs who had been drowned.
Everyone was teasing each other, and felt a small figure approaching him. Eric noticed Caroline's wet trousers, and asked with concern, "Did you step into the water?"
"Well," Caroline nodded embarrassingly, feeling that she was useless, unable to help anything, and wanted Eric to care about herself.
"Oh, let's bake it. I haven't prepared it in advance, so I can only go back in the afternoon and change my clothes."
"No, it's okay."
Eric saw a strand of hair hanging down from the girl's head when she shook her head, and stretched out his hand to help the girl brush it. Seeing the girl shrink her neck, she smiled and scratched her little nose.
Caroline subconsciously wanted to protest as usual, but this time she held back, with these little sweets in her heart, but she didn't dare to look at other people around her.
I was busy for another hour, salvaged the model of the return capsule, repacked it and hung it under the helicopter for transport back in the afternoon. I checked the time, but after shooting this group of shots, it was past 11:30. So the crew did not continue, and began to eat the simple lunch they brought in the morning. Including the few people who stayed by Lake Powell in advance, the entire production crew only has 27 people. Although various labor unions in Hollywood have strict regulations on remuneration during filming, no one cares about this meal. A very grand wrap-up party was arranged in the resort. As long as the work can be completed today, everyone can enjoy it when they go back.
"Eric, I suddenly discovered a problem," said Judy, who had already changed into a simple vest and shorts after lunch and before the filming started.
Eric was writing down some of the revisions that needed to be made in the post-production of the shot in the morning on his director's script, and he said, "What?"
Judy turned over the stack of sketches that Eric gave to herself, and showed Eric several shots in turn, saying: "The return capsule fell from the sky, Ryan fell to the bottom of the lake, Ryan surfaced, and Ryan climbed to the shore At the end, Ryan stood up, which seems to indicate the evolution of life, aquatic, amphibious, terrestrial, and even to the ultimate human. However, from the very beginning, you seem to agree that life on earth is actually from the outside The kind of view that comes from the stars, right?"
Eric didn't expect Judy's eyes to be so sharp, and said with a smile: "You can understand it that way."
"Does that mean that the first shot of the baby in the mother's womb in the space capsule also represents the implication that life originated from extraterrestrials?"
"That's not it. I just want to express a certain primitive state of mind of a person in a moment of loneliness and helplessness. Who do you think of first in this situation?"
Judy recalled her state of mind when shooting that group of shots, and blurted out: "Mom."
"Yes." Eric nodded and said: "Although it will be affected by the acquired living environment, when people are most lonely and helpless, they often yearn to return to their mother's arms."
Judy nodded earnestly, but in a blink of an eye, she suddenly remembered some rumors about the guy next to him having an Oedipus complex, and his eyes became weird again.
Eric felt Judy's strange eyes. Although he didn't quite understand what she was thinking, it was obviously not a good thing. He immediately put away his expression and put on the majesty of the director, saying: "Hey, it's ready to start shooting, go get ready .”
Judy gave Eric a white look, with a smile on the corner of her mouth: "You guy."