The First Thousand and Eighteen Chapters Build Momentum

On Monday, July 13, the filming of "Gravity" officially started at Firefly Studios.

Following "Jurassic Park" and "007 Casino Royale", two super blockbusters with billions of dollars at the global box office, another new work directed by Eric himself has naturally attracted much attention.

Although Eric did not personally participate in the relevant warm-up publicity work, the media and public relations department of Firefly Group has done everything in an orderly manner.

Before the film 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 media channels inside and outside the Firefly Group.

Of course, by convention, 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 a new film, a new space-related film.

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 in check is a habitual method that is often used in the opening of all blockbuster films.

While Eric started shooting "Gravity" in Los Angeles, in New York, although the detailed cooperation plan between the two parties is still under discussion, Morgan Stanley has already begun to build momentum for the Nasdaq index.

The first article from Morgan Stanley was an analysis report on the false recovery of the Russian economy.

The report published in the "Wall Street Journal" pointed out that in just two months in May and June this year, the scale of capital withdrawn from Russia's panic reached 13 billion US dollars, which exceeded all the introductions from Russia from 1991 to 1997. More than half of the foreign investment scale of more than 20 billion US dollars. At the same time, with the continuous reduction of international oil prices in recent years, Russia's economy based on energy exports will enter a cold winter again, and the ratio of Russia's foreign debt to foreign exchange reserves has reached an extremely dangerous figure.

After the outbreak of the Southeast Asian economic crisis, a large number of funds obtained by international hot money from the foreign exchange, stocks, bonds and other markets of Southeast Asian countries have flowed into Russia, a new economy that seems to be recovering. Among them, Soros's Quantum Fund is the most typical representative. Half of the Quantum Fund's gains from the Southeast Asian economic crisis have been invested in Russian stock and bond markets.

In fact, of the more than 20 billion US dollars of foreign investment that Russia introduced in the seven years from 1991 to 1997, nearly 10 billion US dollars were completed in the last year.

However, after entering Russia, the capital of all parties quickly saw the essence of Russia's economy, which is strong outside the country and cadre in the middle, so there was a large-scale panic flight of capital in May and June.

This analysis report by Morgan Stanley is equivalent to directly putting the status quo of the Russian economy on the verge of collapse again on the table. For a while, there was an uproar. The media and the public who did not know the deep purpose of this article by Morgan Stanley were just Watching the excitement and keeping an eye on the world economic situation also made some deviations in the understanding of the purpose of Morgan Stanley's publication of this article. They thought that this article was actually Morgan Stanley suggesting that international hot money could launch an attack on the ruble. 'signal'.

In fact, this article is just a foreshadowing by Morgan Stanley to further the Nasdaq market boom.

Thoroughly revealing the Russian economic situation, even some capital who can't see the situation and still have expectations for the Russian economy will definitely not rashly enter Russia 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. The Russian Minister of Economy held a press conference and vehemently refuted Morgan Stanley's views. .

The strong influence of international investment banks such as Morgan Stanley on the economies of various countries in the world also quickly showed.

The day after the report was published, the Russian ruble showed clear signs of appreciation.

Under normal circumstances, currency appreciation is a manifestation of a country's economic strength, but at this time, everyone knows that the appreciation of the ruble is absolutely impossible for this reason, but 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 international currency speculators trying to short the ruble by absorbing it on a large scale.

Following the destruction of the economies of Southeast Asian countries, Russia will inevitably encounter this catastrophe.

After lobbying by Chris and John Mark, AOL shareholders have agreed to buy 10 percent of AOL's stock from Firefly Investments for $4 billion. Negotiations on the underwriting agreement are also nearing completion, and Morgan Stanley is also methodically laying out plans to build momentum for the Nasdaq market.

Los Angeles, unknowingly, is already the fifth day of "Gravity" filming.

These days, except for a phone call with Chris every morning to find out about all aspects of the progress in New York, Eric basically let go of everything else and devoted most of his energy to the shooting of "Gravity" .

At this time, it was already Friday afternoon, and shooting was suspended in the studio of Firefly Studios.

Eric sits in front of the computer in the studio, repeating footage of George Clooney's spacewalk around the Hubble telescope, Nickel Frank, Jodie Foster, George Clooney and the film's vision Special effects supervisor Robert Byron stood or sat around Eric, watching the footage from the computer.

Right now, Eric encountered the first major problem he had not anticipated since filming began, the reflection of the actor's spacesuit glass helmet.

In theory, because in a vacuum environment without any diffuse reflections, the reflected scene of the actor's spacesuit glass helmet should be very fine and direct, without any astigmatism problems. Eric had pre-considered the reflections of the pupils in the actor's close-up shots, and designed a solution for this purpose.

A few days ago, in order to get in touch with the crew and actors, Eric chose to shoot some long-range scenes from easy to difficult, but today, involving some close-up close-up shots of the actors, Eric discovered that even with the real-time environment simulation of the light box, but Because of the unavoidable diffuse reflection caused by air particles in the shooting, the reflection of the scene on the glass helmet of the actor's space suit cannot reach the level of detail in the real space scene.

After a while, Nichol said first: "Eric, maybe we can take off the glass cover, and all this part is made with post-CG."

Eric nodded, in fact, unless he gave up the attitude of excellence, it was almost inevitable to remove the glass cover and use CG.

More than 99% of the shots of "Gravity" will be shot in this studio, so there is no large-scale crew, and long-term crew members are Jodie Foster and George Clooney. , no more than twenty people.

However, on the other hand, "Gravity" has a 100-person special effects team in the digital field to serve the film at all times.

Seeing Eric nodding, Robert Byron from the digital domain 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, and the glass can be accurately The CG model of the cover is installed, but this part of the work will be very tedious."

Eric considered for a moment, and said to Robert Byron: "Bob, let's work two extra days on weekends. Let's refit the props and helmets first. As for the CG production in this regard, we will put it in the later stage of special effects production, and other scenes. It’s a lot easier to start with a reference when you’re done.”

The glass cover CG that reflects the content needs to be considered. If it is done together with other CG scenes in the shot, it is naturally very cumbersome, but when the scenes around the actors have been determined in the later stage, it is much simpler and faster to produce related CG modules. .

Everyone expressed their opinions and discussed the details in detail. Although there was still some time, it was impossible to continue filming today. Eric announced that he would leave work early. Tomorrow is the weekend, and most of the crew 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 say goodbye to the other party. He was still sitting in front of the workbench, opened his laptop, and quietly typed today's work log.

Although preparations have been made for up to a year in advance, various problems are often encountered during the actual shooting process. Eric has already met this point. The previous "Gravity" can be said to be another peak in film technology after "Avatar".

Even if the memory of the past made Eric take a lot of detours, he never thought that he would complete this epoch-making work smoothly.

I was concentrating on tapping my thoughts on today's work, when I heard the light footsteps of high heels in my ears.

Eric looked up and saw Jodie Foster walking towards him from the dressing room. It is always troublesome for women to remove makeup.

Except for the two makeup artists and her assistant who left quietly, Jodie Foster found that Eric was the only one left in the studio large enough to fit a large Boeing airliner, so she walked naturally. Come over and say hello: "Hey Eric, aren't you going to get off work?"

Eric tapped a word briskly with his fingers, then looked at Jodie Foster and smiled, "I'm waiting for you."

"Heh, you guy, you're starting to be rude again," Judy Foster smiled, but she simply pulled a chair and sat down beside Eric, looking 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 scrolling 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's really a little Can't stand it."

In summer, it is impossible to install air-conditioning facilities in the largest studio of Firefly Studios. In addition, a circle of LED screens emits 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 did not need to make any difficult movements, they wore thick space suits and stayed in a high temperature light box in a very small space for three or four hours. Many times when they came out, the whole person basically collapsed. .

However, since the start of filming for a week, Eric has never heard any complaints from Jodie Foster, and every time he performs meticulously in accordance with his requirements, Eric admires her very much. Dedication.

In fact, Jodie Foster's feelings for Eric are basically the same. This young man, who already has a huge wealth that is beyond the reach of everyone, is the first person to come to this studio almost every day, and he is also basically It's the last one to leave. Sometimes, Jodie Foster couldn't help but think, if she had so much money, why would she have to work so hard to do it, be a little slack, be lazy, and be a little bit bad-tempered, this is normal what.

After a while, Jodie Foster pointed to a passage in Eric's work log and asked, "Eric, why do you think a relative speed of four meters per second can bring the best weightless effect. ?"

"This is the result of many pre-tests done by Nikkor and I," Eric replied. "And, it's not that four meters per second can bring the best weightless effect, but the relative value of the normal state of the lens. The speed of movement is limited to the standard four meters per second, so as to give the audience a unified visual experience. In fact, in other scenarios such as collision and flight, the relative speed between you and the camera changes all the time. We can only make your various The motion trajectory conforms to the laws of physics in space, so that the most perfect weightless visual effect can be achieved.”

Jodie Foster listened carefully, and said half-jokingly at the end, "If I hadn't seen 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 smiled, "You are prejudice."

Jodie Foster also smiled: "If you mind, then I apologize."

"Hey, I forgive you," Eric continued: "Speaking of which, have you thought about the bet we made at the Oscars?"

"No," Jodie Foster almost forgot about the last time she and Eric made a bet on the best actress at the Oscars. She is a very smart woman, and naturally she will not put Eric The promise that she could do whatever she wanted was too serious. At this time, when Eric took the initiative to mention it, she couldn't help but say, "However, why do I suddenly feel like I owe you a promise instead."