<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > the lighting scheme for the fantasy gothic film "Guillotine Valley" in the 90s</h1>
Black Flame CG Academy of Fine Arts2020-04-20 18: 37
With the advancement of technology, film production has undergone earth-shaking changes, and game engines like UE4 have also been used in film and television animation production. In the 1990s, the film production was based on the tradition, and in order to achieve the effect that the film wanted to present, it was improved and innovated. 1999's "Valley of the Broken Head" used film photography, graininess, black and white combination of colors, smoke and lightning, and amazing lighting schemes to create a stage-style realist film.
▲ The set of "Guillotine Valley"
Adapted from Washington Owen's classic American folktale The Legend of The Valley of The Guillotine (1819), Guillotine Valley is about a 1799 horror legend over a small New England village, the presence of a headless horseman who cuts off the heads of unsuspecting people who pass by.
Guillotine valley was a highly stylized adaptation of the original story, allowing Tim Burton to play the classic horror movie he idolized as a young man.
Hire an experienced photographer
To create a gothic atmosphere full of lyrical romanticism, Burton hired Emmanuel Lubezki, a rising star in Mexican photography. Lubezki' nickname "Chivo", known throughout the industry, has demonstrated his outstanding abilities with stunningly beautiful images and lush lighting, having written for hollywood films Little Princess (1995) (which won an Oscar), Walk in the Clouds (1995), Great Prospects (1998) and The Sixth Sense of Life and Death (1998). He also made several comedies, including Four Graduates (1994) and Birdcage (1996), and won three consecutive Ariel Awards (Mexico's Oscars) for his photography in Chocolate Lover (1992), Female Star (1993) and Amber.
Despite Lubezki's previous invaluable experience in Hollywood productions, Guillotine Valley is arguably the most ambitious of his career. He confirmed: "This is definitely a big project. "On the day he met Tim, he said he intended to shoot the film in the upstate New York area, which is where the Washington Owen story was inspired." But after he learned about the place, he told me, "Chivo, forget it, we can't shoot there." I don't want the film to look as completely real and natural as The Age of Passion."
Tim Burton on the set of "Guillotine Valley"
The horror movie that Tim Burton wanted to refer to
Tim Burton wanted to create a stylized, artificial horror film in Guillotine Valley, similar to the horror films he wanted to pay tribute to, including Frankenstein and Dracula of Hammer Films (one of Britain's most successful horror film companies), Mario Bawa's atmospheric horror film 1960's "The Mask of Satan", and "Satan's Mask" was also their biggest reference for shooting Guillotine Valley, in addition to the film itself is interesting, but also in the clear and powerful impact of the image.
Built up inside, Guillotine mimicks Hammer Studios' horror films, creating a sense of old-fashioned movies that Hammer did because of tight budgets, and Tim Burton just liked the style. Films similar to stage effects have more control over the visual elements they want to present, such as color and contrast, as well as seasonal elements such as fog and wind. Tim wanted the entire film to be in the fall/winter season. We also wanted to control the realism in the movie, which is not a reproduction of history, but a fantasy story.
Burton and Lubezki
Prepare close-up shots for unfortunate cavalry victims
Creating a "Valley of Broken Heads" in Reality
Tim Burton wanted to make The Valley of Broken Heads look like an isolated, gated community where residents and buildings were shrunk together by fear, like a herd of lambs waiting to be slaughtered. In order to create this atmosphere in the film, it was necessary to rely on the combination of photography and lighting, for which art director Rick Heinrichs produced a series of highly detailed miniature models depicting the main background of the film, the eerie western jungle, the stylized windmills and various residences. They also gave Tim the opportunity to see the sets in three dimensions before actual production and could solve the logistical problems of various scenes. Many ideas start in the production phase because it is much easier to work with miniature models than on set. For example, if you want to cut something on a building, you don't need to spend $20,000 to do it. ”
Heinrichs described the film's architectural style as "colonial expressionism". Historically, its appearance has not been accurate, but a mix and match of various styles. Since The Valley of the Broken End takes place on a Dutch-style manor farm in upstate New York, the film features many Dutch architectural styles, but we also built some English Tudor half-timbered architectural styles with thatched roofs.
▲ A mix and match of European Gothic design in The Valley of the Broken Head
At its peak, the project's construction crew included up to 80-100 craftsmen. The work takes up every inch of Free Space in Livingsden, including van Tassel Manor House and other residences, a creepy cemetery, and parts of the Western Forest, including the Witch's Cave and the Tree of the Dead, as the iconic building is the Headless Horseman's Gateway to Hell. Heinrichs points out: "Some of the designs are reminiscent of the classic German expressionist films Dr. Carrigari's Cabin and Northferatu. These peculiar buildings have a very strong symbolic expression in the real environment. That's what Tim and I want to play together in the movie. ”
The art team's biggest challenge was to build downtown Guillotine valley in Marlow. The man-made village is located in a hunting reserve with a duck pond and includes everything one might have expected in a storybook from the early 19th century: there are covered bridges, churches, blacksmith shops, farmers' associations, notary offices, halfway inns, and grocery stores. In February 1999, a freezing rain muddyed the town's dirt roads, adding to the realism of the town.
Exterior: Lighting with three cranes
▲The basic layout of The Guillotine Valley
▲ The basic layout of the town and is equipped with a series of large lighting equipment. The crane has telescopic arms, swivel arms and elevated arms, so that the lights can be placed on various heights. Choose the crane location with the help of a miniature model of the set to cover the set to the maximum extent possible, and develop a shooting plan. The crane will not be moved during shooting.
Lubezki's lighting scheme, which dazzled the crew, consisted of three huge softboxes suspended from three 250-ton construction cranes. The top of the lightbox contains six downward-pointing 24-lamp (par 64) Maxi-Brutes, while the three sides of the lightbox are 9-lamp Maxi-Brutes at a 45-degree angle. According to gaffer John Higgins, "Our original solution was to have tracks surrounded and test various lighting schemes using tracks. The idea proved unrealistic for many reasons. Instead, we decided to hang the lighting equipment on the crane, which can ensure that the equipment will not wear a gang in the lens, and can arbitrarily call the required lighting angle. “
The art department produced a fantastic set of miniatures, and using the miniatures, we chose three locations to place the crane. We eventually found a company with three 250-ton telescopic cranes that can reach heights of 67 meters. The fine arts department then made miniatures of these lifting mechanisms and placed them in the entire set of miniatures. The test confirmed that the use of cranes to light the scheme is feasible.
Three giant softboxes suspended from a heavy construction crane
Illuminates the center of the Valley of The Broken Head
▲One of the softboxes is preparing to take off. Each softbox contains six 24-light-source Maxi-Brutes at the top and 9-light Maxi-Brutes on three sides.
Each softbox has a 20' x 20' base and is made of scaffolding to make a 12' high side. The softbox must be strong enough to be safely suspended with lights installed, and the crane base must also be reinforced to support the weight of the crane arm. Each softbox can provide 250K of light, and the bottom and sides of each softbox are plastered with tartan. Long black ropes are tied to the corners of the crane so that crew can control the rotation from the ground. The power supply for the crane is provided by two 200K generators. The rest of the crew's power supply was provided by three other generators, while the entire power supply system was wired and then buried in the ground during the crew's set-up.
Interior: Create a sense of the sky with a huge overhead light
▲The stage of the studio shooting interior
The ceiling is fitted with 500 space lights controlled by a dimmer
During the studio shooting stage, due to the height limitation of the studio, the ceiling was as high as 6 meters, which caused great restrictions on the shooting, and the original lighting scheme had to be changed. The final decision was to make a huge ceiling light, install more than 500 space lights on the ceiling, and then use smoke to create an effect so that the lighting props do not wear the gang. The fake sky created in this way seems to be illuminated from the sky, just like in reality.
▲ Scene of a cemetery illuminated by a top lamp
Shooting the interior in the largest studio in Levi'sden, in order to echo the softbox lighting scheme on the outside, the shooting scheme in the studio was adjusted accordingly. The softbox scheme has the danger of making the scene too real in the exterior, so Tim and Lubezki have to balance fiction and reality. With the help of the crane, the shooting of the location has become as easy to grasp as the interior, and it is even difficult to distinguish which scenes are shot in the interior and which are shot on the location.
The design of the windmill was inspired by Hitchcock
A scene from the 1940 spy thriller The Overseas Commissioner
Increases the graininess of the tableted effect
Photographers chose to shoot with Panavision cameras equipped with Primo lenses. He does not use any filters other than neutral density, and minimizes the number of lens changes. "We didn't use a lot of footage to shoot the film," Lubieski confirmed. "Shoot long shots with 40mm; sometimes, when we can't get the photo we want with a 40mm lens, we use a 50mm lens and the 75mm has used it once or twice. Overall, we shoot long shots with 40mm and wide-angle lenses at 21mm. I used 27mm for shooting general scenes, but I also used 35mm. I think when you start combining a lot of shots, it's going to look a little bit Rococo or Baroque, there are too many different variations, and you're going to lose something intangible. We want to keep the film consistent.
To determine the ideal photographic aperture, Lubieski tested the scene for exposure, shooting at aperture values of 5.6, 4, 2.8, and 2. "I've found that to improve the quality of the film, it's best to shoot almost full-scale," he says. The shots were wide enough for me to feel the scenes, but we didn't want them to look too hard or too rough. So we shot the whole movie between 2.5 and 2.8. This was the first time for me as I usually shoot between 2.8 and 4. However, I can illuminate with a wider aperture value more easily because it is easier to observe and judge contrast. ”
CCE emphasizes the shadow while changing the skin tone
Filmmakers wanted to enhance the finishing effect through Deluxe Laboratory's Color Contrast Enhancement (CCE) process. CCE can enhance the graininess of the film, and Lubieski likes the texture of the grains and thinks that the grains [added by the CCE] work well because the imagery has the quality of the old illustrations. CCE differs from the ACE process, which is tunable. With CCE, significant factors in the print process cannot really be adjusted, such as blackness or desaturation.
Lubieski noted: "From the very beginning, Tim said, 'If the company allows it, I'll shoot this film in black and white.' But then we talked about it and he said, "You know, maybe not. Perhaps it is better to paint it in color and keep everything monochromatic, but still retain all these shades of gray, dark blue, dark brown, and green. He asked me if I could do anything in photography to make the look better, so we started talking to Beverley about different processes that could improve film contrast and reduce color saturation. We did a lot of testing, such as making the film flash and not flashing, and then we decided to adopt CCE, a process that will increase maximum contrast and minimize color saturation.
The use of lightning and smoke enhances the dramatic effect
The heavy use of smoke helps to reduce the dramatic contrasts that arise under the CCE effect, and these elements make the film effect more "beautiful" and more interesting in a weird way. In the Western Forest and some other scenes, smoke effects are used, just like the smoke used in the old Frankenstein and Mummy movies. In small space scenes, the use of smoke complicates the situation because the viewer is not expected to perceive the presence of smoke. Another problem with using smoke is that sometimes, when we are working outside with a large crane, the smoke shows the source of the light.
Whenever a Headless Horseman appears, the "Lightning" effect is used. Lubezki said: "Usually, I hate lightning because it has the potential to take the audience a little out of the film. But when we tested the Headless Horseman, we found that lightning did add a lot to the character, which made him even more impressive, a Tim Burton-esque horror feature. Whenever the Headless Horseman wants to kill someone, lightning acts like dramatic punctuation. The problem with lightning is that it does affect the editing of the movie. Lubieski chuckled and pointed out that the use of lightning gave Burton the opportunity to play God on the spot. "I handed the lightning control device to John Higgins, but Tim always told him when to use lightning — he would sit there and twitch his index finger to signal.
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