The director reveals the behind-the-scenes 1500 special effects shots to restore "Decisive Battle of Midway"

Beijing News

Battle of Midway 72 points

Movie location: Broadway Cinema Guorui City Store

Attendance: 18

The war film "Decisive Battle of Midway", directed by Roland Emmerich, was released nationwide on November 8 and has so far grossed 159 million yuan in China. The film, based on the Battle of Midway in June 1942, was a pivotal turning point in the entire Pacific War of World War II. Director Emmerich started from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and sorted out the comparison of the preliminary combat readiness of the entire Battle of Midway between China and the United States and Japan, the intelligence analysis of the US military, the strategic deployment, the finalization of the timing of the war, and several gripping air battle scenes for the audience.

Director Emmerich has directed special effects blockbusters such as "2012", "The Day After Tomorrow", "Independence Day" and "Decisive Midway" is a work he wanted to make 20 years ago, but limited to the cost and technology at that time, and only after 20 years did he get on the screen. The special effects in the film are also a big challenge for him, all the war scenes and air combat scenes in the film are made of CG, and there are 1500 special effects shots in the whole film, second only to his previous "2012". The Beijing News reporter exclusively interviewed director Emmerich and talked about the preparation, adaptation and special effects production of the film.

Preparation

This movie could not have been made 20 years ago

The idea of filming the Battle of Midway had been in Emmerich's mind for 20 years. At that time, he approached a company owned by Sony, but the other party felt that the film budget was too much, so he refused. In 1999, Emmerich switched to "The Patriot," which depicted the American Revolutionary War. However, he never forgot the story of Midway. From then on, he had a habit where every screenwriter came to his company and he would ask a question: What script do you most want to write? About five or six years ago, he had a meeting with a screenwriter who said he most wanted to write a script about Midway. So, the two hit it off.

The rest is a matter of funding. Emmerich has never found a suitable investor in the Hollywood "Big Six". In 2017, Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Group, met with Emmerich at the Cannes Film Festival, and Emmerich told him the story and all the ideas and preparations for the film, the two talked at the beach for almost two hours, and Yu Dong decided on the spot to shoot, investing $80 million.

Emmerich is happy to have waited until now to make the film, because the evolution of technology has made it possible to make such a film, which "could not have been done 20 years ago". As a child, he had seen the Hollywood 1976 film "The Battle of Midway", which was filmed with the same theme, but he felt that the film had not yet reached the standard of a classic movie, "So when I remade Midway, I not only had to show the war scenes, but more importantly, I had to shoot the previous introductions, such as Pearl Harbor, if you don't watch the 6 months from Pearl Harbor to Midway, you can't understand what a great war the Battle of Midway is." 」 ”

adapt

Balance authenticity and emotion

While preparing for the film, Emmerich read at least 50 books about Midway, saw many photographs and documentaries, and one of them, "The Female Fighter" (1945), which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, helped Emmerich a lot. Many scenes in "Battle of Midway" refer to this documentary.

In order to make the details of the film more realistic, the crew hired aviation experts who had served on the aircraft carrier as consultants. There is a scene in the film where many soldiers are lined up on the deck of an aircraft carrier to pick up the debris of the landing of the aircraft, and in this way, they wait for their comrades who will return from afar. According to those who served on aircraft carriers, some people will never come back when they are gone, and this is also a kind of reverence for soldiers.

Hollywood Western director John Ford was also included in the filming of a documentary on the Battle of Midway, when 280 planes came to bomb Midway, and Ford was injured by running to the roof to capture the film despite the danger to his life.

Because the film is adapted from real historical events, how to balance the relationship between the authenticity of the story and the fiction is the focus of the director's most discussion with the creator in the filming process, "On the one hand, we must ensure the authenticity of the story, on the other hand, it is not a documentary, it must have exciting moments, and it must have emotions." Although the film is a war scene dominated by men, the director still sets up an emotional line in the film, and the male protagonist has a wife and a child, and has a little more warm moments under the cruelty of war.

special effect

The most difficult thing to shoot is the air combat scene

The film's producer Yu Dong praised the film's special effects, comparing the similar theme of "Pearl Harbor" 18 years ago, "The special effects scenes of "Pearl Harbor" were mostly based on models at that time, but all the war scenes and special effects shots of "Decisive Battle of Midway" were completely CG production, which was a big step forward in production, but the budget was lower than that of Pearl Harbor. ”

For Hollywood disaster film master Emmerich, the special effects in "Decisive Battle of Midway" are also a big challenge. The film has a total of 1500 special effects shots, second only to the previous director's disaster film 2012 (which has more than 2000 special effects shots). Many of the thrilling pictures seen by the audience are completed with CG, such as the scene of the aircraft taking off on the aircraft carrier, which is actually filmed separately, first of all, the crew set up the scene in the studio, filmed the runway on the aircraft carrier, did a 360-degree circular shooting, and then filmed the take-off of the aircraft, and the effect of the sea water was also all made of numbers, and finally combined these shots through very accurate calculations.

Emmerich said that the hardest part of the film is to shoot the air combat scene of the pilot on the plane, "which is where I worked the hardest in the movie", to make the actors really feel as if they are sitting on the pilot's seat and diving down, in addition to the actors to act realistically, the crew also used the blower to create a lot of wind, so that they have the feeling of flying the plane, and there is a real pilot standing next to them to guide them. The special effects also created a lot of video and animation plots, so that the audience really felt that the plane was rushing from an altitude of 2,000 feet to the aircraft carrier. The streamline and path of the plane flying in the sky, the director also basically referred to the flight method of the plane in the documentary, and did a lot of calculus.

In addition to his role as director, Emmerich is also the producer of the film, and for him, the film can only be perfect if he is involved in the production process of the entire film.

■ Interview with the director

Beijing News: In the movie, the US military bombed Tokyo and forced it to land in China, where was it filmed?

Roland Emmerich: I didn't have the money to come to China to make a co-production.

Beijing News: The scenes involving many Japanese battles in the movie went smoothly when inviting Japanese actors?

ROLAND EMMERICH: It was difficult to convince them because they were thinking about playing the bad guys again, and I was going to send them the script and explain to each of them that they weren't going to play the bad guy roles typical of World War II films. I like the Japanese plot very much, and although I don't understand it, I know it's a part of a good shot.

Beijing News: Is there a plan for the shooting of the next movie?

Roland Emmerich: "The Moon Falls", but this moon is not the same as you think of the moon, it is falling to Earth, it is also a science fiction film, and the investment is even greater than this ("Decisive Midway").

Beijing News: Do you plan to cooperate with Chinese filmmakers to make films in China?

ROLAND EMMERICH: I'm going to go in that direction slowly but firmly, and I'm interested in shooting in China, but I don't have a proper project on hand right now.

Beijing News: Recently, many big directors have turned to streaming media, if there is a platform for you to invest in making movies, are you willing?

ROLAND EMMERICH: Why not. However, in the next three to five years, my schedule will be full, and when the time comes, I will still see if the streaming media is still there.