NOVEL WEB Chapter 896: Comet Vomit
The long-lens filming process wasn't smooth at all.
No, it was downright grueling.
The cinematographer had to constantly adjust positions and angles, coordinating perfectly with Jessica, Leonardo, and the other spaceship crew members' spots and perspectives.
That was the Achilles' heel of long-lens shots: one tiny slip-up anywhere, and the whole take was scrapped.
On top of that, Martin took this lens incredibly seriously.
His requirement was crystal clear: this shot had to be so realistic it was flawless, with every single detail accounted for.
The shot had been rehearsed from two in the afternoon until nearly six, about four hours straight, until Martin's single "Good!" finally greenlit it. Everyone burst into cheers.
In the original timeline, though, filming this shot had dragged on for over half a month.
It was a cycle of shooting, studying, and tweaking that led to the final masterpiece.
Who could blame Martin for building on the shoulders of those who came before?
......
"Hello, Martin."
That day, an unexpected guest showed up on Martin's set—one that caught him completely off guard.
"Chris, what are you doing here?"
The visitor was Christopher Nolan. Wasn't he knee-deep in shooting Interstellar?
Hold on—Interstellar?
Martin instantly clocked Nolan's ulterior motive.
"I hear you've cooked up some gear that nails zero gravity perfectly?" Nolan asked.
Martin smirked inwardly. Yup, that's exactly why he's here.
"Not bad at all, Chris."
"Mind showing me?"
"Haha, easy there, Chris. Shooting's about to kick off—you can see it in action soon enough."
"OK, I'll hang tight."
Before long, Nolan laid eyes on Martin's brainchild: the LED lightbox.
Inside the LED lightbox, the CG environment blanketed every wall and ceiling, mimicking Earth's reflected glow to light up Jessica while giving her solid visual references.
"Whoa, this lighting setup is genius—even factoring in the light rays," Nolan said, his eyes lighting up.
Martin, directing the shoot, leaned in and murmured to Nolan: "If you're stuck with old-school tungsten or HMI lamps plus color gels, you're locked into one flat tone. But our LEDs let us pull off sci-fi scenes where the light hits the actor's face all uneven—one side dim, the other bright, maybe with colored highlights in between. It's tricky as hell; traditional methods just can't hack it."
"What about mobile light sources during the shoot? Like sunlight?" Nolan pressed.
"We use compact dollies, swing arms, and remotes to move Robin 600E Spot fixtures around the actors. Tech whiz Pat adjusts the dolly and mini swing arm for each shot based on the sun's position in the simulated environment, while PSP op Nick handles the remote head to make sure the light lands right on the performer."
Nolan mentally ran through Martin's setup and broke into an awed grin. "That's brilliant. Right, I see you're rolling with the classic Arri Alexa and Arri Master Prime wide lenses—how's the footage looking?"
Martin grinned back. "Better than expected. The Alexa's native ASA 800 sensitivity lets me shoot clean, and even pushed to 1200, it holds up great. That's what makes LED lighting viable."
He added emphatically: "Plus, the Alexa's dynamic range means I can handle harsh highlights without blowing out details."
Once Martin's shot wrapped, Nolan wandered closer to inspect the LED lightbox.
For filming actors inside it, the Gravity crew had mounted the Alexa on a modified Mo-Sys remote head, hooked up to a massive motion-control arm that followed pre-programmed paths to circle the actors.
Martin explained: "The system lets the effects team maximize relative motion between objects in the space. Since zero-g environments make up and down irrelevant, shooting a moving object with a static camera looks the same as a moving camera on a static one. So we decided to let the camera handle most of the motion."
Nolan nodded, eyeing the massive LED lightbox before him—a sea of LEDs that basically amounted to a gigantic suspended TV screen.
It reminded him a bit of those LED boxes hanging over NBA courts for replays, just with two extra sides and facing inward.
Technically, it wasn't rocket science; no one had just thought of it yet.
One simple stroke of genius slashed the shooting complexity, and every director tackling space flicks from here on out owed Martin a debt of gratitude—it saved them a world of hassle!
And it was a boon for actors too: with this rig, they didn't have to mime performing to thin air, relying on pure imagination. The difficulty dropped like a stone.
"Chris, how were you planning to handle zero-g shots before?" Martin asked, curiosity piqued.
Nolan chuckled. "I had two schemes lined up: one was Ron Howard's Apollo 13 trick—the Vomit Comet. You load up the whole crew in a plane, then it climbs steep and dives into freefall for a stretch. During that window, everything in the cabin goes weightless relative to each other. One flight nets you about 25 seconds of usable zero-g. The other option was renting NASA's big zero-g simulator at HQ—yeah, I hear Jessica and Leo both gave that a spin."
"Yeah, it was no picnic," Leo said, his face paling at the memory.
"Heh!" Jessica just let out a soft laugh.
"Truth is, NASA's simulator and the Vomit Comet run on the same principle—using a huge parabolic arc to fake weightlessness. But neither's exactly gentle on regular folks. Leo here's racked up a triple Vomit Comet achievement, though."
Leo: "Hey, quit dredging up my most embarrassing wipeout. I did it for free, you know."
"Alright, alright, my bad," Martin said, raising his hands in surrender.
"Martin, your method's the way to go. Back in the day, Ron Howard blew 612 zero-g flights just for those shots in Apollo 13. Word is, Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and the leads were about ready to mutiny. And don't get me started on NASA's simulator—I was terrified some actor or crew would end up with space sickness mid-take. Including me. Your rig's a game-changer: it handles cabin zero-g, sure, but exterior shots too. Simple and perfect."
Nolan's praise came straight from the heart.