PREMIERE OF THE THRILLER "GRAVITY" WAS PASSED IN THE ARAB EMIRATES ON OCTOBER 17. SHOOTING STARS / WARNER BROS SPEAKED BY THE FILM PROVIDER. Thanks to her JOURNAL "RUSSIAN EMIRATES" get exclusive MIDDLE EAST INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKERS: director and screenwriter Alfonso Cuarón, writer Jonas Cuaron, producer David Heyman and starred Hollywood star Sandra Bullock.
At the end of the year, it is customary to take stock and recall the most pleasant moments of the past 365 days. For me, as for most of the world cinema community, such a pleasant moment was the release of a sci-fi thriller with elements of the drama of the Mexican director, screenwriter and producer Alfonso Cuarona "Gravity" with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in the lead roles. Let me remind you that according to the plot, during the work of American cosmonauts in open space, a disaster occurs. As a result, the cosmonautical researcher Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock) and the expedition commander, veteran cosmonaut, who was repairing the Hubble space telescope
Matt Kowalski (the hero of George Clooney) is the only survivor on the space shuttle after the latter collided with space debris as a result of the explosion of a Russian military satellite ... What difficulties did you encounter during the filming, wishing to convey the feeling of zero gravity in space?
Alfonso Cuaron: Perhaps this was the main difficulty. Moreover, from the very beginning of our work on the film. I mean, even before we started looking for technical solutions, we had to comprehend the choreography ... All the ideas that I wanted to implement in the film had to be considered from the point of view of gravity. Horizon and weight - this, I admit, Gravity opened the 70th Venice Film Festival and was awarded the highest ratings of the world film press. The tape holds the record for the number of positive reviews in 2013, surpassing last year's thriller "Goal Number One" directed by Catherine Bigelow. And being one of the key contenders for the 2014 Oscars was unusual and even strange. In fact, all this was new knowledge for us, because everything we did was completely unexpected. And contrary to common sense.
The actors choreography you see in the film is mostly animated. However, there were continuous problems! The fact is that animators draw a frame all the same based on the traditional rules of horizon and weight. Therefore, the information they received from experts who patiently explained to them the physics of zero gravity - what, when, where and how in space happens, was also new to them. It's funny, but after a couple of days it was very easy for us to recognize new animators who occasionally appeared in our team. All of them were overly tense, in a state of stress and clearly dreamed of quitting as soon as possible! However, soon they were getting used to what was happening on the site and took everything new and incomprehensible for granted. And over time, the ability to “ignore strangeness” became a habit at all. However, the path to a relaxed state of the creative group behavior was very, very difficult!
How complicated preliminary preparation did you have to go through to screen everything that you and George Clooney did?
Sandra Bullock: Basically, as Alfonso already said, I, like my partner, had to train my body for a long time in order to learn how to move in a new way from neck to legs. And move as if you really are in a state of weightlessness, of course, not even a minute being there. To make this a habit, I had to learn certain movements for weeks, then rehearse, and then synchronize all this according to the principles of mechanics and mathematics with Alfonso cameras. After that, one should step aside from everything and give free rein to emotions in order to finally tell our dramatic story.
In addition, we had a variety of ingenious devices created in the movie pavilion. When I first saw them, I realized that they should make friends as quickly as possible, and if this does not happen, then the consequences can be disastrous. After all, if I start to get confused in all these buttons and details, then I simply can’t work normally in the frame! I also had to study for a very long time to speak a language that I did not understand, absolutely did not combine with my rhythms, and, to be honest, it made no sense to me at all!
Alfonso Cuaron: I wanted to add that Sandra was involved in the filming process from the very beginning. Creating animations and markings, stage productions - in a word, all the pre-programmed stages of the work took place with her participation. One can only be surprised at how much time and effort she spent on meetings and classes with trainers, conversations with illuminators and stunt directors in order to learn how to coordinate all movements correctly, “being” in zero gravity.
After spending months in ignorance during the filming of the film, what was it like to finally see the final product?
Sandra Bullock: This was the first time I watched a movie entirely in Venice. And, as a rule, all actors, when they see themselves in a new film, begin to carefully examine everything, hate themselves, lay their game apart and say: “Here and there I look just awful!” However, in my case, there was simply no time to analyze the game. The extraordinary beauty and emotions that literally absorb you when you watch a movie cover everything! This is largely due to special effects and technical innovations.
So-called smart technologies are used to create the film. And they are transformed into such emotions and such a ruthless and cruel physical experience that it is simply unbelievable. I kept thinking: "How could they make the sound go behind the head?" Suddenly, the film has an effect on you that you do not even expect. For example, George and I (Clooney - approx. Ed.) Had only one reaction to all these technical gadgets: "Well, wow!". And when the film ended, we couldn't even talk for a while. I was very lucky - for the first time in my career I was lucky enough to star in a film in which I looked at myself as a newbie.
What turned out to be the most difficult to achieve the right balance between sound, visual design, movie atmosphere and narration?
Alfonso Cuaron: All of these components are tools for one thing - to engage the viewer on an emotional journey. Separately, these elements do not make sense. They can be cool, but they don’t convey the emotions that we would like them to convey. Therefore, they all work for one purpose only.
The scenario, from the point of view of structure, turned out to be solid and solid. From the moment we finished the initial draft, nothing much has changed. Every moment and every scene remained the same. With the involvement of Sandra and George in the project, the changes concerned the clarity of the emotional path of the main characters. And how exactly we are going to convey their emotions. In many ways, it was a big "hangar" in which all these components began to fit.
Of course, “Gravity” is a very technological film, but in the end, a lot depended on the interaction of actors, creative personalities. After all, the supervisor of special effects is also a creative person. Emmanuel Lubetski, the head of the camera house, is also a creative person. Everyone made efforts to facilitate each other’s work, realizing that the essence of this is the emotional “core” that arose from the interaction of the actors.
Steve Price, composer, worked with sound engineers. Usually, as it has historically developed, battles always take place between sound engineers and composers.
Composers want music to be heard louder, sound engineers want sounds to be heard louder. And here they all worked together, without separation.
Sandra, this role must have been emotionally debilitating for you. Did you learn something new about yourself while working on the film?
Sandra Bullock:Of course. It’s hard to say for sure that something in you has changed until finally one day you wake up and do not understand: “Wow, my reaction to this and this is now completely different. And I feel differently.” I always said that when you meet a creative person, before whom you feel awe and with whom you hope to work one day, as a rule, complete disappointment occurs. You put a person on a pedestal, and then it turns out that he is not at all what you expected to see him. (Laughs ...) But in the case of Alfonso, everything turned out quite differently. I happened to meet a man whose creative potential and worldviews have only got better over the years!
What is it like to keep a frame and play with virtually no partners?
Sandra Bullock: In fact, I never thought about it in this context. Of course, I'm not the only heroine in the film. There is a story, elements written by Jonas and Alfonso. Technology is also a constant "character" around you. I always analyzed our roles and tried to imagine what could be in the heads of the people we are trying to talk about? What are they thinking? And what else can I do to create a full-fledged image? Therefore, it cannot be argued that I was in the frame alone. After all, somewhere nearby was also present George - a very important element of the film, personifying strength and vitality. Without him and his role as a film, there simply would not have been!
How did you prepare for the role? Have you done any research of your own? And how did contacts with experts from NASA help to understand what the main character had to go through?
Sandra Bullock: I was surrounded by a lot of technical experts who helped me recognize leverage and explained which buttons to press on the Shuttle and the Soyuz. I kept asking them: "What should I do? Is this right?" But most of all, of course, I was interested in how the body works in zero gravity. And here I had no one to ask. People tried to explain to me, but I did not understand. And then a funny but very timely story happened ...
My brother-in-law went with a friend to the winery. They sat well, tasted a certain amount of wine, when suddenly, in a pleasant conversation, over a glass of wine, a friend told my son-in-law that his sister was an astronaut. And my relative, immediately noticed that I was also preparing to become one. And that I really need help. Word for word ... And my brother-in-law asked a friend to transfer my phone number to Katie (NASA astronaut Katerina Coleman, - Ed.), Then she was on the ISS. Soon Katie called me. So, finally, I was able to find out what is happening and how. How the body works and reacts, what I need to know and be able to physically do from what I never do on Earth. So the usual conversation between two people over a glass of wine helped me to get the missing piece of information and finally put together the whole picture.
Alfonso, what was your experience with NASA astronauts? Did their information help your work?
Alfonso Cuaron:In my case, it was rather a humble experience. Because you can invent anything you want, but you have to figure out what’s what happened with people who have experienced all this in real life - and more than once. Therefore, it is clear that their information helped improve the script. In the original version, we had planned scenes that, after talking with one of the astronauts, had to be cut out, as it turned out they were completely idiotic!
In general, there were such things in the script that in reality would never have happened on a space shuttle. And even despite the fact that our film is not documentary, but fictitious, we wanted everything in it to look authentic and believable. Certainly, with the physics of space, we tried to be extremely thorough. As for other things, there were so many technical aspects concerning the orbit or trajectories, as well as the physics of travel in space, that we had already moved away from reality and simply fantasized. However, we talked a lot with experts from NASA and spent a lot of time talking. Sometimes they told us such interesting and amazing things and facts that at some point we began to realize that the film itself was no longer so important.
I also add that since this film is not documentary, it does not reflect exactly those procedures and actions of astronauts that would have power in life if something like this happened. They have hundreds of such procedures and regulations. Think, after 40 years of work in space, there were a lot of various incidents. They constantly fly into space to perform various missions. And this is the most hostile environment that a person has ever been to.
The astronauts go through a very good training and preparation. After all, they have to daily do something that they know and can do well, but also be prepared to act promptly and accurately in a crisis and life-threatening situation. They should be able to think outside the box, out of stereotypes. Therefore, these people are really amazing. They are so professional and qualified that in comparison with them you feel stupid, just like a director (Laughs).
It is true that the script of the son of "Desierto" inspired you to write the script "Gravity". About two immigrants abandoned in the desert?
Alfonso Cuaron: Yes, Jonas let me read my script so that I would make comments and notes on it. I did everything and said: “I have not many comments, but I want you to help me write something similar to this.” I had in mind a story that would make the viewer literally squeeze into a chair during all this exciting and action-packed journey. He calls it a rollercoaster. But, at the same time, it is also a deep, intense and emotional adventure. In the interweaving and interaction between the two characters of Jonas, there were many thematic elements that are shown through a visual metaphor. So I asked him to help me write something similar to this story.
In the script there were things that in reality would never have happened on a space shuttle. And even despite the fact that our film is not documentary, but fictitious, we wanted everything in it to look authentic and believable.
Jonas, how did you work with your father?
Jonas Cuaron: It was a wonderful experience, since my father and I were already discussing the possibility of making a film in this style. And just looking for ways to do it. This is a huge challenge - an ongoing action on the one hand, and the ability to juggle with various topics on the other. But the main task was to bring the audience to a certain emotional level. And believe me, this would never have happened if we had not started working with George and Sandra. I learned a lot from my own father. But I learned more from Sandra and George, as our characters came to life only with their appearance. But still, until the last moment, our film was a colossal adventure. And no one knew what the end result would be!
Alfonso Cuaron: For me, this experience was like two screenwriters working together.
Sandra, your voice accompanies the audience throughout the film ... How did you manage to reach an emotional peak?
Sandra Bullock:Alfonso and I talked a lot about voice.After all, the voice and my rapid breathing are very important in the film. If my tone was a little higher than necessary, then this was already false, so every sound should have been perfect. The same was true for breathing, which was due to the level of hyperventilation during each particular moment. We checked every inhalation and exhalation, whether they were interconnected, were not too fast. A lot of time was spent on this. The thoroughness and pedantry with which everyone worked on this film is unprecedented. We wanted the voice of the heroine based on her experience and on where she was in life at the moment.
David Hayman: The only thing I wanted to say about Sandra’s game is how unusual the film is conveyed through her eyes and gaze. Due to weightlessness, it is simply impossible to convey sadness, sadness and any other emotions and feelings with either a body or a gesture. But on the big screen, only eyes can do this. And especially the eyes behind the glass of the helmet ... But still, the fact that Sandra was able to tell the whole story with her eyes, I think is a great miracle! This is really amazing. And this is the magic of Gravity!
7 "GRAVITY" ERRORS
- Bullock’s tears behave like drinking water. In space, the tears remain inside in the form of liquid balls, burning and making it difficult to see.
- Bullock hair does not soar freely, as is the case with zero gravity, but is neatly styled.
- Almost all satellites travel from West to East. But in the film, their fragments move from East to West.
- Glasses of spacesuits for access to space have ultraviolet filters and look mirrored. In the film, they are completely transparent, which would lead to a burn of the cornea and instant blindness.
- During the launch from the cosmodrome, landing and spacewalking, everyone wears diapers. Bullock, taking off his spacesuit, finds himself in ordinary shorts.
- The Hubble’s orbit at the equator is 559 km, and the ISS over Russia is 418.3 km. Space shuttles do not have enough fuel to fly from Hubble to the ISS. The heroes of the film do it on a jetpack.
- The weight of the space suits is 120 kg. The Falcon spacesuit that rescues Bullock weighs 10 kg and is not for spacewalk
7 FAVORITE FACTS
- The film was launched in the USA on October 4, on the 56th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik1.
- Although the thriller is scientifically accurate and adheres to the scientific fact that no sounds are heard in space, sound effects have been added to the trailers for a more exciting plot.
- Sandra Bullock spent six months in physical training before filming.
- In the movie Apollo 13 (1995), Ed Harris played Gene Kranz, the lead flight director during the Apollo 13 mission. In Gravity, Harris voiced the mission leader in Houston.
- James Cameron called "Gravity" the best film about space in the history of cinema.
- The film begins with a 17-minute scene without a single editing glue.
- The film was under development for four years, because the ambitions of the tape in terms of cinematography, visual effects and a realistic sense of space were too difficult to realize. Cuaron was forced to wait for technology to become more advanced in order to fully realize his vision. Only after the release of the movie Avatar (2009) did he realize that the time had come.
