16-12-27【幕后故事】摄影指导杜杰揭秘《罗曼蒂克消亡史》拍摄故事

摄影指导杜杰揭秘《罗曼蒂克消亡史》拍摄故事

“在宽银幕画幅下，ALEXA XT加Master Anaormorphic变形镜头拍摄画面的锐度高，。而且MA变形镜头不像别的变形镜头画面周围是柔的，更不会有畸变。”

—— 摄影指导 杜杰

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》是由华谊兄弟、英皇电影出品，程耳执导、杜杰担任摄影指导，并由葛优、章子怡、浅野忠信、杜淳、钟欣潼等演员主演的民国背景故事片。《罗曼蒂克消亡史》讲述了1937年大动荡前夕，上海滩风云显赫的陆先生遭遇日军施压，并卷入了一桩暗杀阴谋，身边亲友惨遭牵连，乱世当前，大佬、小弟、弱女子等往昔人物走向了不同的命运。该片一经上映，结构式的故事讲述方法和风格化的摄影风格引起了诸多热议和关注，摄影师杜杰为我们讲述了《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的幕后拍摄故事。

您跟程耳导演之前已经合作过电影《边境风云》，简单介绍一下这次得以再次合作的故事背景？

我跟程耳上学的时候就认识，但那时并没有正式合作过，这次能再次合作要从程耳上一部作品《边境风云》说起。拍《边境风云》的时候大家比较投缘，影片也在当时收获了还算不错的反馈，后来我们就成为好朋友了，经常一起看电影、聊天。后来他说他要拍《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的时候就约了我，我非常喜欢这个剧本，中途推了好多影片的拍摄，基本上就是在这样的情况下参与了《罗曼蒂克消亡史》。

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》于2014年开拍，您当时是基于哪些因素选定的摄影机和镜头？前期做了哪些测试工作？

可能是因为我们这一群人教育背景比较接近，大家经常会一起聊电影，所以当我们拍《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的时候，已经有了大概的方向。我们希望《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的画面是非常清晰、解像力非常好的那种质感，所以当时首先定下了用ARRI Master Prime定焦镜头 。后来在怀柔影棚的一个民国景片里，我们用一台高分辨率的摄影机配MP镜头、一台用ALEXA XT配Master Anamorphic变形镜头和MP镜头分别进行试拍。做完测试后对比画面觉得ALEXA XT配MA变形镜头呈现的质感更符合我们的需要一些，它的色彩也跟这个片子更融合。

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》是一部讲述旧上海的片子，它的画面风格是怎么形成的？为什么选择使用了Master Anamorphic镜头来讲这个故事？它有什么优点？

很多想法都是平常聊天的积累，比如导演程耳在剪片子的时候会说到某一部电影很好看，然后我们就会找出某一场戏来分析。摄影方面，《无耻混蛋》、《燃烧的平原》、《囚徒》、《布达佩斯大饭店》这几部电影我们聊的相对来说多一点。并不是说一定要去参考它们的画面，但会去品味某些影像所呈现出的魅力。比如著名摄影师罗杰·迪金斯拍的《囚徒》，影片开头地方，有一个镜头是隔着车窗拍一只刚被杀的鹿，而车同时在前进着；还有一个镜头是摄影机对着一棵树缓缓地往前推，但画面里并没有演员，它们都传达了一种特别的感受和趣味。再比如说我们看《布达佩斯大饭店》的时候，想参考它的颜色，但却在拍的时候意外找到了一些对称构图的灵感。导演也不喜欢正反打这种镜头，整个画面的风格其实是在类似的过程中慢慢形成的。

因为《罗曼蒂克消亡史》是宽银幕画幅，如果是把MP镜头拍摄的画面上下裁掉一部分，画面整体的观感锐度可能没有直接用ALEXA XT加MA变形镜头拍摄画面的锐度高，，画质和MP镜头不相上下。有一场菲律宾部分的戏，我们在海南拍的，当时是拍章子怡的近景，因为使用了景深范围更丰富的MA变形镜头，所以我一直在控制浅景深镜头在整个片中的比例，很多外景我并不想要后景完全虚化的那种效果，我把镜头的光孔缩小到了T16，以便让背景有足够多的信息。因为带环境感会给人更好的感觉，所以虽然光孔收到那么小，但是画质却没有任何影响。而且MA变形镜头不像别的变形镜头画面周围是柔的，更不会有畸变。它的景深的感觉跟球面镜头不一样，拍广一点的镜头时，MA变形镜头的景深可控制的空间更大，更符合这个片子想要的气质， 最终的效果我非常满意。

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的灯光设计遵循什么样的美学参考？使用了哪些灯具？ ALEXA在低照度下的表现怎么样？

我们希望能做出一种很朴素的感觉，但是一定要有品质。就好比是一件家具，它的造型非常简单，但是做工非常细致，它的质地能让你感受到散发出来的味道，一看就是珍品的感觉。所以这个片子不会有很多精美的逆光和太多绚丽的颜色。再比如房间里有扇窗户，灯光从窗外进来，那这场戏就只用这一个单一的光，不会为了让这个人物的造型更突出而专门去加逆光或者去补一些光。这一次大部分戏都是在棚内拍的，所以用了大量钨丝灯，比如在棚里用很多24头灯打反射光来模拟室外天光的效果。除此之外，我们还自制了很多柔光的灯箱、LED灯，还有一些场景用了ARRIMAX 18K。

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》也有很多看起来很暗的场景，这跟我们对上海的理解有关系。旧上海的外滩有很多西式高楼，楼的举架很高，所以很多室内光线都有一种南方特有的阴沉。我们为了照顾这种真实感，就没有做很强烈的阳光的效果。包括演员很多时候也都是在一些很暗的光线条件里拍摄。但我并不担心噪点问题，关于暗到什么程度会出现噪点我们一开始就做了测试，而且我也在现场用监视器确认了画面，再加上一定的控制，我认为噪点对ALEXA来说不是问题。再比如我们拍芦苇荡那场夜戏，现场是按照比较暗的思路去拍的，但是后期的时候又想把它提亮一点。当我们把低照度的场景提亮后也只出现了轻微的噪点，经过轻微的降噪处理完全没有问题，ALEXA低照度画质很好，使用ALEXA根本不需要去担心噪点问题。

这次片中有很多风格迥异的女演员，如何把他们的肤色拍好看？

确实，每个女演员的肤色都是不一样的，但我希望把每个人都拍得光彩照人。这次我主要是在钨丝灯光源下去拍这些肤色，所以有时会加色纸做一些颜色反差，让肤色看起来更厚重一点。还有就是，想把演员的脸拍好看，很多时候跟背景也是有关系的，背景处理得好的话在那样环境下也会显得很漂亮。而且我觉得就目前来说，ALEXA的肤色表现在所有摄影机里是最好的，尽管有时候也不是直接就能一步到位，但是ALEXA的色彩表现确实非常优秀。这次拍摄大部分时候只用一台ALEXA，并且我自己掌机。这次摄影机固定机位比较多，所以在镜头设计与打光上也能有比较大的塑造空间。

回忆一下陆先生与马仔在房间内杀戮的长镜头的拍摄？

那场戏是一个很戏剧化的场景，尸横遍野，演员从房间里穿过。我想把环境拍得全一点，人在四周高高的墙壁的衬托下显得很渺小，从俯拍的角度看会有一种宿命的感觉。其实这种房子在现实生活中是不可能存在的，更不会有那样的大厅。我们的景一共两层，有10米高，当时还专门调了一个12mm广角镜头来拍这个画面。我们觉得俯拍这场戏会比较有意思，所以我们在屋顶用铝管做了一个很长的轨道，机械组的人在下面看着监视器并根据演员走动的速度拉动威亚来移动摄影机。此外摄影机还要跟着演员上楼梯，所以也用了Scorpio的遥控头，无线跟焦用的是ARRI WCU-4，配上ARRI的超声波测距仪。那场戏准备了三四天，确实花费了比较多的心思，好在效果还不错。

这次录制的是什么格式的素材？对ALEXA的素材质量有什么感受？

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》录制的是ARRIRAW格式，大部分都是实拍。但因为我们需要的场景比较多，有些时候需要抢一些进度加了一些合成的镜头。比如有一些陆先生在上海街道上的车内戏、杜江和马仔杀赵宝刚的那场戏都是合成的，有点像老的电影用放映机合成背景的方法，有一种非常特别的美感。影片开拍前测试那会就已经了解ARRIRAW的质量非常好，应对这些常见的合成并不难。

从《罗曼蒂克消亡史》开始拍摄到上映这期间，ARRI也推出了新的摄影机、灯光、以及辅助运动器材等产品，如果有机会尝试，你会在下一个项目中做哪些尝试？

是的，我现在正在拍的这个片子就用了ALEXA Mini摄影机和SkyPanel LED柔光灯。我比较喜欢SkyPanel那个可以调颜色的功能，这样在现场直接看监视器就能调到最终想要的效果，完全不再需要在灯前面加片子。而《罗曼蒂克消亡史》的拍摄还都是加色纸和片子，现在则完全不需要再这样操作了。这次用了非常多的SkyPanel S60，现在又新出了一个更长的S120，但还没来得及用。之前ARRI还出了一个Trinity稳定器，也可能是题材的原因我现在还没用过它，它应该比较灵活，高高低低的地方都能用，配合一直运动的镜头会是非常好的选择。以后会做哪些尝试的话还要看题材，ARRI的各种器材我经常都在使用，我对它的综合印象很好，就目前来说，ARRI是我们能拿到手里最可靠、最有保障的器材。

《罗曼蒂克消亡史》预告片

更多有关ALEXA数字摄影机与MA变形镜头的信息，请查看以下链接：

Interview with THE WASTED TIMES DP Du Jie

"Master Anamorphic lenses are able to take advantage of the full sensor resolution from ALEXA XT, and they performed well  from the center to the edges of the image. Unlike other anamorphic lenses, Master Anamorphic lenses have minimal distortion and maintain consistent sharpness across the entire image."

—— Director of Photographer Du Jie

THE WASTED TIMES is a Chinese-Hong Kong thriller film produced by Huayi Brothers Media Group and Emperor Motion Pictures, directed by Cheng Er and starring Ge You, Zhang Ziyi and Tadanobu Asano. Set against war torn Shanghai in 1937, the film follows a local crime boss at the receiving end of the Japanese army's attempt to forge a dubious alliance. Spanning three separate times during the period, the story details mindsets from various perspectives, all culminating in a suspenseful and tense finale. Upon the film’s theatrical release in China, DP Du Jie spoke to ARRI and shared his experience working on the film.  

Previously you worked with director Cheng Er on LETHAL HOSTAGE, can you talk about what made you team up again on THE WASTED TIMES?

I met Cheng Er back when we were at film school. Our first official collaboration was LETHAL HOSTAGE which was well received and it was a pleasant experience working with the crew. Since then we become good friends and hang out together often. When the project THE WASTED TIMES came along he got me on board. I was so fascinated by the script and I had to turn down many other projects so I could focus on this one.

THE WASTED TIME started principle photography in 2014, how did you choose the cameras and lenses? What tests did you do?

Since we went to film school together and we talk about films all the time, the director and I were pretty much on the same page in terms of creative choices on THE WASTED TIMES. We wanted the film to have a sharp and detailed look. We decided to use ARRI Master Prime lenses and we tested them along with Master Anamorphic lenses on an ALEXA XT and another cinema camera in the studio. After reviewing the results we preferred the ALEXA XT with Master Anamorphic lenses combo. The color rendering in particular was a good fit for the narrative and the image quality was exactly what we expected.

THE WASTED TIME was set in old Shanghai, how did you come up with the look of the film? Why did you choose Master Anamorphic lenses?

Many of the ideas came from our casual conversations about film. Sometimes when Cheng Er was editing something and he would recommend a film to me and we would then analyze the film together. In terms of cinematography, we often talked about INGLOURIOUS BASTARDS, THE BURNING PLAIN, PRISONERS and THE BUDAPEST HOTEL. Instead of simply using those films as visual references, we studied how the images enhance storytelling. For example, in PRISONERS lensed by Roger Deakins, there was a slow moving shot of a freshly killed deer through a car window. There was also an empty shot where the camera pushes in to a tree. These whimsical images really add something special to the film’s narrative. In terms of color scheme we wanted to find inspiration from THE BUDAPEST HOTEL, however during filming we found out symmetrical framing worked really well for us since the director doesn’t like traditional shot-reverse-shot. So the look the film was developed gradually as we moved along.

Because we chose cinemascope format for THE WASTED TIME, if we letterboxed the images using Master Prime lenses we wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the full sensor resolution from ALEXA XT. Master Anamorphic lenses performed equally well compared with Master Prime lenses from the center to the edges of the image. I remember we shot a scene in Hainan and there were some close-ups of Zhang Ziyi. In order to retain as much background detail as possible, I stopped down the lenses to T16 which did not affect the optical performance at all. Unlike other anamorphic lenses, Master Anamorphic lenses have minimal distortion and maintain consistent sharpness across the entire image. The way they render depth of field is different from spherical lenses, I was able to have more control over depth of field when shooting wide shots which greatly helped creating the look of the film. I was extremely happy with the results. 

How did you come with the lighting in THE WASTED TIMES? What fixtures did you use? How did ALEXA perform in low light?

We envisioned the lighting to be simple and exquisite at the same time. It’s like a piece of furniture, it might look plain but every bit is meticulously crafted to perfection. For this reason we didn’t use much glaring backlight or radiant colors. For some interior scenes, we would just use a single light source from outside the window without additional fill light or backlight. Most scenes were shot in the studio and were lit with tungsten fixtures. An array of 24 head fixtures were used for bounce to create a skylight effect. We also made some softboxes and LED lights. In a number of scenes we used ARRIMAX 18K.

There were quite a few dimly lit scenes in the film. Old Shanghai had a lot of tall buildings in the Bund which made the interior darker than usual. Therefore in order to achieve a sense of realism for the period we kept sunlight effect minimal. At times we had to work in very low light but I wasn’t really concerned with noise. I did tests to check noise level before filming and from what I saw on set, noise was no issue for ALEXA. For the scene in reed marshes, we shot it with dim lighting but in post we decided to push the exposure up a little, the resulting noise was minimal and after moderate noise reduction the images were pristine. ALEXA did an amazing job in low light and I never had to worry about noise.

How did you make sure that the skin tones of the different actresses in the film look flattering?

I wanted to make the skin tone of every actress in the film look as good as possible. I used tungsten lighting mainly to film the skin tones this time. Sometimes I would add color gels on the lights to enhance the color of the skin. Sometimes the right color and texture of the background can also complement the look of the foreground talent. In my opinion, ALEXA has the best skin tone reproduction of all digital cinema cameras. It might not be spot on every time but only minimal adjustment is needed. Most of the time we only use one ALEXA camera and I was the camera operator myself. Since a large number of shots were locked off, we had more flexibility to finesse composition and lighting.

Can you talk about the massacre scene?

It was a fairly dramatic scene. Dead bodies were everywhere. I wanted to capture the entire environment and the aerial view of the room made the character seem small and inconsequential. The purpose built two-storey set was 10 meters in height. For this unique perspective we managed to secure a 12mm wide angle lens.  A track was set up in the ceiling and the camera rig was connected to a wire system, the operator would move the camera through wires based on the blocking of the actor seen in the video feed. We also had to follow the actor walk up the stairs so we used Scorpio Digital Remote Head for that, coupled with ARRI WCU-4 wireless follow focus and ARRI Ultrasonic Distance Measure. This scene alone took 4 days to prepare, a lot of effort went in to it and we were pleased with the results. 

What recording format did you use? What do you think of it?

We used ARRIRAW format. Most scenes in the film were live action and for scheduling reasons a number of scenes were done in compositing. For example, the car interior scene of Mr. Lu in the streets of Shanghai and the killing of character Zhao Baogang had some composited elements. It’s clear to me after my tests that ARRIRAW format is extremely robust and perfect for compositing.

Since the production began, ARRI has released a number of new cameras, lights and support accessories, if you had the opportunity, what would you like to try?

Actually I’m already using ALEXA Mini and SkyPanel LED lights on one of my current projects. I particularly like the color tuning feature of SkyPanel LED lights, it eliminates the need to attach filter gels and enables me to get the look on set in a convenient way. I have been using SkyPanel S60 extensively and I’m aware that a bigger S120 was recently released. For the types of films I have been working on, I haven’t really got a good opportunity to use the Trinity stabilizer from ARRI. I believe it could be extremely flexible and ideal for continuously moving shots. I’d love to try it with the right film in the future. I have been using ARRI equipment for a long time and I’m thoroughly impressed by how reliable and trustworthy they are.

The Wasted Time Trailer

For more information about ALEXA cameras and Master Anamorphic lenses, please click on the following links: