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专访《乘风破浪》摄影指导程马志远 “在大量车戏中，ALEXA Mini能灵活安装在更多位置上，提供更多机位视角。” —— 摄影指导 程马志远
《乘风破浪》是由上海亭东影业有限公司出品的剧情片，由韩寒执导兼编剧，程马志远担任摄影指导，并由邓超、彭于晏、赵丽颖、董子健等主演。影片讲述了一个不被父亲理解的赛车手阿浪意外经历的一场奇妙冒险的故事。赶在影片上映之际，我们请到了本片的摄影指导程马志远，他为我们讲述了使用ALEXA Mini拍摄《乘风破浪》的幕后故事。 先介绍一下这个故事，您是在什么样的机缘下介入跟韩寒导演的合作？ 《乘风破浪》讲述了男主角（邓超饰演）因为一次意外进入了他父亲年轻时所生活的那个年代，并和年轻时的父亲共同经历了一段父亲的青春时光，在这个过程中他发现他眼中的那个顽固、不通人情的父亲有着自己所不了解的另一面。 我是在拍上一部电影的时候收到的这个剧本，通常讲述父子关系的电影处理的方式一般都是重点表现亲情，但《乘风破浪》其实是通过兄弟情的来体现父子间的关系。当时就觉得很有意思，影片包含了两个时空，这种时空上的区隔也比较容易建立影像风格，有比较大的发挥空间，而且剧本的气质也比较吸引我。所以就很高兴地加入了这个影片。 在《乘风破浪》里您选择了小巧的ALEXA Mini作为主要摄影机，这背后有什么考虑吗？ 这主要有两方面的考虑，一是从工作流程上，二是拍摄方式上。我们这个电影其实在开机之前就希望能在春节档上映，但当时也没有十足的把握，所以一开始并没有公布档期，就是担心如果没有如期完成的话，也还是要保质保量地把电影做完，去放到后面的档期，一直到后面所以有时间节点都如期实现了，才公布的档期。所以，这个电影从项目的一开始，就是非常注重制作效率和流程控制的，要考虑怎么才能达到最高效率。从效率上讲，基于ProRes的流程肯定是比基于ARRIRAW的流程在工作上要方便一些，但是最高质量的ProRes 4444 XQ在质量上是否能满足我们的需要，与ARRIRAW的差距有多大，都是我们关心的。因此，我们使用ALEXA XT和ALEXA Mini做了一些测试，使用ARRIRAW和ProRes 4444 XQ同时拍了一些可能会遇到的极限条件下的画面，并进行调色输出对比，在银幕上对比之后，我们发现，使用ARRIRAW和ProRes 4444 XQ在宽容度和色彩方面并没有什么区别，如果不考虑为特效制作提供更大信息量的序列帧和做特别夸张的调色动作的话，2K环境下的放映对于普通观众来说并没有什么太大的区别。所以就选用了ProRes 4444 XQ格式来作为拍摄格式，也如期地完成前后期的制作。既然放弃使用ARRIRAW，那ALEXA Mini和AMIRA用起来便都不存在问题了。 从另外一方面来说，因为剧本本身的气质，我们希望《乘风破浪》的影像不要有太强的刻意感，不管是影调风格还是运镜上，都不希望有太多的人工修饰痕迹，所以就没去摆那种很强调构成关系的构图，我们的固定镜头几乎不上脚架，都是使用肩扛拍摄，整个影片的运镜相对灵活一点，跟随演员的表演去调整。这点可能与很多影片对肩扛的选择初衷不同，很多电影选择肩扛，是想追求肩扛的运动带来的现场感、参与感，而我希望得到的肩扛的稳定感，这种稳定感带呼吸，不死板。而相反的是，我们的运动镜头反而很追求稳定，要么在斯坦尼康上，要么在遥控头上，这是因为运动带来的画面信息变化本来就大，我觉得如果处理得不稳定，晃动感会分散观众的注意力，容易忽视很多表演上很细腻的地方。因为ALEXA Mini的体积跟重量都很小巧，不管是肩扛还是斯坦尼康，它都有助于掌机更长时间的拍摄。有时候一条戏的时间很长，一直跟随演员拍摄很辛苦，尤其是要拍很多条的情况下，当掌机因为摄影机重量的原因不能提供好的身体状态，其实是会影响运镜的质量的，所以像ALEXA Mini这样非常轻便的小型摄影机对我们所需要的运镜风格来说是很重要的。在大量车戏中ALEXA Mini能灵活安装在更多位置上，提供更多机位视角。 除了重量之外，您还喜欢ALEXA Mini的哪些优点？ 操作上的便捷性更好了，我觉得到了ALEXA Mini、AMIRA这一代摄影机以后，它的操作系统相比以前的ALEXA又有了提升。一些别的摄影机可能会做一些很炫的功能，比如触摸屏，但并没有让操作变得更合理和方便，有时候只需要做一个很小的调整，却要切换很多不同的界面，像ALEXA Mini、AMIRA这样的系统界面设计很合理，调整起来非常方便。机内的ND滤镜也是非常好的一点，现在数字摄影机感光度都很高，所以ND的使用非常多，但器材公司给你配的多各种ND镜未必能保证是同一品牌同一批次的产品，所以多机拍摄的时候，这些滤镜之间多多少少会带来一些不可控的偏色，对于调色环节来说，还要多花一些时间去校准这个误差，我更希望把有限的时间都花在调色的创作上，而不是去处理一些技术上问题。另外，ALEXA Mini支持3D的LUT，能让对画面风格有个预先的设定，如果现场看到的结果与我们最终的影调相差太远的话，主创看监视器全靠想象的话，其实是会影响现场创作部门的判断的。 介绍一下每天的拍摄流程？ 从制作周期上来说，我们后期的时间非常有限，因此剪辑必须在前期拍摄时就同步进行，我们从各方面优化了现场剪辑的流程，我们有一个视频组，专门操作QTAKE系统，这套系统能自动识别摄影机开关机信号来自动录制，我们在现场剪辑设备跟QTAKE系统通过千兆网线连接起来，剪辑软件直接访问QTAKE的硬盘，基本上每个镜头一喊Cut，刚才那个镜头就出现在剪辑的时间线上了，效率非常高。另外QTAKE录制的视频与ALEXA的文件命是同步的，剪辑软件可以自动回套，所以剪辑师只用管剪就可以了，我们基本可以做到拍完一场戏就粗剪完一场戏。另外我们在酒店里搭建了一个音棚，声音的后期其实也是在前期拍摄时边拍边做的。 您和导演为这部影片设定了什么样的画面风格？ 《乘风破浪》百分之八十以上的篇幅都是在讲过去九十年代的戏，所以大部分影像都是在呈现过去的时空，我们的主要思考也是如何既有年代感，又不去重复那种比较套路化的泛黄暖调的老照片式的风格。 在寻找这种影像风格的时候，我想起了日本一个非常有名的平面广告摄影师上田义彦所拍摄的一组乌龙茶平面广告，那组平面广告非常像过去的江南给我的感觉，有年代感，但是是那种年代的美感，而不是破旧感。我就集中把他所有的作品都看了一遍，他的作品风格很统一，基本上都是单方向的柔光，但是反差处理得很大，暗部就让它黑下去，他拍的外景几乎都是阴天，人物总是和环境构成一个整体，并不像很多时尚风格的摄影那样，喜欢把人从环境上提得很强调，他不管拍什么永远有一种年代的味道在里面，这个倒是跟我想象的《乘风破浪》感觉挺接近的。所谓烟雨江南，它本身就是湿润、朦胧的感觉，我们实际的拍摄环境也是以阴天居多，如果一定要把它处理成阳光灿烂的那种效果的话，其实是跟整个江南的风物在对抗，费力不讨好。最终我们也决定用这种方式去处理外景，所以成片中的外景基本上都是阴天、偏冷调的风格。 《乘风破浪》里有大量自然主义风格的照明设计，您是如何跟灯光师合作的？使用了哪些灯具？ 因为我们选择了上田义彦那种风格，所以照明要更偏自然一些，回避那种人工的修饰感，并不会过于强调主体，而是关注主体与环境的一种整体气质，所以照明很多时候就是在调整自然环境中反差和质感不足的部分，让它更提纯，但这又和那种现实主义追求的纪实风格不同，很多纪实风格的电影经常会纯自然光拍摄，追求对现实的还原，不会对现实的环境的气质做出太多气氛上的改变，但这样做的问题是，现实环境没有经过提纯处理，画面的信息有很多干扰，容易干扰对观众的输出。所以我们要做的就是让观众看上去没有觉得做过特别的照明处理，但是又能很快感受到画面的情绪和气氛，把无关信息给处理掉。灯具上其实都是一些很常规的灯具，日景的时候会用一些M系列的灯具，大一点会到18K，其实一开始我很想使用一些像SkyPanel这样的柔光灯具，但SkyPanel刚刚开始投入市场，市面上很少，就还没有用到。 ALEXA Mini的低照度画质如何？ 总得说来，数字摄影机的感光度相对于胶片而言，都有很大的提升，但感光度并不是衡量摄影机的唯一的指标， ARRI的摄影机在感光度上不算是最好的。但它的宽容度非常好，特别对亮部，这是很多数字摄影机不足的地方。而且ARRI的摄影机的亮部和暗部的处理是最接近胶片的。因为胶片的感光特性是一条S型的曲线，中间的部分相对线性一些，但在肩部（高亮）和趾部（阴影）是压缩得很厉害的，也就是说我们实际景物亮度差很多的时候，落在趾部和肩部的部分，那些景物相对应的影像亮度差会变小很多。而数字摄影机的感光特性是一条对数函数曲线，肩部像胶片一样是压缩的，但趾部是被夸大的，所以很多数字摄影机在暗环境里，有点光亮就会亮得很明显，好像显得感光特别好，但其实就是因为暗部的亮度关系被夸大了。而ARRI ALEXA系列的数字摄影机，虽然也是对数函数的曲线，但暗部的夸张没有那么强，更接近胶片的感受。虽然现在很多摄影师都觉得，数字时代没有什么必要追求胶片感，但是我觉得对我们这个片子而言，要让影像看起来有年代感，有一些胶片感还是很重要的，毕竟大家看到的那个年代的影像都是记录在胶片上的。
这部电影里我们拍了一些天光在极限的时刻的镜头，就是天快黑的时候，这块的处理观念上相对现代。传统的方式，在带密度时候拍，会给人物打光，从背景里突出出来，让背景暗，但又保持一定的背景密度，但近年来的一些好莱坞电影，开始在这种氛围下不对人物打光，就让演员在亮度不足的天光里若隐若现，和环境溶为一体，像《边境杀手》、《霓虹恶魔》、《降临》都这有这样的处理，我们只是也做了相同的处理而已。其实这样的环境是从画面上讲是曝光不足的，但它有着独特的气氛，而且比夜景更考验摄影机的感光度和色彩还原能力。
赛车戏是如何拍的？ 《乘风破浪》里赛车的戏跟普通的车戏还有一些区别的，因为导演韩寒本身是五届全国拉力锦标赛的年度总冠军，这种专业的身份，让他对赛车在电影里表现的真实性十分在意。通常的汽车电影里，为了表现速度，会拍很多追车戏，而一些特技驾使动作，为了画面好看，也会尽量做得夸张。比如漂移，会在入弯的时候漂得大一点，让车体横在路上，然后出弯的时候再修一把方向，车就会摆一下尾，然后冲向镜头。包括《速度与激情》在内的大部份电影车戏，漂移都是这样拍的，但从导演一个职业赛车手的角度来看，这样的漂移是充满技术失误的。一个优秀的赛车手，在入弯时候就会选好最佳的切线，不会漂大了再来修正。因此，我们电影中的赛车戏不会看起来像追车电影那样惊险，但却更符合专业赛车手的表现。 我们戏里的赛车也是他在斯巴鲁拉力车队中使用的现役的赛车，像这些大车队用来跑最高组别的赛车，造价都非常昂贵，成本都在100万美金以上，维护和使用成本也非常高，每跑一公里的折算成本就要2600块。而且只有职业车手才能驾驭。这次拉力赛部分的特技驾驶主要由英国车手马克希金斯和导演自己来完成，马克希金斯是英国拉力锦标赛、世界拉力锦标赛的双料冠军，像《幽灵党》的特技驾驶也是由他完成。
拉力赛赛车的电影之前并没有人拍摄过，国外也没有，而常规的拍车方式，像俄罗斯臂的跟拍车，也是无法跟住专业赛车的。所以很多角度与拍摄方法，都需要我们自己去研究，我们设计下来，赛车戏有二三十个机位，想要完成这些机位，就需要让车跑很多遍。但赛车并不是为跑长距离设计的，每跑一段路程，就需要有工程师来检修和调整设置，会影响拍摄的进度。而且，为了还原拉力赛的真实情况，我们的拍摄路段也是拉力赛的真实赛段，很多道路非常险要，为了拍摄效果，赛车全程都是保持高速运动拍摄的，每多跑一次，风险就会增加一分。所以，为了提高效率，也为了减速少车手和赛车的风险，我们都需要用尽量少的条数完成赛车的拍摄。我们把所有需要的机位分了几类，比如在车身上安装了车拍架的，从路边的机位拍就会穿帮，如果路边架有机位，那航拍就会穿帮。最终我们把互不穿帮的机位归为一类，这二三十种机位按优先级分成ABCD四次拍摄，最多的时候车身上要挂四台摄影机，分别去拍摄车身的不同角度，沿路也要安排下四五个机位，去捕捉入弯、出弯、划画等不同的动线。 用最少的条数，高效地完成车戏的拍摄。
对这个片子有什么期待？接下来有什么别的计划？ 今年春节档，除了《乘风破浪》，其它都是非常典型的喜剧类型片，《乘风破浪》虽然也有很多笑点，但情绪上，和我们的电影插曲《在雨中》唱的一样，属于有欢笑、也有哭泣，希望能带给观众不一样的感受。 今年也还有两个电影在筹备，而且去年拍的《绝世高手》也快要上映了，是一个非常二次元，非常风格化的片子，使用ALEXA XT和MA镜头拍摄，希望大家能去支持《乘风破浪》和《绝世高手》，也希望能继续做一些让大家喜欢的作品。 《乘风破浪》预告片
Interview with DUCKWEED DP Chengma Zhiyuan 'ALEXA Mini is very flexible for car scenes.' —— DP Chengma Zhiyuan
DUCKWEED is a 2017 Chinese drama film produced by PMF films, written and directed by Han Han. The film stars Deng Chao, Eddie Peng, Zhao Liying and Dong Zijian and tells the emotional story about the reconciliation between a father and his son. Upon the film’s theatrical release, DP Chengma Zhiyuan spoke with ARRI and shared his experience working with ALEXA Mini on the film. What’s the film about? How did you team up with director Han Han? The film DUCKWEED tells a story that in a fateful occurrence, our protagonist (played by Deng Chao) experiences his father's legendary and interesting life in the past. He discovers that there are so much he does not know about his seemingly stubborn and unaffectionate father.
I got the script while I was working on my last film. DUCKWEED takes an unconventional and interesting approach by portraying father and son relationship as brotherhood. There are two timelines in the film which would offer many opportunities for creating distinct looks. I jumped on board without hesitation as I was fascinated by the script.
Why did you choose ALEXA Mini as A-cam on DUCKWEED? We had two considerations when choosing ALEXA Mini, first being workflow efficiency and second being shooting style. The film was scheduled for release during the Chinese New Year holiday. We did not announce the release date in advance due to the concern that we might not complete the production on time. As we prioritized quality over speed, the release date was formally announced later when everything went according to the schedule. Because of this we needed a highly efficient workflow. In terms of turnaround, ProRes works better than ARRIRAW. So we set out to compare the difference between ProRes 4444XQ and ARRIRAW. Tests were done with ALEXA XT and ALEXA Mini by recording two formats in extreme conditions. Materials were then color graded and projected on the screen for review. In the end we concluded that there was negligible difference between ARRIRAW and ProRes 4444XQ especially since there were no heavy visual effects or extreme color manipulation in the film. Therefore the decision to use ProRes 4444XQ as recording format was made and it worked perfectly throughout the production. We had two camera choices as both ALEXA Mini and AMIRA are capable of shooting ProRes.
Due to the intimate nature of the story, we wanted the look of the film to be as natural as possible. There were almost no locked off shots and sophisticated compositions. We relied mostly on free moving camera with some of degree of improvisations based on the performance. Handheld shots were used a lot in films to add realism and intimacy to the scene. However, I avoided shaky movements by keeping the camera on Steadicam or remote head all the time as I believe that moving shots deliver large amount of visual information, the audience would get distracted if the movements were unstable. The size and weight of ALEXA Mini helped the camera operator work better during longer takes. Excessive weight can cause fatigue and it could potentially affect the shot. Therefore a compact camera like ALEXA Mini was perfect fit for our shooting style. ALEXA Mini is very flexible for car scenes.
Is there anything else you like about ALEXA Mini besides its compactness? The user experience on ALEXA Mini and AMIRA has been further improved. Some cameras add touch screen thinking it could make them easier to operate but it would still require convoluted steps just to change a simple setting. ALEXA Mini and AMIRA on the other hand, have an intuitive and convenient menu system. I also liked the internal ND filters which are an absolute necessity with today’s high sensitivity cameras. Externally mounted ND filters could introduce color shift and color mismatch for multi-cam shoots. It takes time to correct in post and I’d rather spend that time on creating looks. Also, ALEXA Mini supports custom 3D LUT which would gave me a rough idea of the look I envisioned, this feature helped us greatly when making creative decisions on set.
What was workflow like? Due to tight production schedule we had to edit at the same time as the principle photography was happening. The workflow had to be very efficient so we set up a video team that operated a QTAKE system linked with the camera signal. Our editing system on set was connected to QTAKE system via Gigabyte LAN, most of the time as soon as we finish a take it would show up on the timeline, which was blazing fast. QTAKE system also shared the same file naming as ALEXA clips so conforming was automatic as well. We managed to have a rough cut done for each scene right after wrapping camera. We also set up an audio suite in our hotel and did the audio mix while we were on set.
What kind of look did you and the director came up with? More than eighty percent of the film were set in the 90s, to emphasize the past timeline, we wanted a period look but without the cliche faded yellow color.
While I was looking for inspirations, I thought of a tea advertisement from a Japanese photographer Yoshihiko Ueda. The photos looked elegant and reminded me of river south in the past with an evocative period feel. I then went through all his work and noticed that he has a consistent visual style with high contrast but single direction soft lighting. Most of his exterior shots are overcast and his subjects blend in nicely with the environment, unlike many fashion shoots that try very hard to separate them. There was a period feel in all of his photos which was what I envisioned for DUCKWEED. River south has an inherent soft and hazy look and our filming locations were mostly overcast during the shooting days. Therefore it made no sense to light for a sunny look. In the end most of the exterior scenes in the film were naturally overcast with a slight blue bias.
How did you work with your gaffer on the naturalistic lighting? What fixtures did you use? We took inspirations from Yoshihiko Ueda’s work so the lighting was very natural with emphasis on subjects and environment as a whole. Most of the time the lighting was intended to fine tune the contrast and filter out unimportant visual clues. It’s worth noting that we did not follow a documentary lighting style using mostly available light. We still wanted to direct the audience’s eyes to only the key visual information so our storytelling would work as efficient as possible. We used common lighting fixtures such as M series lights up to 18kW for day scenes. At the beginning I planned to use soft lights such as SkyPanel, unfortunately it was fairly new at the time and wasn’t widely available.
How’s ALEXA Mini’s low light performance? Digital cinema cameras have vastly better sensitivity compared with film, however keep in mind that sensitivity is just one of many parameters when evaluating a camera’s performance. ARRI cameras might not be the best in terms of sensitivity but their dynamic range is certainly top notch. They handle highlight roll-off in a way that no other digital cameras can. The response curve on ARRI cameras closely mimics an S shaped curve from analog film with a linear midtone and highly compressed highlight/shadow, which means that highlight and shadow areas of the captured image would have less contrast. Digital cameras use logarithmic encoding that compresses highlight in a similar way as film but heavily lifts shadow. Because of this, low light scenes would often look very bright which leads to a seemingly high sensitivity while in reality it’s just a digitally lifted shadow. ARRI ALEXA cameras use logarithmic encoding as well but they reproduce shadows just like film. Nowadays many cinematographers believe there’s no need to pursue the film look. However, for a period feel on this film, I think it’s necessary to have a film look because that’s what people associate with that time period.
We did a few shots in extreme lighting situation when it’s about to turn completely dark. Traditionally people would light the subjects so they are nicely isolated from the dim background. Many recent Hollywood films started to not light the foreground and let it blend with everything else. For example, SICARIO, THE NEON DEMON and ARRIVAL took this lighting approach. We did something similar as well. Technically the shots were underexposed but they rendered a quite pleasing atmosphere. For the camera it’s even more challenging than conventional night scenes in terms of detail retention and color rendering.
How was the rally racing scene shot? The car race scene in the film received special treatment because our director Han Han is the five time winner of the Chinese Rally Championship and he cared a lot about the authenticity of the scene. Similar racing scenes in other film would add stunts that often look heavy-handed and over-the-top. For example, drifting is often exaggerated when making a turn, causing the car to drift almost sideways on the road. The car would then steer to the right direction resulting in a swivel. Most films in including FAST AND FURIOUS shot drifting scenes in this way. Director Han Han as a professional rally driver was fully aware that those depictions were technically incorrect. A well trained rally driver would always make a proper drift without the need for too much oversteering. For this reason the racing scenes in our film wouldn’t look as thrilling as what’s normally expected but it’s in line with professional rally practices. The race cars we used in the film were from his Subaru Rally Team. Those cars are intended for top tier championships and cost at least one million US dollar each. On top of that there’s maintenance and cost of use. The drivers for the rally racing scenes in the film were director himself and Mark Higgins, winner of both British Rally Championship and World Rally Championship. He also worked as a stunt driver in 007: SPECTRE.
Filming a rally racing scene for a feature was unprecedented. Conventional camera car systems such as Russian Arm wouldn’t keep up with the high speed. Therefore we worked out many special techniques and set up dozens of camera positions. For every take the race car would need to be checked and adjusted which would take some time. In addition, we were shooting in real rally racing locations that could be dangerous especially with all the high speed vehicles. For maximum efficiency and safety, we had to get the most coverage using the least amount of takes. To achieve this we grouped camera positions that did not reveal rigs into one category and filmed them in four takes. Sometimes we had up to four cameras rigged to the car from different angles. There were up to five cameras set up along the road to capture the stunts.
What’s your expectations of this film? Are you planning on anything else? Among the comedy genre films released for the Chinese New Year holiday, DUCKWEED really stands out as something unique. It has some comedic elements for sure but it might also bring tear and I hope the audience would appreciate this unconventional storytelling experience. I’m currently working on the preproduction of two new films. Also, THE ONE, a whimsical film I shot last year is going to be released soon. It was shot on ALEXA XT with MA lenses. Please visit the cinema and see DUCKWEED and THE ONE and I’ll be working hard on new and exciting projects. DUCKWEED Trailer |
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