All language subtitles for 115 - Scene Deconstruction Apollo 13

so now I thought we would take a look at a sequence uh

again with the sound off

um and this one I

I know something about

this is the launch sequence from Apollo 13

and let's look at it again with no sound

and of course

the sound of music played such an important role in it

and I'll talk a little bit about that as well

but let's just go through the scenes

and I'll give you a little idea about

how they were broken down and executed

what was required

here we are in the suit room

I really wanted to make it look like gladiators

getting ready for combat

the important idea for me with the launch sequence

was to give a kind of an importance to it

and to connect

the key characters

were gonna be involved with the crisis emotionally

I wanted to set them up within the context of

a triumphant and successful moment in the space program

the launch I wanted the audience to feel

uh the respect

the fear that everyone involved had with the launch

and so this early part of the sequence

is all about tension

uh the music is

is is quiet

it's somber

there's an ability

there's a kind of

again this feeling of respect for

um what these

these men are willing to face

this is a set with a blue screen behind it and a model

this was before CG

we didn't have very much CGI

in this one

this is also a big

giant model with a

matted in uh

little figures of

of our guys beginning to walk across

we went through hours and hours of archival footage

everything that we could find

and in some cases I

I emulated shots

but we actually didn't use archival shots

there are a number of shots like this one

which was done on a sound stage

all we built was just the walkway

um we didn't even put green screen behind it

because I knew it was gonna be a long lens

and we would just blow that out

and we wouldn't really see the background

and here we are

introducing Mission Control

for the first time in the movie

Mission Control becomes such an important

you know setting for so much of the drama

I was trying to create

in a fun way

a little bit of suspense

so the camera moves around

we wonder what this this is

but I didn't want to reveal Gene Crance yet

and Ed Harris

I wanted to let people react to him

and create a question Mark

here we are

going through the process of strapping in

this is our mock up on a set done at Universal Studios

we've seen the anticipation we felt it

but it's also more intense

their feet are pressing down on their shoulders

everything's growing a little tougher

there we finally met Jean Crans

let's stop there

Apollo thirteen

uh was often shot with a and B cameras

but it was not shot in a style

which I have used in movies like rush or Frost Nixon

that has an almost

an unplanned

chaotic feel

not quite faux documentary

but a kind of a spontaneous

unstaged feeling

I didn't choose that for this sequence

and almost every

idea or moment

or line of dialogue

is a different camera angle

and so my shot lists were long

and they were ambitious and I was

I was you know

just constantly going after the moments that I needed

shot by shot

I would very often shoot

an entire sequence

in case we would accidentally

find ourselves

getting a line of dialogue

in an interesting angle

that I hadn't planned for

my rule of thumb always is

in these situations

go as far as you can in the scene

as long as you don't have to change the lighting

or lengthen

the amount of time it's gonna take you to shoot it

so use the camera setup for every

every moment of the scene

that it's valid

um and but try not to get too choppy

that's the actor in me

always appreciating a little more fluidity and flow

rather than shooting scenes in small bits

line by line

even though the shot list

and might exist

might suggest

a shot just for one line

or I might imagine

using it for only a single line

or a single moment

here we are

back on our set

we can carry on

of course the capsules

an absolute replica

meticulously recreated

by Michael Kormblith

the production designer

and his team

and we had a great deal of research

here we are

back in our mission control set

like to stop for one second

we actually got some elements

from NASA the set

the real mission control

had been mothballed

at about this time

and our production designer

Michael kormblith uh

was in such good favor there

because they so appreciated

how meticulous

he and his team was

with the research

that they actually

shipped a few

of the components

out to us so that um

some of its

recreated most of it

but we had some of the

the real elements there

and when we began our rehearsal period

I did a full week of

of mission control school

where I had a couple of flight directors

who were there

they helped

flesh out the dialogue

teach each person

at each desk and screen

exactly what their jobs were

so that the actors

could begin

to improvise

actually in the vernacular

and understand

the demands of the job so that uh

there was a kind of

an authenticity

and a density

in terms of

the behavior um

and and and and

and what you know

it might feel like

to be there to to to

to make the scenes

um as uh as

transformational

as it could possibly be

during rehearsal

literally had Jerry Griffin one of the

one of the flight directors

uh he came back laughing and I said

what's so funny Jerry

and he said well I

I said I needed a moment

I needed to go to the bathroom

and I completely forgot it was a sound stage

and I went to where the bathroom is supposed to be

and used it

and so that was

that was a you know

that was high praise for for our

our department team

within 99% it was

it was a recreation

we gave ourselves a tiny bit more room in the capsules

um because we knew we were trying to get cameras

in there of course

we also built the capsules

so that you could take panels out

not entire walls across the circular

but certain panels out

so that we could slide cameras in

uh and I always wanted the feeling that

um you know

just as you know

when you watch footage of people up in the shuttle

or from the Apollo area

you know that camera is in with them

um and I wasn't going for that dock you feel

exactly but I

I wanted that claustrophobia

and I wanted that

that feeling that it was

you know again

you were there with the astronauts

here we are back in Mission Control

this is yet another angle on Ed Harris

particularly for this moment

as he's beginning to start the countdown

the preparation for the countdown

camera moves to create a little tension

it's a little different

it's a aesthetic style shift in the scene

the cameras are getting a little closer

short camera pans again

to create a little urgency

these are all things that I plan for

remember the Gary Sinis character

Ken Mattingly

was meant to go on this mission

they thought he was gonna get the chicken pox

or the measles or something

and he had to stand down

so very emotional for him

and that factors into our story later

so I wanted to isolate him and and uh

begin to remind audiences of that

that feeling of uh

of of of loneliness that that

that he was a little foreworned to

to be left out of this

this is where the sequence is beginning to suggest

that there is danger involved

there is tension

so camera moves sounds

body language of the actors continues to change

those are all angles from inside the capsule

that's a model

it's not a NASA shot

again back mission control now we're going much tighter

eyes lips also tighter now on the people in the stands

camera moves starting to press in

I wasn't doing very much of that prior to this

now that was

has a little bit of a disorienting turn

and there's the

the first ignition moment so

that little turn was there just to sort of key in that

that moment of ignition

this is a model and our first bit of CGI

the ice is the only thing in this sequence that CGI

the fire is real and we used a model

of course Gary Sinis was reacting to nothing

when we shot that

but the rocket was a model

matted in later camera shake of course

now try to simulate the intensity

all very carefully storyboarded sequences

designed just for the moment

which there

they exist in the movie CGI Ice

but otherwise

it's a model shot at various camera speeds

cameras on a crane looking down

there's a model shot with CGI ice

also storyboard at a different angle

and a feeling of

of relief because it is

at least gotten past this first critical moment

of course the spouses are still concerned

this is a critical moment in any launch

so we'll play that off of the Gary Sinis character

the astronauts know that they have to clear this hurdle

again we're just vibrating the camera

and shaking our capsule set

it's very basic

and moves to try to keep this a little bit tense

at this point

I don't want the audience to start to relax

that's a design shot obviously

to suggest from their point of view that they're

they're in outer space

that's a moment all the astronauts always talk about

of course their straps would never be quite that loose

we loosen them a little bit more

and they made fun of us for that

but I needed for audiences to feel the lurch forward

a little bit more models

a light change on our set

cinematographer has set a bright light

to represent the sun

a little moment of concern

which happened in the real mission

again a reminder that

even though things are going pretty well

it's it's a

it's a dangerous undertaking

cameras are moving again

try to create some tension pumping in the foreground

just ways to energize the behaviour in the frame

through the staging

this is the abort option

if to make the audience try to invest in the idea

that it would be horrible if suddenly they had to abort

directing the actors through secrets like this

is almost entirely taken care of by the research

and also the wardrobe they get to wear

and by the time we shot these scenes on the stage

it actually already been weightless

uh so we went through an entire rehearsal period

but we also shot all of our wide shots

in our weightless environment first

so in a way

they were experienced astronauts by the time uh

they they were shooting the close UPS

we're coming up on our first shot

that was done in the zero G plane

and that's when they begin to take the helmets off

soon as they shut down and they're in orbit

here we go this is the first shot we did

you see you can let it go

and there it's floating

today you would do this CGI

but then the wires would have been so restrictives

would have limited the authenticity and

and it would have been nearly as much fun

so the objective of the scene was to um

to sort of pull the key characters

the community

the characters that we were going to focus on

throughout the remainder of uh

of our of our story

to introduce them um

in a moment of tension

but ultimate success and triumph

and um um and I

I I wanted the music to work with the sort of

the highs and lows of the

of the sequence

and the late

great James Horner

I think this is one of his

you know most brilliant cues and

and he created a lot of them for movies

some of them

you know for me

and I think what James brought to this is incredible

this is another sequence

in my opinion

where if you watch it with music

then watch it without sound

and then go back and uh

and listen to it

not only with the sound effects of course

but with that music

it's it it's

in and of itself

a kind of an education

it's an incredibly long cue

uh and it's so

supports the images and the emotional ideas of

of the scene

that I was trying to create through the staging

a scene like this is very challenging for a director

because you're filming in four

or five or six different locations

and you're trying to make it as cohesive

and fluid as you can

so you're trying to think about matching camera moves

um rhythms of shots

um the screen directions

the way people are looking um

if someone's looking off camera right

and for one scene

you might want the person that you cut to

in the next scene

to be looking camera left

that naturally connects um

the the characters

in some subliminal way

um that's just

you know kind of the grammar of um

of of cinema

um but also

because it is going to be shot in tiny bits and pieces

you have to constantly be on alert

working with the actors again

not turning them into puppets

you want naturalism

you want you want

you want everything that they have to offer creatively

um you wanted to be as spontaneous as it can be

but you as the storyteller

as a keeper of that story

have to keep in mind

you know the

the rhythms of things that the

the sort of

the the the

the the the

the modulation

the UPS and downs of of

of the of the

the feeling

that you're trying to convey to the audience

in terms of the narrative and

and and the way it unfolds

and you have to convey that to the actors

without really putting that literally in their minds

because their job is not to be thinking about that

their job is to be in their moment

as an actor

your job as the director to be

you know thinking of the

of the overview

trying to keep the

the mechanical uh

issues outside the mind of the actor

as much as possible

actors are so different however

some actors are just great

with the mechanics of the movie

and it helps them to understand

you know what lens is on the camera uh

it helps them to understand why the cameras moving in

uh and understand cinema

and they're

and they they

they can uh

they consider building performance along with director

and that the

the grammar of the medium in really interesting ways

that's very

that's rare

um and many of the greatest actors um

don't like to know anything about the camera

um there's a great master class

with Dustin Hoffman and

and he's an actor famous for

not really wanting to know what the camera is doing and

and not wanting to hear much about the technical

demands or limitations or needs

of course he's technically adapt

he's directed

he understands as well as anybody

but he doesn't want that in his mind when he's acting

Tom Hanks is somebody who

you know loves to know what you need

loves to know what's going on

and how he can work with whatever it is the director

is doing with the camera

to you know

to help achieve the goal

so you know

there are so many different kinds of

incredibly talented individuals who work in very

very different ways

part of a director's job is to understand that

and be able to speak intelligently

compassionately

supportively

and offer guidance to people who

who do work in different ways

and speak to them in

in in their

in their language

and understanding their approach to their work

and their psyches

most of the challenges in this sequence

really came not in the execution

which went very smoothly

because we'd always known this was a pivotal sequence

and and an expensive sequence

and very challenging

um the editor Dan Hanley

had actually gone and built

using archival footage

a launch sequence

uh this had been meticulously storyboarded and

and analyzed

and while I

I didn't storyboard

the actors I shot

listed it very

very carefully and meticulously

and again I was thinking uh

mostly about uh

camera movement and tempo

and shifts in the tempo of the camera movement uh

or the non movement um

and and when to get tighter windows

when to stay back

when to release the tension a little bit

and then you know

exert tension

again using

um the camera

and of course

the actors performances

by the time we were actually staging

and shooting the scenes

the actors had been around NASA

the mission controllers

had been through their mission control school

and this was the first thing that we shot

in our mission control set

so in a way

it had the anxiousness and the excitement

of a launch

because they were

you know this was

this was the first scene that they were doing and

and I think that

you know the

um by the time we were shooting this scene

uh you know

Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton

and Kevin Bacon

really had a feeling

for you know

for what it was to be a test pilot

what it what it meant to uh

to to finally get down and do the job

and so much anticipation

we shot this movie

as much in sequence as we possibly could

so by the time we were shooting this sequence

we'd actually

shot you know

sort of the first 45 minutes of the movie

and so there was a lot of

build up for the actors as well

to getting to that point

where you know

they're finally getting to play

the astronauts

or as I called them

throughout the shooting

the astronauts

bring in the astronauts