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Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Fu Yuanyuan The film "Decoding", written and directed by Chen Sicheng, officially landed in IMAX theaters on August 3. The fact that the film was shot entirely with IMAX special equipment has attracted attention in the industry since it was announced. Yesterday afternoon, the "Light and Shadow Dream Weaving - "Decoding" IMAX Special Shooting Master Class" jointly organized by IMAX and Bad Rabbit Pictures' "Carrot Project" was held in Beijing. Cao Yu took the stage and used the big screen as a huge "blackboard" to deeply analyze the photography art concept and film technology innovation of "Decoding", showing the behind-the-scenes creation of Chinese filmmakers using IMAX special equipment shooting.

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IMAXHow does custom-made shooting contribute to the photographic aesthetics of “Decoded”?

Directed by Chen Sicheng, written by Chen Sicheng and Christopher McBride, directed by Cao Yu, starring Liu Haoran and John Cusack, with special appearances by Chen Daoming, Daniel Wu and Yu Feihong, the film "Decoding" was released in mainland China on August 3. The film does not follow the traditional narrative mode of feature films, but is a diversified film that combines elements of biography, psychology, era, fantasy, and spy war. It is worth mentioning that "Decoding" uses a large number of "dreams" as the creative basis to construct a world with great imagination and visual impact. The film is shot in IMAX, which has also attracted much attention from both inside and outside the industry.

On the day of the film's release, Cao Yu appeared in Beijing and deeply analyzed for the media and movie lovers how to innovate and integrate technology and art. At the scene, Cao Yu said that IMAX special shooting is a "treasure sword" that can help him realize his vision of photographic art. IMAX special shooting is adopted because this method can capture carefully designed moving images with a wider range of views. It can be said to be tailor-made for the IMAX big screen and can fully reflect the original intention of the creator; specifically for this film, IMAX special shooting is more deeply compatible with the artistic style pursued by "Decoding". Cao Yu also believes that the photographic aesthetics of "Decoding" can be summarized as "real and illusory", which is the fusion and unity of the dream sense of reality and the reality of dreams. The unique aesthetic pursuit also puts higher requirements on the image quality of the film, and IMAX special shooting is a perfect match with it. Its ultra-high clarity and color reproduction make the photographer "more powerful".

Reviewing the photography process, Cao Yu pointed out: "In order to ensure the authenticity of the light source, many scenes in "Decryption" were shot with real light sources without additional light sources. This also requires the use of the IMAX camera's resolution and color reproduction to achieve this." At the same time, Cao Yu also cited a scene in which the little Li Li played by Daniel Wu and the young Rong Jinzhen talked in the dark to illustrate: such an important scene basically only had the lamp in the hands of the characters as the light source, but the IMAX camera was able to capture the image of "elastic dark areas and a beautiful transition." "We did use the dynamic range of the IMAX certified camera to the limit, from the brightest to the darkest." Cao Yu believes, "The ability to shoot such beautiful pictures in such a simple way is still due to the camera and screen projection system."

In addition, Cao Yu said that the IMAX special shooting made "Decryption" almost perfectly restore the human eye's field of vision, and this shooting advantage can also help the audience to delve into the character's heart, "This can be very helpful in shaping the magnified sense of the character's psychology", that is, "shooting a single character can be done with a very wide lens but it will never be deformed... This gives the audience a psychological feeling: I am very close to this person, but he will not become ugly, because the IMAX-certified camera will not make him ugly."

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How to use technological innovation to present reality and dreams?

Cao Yu also shared that the crew of "Decryption" reached a consensus during the creative stage that the most important thing in "Decryption" is to create a sense of reality and fantasy at the same time. With the "blessing" of IMAX special shooting that can accommodate more creative possibilities, Cao Yu and his team boldly experimented with photographic creative inspiration, continuously achieved technological innovation, and transformed ideas into visual spectacles that shine on the big screen. At the event, Cao Yu selected representative scenes of reality, dreams, and the fusion of the two in "Decryption" and explained the creative stories behind them in detail.

During the filming, Cao Yu focused on the use of light source lighting methods and made many innovations in the use of lighting. Cao Yu introduced that "Decryption is the first film in China to use digital dimming consoles to control all LED lights." All lights can be precisely controlled on the dimming console. "There is a dream in our movie. This is a long shot, but the lights are always changing. All the lights we use can be controlled by the dimming console." This also makes the light and shadow in the film more varied, making it possible to accurately "control the atmosphere and control the texture", making the presentation of reality and dreams more vivid, and the transition between the two is extremely "smooth", which makes it easier for the audience under the giant screen to "dream".

Cao Yu also shared how to create the film's photography style from multiple professional perspectives. When making overall control (LUT) of the camera's color, brightness and other parameters, Cao Yu used selected film types as a reference to give the digital image a stronger texture. "After this LUT is produced, it means that the film already has a style in terms of tone." In order to shoot the envisioned light and shadow effects, the photography team also used software that predicts the trajectory of the sun to accurately arrange the shooting, such as the impressive sunset glare in the film. It is these and other details that merge into the unique photographic aesthetics of "Decryption" that is full of romantic poetry.