I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1018: Building Momentum]

On July 13, the filming of Gravity officially kicked off at Firefly Studios.

Following the massive global box office hits Jurassic Park and Casino Royale, which each grossed over a billion dollars, Eric's new directorial project was undoubtedly a hot topic.

Though Eric did not personally engage in the promotional activities, the media relations department at Firefly Group had everything organized perfectly. Prior to the film's commencement, ABC had already conducted a feature interview with the two lead actors, Jodie Foster and George Clooney. News related to Gravity was extensively disseminated across various media channels connected to the Firefly Group.

As was customary, the pre-release information contained no substantial details related to the film's content. All the public knew was that Eric Williams had begun shooting a new movie -- a space-themed film, to be precise.

Although many were already aware of the film's title, every headline that appeared in the media referred to it simply as "Eric Williams' Untitled New Film." Maintaining an air of mystery and keeping the public curious was a standard strategy employed during the launch of any blockbuster.

...

While Eric began filming Gravity in Los Angeles, in New York, Morgan Stanley had already started building momentum for the Nasdaq index, even as discussions on the details of collaboration were ongoing.

The first article released by Morgan Stanley was an analytical report on the false recovery of the Russian economy. Published in The Wall Street Journal, the report pointed out that between May and June of that year, capital withdrawals from Russia amounted to $13 billion. This figure exceeded half of the over $20 billion in foreign investment brought into Russia between 1991 and 1997. Accompanied by the recent drop in international oil prices, which underpinned the Russian economy, Russia faced another impending economic winter, with its foreign debt-to-reserve ratio reaching alarming levels.

Following the Southeast Asian financial crisis, international hedge funds that had profited from the equity, currency, and bond markets in various Southeast Asian countries had begun to flow capital into Russia, which appeared to be a recovering economy. Soros' Quantum Fund was a typical example, investing half of its gains from the Southeast Asian crisis into the Russian stock and bond markets.

Of the over $20 billion in foreign investment brought into Russia from 1991 to 1997, nearly $10 billion had been poured in during the previous year alone. However, once they entered the Russian market, these vast amounts of capital quickly recognized the fragile reality of the Russian economy. This was why there had been a large-scale panic exit of capital in May and June.

Morgan Stanley's analytical report laid bare the imminent collapse of the Russian economy, causing a stir in the press. Those unaware of the deeper motives behind Morgan Stanley's article merely watched the drama unfold, while the various capital players closely monitoring global economic conditions misinterpret the report as a 'signal' suggesting to international hedge funds to attack the ruble.

In truth, the report simply served as groundwork for Morgan Stanley's continued promotion of the Nasdaq market.

Exposing the true state of the Russian economy meant that even for some investors who still held out hope for Russia's economic recovery, they would surely think twice about entering the market amid such revelations. Consequently, the next step for Morgan Stanley would naturally be to guide them to redirect their investments back to North America and into the Nasdaq market.

...

On the day the report was released, the Russian Foreign Ministry promptly condemned Morgan Stanley for its "extremely irresponsible" false statements, while the Russian Minister of Economics held a press conference, vehemently refuting Morgan Stanley's assertions.

The powerful influence of an international investment bank like Morgan Stanley on the economies of various countries quickly became apparent. The day after the report was released, the Russian ruble showed signs of notable appreciation.

Under normal circumstances, a currency's appreciation would indicate a strengthening economy. However, everyone knew at this moment that the ruble's rise was anything but a healthy sign -- it was a dangerous signal.

Many still remembered how, prior to the Southeast Asian financial crisis, the Thai baht had shown dramatic appreciation in a very short time. The ruble's value rise was evidently a sign of international currency speculators amassing the ruble in an attempt to short it.

After the Southeast Asian economies suffered devastation, Russia was also bound to face a similar catastrophe.

...

Following lobbying efforts by Chris and John Mack, America Online shareholders agreed to purchase a 10% stake in America Online from Firefly Investments for $4 billion. Negotiations on the underwriting agreement progressed rapidly, with Morgan Stanley efficiently organizing plans to generate buzz for the Nasdaq market.

...

In Los Angeles, the fifth day of Gravity's shooting had unknowingly arrived.

In this time, aside from a morning call with Chris to catch up on developments in New York, Eric largely focused all his energies on the filming of Gravity.

As it happened, it was Friday afternoon, and the set at Firefly Studios was on a brief hiatus. Eric sat in front of a computer in the studio, watching scenes of George Clooney performing a spacewalk around the Hubble Space Telescope. Surrounding him were Nicole Frank, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, and the film's visual effects supervisor Robert Byer, either standing or sitting as they reviewed the footage on the computer.

At this moment, Eric encountered an unexpected problem that had only arisen after filming commenced: the reflection visible in the glass helmet of the actors' space suits.

Theoretically, in the vacuum of space devoid of any diffuse reflection, the reflections in the glass helmet ought to be very sharp and direct, without any blurring issues. Eric had already considered the reflections of the pupils in the close-up shots of the actors' eyes and had designed a solution for that.

A few days earlier, to help the crew and actors acclimate, Eric had opted to start with some easier wide shots. However, today, when it came to some close-up shots of the actors, Eric realized that even with a real-time environment simulation using a lightbox, the unavoidable scattering due to minute air particles impeded the reflection within the glass helmet from achieving the fine detail of a real space environment.

After a moment, Nicole spoke up first, "Eric, perhaps we could remove the glass covers and do all this part with post-production CG."

Eric nodded; indeed, unless he were to abandon his pursuit of perfection, removing the glass covers for full CG usage would be almost inevitable.

Over 99% of Gravity's footage would be shot in this sound stage, thus the crew was not a large team; even for long-term members like Jodie Foster and George Clooney, it didn't number more than twenty.

On the other hand, Gravity did have a hundred-person digital effects team continually available to support the production.

Seeing Eric nod, Robert Byer from Digital Domain spoke up: "Eric, removing the glass cover and creating CG isn't difficult; we just need to install sensors around the helmet so we can accurately place the CG model of the glass cover. However, this part would be quite tedious."

Eric pondered for a moment and said to Robert Byer, "Bob, how about we put in some extra hours over the weekend? Let's get the helmet props modified. As for the CG creation, let's schedule that in post-production after we've set the other scenes. It'll be much easier that way."

Considering the reflections for the CG glass cover together with other CG scenes in the same phase would indeed be cumbersome. But once all surrounding scenes were confirmed, crafting the relevant CG modules later would be much simpler and quicker.

They further discussed the details for a while. Time was still on their side, but it was clear that filming for today couldn't continue, and Eric announced the early closure. Tomorrow was the weekend, and the majority of the crew would typically take the day off.

...

Once the studio workers had tidied up briefly, they began to leave.

Eric and Robert Byer agreed to meet tomorrow morning to discuss modifications to the helmet. After bidding goodbye to Robert, he remained seated at his workstation, opening his laptop to quietly type today's work log.

Despite having prepared for an entire year in advance, various issues still emerged during actual filming. Eric had long anticipated this; Gravity was recognized as another pinnacle of film technology following Avatar.

Even with those memories helping Eric avoid many pitfalls, he had not imagined achieving this groundbreaking work would be a smooth ride.

As he was focused on writing out his reflections for the day, the sound of high-heeled shoes echoed nearby.

Eric looked up to see Jodie Foster approaching from the makeup room. It was always a hassle for women to remove their makeup after a shoot.

Aside from the two quiet makeup artists and his own assistant, the enormous studio -- which could have housed a large Boeing passenger aircraft -- left only Eric inside. Jodie approached him naturally to say hello, "Hey, Eric, aren't you planning to clock out?"

Eric slipped a few words into his notes before looking up at Jodie Foster with a smile, "I'm waiting for you."

"You're at it again, being all cheeky," Jodie laughed, but she quite straightforwardly pulled out a chair and sat down next to Eric, curiously glancing at his laptop: "Can I take a look?"

"Of course," Eric nodded, adjusting the screen slightly towards her, then asked, "How have you been feeling these days?"

Jodie pressed the mouse and scrolled through Eric's work log, reading it with keen interest, "Thank goodness I took your advice to work out for a few months; otherwise, I might have really struggled to keep up."

It was summer, and there was no air conditioning in the largest studio at Firefly Studios. Combined with a ring of LED screens that continuously emitted heat, temperatures inside the background lightbox often exceeded 30 degrees Celsius.

Though the film required no complex stunts from the actors, wearing bulky space suits and spending three to four hours in a confined, hot lightbox could be quite exhausting, especially when exiting left one feeling drained.

Despite the heat, since the filming had begun, Eric had never heard Jodie complain; instead, she committed to performing exactly as he requested, which greatly impressed Eric with her professionalism.

In truth, Jodie Foster's perception of Eric was quite similar.

This young man, who had amassed wealth that many could only dream of, consistently arrived at the studio first and was often the last to leave.

Sometimes, Jodie found herself pondering why someone with so much money would work this hard. A little laziness or a bad attitude seemed only natural.

Moments later, Jodie pointed at a line in Eric's work log, asking, "Eric, why do you believe that a relative speed of four meters per second was necessary for optimal zero-gravity effect?"

"That's the result of numerous preliminary tests between Nicole and me," Eric explained. "It's not that four meters per second produces the best zero-gravity effect; it's about standardizing the relative speed of the normal state shots at four meters per second, providing viewers with a cohesive visual experience. In reality, during other collision and flight scenes, your relative speed to the camera would always vary. We need to ensure your various movement trajectories align with the laws of physics in space to achieve the perfect zero-gravity visual effect."

Jodie listened attentively, and jokingly added, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd hardly believe you graduated from high school."

Eric admired the beauty of Jodie Foster's striking blue eyes and replied with a smile, "That's a bias you have."

Jodie offered him a smile in return: "If you mind, then I apologize."

"Hey, I forgive you," Eric said cheerfully. "By the way, have you thought about that bet we made during the Oscars? What's your take?"

"Nope," Jodie nearly forgotten about the bet she had made with Eric regarding the Best Actress award at the Oscars. She was a clever woman, and it was obvious she wouldn't take Eric's earlier promise of whatever demand she wanted too seriously. Hearing Eric bring it up now, she couldn't help but say, "But why do I suddenly feel like I owe you a promise?"

*****

https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.