All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 115 - Scene Deconstruction Apollo 13

[Music]

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 uh let's look at it again with no

sound and of course the sound and 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 who were

going to be involved with the crisis

emotionally I wanted to set them up

within the context of uh a triumphant

successful uh moment in the space

program the launch I wanted the audience

to feel uh the respect the fear that

everyone involved had with a launch and

so this early part of this sequence is

all about tension uh the music is is is

quiet it's somber there's a nobility

there's a kind of again this feeling of

respect for um what these these men are

willing to face this is a a set with a

blue screen behind it and a 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 uh 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

the walkway um we didn't even put green

screen behind it because I knew it was

going to 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 uh Jean CR yet and

Ed Harris 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 mockup on a set

done at Universal Studios we've seen the

anticipation we've 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 cray

let's stop there Apollo

13 uh was often shot with a and b

cameras but but it was not shot in a

style which I have used in movies like

rush or Frost Nixon that has an almost

uh 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 uh and uh I was I was you know

just constantly going after the moments

that I needed uh 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 as long as you don't have to

change the lighting or lengthen the

amount of time it's going to take you to

shoot it so use the camera setup for

every every moment of the scene that

it's valid um and um but try not to get

too choppy that's the actor in me uh

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 uh

might suggest a shot just for one line

uh 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 capsule is an

absolute replica meticulously recreated

by Michael cornbleth the production

designer and his team and we had a great

deal of research here we are back in our

mission control set i' like to stop for

one second we actually got some elements

from NASA the set the the real mission

control had been mothballed at about

this time and our production Designer

Michael cornbleth 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 it's 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

uh teach uh each person at at each desk

and Screen exactly what their jobs were

so that the actors could begin to to

improvise actually in the vernacular and

understand the demands of the job so

that uh there was a kind of a 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 they 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 I needed a moment I needed to

go to the bathroom and I completely

forgot it was a a sound stage and I went

to where the bathroom is supposed to

be in Houston uh and so that was uh that

was a you know that was high praise for

for our art Department team within

99% uh 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

of course they're circular but uh

certain pan 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 era

you know that camera is in with them um

and I wasn't going for that docu feel

exactly but I I wanted that

claustrophobia and I wanted that that

feeling that it was uh 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 were all things that I

plann

for remember the garison East character

Ken maddingley was meant to go on this

Mission they thought he was going to get

the chicken box or the measles or

something and uh 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 he was a

little forlorn 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

um body language of the actors can

continues to change those are all angles

from um inside The Capsule that's a

model it's it's not a NASA shot um 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 CG the ice is the only thing in

this sequence that's CGI the fire is

real and we used a

model of course Gary s was reacting to

nothing when we shot that but the rocket

uh was a model matted in later camera

Shake of course now try to simulate the

intensity all very carefully

storyboarded sequences uh designed just

for the moment in which they're uh 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 uh and a feeling of of relief

because it Le it has 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 play that off of the

garon East

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 again 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 an outer

space that's a moment all the astronauts

always talk about of course their straps

would never be quite that loose we

loosened them a little bit more uh and

uh uh they made fun of us for that but

uh I I needed for audiences to feel the

Lurch forward a little bit more models a

light change on our

set cinematographer had 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 uh

it's it's a it's a dangerous

undertaking cameras are moving again to

try to create some

tension popping in the

foreground just ways to energize the

behavior 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 a sequence

like this is almost entirely taken care

of by the research and also the w they

get to wear and uh by the time we shot

these scenes on the stage it had

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 were coming up on

our first shot that was done in the Zerg

plane and that's when they begin to take

the helmets off as soon as they shut

down and they're in orbit here we go

this is the first shot we did you'll see

he can let it go and there it's floating

today you would do this CGI but then the

wires would have been so restrictive

would have limited the

authenticity uh and uh and it wouldn't

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 a moment of tension but ultimate

success and Triumph and um um and I I I

wanted the music to work with the 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 um and he created a

lot of them for movies some of them you

know for me uh and I think what James

brought to this is incredible this is

another sequence in my opinion where if

you watch it with the 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's in and of itself a kind of an

education it's an incredibly long cue uh

and it so supports the images uh and the

emotional ideas of uh 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 uh rhythms of shots um the

screen directions the way people are

looking uh if someone's looking off

camera right 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 uh

that's just you know kind of the grammar

of um of of Cinema uh but also because

it is going to be shot in tiny bits and

pieces uh you 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 want it to be as

spontaneous as it can be but you as the

Storyteller as the keeper of that story

have to keep in mind you know the The

rhythms of things the the the sort of

the the the the the the the modulation

the ups and downs of uh of of the of the

the feeling that you're trying to convey

to the audience in terms of the

narrative and uh 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 it's your job as the Director to

be you know thinking of the uh 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 a movie and it helps them

to understand you know what lens is on

the camera uh it helps them to

understand why the camera's moving in uh

and they understand Cinema and they're

and they they they can um they can sort

of build performance along with director

and the the the grammar of the medium in

really interesting ways that's that's

rare um and many of the greatest actors

uh 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 uh demands or limitations or

needs of course he's technically Adept

he's directed he understands as well as

anybody uh but he doesn't want that in

his mind when he's acting uh Tom Hanks

is somebody who you know loves to know

what you need loves to know uh what's

going on and how he can work with

whatever it is the director is doing

with the camera to you know to uh help

achieve the goal so you know there 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 uh and

offer guidance to people who who do work

in different ways and speak to them in

in in in their in their language and um

understanding you know 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 had always known

this was a pivotal sequence uh uh and

and a and a 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 the camera movement uh or

the non-movement um and and when to get

tighter when to when to stay back when

to release the tension a little bit and

then you know exert tension again using

uh the camera and of course the actor's

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 uh in a way it

had the anxiousness and the excitement

of a launch uh because uh they were you

know this was this was the first scene

that they were doing and uh and I think

that you know the um uh by the time we

were shooting this scene uh you 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 um we we shot this movie as

much in sequence as we possibly could so

by the time we were shooting this

sequence we'd

actually uh shot you know what what sort

of the first 45 minutes of the movie uh

and uh so there was a lot of buildup 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

actronauts bring in the actronauts