Kola superdeep - all about filming

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

On November 4, 2020, the Russian thriller "Kola Superdeep" will be released. It's time to find out all the details about the actors, the filming process and the plot of the tape. And the main thing is to get to know the creators of the picture better.

Back in the 1980s

An important part of the work on the film for the authors of the picture was the painstaking recreation of the look of the 80s era. And although the main action of the picture takes place on a secret facility underground, and the main characters are either military men or scientists, it was necessary to create such an atmosphere so that the viewer would not doubt the credibility of what was happening on the screen for a second.

Cameraman Hayk Kirakosyan was invited to search for visual solutions for the tape. He started his career in the USSR, made films in Russia and Armenia, and in recent years has been working in Turkey. On his account dozens of full-length and short-length feature films and documentaries, several film awards and prizes of film festivals.

“In his films, I saw how high production value is created using simple means, it was a really worthy visual series,” says producer Sergei Torchilin. - Besides, Turkish cinema is used to working in circumstances similar to ours, so we found a common language quite easily. Gadget probably has the best cinematography group that I have met during my work in the cinema, so I am very glad that we entered the project together."

The cameraman and his team took seriously the 80s visualization on the screen. At first, he considered the possibility of using the filming technology of that period - on film with a full photochemical process of its development and using the optics and cameras of that period. But this option required significant additional financial costs.

“We stopped at filming with a modern digital camera, but the idea of using Soviet-made optics of that period remained in effect,” says Hayk Kirakosyan. - Any optical devices create the illusion of realism. Optics of that era, especially of Soviet production, has a very peculiar rendering of contrast and space. This is a certain softness, and a specific refraction of perspective, and a reduced contrast of the image. In addition, we opted for the use of anamorphic optics. It made it possible to create an image, shall we say, of the texture of that era. At the same time, the specific aspect ratio of 2.4: 1 was perfect both for shaping the space of our scientific module, and for flexible separation of mise-en-scenes with a large group of actors in a tight space."

A huge research work in preparation for filming was carried out by the team led by production designer Marsel Kalmagambetov. Previously, he worked exclusively on film projects in which the action takes place in modern times.

“I wanted to realize myself as an artist in a historical project,” says Kalmagambetov. - It was important to pay attention to the details so that the era was recognizable. For almost four months, painstaking work was carried out to create the image of the film. I found inspiration by looking at reference tapes, immersed myself in the material, studied real objects that should appear in our film."

Together, Hayk Kirakosyan and Marsel Kalmagambetov developed the color-light solution of the film.

“We used three primary colors,” says the production designer. - The basic color is gray and its many shades. Yellow was the color of the suits and the color of the markings on the site. And finally, the color red, which created anxiety and elements of suspense."

According to the lighting solution, the camera crew conditionally divided the film into several parts.

“As the plot developed, the light changed, the brightness of the lighting gradually decreased, the color saturation dropped, the static light was gradually replaced by moving light sources, which, together with the darkness, created an interesting choreography of light and shadow, which changed both depending on the realism of the storyline and from the mood of a single episode,”says Hayk Kirakosyan.

The development of the scenery and the choice of locations for filming was inextricably linked with the work on the color-light solution of the picture.

“Together with Gaik and Arseny, we discussed everything for a long time, went and looked at the objects, chose, canceled, re-invented due to adjustments in the script,” says production designer Marsel Kalmagambetov. - I created a geographical plan of the pavilion, where the main part of the film's action takes place. Of course, the entire visual embodiment of the tape was completely subordinated to the script and plot. We created corridors with endless turns, zigzag corner intersections, labyrinthine elements; we were attentive to how wide the corridors should be, what elements should be present there in order to help create the overall mood of the picture. We visually reduced the height of the rooms so that this feeling pressed on the viewer, so that he felt that the action is taking place underground at a depth of 5,000 and 12,000 meters, depending on the scene."

The team of artists made first a small and then a large model of the future scenery. Arseny Syukhin and Hayk Kirakosyan filmed trial scenes using a GoPro camera in this mock-up, and only after that accurate miscalculations were made, and the construction of the scenery began.

The filmmakers did not forget about the plausibility of the world they were creating. “The main task was to make the viewer believe that if in the mid-80s in the USSR there was such a secret object at this depth, it would look exactly like this,” says Arseniy Syukhin. - It should be at the same time one of the achievements of Soviet science, and a place where everything reminds us that we are now very deep underground, which means that if something happens, it will not be easier to get out of here than to escape from a spaceship. I hope we succeeded."

By filming locations

The shooting took place in a pavilion with an area of 1200 square meters, on the territory of which the "underground part" of the "Kola Superdeep" facility was erected. In addition to working in the pavilion scenery, it was decided to carry out part of the filming on location in the immediate vicinity of the real object "Kola Superdeep" - in the Murmansk region. All members of the film crew are enthusiastic about this expedition.

“It was super cool,” recalls actor Kirill Kovbas. - I am extremely happy about this trip. I realized that I want to travel around our country. “The shooting days on location were the most memorable for me,” echoes his colleague Viktor Nizovoy. “We flew over the Barents Sea, there was snow and drifts around.”

“I have never seen so much snow in my life, although the locals said there was not much of it this year,” says Milena Radulovic with a smile. In the Murmansk region, the film crew worked at several locations. The first is the Severny mine in the town of Zapolyarny, owned by the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel. The scene of the arrival of the expedition with the main character Anna and GRU colonel Yuri Borisovich was filmed here. The characters in the UAZ drive into an inclined shaft that leads to a secret facility.

“A special platform was welded to the“loaf”in which the actors were traveling,” says producer Alexander Kalushkin. - On this structure there were a director, a cameraman with a steadicam. The descent into the mine was filmed in real time. Kalushkin himself got behind the wheel of the car, which surprised the entire film crew.“There was an interesting and dangerous feature - in the middle of the road there is such a depression into which the waters flow and form a fairly wide and deep rivulet,” says Kalushkin. “And driving this“loaf”was extremely difficult, because any inaccurate movement with the steering wheel would entail powerful damage, and it would be impossible to get the“loaf”without special means”.

In addition, filmmakers filmed at Severnoye in a mine underground at a depth of about 200 meters. At the same time, the mine itself did not stop its work for a minute.

“Every morning we were picked up by several KamAZ trucks, which took the entire film crew underground,” says producer Alexander Kalushkin. “We settled on one of the first levels below the ground, and the work continued at a depth of up to 1000 meters. These were the most extreme conditions, especially since demolition work was going on in some places in the mine. Of course, we were told that everything will be fine, however, when explosions are heard at the same facility where you are, you involuntarily feel fear. We literally felt what could potentially happen on the real Kola superdeep."

The filmmakers brought an "elevator" from Moscow, which they used for filming, and they faced the difficult task of integrating this scenery into a real object. “We made sure that the audience had the complete feeling that from the street you could get into an inclined shaft, drive through it by car and, after getting into an elevator, go down into the underground to a depth of 5,000 meters,” says production designer Marsel Kalmagambetov.

After filming at the Severny mine, the film's team had to go to a unique location near the village of Teruberka on the shores of the Barents Sea. A few days before moving to a new location, the weather conditions left much to be desired. The location was covered with snow, and the wind up to 22 m / s did not allow helicopters to be lifted into the sky.

“The portal opened exactly at the moment when we left Zapolyarnoye, and there was no guarantee that we would go to Teriberka with the whole train,” says Alexander Kalushkin. “But we were lucky, we drove through, and everything was ready right on schedule. We managed to clear a non-existent road from the village itself to the coast of the Barents Sea, where we directly filmed the landing of the aircraft, the disembarkation of artists, film characters and the actual entry into the Kola Superdeep object.

The wind died down to 5-6 m / s, so we successfully completed complex shooting in the sky, when it was necessary to synchronize two helicopters. This is our separate pride that everything worked out and not a single incident happened."

Filming in helicopters was a real challenge for the cast. “Imagine flying over the Barents Sea,” says Nikolai Kovbas. - According to the plot, we got into a turbulence - naturally, the director and the producers ask the pilots to swing the helicopter. And they happily do it, and you think: well, that's it, now we'll crash. And we filmed each episode in Russian and English, and it was not easy! It was a challenge!"

“For the first time I was filming in a flying helicopter,” admits Viktor Nizovoy. “The sound people were lying under the seats in the helicopter, there was a roar, Gaik gave the command, the director gave the command, and we were thrown from side to side over the rocks in the Barents Sea.”

About technologies

The creative team of the film decided to abandon computer graphics as much as possible in modern cinema and follow the canons of the cult films of the 1980s.

“The very idea of a 'thriller about the supernatural in the USSR' makes the viewer question everything that happens,” says director Arseny Syukhin. - We are not yet accustomed to looking at our past in such a way. Thanks to Soviet cinema, a concrete idea of how that time should look like was formed. Therefore, the idea arose: if a movie is about the 80s, then it will be easier for the viewer to believe in it if it looks like it was shot in the 80s. This means that scenery, make-up and animatronics should come to the fore instead of computer graphics. Sergey Torchilin adds to his colleague:

“Producers choose graphics because CGI allows you to do anything, in principle, for any budget. The model can be made worse or better, more or less drawn, but you will make it anyway. Analog effects are harsher in this sense, because you immediately know how much it will cost, but it costs a lot. But what you get is that the result is visible immediately during filming - no more, no less. Again, the actors are much more comfortable acting and completing tasks with what they can see and feel. The same applies to the work of the operator. And in the end, the viewer perceives it in a completely different way. Let's take a look at franchises in our genre that have experienced both the analog and digital effects era. "Terminators" or "Aliens" - the analog parts of these franchises are still considered cult and the most believable."

The masters of the Galaxy Effects team, who worked on the "Attraction", "T-34" and "Goalkeeper of the Galaxy" tapes, were responsible for the creation of plastic makeup and physical special effects on the Kola Superdeep project. Their tasks included the creation of images using plastic parts of the make-up, the development and implementation of physiological special effects.

“The production of this kind of special effects is, of course, a complex multi-stage process that involves the well-coordinated work of specialists of different profiles: sculptors, technicians, engineers, shape-makers, artists and many others,” says Yuri Zhukov, founder of Galaxy Effects. - The first sketches were provided by the film's creative team, and we made the models based on them. For the makeup, the creators gave us whole albums of references, photos of textures, sketches and comments. Based on all this, we rendered 3D models and developed a single concept for all the special effects that can be seen in the film."