During the filming process, the crew also borrowed some of Duke's personal belongings, such as a black Rolls-Royce sedan and his private business jet. Originally, Marvel Studios proposed using the Duke estate as Tony Stark's Malibu mansion, but Duke declined, citing that it lacked the futuristic sci-fi feel.
All other personal items were freely available without Duke charging even a single dollar, but using his home as a filming location was off the table.
Despite the increasing speed of information exchange making celebrity privacy harder to keep, Duke didn't want to expose his home to the public through the film.
The interior scenes of Tony Stark's mansion could easily be shot by renting a seaside villa, and wide shots could be realized through scale models.
As time passed, some of the drama scenes were gradually completed. After the blue screen stage was built at Warner Studios, the motion capture scenes of Tony Stark were also scheduled by Duke.
"Andy, Rob, how's the preparation going?"
After checking the work of other departments, Duke walked to the blue screen. Andy Serkis turned his head and said, "Don't worry, Duke, with me here, Rob will definitely deliver his best performance."
After answering Duke, he looked at Robert Downey Jr. Downey wore the Iron Man helmet without the mask and a motion capture suit specially designed by Weta Workshop, covered with dozens of motion capture markers. Along with the special cameras used by the crew, Robert Downey Jr.'s movements would be recorded without any gaps.
Filming was about to start. Andy Serkis gave Robert Downey Jr. his final instructions, "Rob, forget the trackers on your body and the green screen behind you. Treat this as a real performance! Remember, be real! Perform just like you always do. You don't need to worry about motion capture; the whole system is working with you."
Of course, this didn't mean that Robert could perform exactly as usual. Although the Mark II armor was designed according to Tony Stark's physique and habits, wearing this metal suit inevitably affects a person.
This was the reason Duke brought Andy Serkis he provided Robert with some simulation training to slightly alter his walking style during motion capture. The change couldn't be too large, but had to be noticeable on camera.
Otherwise, the setting of the Mark II armor would be contradicted by the film itself.
During motion capture filming, Duke only controlled the big picture. The technical details, scene setups, and CGI were all handled by professional technicians from Weta Workshop. However, the initial shooting didn't go smoothly because Robert Downey Jr. was a novice at motion capture. Even with Andy Serkis's help, he couldn't instantly become a master in this field.
Everyone's talent varies. In terms of live-action acting, Robert Downey Jr. might easily outshine Andy Serkis, but when it came to motion capture, he kept making mistakes.
Duke had expected this. He was patient and had allocated ample time.
There was also Weta Workshop. Unlike the time Duke filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy with them, Weta had completely updated their motion capture technology. The motion capture equipment Duke used back then was now obsolete.
Thanks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Weta Workshop gained worldwide fame and received many special effects orders, including Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series. The filming environment for motion capture during Pirates was far more challenging than during Lord of the Rings. The giant lake set, originally discovered by James Cameron for Rosario, was both humid and stuffy, placing high demands on equipment.
Weta took this opportunity to upgrade their gear and developed a system called iMoCap. The version used in filming Iron Man was the second generation of this system.
Unlike previous motion capture systems based on optics, magnetic fields, mechanics, or ultrasound, iMoCap directly identifies human movements from video images captured by cameras. This huge innovation made iMoCap almost unaffected by environmental conditions. As long as the camera image was clear and recognizable, motion capture could be performed.
In other words, this system wasn't confined to blue screens and could be used in real environments if needed.
In fact, in Duke's view, no motion capture system was a 100% solution; it was just a tool for CGI production.
According to Duke's directing philosophy, the upgraded version of iMoCap provided by Weta didn't focus particularly on accuracy. Its advantages lay in being lightweight, easy to use, and highly mobile.
Moreover, Duke always hoped that the motion capture equipment would be highly versatile, meaning it would impose as few restrictions as possible on the set and actors.
Therefore, after improvements, the iMoCap system could use any model of camera, required no special treatment of the filming location, and needed no other complicated equipment. It could capture motion at any time.
Additionally, even if occasional issues like occlusion or jumps occur during capture, and some data is incomplete, it doesn't affect the overall production. According to Duke's philosophy, the goal is to simplify the requirements for live-action capture and leave the relatively complex processing to the post-production team.
This leads to a reduction in the difficulty of motion capture for actors, making Robert Downey Jr. the biggest beneficiary of Duke's initiative.
This also greatly benefited Robert Downey Jr. After several motion capture scenes were filmed, he earnestly asked Duke to reduce the times he had to wear the prop Iron Man armor, and instead shoot more scenes using motion capture.
"Sanders and his team told me those beautiful suits were custom-made to fit my figure, so they must be comfortable."
Just like the character Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr. stood beside Duke's director's chair, rambling nonstop, "But the truth is, that armor is very uncomfortable and severely restricts my movements. It's really hard to pose the way you want, or move as the script requires."
Faced with Robert Downey Jr.'s chatter, Duke said nothing, feeling a strange sense of Tony Stark somehow appearing in the real world.
"Duke, dear Director Rosenberg," Robert Downey Jr. didn't stop but crouched down, leaning on the armrest of the director's chair, speaking very earnestly, "Could you consider digitizing the armor from now on? When I saw that thing, my head hurt—I really don't like it."
Turning his head, Duke looked at Robert Downey Jr., thought for a moment, and then said in response to Downey's hopeful gaze, "That means we'll need to do more VFX shots than expected."
"Well..." Robert Downey Jr. scratched his head awkwardly.
Just as he lowered his head to leave, Duke suddenly said, "Rob, everything the crew does is to help actors perform better and without hindrance, so I can agree to your request, but you have to deliver an even better performance than before."
"I will!" Robert Downey Jr. was almost raising his hand to swear.
"Really?" Duke smiled mysteriously, "Some shots that originally required stunt doubles wearing the suit could be done through motion capture instead. How about we shoot Tony Stark flying scenes this afternoon?"
Although Duke's smile seemed to imply something, Robert Downey Jr. didn't hesitate and said, "No problem, I'll get ready now."
But when it came time to shoot, Robert Downey Jr. found that even using motion capture equipment to film Iron Man flying felt uncomfortable. Although he was suspended under a rig arm, only needing to pose in the stunt team's specially designed Iron Man flying posture without moving much, maintaining the position for a while made him feel as if he would fall apart.
Duke swore he was not taking revenge on Robert Downey Jr., and even if there was a bit of that, he wouldn't tell anyone.
This shoot only required Robert Downey Jr. to hold a pose; no extra movement was needed. When Iron Man was flying, the camera footage was made to look like a continuous long take covering the entire motion.
Duke tried to make the shots look like they were taken using a tripod with camera panning and tilting, or on a dolly track or crane, avoiding the feeling that the camera magically glided through space.
"We need to process the movements as necessary, but we shouldn't obstruct the actors' movements. The overall motion should look like silly cartoonish action."
This was Duke's instruction to Anna Prinz beside him. As always, Anna Prinz would lead a setup team to shoot certain shots.
Everyone likes to think in their preferred way, and filmmakers are no different.
Even with long-time collaborators deeply influenced by his style, Duke never forgot to give essential instructions when necessary.
After finishing the flying scenes, Robert Downey Jr. was taken down from the rig arm. Although only a few minutes had passed, when he walked toward Duke, he swayed constantly, seeming like he could fall at any moment.
But Duke ignored him because someone had come specifically to find him on set.
"You're getting engaged, Wallace?"
Hearing Wallace Lee's invitation, Duke was somewhat surprised, "Who's the bride?"
Wallace Lee showed an embarrassed smile, "You know her Kate Beckinsale."
Duke wasn't too surprised by the answer. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'll be there on time."
...
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