For most of Bullock's shots, she was placed inside a large mechanical rig with thousands of LED bulbs to simulate outer space. Getting into the "lightbox" rig took a significant amount of time, and so Bullock stayed in it for up to 10 hours a day, communicating through a headset.
Most of Gravity is set in space, where obviously, they did not shoot. That was all shot in a studio in England. However, there was one scene shot at Lake Powell in Arizona. It was a fitting shooting location, as it's also the setting of the astronauts' landing scene in Planet of the Apes.
And the great ending of Gravity… The studio was pressuring Alfonso to “show” helicopters in the sky, coming to rescue Sandra Bullock's character. He said “no”. Emerging from the water was the triumph, touching the earth- standing…
Dr. Ryan Stone ends up alone in space after her companion, Lieutenant Matt Kowalski, sacrifices himself to save her. Stone manages to make it back to Earth by using the Soyuz escape vessel and landing in a body of water, grateful to be alive.
Bullock was paid $20 million up front for "Gravity," which is an impressive number on its own. But her deal also included 15% of box office revenue, which landed her at least $70 million.
Sandra Bullock on discovering a lonely place in GRAVITY
How much did George Clooney get paid for Gravity?
As stated above, George Clooney was reportedly paid $20 million upfront for his role in 2013's Gravity, plus points on the backend which entitled the actor to a portion of the movie's profits.
There was a scuba diver on set at all times to make sure the actress wouldn't drown. The light box or Soyuz capsule were where most of Gravity were shot. However, both were relatively safe.
"It is a piece of fiction." Therefore, some elements of the film such as the Shuttle missions and Tiangong station were merely artistic liberties. Garret Reisman, a former NASA Astronaut, noted that, "The pace and story was definitely engaging and I think it was the best use of the 3D IMAX medium to date.
Similarly, the zero gravity scenes in Alfonso Cuarón's 2013 film Gravity were filmed in conditions similar to how astronauts train underwater. The actors were connected to a 12-wire suspension system and pulled along according to the scene [9]. This method has benefits similar to that of the vomit comet.
He drifts away with hardly enough oxygen for a few more minutes. He accepts his fate and lets go, so that Sandra's character, Dr. Ryan Stone, can survive. In all likelihood, he went on to lose consciousness without oxygen, and slowly succumbed to carbon dioxide poisoning in his sleep.
Through her conversation, however, Stone has kind of a cathartic moment listening to a young child cry and howling like a dog. In the film, it appears Stone may be hallucinating a little as she is accepting her fate and letting go of fear.
The film received 10 nominations at the 86th Academy Awards, the most nominations of 2014's ceremony tied with American Hustle. It went on to earn the most awards at the ceremony, winning seven including Best Director for Cuarón, Best Cinematography for Lubezki, Best Original Score for Price, and Best Visual Effects.
During a spacewalk, Mission Control in Houston warns Explorer's crew about a rapidly expanding cloud of space debris accidentally caused by the Russians having shot down a presumed defunct spy satellite (see Kessler syndrome) and orders the crew to return to Earth immediately.
'Gravity' is generally considered to be quite accurate from a scientific standpoint, with some minor exceptions. One of the most notable inaccuracies is the depiction of how quickly and easily Dr. Stone is able to remove her spacesuit.
Right as Stone was leaving the ISS, the debris field recircled the Earth and hit the space station causing an explosion that blasted the ISS in half while the debris tore the station to pieces. The remains of the ISS remained in orbit and presumably burned up after entering Earth's atmosphere.
How do astronauts go to the bathroom in zero-gravity?
The bathroom is full of handholds and footholds so that astronauts don't drift off in the middle of their business. To pee, they can sit or stand and then hold the funnel and hose tightly against their skin so that nothing leaks out. To poop, astronauts lift the toilet lid and sit on the seat — just like here on Earth.
CGI in the 1990s still had a long way to go, as did convincing wire work, so the only realistic option was to use practical effects. The solution came in the form of a Boeing KC-135 nicknamed the 'Vomit Comet', an aircraft used by NASA itself to train its astronauts. It was flown in large arcs, also called parabolas.
Took four and a half years to make. New technology had to be invented in order to make the film work. Filming was so complicated that the director, Alfonso Cuarón claims that he will never make another space movie again. Warner Bros.
Gravity is most accurately described by the general theory of relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, which describes gravity not as a force, but as the curvature of spacetime, caused by the uneven distribution of mass, and causing masses to move along geodesic lines.
Some people think that there is no gravity in space. In fact, a small amount of gravity can be found everywhere in space. Gravity is what holds the moon in orbit around Earth.
The final moments of Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity are hard to forget: Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone stands alone on the seashore after crash-landing and swimming to safety. It's an image that helped Cuarón earn a 2014 Academy Award for Best Director, with Gravity raking in a total of seven Oscars.
In outer space, however, there is no ground to push against astronauts. As they orbit and fall toward Earth at the same rate as their spaceship, astronauts feel weightless, as if there were no gravity. Gravity exists everywhere, even in outer space.
