As the soul of the entire crew, Duke's use of IMAX cameras would be far more frequent and in-depth compared to the previous The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight Rises would also be the film in history to use the most IMAX shots, with the number estimated to reach fifty percent of the entire film.
For this purpose, IMAX provided Duke with four cameras designed and manufactured by Marty Muller. These heavy cameras were handcrafted, each with a different personality, but they were basically standardized, and all parts were interchangeable.
Each IMAX camera came with its own set of prime lenses, ranging from 40MM, 50MM, 80MM, 110MM, 150MM to 250MM. Many of these lenses were equipped with T2.8 apertures and medium-format Hasselblad camera lenses using 65MM adapter rings, ensuring that focus was hardly affected.
Focusing IMAX cameras was quite complicated. In some previous shoots, John Schwartzman could not manually focus certain lenses and had to rely entirely on remote focus devices with torque motors.
During pre-production, Duke drew on his prior technical experience to propose some requirements for the IMAX cameras, asking the company's engineers to improve certain lenses and create a new viewfinder.
Duke wanted IMAX to specially modify an 80MM Mamiya lens with a T2 aperture for The Dark Knight Rises, as well as a 50MM medium-format lens with a T2.5 aperture.
IMAX engineers removed the mechanical parts from the 80MM lens and replaced them with a film-standard Panavision converter. They also redesigned the front of the lens according to Duke's requirements to fit a mechanical aperture device.
The 50MM T2.5 lens was modified differently. IMAX placed most of the lens elements into a new barrel, transforming it into a more stable lens converter.
In addition, using the reverse telephoto principle, they created a custom 50MM lens with a T2 aperture.
These were the fundamentals of shooting—without excellent equipment, even the best ideas could only exist on paper and in the director's mind.
During pre-production, Duke did not necessarily participate in every task, but the final result of any task had to pass his review as director.
The Dark Knight Rises required extensive outdoor scenes. Beyond sets at Warner Studios and Hughes Aircraft, Duke scouted suitable locations. Since the project's inception, not only was the original Chicago considered for shooting, but cities like New York, Pittsburgh, and Detroit also extended invitations to Duke.
He and Charles Roven toured these cities and initially decided to primarily shoot in New York and Chicago.
Meanwhile, many studio sets at Warner were approaching completion.
Wayne Manor, the original Batcave, had been burned down by the Ninja Master in Batman Begins. So in The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne had temporarily moved his base to the Bat Warehouse.
In this installment, Duke would rebuild Wayne Manor, including the Batcave.
The Batcave would again use Hughes Aircraft's massive soundstage, continuing the "flooded Batcave" concept. Everything was submerged; when first entering, one would see an ordinary Batcave, but after finding a key button, many perfectly rendered blocks containing equipment—from Batsuits to high-end computers—would appear.
Hughes Aircraft's soundstage had a huge water tank, capable of holding over 720,000 gallons, easily meeting Duke's Batcave requirements.
The Gotham City underground sewage system, serving as Bane's base, was recreated in another hangar at Hughes Aircraft. The hangar's cavernous design naturally fit the crew's needs for constructing tunnels with concrete and corrugated steel structures, several stories high.
To light the set, Duke planned to use ultra-high-sensitivity lighting to turn the place into something resembling an arena.
Super-bright point lights would create a stark, unsettling environment.
The Hughes hangar also provided a platform for a more complex, spectacular multi-layered set—a terrifying underground prison.
Unlike Bane's hidden underground lair, this prison appeared as a pile of jagged rocks in an endless abyss, maze-like everywhere. The barred doors had no locks since escaping was impossible; the only exit was a nearly unclimbable pillar leading to the surface.
To build this set, the crew constructed two pillars in the hangar, the taller one nearly 250 feet high. Exterior shots of the prison's ground would be filmed in Jodhpur, northwest India. Tina Fey had scouted the location and brought back video footage; the rugged terrain added a desolate atmosphere to the story.
In contrast to these remote areas, Wayne Manor's exterior was grand, and Duke chose Nottingham, UK, for the location. He had previously called Eileen Lauder, arranging to continue using her cousin's historic mansion for filming.
Interior shots of the Manor were built on Warner's studio sets. Though Bruce Wayne faithfully restored Wayne Manor brick by brick, the interiors appeared plain and lifeless, more like a house than a lived-in home.
In the previous two films of the trilogy, Chicago served as Gotham City's backdrop. Both Batman films elevated the city's profile, especially boosting tourism; Batman Gotham tours had even become a regular event in Chicago.
To secure Duke's crew, Pittsburgh offered extremely favorable conditions, including huge tax incentives and unrestricted municipal support for street closures during filming. These tangible benefits impressed Duke, and ultimately three cities were selected as Gotham's "stand-ins": Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York.
In storyboard sketches prepared by Anna and her team, more than one cityscape appeared as the narrative progressed—starting in one city and, almost imperceptibly, ending in another.
To achieve seamless continuity, filming would take place in different cities, seasons, and times of day.
Thus, the cinematography team had to carefully plan to match daylight and lighting, ensuring no inconsistencies were visible.
John Schwartzman worked with Duke and location managers to precisely schedule shooting times and street locations, providing future post-production support.
Meanwhile, Charles Roven concluded another negotiation, securing the film's music team.
Hans Zimmer and his team would once again compose the score, having handled the Dark Knight trilogy's music entirely.
After signing the contract, as a commercial music master, Zimmer understood the importance of promotion and gave a media interview.
"Scoring the Batman trilogy and collaborating with a brilliant director like Duke Rosenberg is an immense pleasure and honor. He's the kind of wise director who listens to others' opinions and welcomes all perspectives."
As producer, Charles Roven added, "We all want to be shocked, surprised, but resonating strongly with the audience is also what we pursue. No matter how grand the production scenes are, Duke's primary focus is still the story itself, and the intricate causal connections across the trilogy. Anyone familiar with his previous two films can appreciate his meticulous care and intention."
Meanwhile, an important prop in the film—the new vehicle for Batman—was completed.
With technology advancing rapidly, Batman, a hero who relies on gadgets, naturally needed to keep up with the times. His vehicles evolved from the "tank" in Batman Begins to the dual-drive motorcycle in The Dark Knight. In The Dark Knight Rises, the old Batmobile could no longer captivate the audience, so the Batwing was born.
This large high-tech machine, capable of high-speed driving and aerial flight, looked like a fusion of Autobots and Decepticons. Following Duke's "model effects" concept, the crew built a 1:1 scale model of the vehicle. By filming on real streets and adding necessary CGI, the film presented thrilling chase sequences.
Of course, compared to Transformers, the film's near-realistic style did not allow Duke to make the vehicles overly exaggerated or flashy. Yet, within the design, the Batwing's capabilities remained impressive. It could perform top-level low-altitude flight like a Harrier jet, handling both street-level chases and rapid aerial combat with ease.
Amid his busy work, Duke also checked on Battleship, the Hasbro film adapted in collaboration with Walt Disney Studios. Unlike other Hasbro toy movies, it did not perform well at the box office.
The film had a production cost of $210 million. When it premiered in North America in early July, it earned only $25 million in its first week. After just eleven weeks in theaters, it was forcibly pulled from screens, grossing less than $60 million in North America, and worldwide box office had not yet exceeded $200 million.
The best-selling items were toys, but the success of Transformers had already given Hasbro sufficient confidence. Sky Film Studios and Walt Disney could only share a minimal portion of toy sales, making it impossible to recover the huge investment.
At the end of August, Dwayne Johnson officially joined the crew, but Duke was not entirely satisfied with his physique.
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