while filming this scene from Disney's
the mandalorian the actors could see
their surroundings but the surroundings
weren't actually there all of this is
just LED screens displaying backgrounds
pre-made in a video game engine compare
that with this fight scene from avengers
endgame we're actors jumped around in a
sea of green imagining how VFX artists
would make this planet look once filming
had ended the mandalorian is one of the
first major productions to choose LED
Wald's / green screens and the benefits
for the actors are just the tip of the
iceberg
LED walls make the lighting better
filming smoother and in certain cases
cost a lot less than using green screens
but to understand why the team behind
the Mandalorian chose these LED screens
we have to understand just how they work
Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau
revolutionized virtual production while
directing The Lion King and the Jungle
Book however the process for these two
remakes
still relied heavily on blue screen and
post-production work for the Mandalorian
LED wall technology seemed like the next
logical step given the show's production
budget and time frame now you may be
thinking this isn't so new I've seen
something like this before
and you're right kind of the predecessor
to what we see on the mandalorian is a
driving scene like this one from dr.
know you've got the actor in the car and
behind them a screen with footage of the
road they've traveled but the technology
was limited say you want to move the
camera angle during the scene that
projected footage can't move with the
camera but by using Unreal Engine
Tek borrowed from the video game field
that problem is solved artists can
create a photo realistic 3d background
that moves strictly with the cameras
field of view known as the frustum so if
the camera swings around and changes
angles the background shifts in
precisely the same way this allows
motion tracked cameras to execute
traditional cinematography techniques
within the virtual set achievable acts
effect where an object in the foreground
moves a different speed than the
background amplifies the illusion of
filming at an actual location now the
LED screens can move with the cameras i
virtual sets can solve a bunch of
green-screen problems the biggest one
probably being lighting
we've all seen movies TV shows where the
lighting on the day didn't necessarily
match the post-production work that was
added many many months later that's
Richard bluff Industrial Light and Magic
Svea FEX supervisor for the mandalorian
he says lighting is one of the key
benefits of working with virtual sets
the light coming from the LEDs provide
realistic colors and reflections on the
actors and props something you simply
can't achieve with green-screen they are
also able to completely avoid the
problem of spill to better understand
that we talked to Kim library epic games
creators of Unreal Engine which was used
to build the virtual sets for the
Mandalorian the problem with the
green-screen is that you have to have a
green screen behind you and what that
does is that instead of projecting
beautiful lighting from what the
environment would be behind you it
basically puts a lot of green light on
you and we call that spill if you wrap
an actor with a big 360 LED walk you can
light in a way that you would never be
able to do on a on a green screen so you
can really make it feel like the
characters are embedded in them by
environments this green screen spill
would have been an even bigger problem
than usual for the Mandalorian whose
main character gets a shiny new suit of
armor early on in the season so
realistic lighting from the LEDs makes
the show look better but virtual sets
help with practical concerns to take
this scene in the office of the client
played by Verna Hertzog in a scene like
this surely they just built a simple set
right wrong all of this is that same LED
screen according to richard only the
desk the floor and one or two columns
were really there everything else was
displayed on the screen what this
allowed us to limit the amount of stage
space that we used in shooting season
one of Mandalorian which has
understandably a big impact on time and
budget to be fair the initial investment
in a virtual set like this is huge
however the creator's claim that money
saved from traveling to locations
building new sets and costly
post-production can make the investment
worth it
along with saving time and money the
team developed a system that allowed
artists to make changes and control the
world on the day of shooting settings
like exposure color animation playback
and fill lighting are available to the
filmmakers at a moment's notice if they
want to move a mountain from one side of
the virtual set to the other they can
right there on set not only is it
helpful for the actor who no longer has
to imagine where that mountain is but
it's a game-changer for the director of
photography because in the distance if
there is a mountain range that is a
story point then the DP is no longer
guessing where those elements are he can
frame up to them the virtual set
constructed for season one was 75 feet
in diameter 21 feet high and also had a
roof composed of LEDs the cast and crew
refer to this space as the volume and we
had doors that can kind of close in to
almost give you full 360-degree coverage
of LED screens - the floor it's driven
by a small group of machines running
unreal and our stagecraft technologies
at the end of the day the big question
is do virtual sets really mean the end
for green screens well even the
mandalorian with its technological
advances used a version of a green
screen that via the LED wall another
capability of virtual sets is to choose
pinpointed areas of the wall and turn
those green now we now have the ability
to limit the amount of green screen
that's visible behind a character so now
it doesn't wrap around the entire stage
it's just a little piece but also they
gain the lighting from that environment
which gives us a more seamless result in
post-production
additionally scenes involving explosives
have best kept to traditional methods
this is to prevent leds from getting
damaged so will green screens survive
this wave of tech innovation eventually
of course we hope never to use green
screen but I still see that there is
there will be a future for it in the
short term because there's likely always
a need to remove people to add
additional
behind them but we are getting to the
point where the amount of green screen
that's being used is massively reduced
and the sky's the limit right now
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