[0:00] one of the most important and integral
[0:02] aspects of star wars has been
[0:04] pushing the boundaries with visual
[0:06] effects and filmmaking techniques
[0:08] the original trilogy did wonders for
[0:10] what people could achieve with
[0:11] motion capture the prequels introduced
[0:13] the idea of mocap performance in merging
[0:16] cgi with practical elements and sets
[0:19] especially with the phantom menace and
[0:21] while the sequel trilogy
[0:22] and anthology films did a few novel
[0:24] things such as using
[0:25] gigantic projection screens to capture
[0:27] realistic lighting cues
[0:29] as well as more authentic reactions from
[0:31] actors to the situations at hand it was
[0:33] the mandalorian which truly became the
[0:36] next
[0:36] star wars product that literally changed
[0:38] the way filmmaking was done forever
[0:41] the mandalorian with the aid of
[0:42] stagecraft technology has essentially
[0:45] created its own hollow deck
[0:46] and i want to explain why this is an
[0:48] amazing change in how stories can be
[0:50] crafted
[0:50] as well as explaining why this new
[0:52] process eliminates so much tedious
[0:54] post-production work in that it allows
[0:56] people to focus on the story
[0:58] rather than being engulfed with worry
[1:00] regarding if this will all look real
[1:02] in the end when this all goes to
[1:03] post-production with this technology
[1:05] you are already 90 of the way there in
[1:08] regards to the final shots that you want
[1:10] and you are inside of this gigantic room
[1:13] with enormous led panels the entire time
[1:16] now to go back in time the biggest hang
[1:19] up that the prequel trilogy had
[1:20] were actors interacting with
[1:22] non-existent objects or
[1:24] in fully green or blue stages for
[1:26] arguably
[1:27] 75 percent of the production if you
[1:29] happen to remember the stories coming
[1:31] out during the production of the hobbit
[1:33] movies
[1:33] which heavily utilized green screen and
[1:35] blue screen you would recall the actor
[1:37] ian mckellen having a
[1:38] kind of breakdown on set because of how
[1:41] frustrating it was
[1:42] to act across from a tennis ball versus
[1:44] actually acting across from a human
[1:46] being
[1:46] there was no frame of reference to what
[1:48] was happening around the actor
[1:50] and with the prequels in a large portion
[1:52] of the hobbit films as mentioned
[1:53] the acting in action feels a bit wonky
[1:56] and i can only assume
[1:57] that that's because of being dropped
[1:58] into an artificial environment being
[2:00] surrounded by just green and blue
[2:02] your brain knows that nothing is there
[2:04] so you have to focus on two things at
[2:06] once
[2:06] envisioning the environment that you're
[2:08] in and then performing your scene the
[2:10] mandalorian
[2:10] eliminated needing to visualize anything
[2:13] it's taken the idea of rear projection
[2:14] and then ramped that up to ten thousand
[2:17] now using real-time game engine renders
[2:19] that the actors can actually see
[2:21] and react to as if they exist in that
[2:23] setting in real time
[2:25] and in real life the realism of these
[2:27] rooms is truly uncanny when you look at
[2:29] dinjar and looking at this forest from
[2:31] episode 5 of season 2 of the mandalorian
[2:34] dinjarn actually sees that forest
[2:36] rendered in its final form his
[2:38] performance in my opinion is therefore
[2:40] more visibly authentic and you can spend
[2:42] less time as a director
[2:44] explaining how your actor should react
[2:46] to their surroundings
[2:47] you've eliminated that problem
[2:48] completely now to be fair as i said not
[2:50] everything in the mandalorian was filmed
[2:52] in these gigantic
[2:54] volume led rooms there were some bits of
[2:56] green screen as well as fully built sets
[2:58] for locations
[2:59] but as i said the bulk of the show took
[3:01] place inside of these enormous
[3:03] led stages in order to give the actors a
[3:06] way to
[3:06] actually engage in these alien
[3:08] environments and i think it paid off
[3:10] tremendously
[3:11] to my eyes the volume and game engine
[3:14] renders look flawless
[3:15] especially in season 2 and while i'm
[3:17] sure that this room takes a bit of
[3:19] getting used to as an actor you can't
[3:20] deny the benefit of being able to
[3:22] actually see
[3:23] what your surroundings are rather than
[3:25] being surrounded by the color green
[3:27] now in regards to the technical side of
[3:29] things as an editor myself
[3:30] and individual who has had to rotoscope
[3:32] things key out green from footage
[3:34] and attempt to composite various
[3:36] elements into one image that looks real
[3:38] that entire process is tragic and slow
[3:41] and very outdated
[3:42] so this stagecraft technology by ilm
[3:44] dramatically reduced
[3:46] all of these compositing needs now you
[3:48] can achieve what is called
[3:49] in camera finals for the majority of the
[3:52] shots you can pose on set
[3:53] and just a quick explainer of what
[3:55] in-camera finals
[3:56] really means it's just that there is no
[3:58] compositing required to make the actor
[4:00] or set pieces merge perfectly together
[4:02] what's in front of the camera while it's
[4:04] recording is the final composite before
[4:07] you go into color grading
[4:08] with the background literally
[4:10] surrounding the actor you already have
[4:12] all the natural light of the location
[4:14] that you are digitally creating there is
[4:16] no more need to artificially create
[4:18] natural lighting around the subject in a
[4:20] compositing program
[4:21] again as i said it's just all there in
[4:23] front of the lens and to add to this
[4:25] you can shoot for as long as you want
[4:27] without worrying about lighting changes
[4:29] such as the sunset the sunrise etc you
[4:31] can shoot a sunrise for hours if
[4:33] necessary
[4:34] all of these seemingly small things have
[4:36] huge payoffs because
[4:38] weather location scouting natural
[4:40] lighting all of this stuff is controlled
[4:42] in one room with a render engine
[4:44] and the most critical aspect to this
[4:46] beyond how hyper real the led walls look
[4:48] and how the lighting aids and in camera
[4:50] finals as we previously discussed is the
[4:53] fact that the camera and led panels
[4:55] operate as if the physical camera was in
[4:57] that virtual environment
[4:59] being projected on the walls so that
[5:01] means that as the camera moves with your
[5:03] subject you get that realistic
[5:05] background movement which is called
[5:07] parallax now
[5:08] in the volume outside of the camera this
[5:11] actually looks really bizarre
[5:12] but through the lens in the final
[5:14] product it looks very natural
[5:16] so with three brand new gigantic stages
[5:18] being built
[5:19] as well as pop-up stagecraft sets which
[5:22] actually were recently utilized
[5:24] for that netflix film the midnight sky
[5:26] it seems that going forward it makes
[5:28] more practical sense in monetary sense
[5:30] to use this technology it's going to
[5:32] look real anyway
[5:33] and you have complete control over your
[5:35] location and sets to a degree
[5:37] never imagined you get to have your
[5:39] editorial director photography
[5:41] post-production team all working
[5:43] together at the same time
[5:45] as well as ensuring that what you film
[5:47] on that stage comes out basically
[5:49] perfect
[5:50] soon we will be experiencing our first
[5:52] feature film using this technology
[5:54] via taika waititi i imagine that the
[5:56] film will be using one of the
[5:58] bigger stages available to make sure
[5:59] that the cinematic experience is as
[6:01] impactful as possible but i also imagine
[6:03] that if this film goes extremely well
[6:06] then all studios will adopt this
[6:07] technology even the mcu is going this
[6:09] route with its tv shows in future films
[6:11] like thor
[6:12] love and thunder and filming on location
[6:14] will always be something that exists in
[6:16] the filmmaking world however
[6:17] just like people were initially dealing
[6:19] with the transition to cgi
[6:20] and movie making or transitioning from
[6:22] 2d animation to 3d animation
[6:24] the ilm stagecraft tech is the obvious
[6:27] next step
[6:27] in filming cinematic experiences when
[6:29] you can have every stage of creative in
[6:31] one room working together as shown in
[6:33] the mandalorian documentary you become
[6:36] an efficient machine without losing the
[6:37] heart of what it is that you were trying
[6:39] to create
[6:40] so i hope you've enjoyed this video i
[6:41] know it's tech heavy but it also has to
[6:43] do with star wars and as an editor
[6:45] myself
[6:45] a guy that loves post-production and
[6:46] editing i thought this would be a cool
[6:48] video to cover
[6:49] and just to give you some information on
[6:50] how the mandalorian is made so as always
[6:53] may the force be with you
[6:54] and adapt is signing off
[7:20] you