The Mandalorian is just the beginning: LED screens expand the cinema of the future

IN The Mandalorian, a Lucasfilm space western filmed exteriors of alien worlds without leaving the set, and more. All special effects were built on curved LED screens. unreal. This is just the beginning of a revolution in cinema and science fiction that has pushed the boundaries of what is possible so far.

The end of chromaticity on film sets

Modern cinema is undergoing a technological transformation that affects all professions derived from film production. Never before has so much cinema been produced and consumed as it is now. Platform invasion streaming This meant profound change, but the pandemic has accelerated important changes in the technological agenda of filmmaking over the years, which were predicted to be implemented in a slower and more gradual manner.

Studio work using color was introduced into film production with the development of visual effects and has dominated productions in recent decades. Now it has given way to a technology that can offer virtual spaces endowed with greater realism, allowing you to capture the most spectacular exteriors without leaving the set and with great precision. This is achieved through LED screens that mimic real space.

From terminator 2 To Avatar

First transformation cinematography used in the film Willow (R. Howard, 1988) A Lucasfilm production that won an Oscar for Best Special Effects. The technique was universalized by Michael Jackson in a music video black or white and in the same year, James Cameron went even further with terminator 2first film to use transformation to imitate human movements endowed with impressive realism. After this film, Cameron, who also won an Oscar for Best Effects, founded Digital Domain with Stan Winston and Scott Ross.

The next step was taken by the ineffable Steven Spielberg with Jurassic Park (1993), a film in which the level of realism in computer-generated images of dinosaurs was astonishing.

Cinematography has taken an unprecedented flight thanks to new tools such as Softimage and other special software such as visualizer or massive.

Filmmakers could begin to come up with real or fictional dramatic scenarios and situations with visuals that cinema had never been able to create before. Final Fantasy: The Power Within (H. Sakaguchi, 2001) made a highly commendable attempt to recreate humans with computers, but it was George Lucas and Peter Jackson who played a major role in the 2000s scene, incorporating increasingly complex visuals into the saga. star Wars or in the image of Gollum, from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) developed by Weta. But the rules of the game changed again at the end of that decade, when James Cameron introduced Avatar in 2009. This movie combines camera tracking work (camera tracking) with motion capture (motion capture) and allowed to replace the movement of actors with virtual characters.

The Mandalorian: New turn

So far, we have talked about the evolution of visual effects after studio shooting with chroma keywhich is a situation that preceded the capabilities of LED technology and the new real-time imagery system that began to be introduced with production The Mandalorian.

It should be noted that, from a technical point of view, the world of video games was ahead of cinema, making possible such powerful real-time rendering engines as the Unreal Engine, capable of supporting real-time photorealistic images.

The evolution of this real-time rendering ability has been key to reshaping the filming system with a formula that aims to reduce production costs, among other things, the dream of any executive producer.

Virtual world in 4K resolution

The change in the filming system mainly consists of replacing camera work with post-production, creating a studio where the actors and some of the elements located in the foreground are real, and a whole virtual world moves behind them in 4K resolution. LED screens that move in real time.

for filming The Mandalorian This required a semi-circular screen over 70 meters long and 6 meters high, creating a 270-degree circle topped by another large screen on the ceiling of the studio. Technology stage craft It has also been used in the production Batman 2022.

The technical advantages of this new system are numerous: scene change and final image management, which until now has been exclusively in the hands of post-production; lighting and color correction of the screens, identical to those marked by the camera, which allows the integration of real and virtual elements; a dramatic immersion into the scene for the actors and technical crew, leaving behind an eternal green background in which everything had to be imagined; reduction of work on shooting on location, the most crucial moment of any shooting, always associated with unforeseen circumstances and, above all, with high costs due to the movement of equipment; Finally, it reduces post-production time.

It’s true that these are all benefits, but this kind of photography is only available to those who can afford it. The imperial cinema is like that, although the cost of renting this equipment can vary greatly depending on the needs.

Quentin Tarantino, to use another sign as an example, believes that these systems destroy the natural magic of outdoor filming. For my part, I completely agree. But that is another story.

Ignacio Oliva Mompean, Professor of Cinematography at the University of Castile-La Mancha

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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