A new LED video wall technology used in “The Lion King” and “The Mandalorian” series last year could be used more widely as Hollywood picks up productions during the pandemic.
Rather than filming on location with the production crew and cast navigating the strict requirements of social distancing, this technique allows filmmakers in a studio to disperse individual scenes captured virtually using a variety of techniques.
Unlike traditional “green screen,” with this new technique, actors can see the background and cinematographers can match perspectives and parallax to make it look like it was shot on location.
“The Lion King” visual effects supervisor Robert Legato said the video wall and advances toward virtual production are a “tipping point” that is being adopted out of necessity during the pandemic.
“It’s something that was going to happen anyway. It simply would have taken longer because there would have been no immediate need. Some people are clinging to the way they do things, ”said the three-time Oscar winner.
More than half of the scenes in “The Mandalorian” were filmed with this technology. Emmy award-winning visual effects specialist Sam Nicholson said this represents a “natural evolution” in the world of Hollywood effects, where new technologies have been adopted after crises, including after travel restrictions after terrorist attacks. of September 11, 2001.
“We started with shows like ‘E.R,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and ‘Walking Dead,’ and we said, ‘Look, we don’t have to be on location to shoot there.’ It’s easier to bring location to production than production to location, ”Nicholson said.
He believes that the pandemic will take Hollywood “from the era of Cecil B. DeMille in which ‘everything is real’ to the era of George Lucas”.
“If you’re a producer, can you really afford to have the entire production and actors quarantined for two weeks before filming begins?”
“Film production is one of many industries that have had to adapt so that people can go back to work in person.”
The “Avatar” sequels that recently resumed filming in New Zealand are also using virtual camera systems.
“We’ve been helping the ‘Avatar’ guys for a while,” said Dave Hoffman of Blackmagic, an Australian company that makes cameras and hardware for video production.
Director Thea Sharrock had to use virtual production to finish her latest film, Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan,” and found the process “peculiar.”
“We had an extra element that we had to do with music and do it via Zoom, which was extraordinary and weird and quirky not being in the room with people,” Sharrock said.
He added: “What we do is completely about collaboration. It’s about being in a room with people, and that’s how work is done, that’s how projects are accomplished. So it’s very, very peculiar. “
Nicholson shares a similar point of view. While he understands that those technologies can help resume production during the pandemic, he does not see it as a complete substitute for resuming normal workflow.
“It represents a fundamental shift in production towards the virtual field where everything is possible. But in saying that anything is possible, you still have to put the story in the foreground. You still have to bring the performance to the fore and use it as a tool to wrap the story, “Nicholson said.
Still, virtual production can provide a viable solution during the pandemic, and perhaps become a useful technique for getting ahead.
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who stars in the new Netflix movie “Project Power,” agrees. “It’s about finding a good mix between the technology you are using and the story you are trying to tell,” he said.
Also acting in “Project Power” is Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro, who has worked in productions with many visual effects such as the film “300” and the series “Westworld”. He believes that others in the industry are open to adapting.
“Digital technology, especially now during the pandemic, is teaching us many lessons and many things about how we can reinvent ourselves,” Santoro said.
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