The fascinating world created by Lucasfilm and The Mandalorian gave me a new hope (pun intended) for the Star Wars franchise. Giving fans a new look into the galaxy far far away, the Disney+ series reminded us of the beauty attainable through special effects and gave us a new set of locations to love. Part of those locations, however, was created with a new technology from Lucasfilm.
In the technology-focused episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, we learned how the show got those sweeping landscapes that brought the world of Mando to life. And now, Ewan McGregor says that same technology is going to be used for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Bringing #TheMandalorian to life is a complicated profession. Discover the tech in episode 4 of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, now streaming on #DisneyPlus! pic.twitter.com/GKQMFYdd2S
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) May 22, 2020
The new “Stagecraft” technology is used as a way of, in my opinion, bringing the idea of the green screen to a whole new level. It also makes it easier, at moments like now, when the fear of coronavirus is high, to film on a smaller scale and keep people safer than flying a crew somewhere to film on location.
A Lucasfilm panel for the women of the company was held back in November of 2019, and Kathleen Kennedy brought up how they approached using the new technology with Disney:
Jon Favreau and myself went into Disney and said, this is something that we would like to try and they said, what exactly is it? And we said we’re not exactly sure. We have no idea what this is going to cost, and we hadn’t ever built anything with the technology, which we’re now calling “Stagecraft” inside ILM, but it basically is a projection system on screens, and the real innovation is that when you move the camera inside this space, the parallax changes. So suddenly you’re in an environment that actually begins to behave in the same way it would in an actual 3D environment like this.
In talking with ACE Comic-Con, McGregor brought up the technology and how it would be different from working with blue screen and green screen technology, like he did with the prequels:
I think I am going to enjoy it much more…(the prequels) were all blue screen and green screen and it was hard to imagine, but nowadays I think things have moved on so much, and I think a lot of what you see is gonna be what we see on the set. I don’t know if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes of The Mandalorian series, but they employ that incredible screen…it’s pretty amazing. It makes you feel like you’re in the place, it’s going to feel realer for us as actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.
I have to imagine that, as an actor, it would be easier because most of what you’re seeing is on a screen in front of you instead of added in post. (They still have work to do in post, but a lot of what is happening is laid out before the actors to make it easier.) Whatever is happening, this new Stagecraft tech is incredibly cool, and I’m excited to see how it’s used in the future of filmmaking.
(via /Film, image: LucasFilm)
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