American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 48
◗
Rebel Assault
Right: The crew
prepares to
shoot an
X-wing cockpit
surrounded by
LED screens.
Below: Another
image from A
New Hope is recreated, this
time of an
Imperial pilot in
the cockpit of a
TIE fighter.
theme parks. He has since served as a
visual-effects supervisor for the Star
Wars Trilogy Special Edition (AC Feb.
'97), The Phantom Menace, Attack of the
Clones and Episode III - Revenge of the
Sith. For Rogue One, Knoll worked
alongside co-visual-effects supervisor
Mohen Leo.
affect your work?
Chiang: The LED screens were
really wonderful tools in terms of how
we could light these sets so that they felt
believable. For instance, when we were
in the Death Star command center, we
wanted to see things on the viewscreen
where traditionally it would have been a
giant bluescreen; we wanted the interactive reflective quality of what you would
actually see. Even though we ultimately
had to replace some of those images
with higher-fidelity images in postproduction, they were enough to give a
sense that the quality of light on the
actors and the reflections on the set
48
February 2017
looked and felt very real.
It all goes back to reinforcing the
illusion that this is a real place and not a
movie set. I think it's an important quality to achieve. It's a nuanced thing, and
even though the quality of visual effects
today can get to that photo-real point, if
you can achieve it all in-camera, the
more authentic it feels.
Visual-effects supervisor John
Knoll
Knoll began working at ILM in
1986, and his contributions to the Star
Wars saga go back to the first iteration of
the Star Tours attraction for the Disney
American Cinematographer
American
Cinematographer:
Can you tell us about using giant LED
screens for backgrounds instead of
bluescreens?
John Knoll: All of our major
spaceship cockpit scenes were done that
way, with the gimbal in this giant horseshoe of LED panels we got from VER,
and we prepared graphics that went on
the screens. One thing that's very hard
to shoot on visual-effects films is a vehicle traveling through a complex lighting
environment. For example, if you're
flying through a city, this building in
direct sunlight would be bouncing light,
another one might be painted a lighter
color, and another one might be darker
and cooler - so the lighting environment around the vehicle should really
be changing almost every frame. And
that's really hard to do well on a soundstage with conventional instruments, so
it feels a little artificial. If you can generate the environment around the vehicle
and have that playing back on the LED
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2017
Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 8
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 9
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American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 11
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 12
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 13
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 14
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 15
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 16
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 18
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 19
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 20
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 21
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 22
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 23
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 24
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 25
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 26
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 36
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - A
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - B
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 37
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 38
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 39
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 40
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 41
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 42
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 43
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 44
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 45
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 46
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 47
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 48
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 49
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 50
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 51
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 52
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 53
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I1
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I2
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I3
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I4
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I5
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - I6
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 54
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 55
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 56
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 57
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 58
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 59
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 60
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 61
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 62
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 63
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 64
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 65
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 66
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 67
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 68
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 69
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 70
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 71
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 72
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 73
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 74
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 75
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 76
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 77
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 78
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 79
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 80
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 81
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 82
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 83
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 84
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 85
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 86
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 87
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 88
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 89
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 90
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 91
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 92
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 93
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 94
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 95
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - 96
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - February 2017 - Cover4
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