American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 32

This Is the Way

"One of the benefits of this technology is that it allows more significant collaboration in every phase of the filmmaking
process. It allows department heads who
are traditionally relegated to one phase of
the pipeline to participate in the others.
There's a wonderful opportunity to let your
imagination run wild, and allow everybody
to share the vision on the set, as you look
around and see the world you were all able
to create together. You can make filmmaking choices as you would on a practical set,
even though you're surrounded by
elements created from your collective
imagination."
- Jon Favreau

32

"light card" of white just outside the
frustum. The entire wall outside the
camera's angle of view could be a
large light source of any intensity or
color that the LEDs could reproduce.
Idoine discovered that a great
additional source for Mando was a
long, narrow band of white near the
top of the LED wall. "This wraparound source created a great backlight look on Mando's helmet,"
Idoine says. Alternatively, he and
Fraser could request a tall, narrow
band of light on the wall that would
reflect on Mando's full suit, similar to
the way a commercial photographer
might light a wine bottle or a car -
using specular reflections to define
shape.
Additionally, virtual black
flags - meaning areas where the
LED wall were set to black - could
be added wherever needed, and at
whatever size. The transparency of
the black could also be adjusted to
any percentage to create virtual nets.
The virtual LED environments
were hugely successful, but traditional greenscreen still played a
significant role in the production of
The Mandalorian, and it was always
on hand - especially for situations
where the frustum was too wide for
the system to adequately respond.
The Volume was also capable of
February 2020

Idoine (seated at camera) in discussion with Favreau and Filoni on a practical set.

producing virtual greenscreen on the
LED wall, which could be any size,
and any hue or saturation of green.
Among the benefits of virtual greenscreen were that it required no time
to set up or rig, and its size could be
set to precisely outline the subject to
be replaced - which greatly minimized and sometimes even eliminated green spill.
The Mandalorian workflow was
somewhat inverted, because -
unlike on typical productions -
virtual backgrounds and CG
elements had to be finished before
principal photography commenced.
Once the cinematographer approved
the locations and lighting in the
virtual art-department, the images
were delivered to ILM for their work,
which took about six weeks to
complete for each load. At the time of
photography, some manipulation
and alteration of the virtual elements
could take place, but many decisions
about coverage, blocking and lighting were already locked in. Naturally,
this required a degree of collaboration among the director, cinematographer, production designer and
visual-effects supervisor that was
closer than that on a typical production. But, as Fraser notes, it also
American Cinematographer - 100 Years

meant that the cinematographer was
hands-on throughout the creation of
all the images.
"I personally enjoy that
pipeline," Favreau attests. "I have
tried to learn as much as I could from
the way animation approaches the
preproduction and production schedule. I think the earlier in the process
you can solve story issues, the more
efficient the production process
becomes. Animation has traditionally
front-loaded the story process,
whereas live-action allows you to
kick the can down the road."
"We all felt a little like film
students at the start of this," Fraser
says. "It's all new, and we were
discovering the limitations and abilities of the system as we went along.
We continually pushed the system to
break it and see where the edges of
the envelope were - but the technology continued to evolve and allow us
to push that envelope further. We'd
say, 'Oh, man, I wish we could ...'
and someone at the Brain Bar would
say, 'Yeah, I think we can!' And the
next day we'd have that ability. It was
pretty amazing."
u
For
expanded
coverage
of
The Mandalorian, visit ascmag.com in
February.


http://www.ascmag.com

American Cinematographer - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2020

Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 3
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 8
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 9
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 10
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 11
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 12
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 13
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 14
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 15
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 16
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 18
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 19
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 20
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 21
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 22
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 23
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 24
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 25
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American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 36
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