10 Bizarre Ways Directors Tricked Audiences

2. Giant LED Screens - The Mandalorian

There Will Be Blood
Lucasfilm

Since the early days of filmmaking, directors have had the task of depicting environments that simply don't exist. With a franchise like Star Wars, creating the fantastical worlds of galaxy far far away has been essential in telling the stories. But obviously production crews don't have the luxury of shooting on location in an alien environment. In the past a combination of physical sets and CGI-generated backgrounds have been used to depict the many worlds in the story.

With the Mandalorian, everything changed. Rather than having actors working in a green screen environment, the production crew used huge LED screens standing 21-feet high, and 75-feet in diameter in an enclosed indoor space.

It's a similar concept to the projection technology used in the golden era of Hollywood. However, the LED screens are able to generated an almost 3-D looking environment, which not only can be captured in camera, but also allows for an actor to be lit by their surroundings.

Almost any scenario imaginable can now be created in pre-production, and an entire location can be generated around an actor.

Contributor

Before engrossing myself in the written word, I spent several years in the TV and film industry. During this time I became proficient at picking things up, moving things and putting things down again.