10 Ways TV Shows Blew Your Mind (Without You Even Realising)

1. The Show Uses Almost No Green Screen - The Mandalorian

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Disney

Disney's The Mandalorian perhaps marks the point at which TV visual effects well and truly feel like they've come to match the CGI we're used to seeing in movies.

And while you'd be reasonable to assume Disney simply poured a few hundred million dollars into the most refined and sophisticated green screen VFX money can buy, they actually went an entirely different route.

The show contains very little in the way of conventional green screen, opting instead to use a bespoke technology called StageCraft - a gigantic 360-degree LED video wall which can project dynamic virtual backgrounds into the filming space which move and react to the camera's movements.

This is a massive improvement over green screen for many reasons: first of all, the actors can actually see the environment they're in, directors don't have to worry how the end result will look in post, and technical issues with green screen like mismatched lighting are non-existent.

Best of all, because the virtual environments are created during pre-production using the Unreal Engine, they can be iterated upon at a moment's notice, adding and removing elements, changing the staging of the scene and so on.

Needless to say, the show's backgrounds look absolutely fantastic and massively boost the show's sense of tactile immersion.

It goes without saying that Stagecraft will probably end up replacing standard green screen on major Hollywood movies in the coming years - Disney are already using it on a few upcoming MCU movies.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.