nofilmschool.com: Virtual production and cinematography have recently gone through a massive change. Thanks largely to The Mandalorian successfully making waves in the industry for its inventive use of an LED stage and virtual production pipeline for filming, many productions want to use virtual production toolsets in their workflow rather than a traditional approach.
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As a huge fan of The Mandalorian, it was really interesting to learn about how revolutionary they’ve been for the film industry. This article marks an issue with these LED stages (the new “revolution”) as one perpetrated by those who don’t know how to use these stages to their fullest potential. Stating that people need to be really well trained in order to make these productions look very good with this technology. It comes across with a negative connotation. I firmly believe it is really amazing that filmmakers have something new to work with and become experts on. I never think it is a bad thing to open up more doors for creating. Just because people won’t automatically be the best at using these LED stages doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be using them at all. Though the negative that I do acknowledge with this is the mass influx of money now going into that technology and how that could be going to making a similar, but possibly slightly less good-looking production with the old tech. Plus, not all smaller production companies can afford these products.
This article brings up an interesting problem. I never would've thought that there would be too many LED soundstages in the market, and not enough traditional stages. I think that it's probably easy for companies, like Warner Bros., to fail to see any downside to switching to LED soundstages because on the surface they seem more convenient and better looking than traditional stages. For example, the article says that LED stages are great for sunrises and sunsets, but struggle with daytime scenes. If filmmakers and companies are more educated on how soundstages perform, that combined with the advancement of technology will make virtual soundstages much more popular in the future. All in all, though, I think that the industry is definitely going to switch to LED soundstages soon, but as with all things there are some kinks that need to be worked out.
I think if you want to predict the future of LED stages, you just need to look at LED lights in theater productions. Some people were all about them and loved the new technology, while others considered them a fad and said you could pry their conventional source fours out of their cold dead hands. Now a days we see LEDs used in multiple ways in productions. They have their specific strengths and come in various forms like LED tape or LED source fours to accomplish specific things they can do very well. However, there are still conventionals in most plots because LEDs have shortcomings, and the existing technology can do those things better. LED technology is still developing; six years ago, I would never have accepted an LED source four because they could not do a warm glow. Now that is no longer the case. I think it’s funny that now the biggest weakness of LED stages is a similar warm daytime/midday looks. I’m sure as time moves on productions will find what LED stages are really good for and when a traditional sound stage or on-location filming would be the better choice.
This is such an interesting topic of conversation. Before reading this, I had no idea that LED stages and virtual production were even a thing. I think it is so cool that as our industry grows ever further, there are always new methods of creating art that are being introduced. There are now so many ways to make theater and film that give artists a huge supply of creative methods to use. LED stages introduce a whole new aspect of design and animation into films that was not there before. Now that special effects and intricately beautiful backgrounds can be created before post production, artists can create works that would not have been possible before. However, what this article mentioned about the problems with them make a lot of sense. This technology is so new and many of the professionals who are working with it have not been taught how to use it. I think that as we learn more about this technology, it will become even more useful and we will be able to create like never before.
It's interesting to me seeing the ways in which we circumvent having to build actual objects to create entertainment. I enjoy creating physical objects too much to want to exist in a world where we build literally nothing in support of a production. But I do think that there is a middle ground to be struck between actual physical objects in an environment and the faking of the backdrop. I think that the meeting point is where things get messy. When the integration between reality and illusion is done poorly, I think it really shows. It's interesting to see that blue and green screens are now just one of the forks of that illusion and that other methods are gaining traction. It will be interesting to see where this new technology takes us, and how LED stages will find a niche within the world of our own video media departments. There is a lot to be learned from here.
It is interesting to see the rise in the use of LED screens for the filming of television shows and movies. Not only do The Mandalorian, Batman, and Thor: Love and Thunder use a LED wall for their backgrounds and such, but so does the hit HBOmax show Our Flag Means Death. Our Flag Means Death is a show set in 1717 and it follows the events that happen when Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) leaves his wife and children to become a pirate and meets the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). Because of the fact that they are on a boat in the middle of the ocean for a large majority of the show they decided that it would be best to use a curved LED wall to show the ocean and the sky. One of the actors, Samba Schutte, has quite a few behind the scenes photos from throughout the filming process. One of said photos shows the pirate ship that was built for the show, in front of the semi-oval LED wall. It is so cool to see how it is set up. The only thing is is that at some points in the show the horizon line looks funky and the water looks fake and the movements of the ship (yes the ship sets are actually moved) do not match up with the movement of the water on the LED wall at times. I definitely believe that they should have done more research and practice to get all of those things to look better and work better together.
I was really curious about this article after reading the title because I have heard about LED stages in passing, mostly in short behind the scenes videos and articles for a variety of shows but never really in-depth in any way. One of the things that really peaked my interest when reading this article was about how new this technology was and how that could really hinder some shows because for every show I have seen like the Mandalorian that uses an LED stage well I have definitely seen a movie or tv show or two that have used an LED stage and in some parts it does not look very good in the shot (very flat or 2D), and took me out of the moment while watching. I think like any technology there are pros and cons of using LED stages and I honestly believe they are a cool piece of technology and must be really cool to film with. As knowledge of this piece of equipment increases and developments are made, I’m excited to see where this technology goes.
this is a cool topic. LEDs as floors is a cool concept that i think works great for film. I do not think it will ever become the standard norm in theatre as it is missing the capability for a lot of design work to be done. i also wonder how compatable it is with making tracks in the ground for automation, how it works with stages that needs turn tables or a hole on stage, Are they able to be modified to actually for a theatre producion's needs? If so I would love to see what theatre artists can do with it.
As technology for entertainment advances so should the people’s knowledge who work with it. The LED stage sounds very cool and almost ironic. It saves money for not having to build complicated sets but the stage itself is very expensive. I think its cool they can create environments on screens but part of me is a little slippery slope argument that soon film sets will become almost obsolete with technology being able to mimic real life to the point we don’t need sets. I like what the specialized guy in the area said that it was only good for portraying certain times of the day like dusk or dawn but not daylight. It does sound not cost effective for people who don’t know how to maximize the LED stage’s uses as it will have spent a lot of money on the stage for lukewarm results or will have to scrap the expensive stage entirely after it not working well.
This is actually a really interesting problem to me. I never thought that this would become an issue with virtual production, but I definitely understand how it is one now. During the pandemic, virtual production was all that we had available to produce any content. So naturally a bunch of production companies and vendors created these LED stages as fast as they could, but now that production as we knew it is largely back again, what is the draw to these virtual stages if they aren’t saving money? My original thinking was that virtual production would actually end up being cheaper in the long run than real production, but I guess since we haven’t been doing it for that long, maybe the upfront costs still outweigh the profits from the projects produced on these stages? It is interesting to see which things these stages work better for vs shots that they shouldn’t be used for. It is just like anything else in a production. You need to analyze your tools and pick which will work best for your production.
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