What Is ILM's StageCraft And Why Is It Revolutionizing Television
Every once in a while, an idea comes along that revolutionizes how television is made. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has created the next revolution in production with StageCraft. The idea was first devised in 2016 during the filming of Rogue One when cinematographer, Greig Fraser encountered several issues which led him to a revelation. The idea was to use LED panels as the outside edge of the stage to project a background.
Since 2016, the idea has been improved upon by ILM. During the filming of The Lion King (2019), Jon Favreau asked ILM for help realizing shots in a CGI space. When Favreau was hired to film The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm knew exactly where to put StageCraft to the test. The Volume, which is the soundstage the StageCraft is built on, is a contiguous dome of LED panels projecting a background scene. Traditionally, the scenes would be rendered in post-production over a green screen.
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Now the deserts of Tatooine appear around Pedro Pascal as if by magic. And to be honest, seeing it in action looks like magic. The Volume can be manipulated in real-time to get the perfect shot every take. No more waiting for clouds to move out of the sun. Instead, you advance time on the backdrop to make it sunny again. StageCraft makes production schedules for live-action offerings a lot easier to manage. According to Jon Favreau, it takes about half the time to film the entire season of a series using The Volume.
The rapid advancement of StageCraft has led to it not only being used in television but also in several films. This includes Taiki Waititi's upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. As technology sees wider adoption and access for filmmakers to use The Volume, we see an endless list of possibilities. Several actors have been very outspoken about the overuse of CGI in modern film and television. When filming The Hobbit Ian McKellan had a mental break over the use of CGI and not interacting with the whole cast of the film. The Volume would remedy this. Being able to see the world around you can help an actor interact with other actors present in the scene and fully immerse in a role. As producers save money on sets, they are able to reallocate the funds to make sure the production stays on schedule.
With technology like this, there is no reason to film in a traditional outdoor setting. Even James Cameron was impressed when he saw the technology while filming the second Avatar film. He was working on the same production lot as The Mandalorian and decided to visit. When Cameron arrived, the team at ILM had pulled test footage on the screen of a Mandalorian stand-in pacing in the ruins of an old building. When James Cameron took his glasses off and leaned in close to see the "seams" of the effect, the team at ILM knew they had made StageCraft work.
ILM continues to refine the new technology. During the filming of season two of The Mandalorian, they announced StageCraft 2.0, featuring more LED panels and special ILM-designed software called Helios, a rendering engine to replace the Unreal Engine. These next steps in the technology have led to ILM building more soundstages surrounded by The Volume. Two of these are in Los Angeles, another in London, and a fourth in Australia. The company has even found a way to build a portable version outside of these locations. It is only a matter of time until every production uses The Volume. Given its ease of use and limitless possibilities, StageCraft could be to television and film what the Globe Theater’s rotating stage was to traditional acting.
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Source(s): Industrial Light & Magic, Wikipedia