‘Star Wars’ Actors Praise The Volume, But How Far Can the Technology Go?
A collection of Star Wars actors which includes Ewan McGregor, Ming-Na Wen, Indira Varma, and O’Shea Jackson Jr. all assembled to praise ILM’s Stagecraft, otherwise known as “The Volume” in a new video posted on Industrial Light and Magic’s (ILM) YouTube account.
Check out the video here:
They essentially all sing its praises, noting how much easier it makes their job when working with digital environments. The video shows multiple instances of ILM Stagecraft’s blank white LED walls instantly generating realistic backgrounds throughout, and then jumping from one background to another like a slideshow at the end of the clip.
There’s nothing like it. You go on set and it’s there. It takes your breath away. There’s no way you cannot react just naturally as an actor when you’re in that environment.
Ming Na-Wen
I’m losing my mind. I’m trying to keep it cool, trying to, like, you know, do the acting thing… This is nuts.
O’Shea Jackson Jr.
We didn’t have to imagine any of it! We didn’t have to, you know, “follow the X”. There was none of that, there was no faking it. You were literally there.
Indira Varma
It’s just an amazing piece of technology. For us as actors, it just makes our job so much better. It transports you somewhere, makes you feel like you’re there.
Ewan McGregor
Certainly, you can understand why actors and film makers would love The Volume so much. It has to be a much better experience than filming in front of green screens, which requires actors to really use their imagination to place themselves in the moment. This is presumably much harder to do while still being emotionally truthful. It seemingly gives directors and producers a head start on post-production too, given how quickly we were shown The Mandalorian season 3 trailer at Star Wars Celebration so soon after filming.
Given Ewan McGregor’s prior experience filming the Star Wars prequels in front of blue-and-green-screens, you can imagine he felt particularly appreciative of The Volume’s strengths while filming Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, that technology can only go so far. Even Obi-Wan Kenobi was forced to do some on-location shooting, as has The Mandalorian. Tony Gilroy recently decided not to use ILM’s Stagecraft at all when filming Andor, opting to shoot entirely on location instead.
While it is an improvement over older technology, you get the sense that technology can still only take you so far. The Volume looks great, but Andor‘s sets and backdrops are jaw-droppingly beautiful in a way that perhaps ILM isn’t quite able to replicate yet in an enclosed space. As a result, Andor feels lived-in and authentic, which is essential for a show that is more of a slow burn with a focus on drama rather than action set pieces. It’s not that The Volume doesn’t feel authentic by comparison (though Obi-Wan Kenobi rightfully took criticism for dodgy production value at times), but sometimes there’s nothing quite like the real thing.
Of course, it’s difficult to get the real thing when shooting in space or in a fantasy world, and that’s where ILM Stagecraft is at its most useful. We can’t wait to see where this technology goes next.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
