‘Andor’ Used StageCraft (The Volume) Technology in a Limited Capacity
Though previous comments by showrunner Tony Gilroy and the main cast pointed to the contrary, ILM’s StageCraft tech was used in Andor after all.
The find comes via Slash Film, who had the chance to speak with Andor‘s VFX producer TJ Falls, who expanded on how much the StageCraft was used to help craft the complex environments seen in the show. Gilroy and the actors weren’t lying about StageCraft not taking over the production (unlike in previous live-action Star Wars series), but it was definitely present in a much more traditional capacity:
“We melded a lot of technologies, really. There were a lot of sets that were practically built that we then augmented and extended upon and finding the best way to extend them, creatively shoot them to have the most fulfilling result, to our traditional all-CG approach for our spaceships and the way that we deal with things. And then still utilizing things like our StageCraft technology that [Industrial Light & Magic] uses. And for ‘Andor,’ we didn’t use one of the standing StageCraft sets, but we still used the StageCraft technology.”
While Falls’ words paint the exact picture of how most big-budget blockbusters are made, the thing with Disney Plus’ Star Wars shows (so far) is that they’ve been built around the StageCraft tech, which can help produce alien worlds and impossible vistas that have an impressive degree of depth and are present during shooting — actors can react accordingly to environments and action that traditionally “weren’t there” until post-production. But Andor dropped that approach to production in favor of the classic “make as many things tangible as possible” method of filmmaking.
Falls also elaborated on a specific set that shows up several times throughout the series:
“We built a specific LED screen around the embassy where Mon Mothma works, and so they’re having their party and you’ve got wonderful screens. And it’s like, well, now we’ve got a wonderfully practically built set. We’re immersed with our environment of people, we’re utilizing new technology in terms of StageCraft and blending everything together.”
In the case of the Chandrilan Embassy, it simply made sense to use mid-sized StageCraft panels outside the windows to give actors something to work with rather than traditional blue/green screens. If you’ve got the perfect tech ready to use, why shouldn’t it be used? When looking at the finished episodes, there’s a depth to the Coruscanti background outside the embassy’s windows that would’ve been harder to capture with traditional colored screens.
While there may be more instances of digital backgrounds that were actually done through StageCraft across Andor, it appears the core tenet for the production and post-production teams was not to build massive LED sets that engulfed the production and changed its palpable visual feel.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
