Moving on from the green screen approach
 

Spotted this recently on Vox: https://www.vox.com/21529002/green-screen-mandalorian

Chroma key has been amazing, but still problematic. You can bypass this with some insanely huge LCD panels in the background, as was used on the set of The Mandalorian.


As one commenter at the embedded YouTube video put it: "Funny how this is just all the way back to old cinema methods of using painted backgrounds, but with new technology." Another adds with "give it a few years home set ups will become a thing." which is once again likely to be quite true as tech has a habit of making a big depreciated mess of a currently very expensive setup.

Andrew

Re: Moving on from the green screen approach
 

Hmmm, sounds like someone missed the extremely lengthy and in-depth article in their February 2020 issue of American Cinematographer. You should go back and check it out.

Re: Moving on from the green screen approach
 

"Cinematographer"? Well, most of us are just video guys, y'know. :-D

For those following along, here's their article on it. https://ascmag.com/articles/the-mandalorian

"A live-action Star Wars television series was George Lucas’ dream for many years, but the logistics of television production made achieving the necessary scope and scale seem inconceivable. Star Wars fans would expect exotic, picturesque locations, but it simply wasn’t plausible to take a crew to the deserts of Tunisia or the salt flats of Bolivia on a short schedule and limited budget. The creative team behind The Mandalorian has solved that problem."

I'll just go now.

Andrew

Re: Moving on from the green screen approach
 

It doesn't matter what label you want to hang on yourself, every professional in the video production business ought to be a subscriber and avid reader of these two publications:

American Cinematographer
https://ascmag.com/

Jon Fauer's Film and Digital Times (better than the ASC magazine)
https://www.fdtimes.com/

There are other publications that could be considered as "bonus" material (TV Technology, Post, etc.), but these two are mandatory. It's called "continuing education" and is a vital part of just about any occupation, so that professionals can stay abreast of the latest information in a changing industry.

Re: Moving on from the green screen approach
 

The screens have been getting brighter and brighter, and now it's very often necessary to throttle them back and even black scrim them to balance them with the images the camera see. I'm (or was, pre-covid) into LED scenery in theatre and it's getting so realistic you can do so much. Clearly movies using the technique isn't me - but I find it very difficult to manage lighting the actors against the screens in a fluid and realistic way.