Filmmaker Taika Waititi and Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Thor: Love and Thunder” will utilise the same StageCraft visual effects technology used in the making of “The Mandalorian”.
Said technology is essentially a semi-circular or circular room with walls and ceiling made entirely of LED screens displaying a background generated by the Unreal Engine, adjusting the angles and parallax in real time for the camera.
In the wake of both that show’s success with filming and the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for these virtual soundstages (dubbed ‘The Volume’) has skyrocketed overnight and many studios are racing to quickly adapt and build them with the help of Industrial Light and Magic.
A second permanent ‘Volume’ is being constructed at Manhattan Beach Studios, another is being constructed at Pinewood Studios in London, and another is being built at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney where the new “Thor” will be shot. These versions, having learned from “The Mandalorian,” will be boast much bigger improvements as well.
In a press release from ILM, they say the new stages fix the wall to ceiling transition issues and boast many more panels allowing for more options and accuracy:
“By every measure, the new stages are vast improvements over the original ground-breaking LED volume developed for the first season of The Mandalorian in 2018. Physically, the new stages are larger, utilizing substantially more LED panels than ILM’s original stage and also offering both higher resolution and smooth wall to ceiling transitions – this directly results in better lighting on set as well as many more in-camera finals. ILM’s proprietary solutions for achieving groundbreaking fidelity on the LED walls at scale allows for higher color fidelity, higher scene complexity, and greater control and reliability.”
Along with all this new construction comes a new development initiative offering paid internships and apprenticeships to people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds – helping future VFX artists, technicians, and producers.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” will shoot for much of the rest of this year and into 2021 ahead of an opening on February 11th 2022.