What is Stagecraft?
Known more frequently now as 'The
Volume', Stagecraft is an evolutionary new Technology created by Industrial
Light and Magic in partnership with Epic Games, the primary function of which
is to create Virtual Filmmaking Environments that most of us have already
witnessed recently in the movie “The Batman”, which utilized The Volume to
create Batman’s corrupt Hometown of Gotham, its surroundings as well as its
atmosphere can all be credited to the technology found within The Volume.
Behind the Scenes, The Volume acts as a 20 feet tall, 75 feet wide and 270
degrees round sets composed entirely of LED Walls. These sets were first utilized and
made popular through their continual usage during the development of Disney
Plus’ Star Wars related TV Show 'The Mandalorian', which has attributed more
than half of its Production Design of Season 1 to The Volume.
Revolution in
Filmmaking
With the advent of The Volume, it is
only natural that more and more Blockbuster films have been steering towards its
adoption, compared to the utilization of the age-old Green Screen and Blue
Screen Pre and Post-Production Design. The Volume essentially creates a new
paradigm for all types of Media. When talking about the Green Screen used in
most prior CGI-heavy Films, the common problem faced by both Filmmakers and the
Actors alike, is the fact that "there is nothing there". The Static, Blank and
overbearingly Green nature of the past Sets has made it exponentially difficult
and troublesome for some Filmmakers to perfectly reflect their creative ideas off the page and on to the screen. This has often times resulted in Subpar CGI
Effects due to restrictions in the movement of the Camera, and an unfulfilling acting
experience for some of the Actors, who have found it increasingly difficult to portray their emotions onto something that is simply not in front of them. The Volume, aims
to bring innovation into exactly this aspect of filmmaking, which it achieves
by firstly not being Static as the aforementioned Green Screens. Moreover, with
its LED Walls, it allows Filmmakers to generate images and videos onto it Live in
Photorealistic 3D quality. The best part of all this is the fact that in The
Volume, the Filmmakers are now fully capable of changing the 3D scenes through freely
being able move and set their Camera however they wish to shoot a specific
scene. In essence meaning that, if the camera is moved, the image on The Volume
is altered just as it would in real-life. This is made possible through Epic
Games’ Unreal Engine, which essentially runs the whole Volume Software and renders
it all in real time by considering all possible motions and changes in
perspectives.
The Benefits for Filmmaking
One of the most major benefits that The Volume affords the Filmmakers, is the complete elimination of On-location Shooting which are notoriously expensive, time-consuming and a real hassle for Big Budget films on a tight shooting Schedule. Additionally, The Volume can now streamline the process of Reshoots as well, because if a certain scene requires being redone again in the same environment as it was before, The Volume will be fully equipped to render the whole scene in the exact same lighting and props as the actual scene was before the reshoot, therefore effectively saving the cast and crew's limited resources. Lastly, The Volume would also lead to the streamlining of the whole Creative Process of Filmmaking, resulting in more Filmmakers and Actors having the creative freedom to make creative decisions on the spot with the certainty that The Volume will be fully capable of reacting to their improvised decisions.
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