WEBVTT - The Volume and The AR Wall 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.200 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.160 And how the tech are you? I got a request 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.080 on Twitter from Bronson Adams to talk about the tech 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.880 of the volume, which is extensively used in the more 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.199 recent Star Wars projects that we have seen, particularly on 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.320 Disney Plus, as well as the A R Wall which 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.760 is being used for Star Trek projects. So once again 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.839 it's Star Wars versus Star Trek. These two technologies are 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.159 actually quite similar to one another, so I figure we 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.560 can tackle both of them together, and right at the top, 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.200 I'm going to say that these technologies in some ways 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.120 actually harkened back to ye olden days of filmmaking, and 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.720 in other ways they are an attempt to address the 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:01.640 problem ms that come with setting a film in a 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.679 fantastical place, and that includes, you know, worlds that just 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.639 don't exist. So how do you bring those to life 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.360 in a way that's believable and immersive so that you know, 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.360 you're actors don't have any issues performing within the space, 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.400 and your audience hopefully totally buys into it. So when 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.520 you're doing that second thing, that is when you are 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.760 trying to create a world that doesn't really exist and 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.319 make it exist on film, you're putting a lot of 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.120 pressure on yourself and the actors. Maybe you have a 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.360 massive budget and you can actually build sets so that 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.240 your fantastical world is more or less realized, but that 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.440 might not be a practical solution, and maybe instead you 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.039 film everything against a green screen, or maybe you have 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.160 an entire set where there are elements that are greened 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.360 out and then you use the chroma key process to 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.640 replace it with, you know, whatever is supposed to be there. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.080 If you've ever seen shots of the prequel trilogy from 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.760 Star Wars when it was in production, you'll see like 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.920 there were entire sets where they were just like arches 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.680 and things that were all decked out in green to 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.959 be replaced later. But then imagine the actors who are 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.720 in that place, who are trying to perform in what 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.480 is essentially a featureless green environment and still do a 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:23.640 believable job that is not easy. If you need any 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.240 evidence about how challenging this can be, even for revered actors, 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.680 you can listen to Sir Ian McKellen talk about it 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.640 in the commentary for The Hobbit and Unexpected Journey, though 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.800 I would understand it if you didn't want to do that, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.360 because it would mean having to watch The Hobbit. Now. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.080 I say that as a dude who hasn't had to 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.959 en Elvish on my left arm. I'm a huge Hobbit fan. 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.880 It's my favorite book in the world. I am not 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.920 a fan of the films anyway. Mckillan said that he 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.440 was absolutely miserable acting in these green screen environments against 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.320 no one at all, because you know, all of the 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.720 elements of the scene that he was supposed to be 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.680 reacting to they would all be added in later. And 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.360 he said that he actually considered quitting acting if that 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.280 is what acting now was going to be, which is 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.200 a big old roof. But the volume and the A 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.160 R wall both are systems that can project stuff that 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.680 otherwise wouldn't be within the scene on L E. D screens. 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.519 Now that means the actors are not just sitting there 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.520 trying to imagine what's supposed to be around them and 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.880 hoping that they get it right. You don't have to 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.280 worry about five different actors having five different eye lines 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.080 towards some imaginary spot because they can actually see the 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:39.880 thing that they're supposed to be looking at, it could 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.600 be much more immersive with some restrictions. Now, before I 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:46.680 get into all that, I think it would behoove us 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.520 to talk about some of the methods that came before 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:55.960 where filmmakers were trying to get around these limitations of reality. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.400 Filmmaking has always been about finding ways to push against 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.640 those limited aations, and some of those efforts worked to 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.800 a degree, and some, especially in the early days, didn't. 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.400 So let's talk about some very early visual effects or 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.000 VFX techniques that relate to one another. And a lot 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.440 of this material is stuff that I have talked about 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.760 in previous episodes, so I'm not going to go into 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:22.840 exhaustive detail, but it really falls under this general topic 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:28.120 of compositing. Now. In film, compositing is where you're doing 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.919 the incorporation of two or more images from separate sources 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:37.520 into a final shot. For example, a typical green screen 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.400 application would see a character in the foreground that would 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.080 be an image from source number one. Right, you had 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.960 your primary camera on your main character against a green background. 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.719 That background would be coming from a second image source 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.800 so that would be image number two. Maybe it's a 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.560 filmed source. Maybe you went out and filmed on locations inplace, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.560 and you know it wasn't practical to get the actor 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.680 out to that location, or maybe it wasn't safe, and 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.760 so you pair them that way. Maybe the background's computer generated, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.000 maybe it never existed in the first place, doesn't really matter. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.320 The point is the finished scene, the finished film is 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:22.120 this composite of these two images into a final image 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.680 to make the illusion that that character was in that 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.960 location at that time. So your foreground characters appearing in 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.960 front of wherever you wanted them to be. Now, way 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.320 back at the turn of the twentieth centuries, around nineteen 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:42.800 a filmmaker named George Mellier was pioneering all kinds of techniques. 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.760 Like you want to talk about a a brilliant filmmaker. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:51.040 Melia is one of the best. You know, some filmmakers 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.039 were just gob smacked at the idea of being able 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.359 to record a performance that could be played back endlessly, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:58.840 or at least, you know, until the film war out. 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:04.839 Mellier was getting really experimental. Now, remember in ye olden 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.200 days everything was shot on film, and some of you 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.680 might not really know that much about film because things 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.640 have changed so so quickly. You know, back when I 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.360 was a young lad, hardly anyone had access to digital cameras. 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.760 That we all had access to film cameras. Film is 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.120 a strip of plastic that's coated with chemicals that are photoreactive. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.479 That means that when they are exposed to light, they 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.479 undergo a chemical reaction. This opens up the opportunity to 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.359 do stuff like double exposures. Now, a double exposure is 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.840 when you expose the same piece of film to light 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.880 more than once. Uh. Now, sometimes that would happen by accident. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.200 You know, if you had a film camera, you might 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.080 accidentally take a photo on a frame that had already 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.120 been exposed to light once before, and you would end 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.479 up with sometimes an unsettling image. You know, it might 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.919 look like there was kind of a ghostly figure appear 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.880 ring in a separate scene, and it could be really 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.760 off putting. Sometimes it was just a mass, depending on 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.680 what you were taking images of. But if you did 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:14.440 it purposefully and carefully, you could achieve really interesting effects. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.400 And Malier created a film called The One Man Band 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:23.320 that used seven exposures and it's a silent film. It's 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.520 a short silent film. You can actually find it on YouTube. 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:28.440 You can do a search for the one man band 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.800 and watch it. And it starts with a man walking 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.440 in front of seven chairs that are set out on 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:37.320 a stage there, side by side, and he points out 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.440 those seven chairs very uh, in a very exaggerated fashion, 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.680 and then he sits in the first chair on the 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.520 left side of the view, and then stands up, but 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.840 a figure of him remains seated in that chair number one. 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.520 The standing version of him moves over one, sits in 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.000 chair number two, then stands up. Copy of him remains 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.320 in chair number two. So now you've got pies of 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.520 them in chairs one and two, and a standing version 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.280 that moves to three. And he does this all the 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.800 way down, so that there are ultimately seven of him, 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.680 so presumably one original and six copies. And not only that, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.120 but each time he stands up, the one that's in 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:20.560 the chair as holding a different musical instrument, and uh, 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.760 the one in the middle actually stands up and conducts 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.000 the other six as they appear to play music against 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.840 the silent films. You don't actually hear anything, but it 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.120 is a clever show of how this multiple exposure approach 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.400 would allow you to do in camera effects. Now that 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.000 technique is interested, but it is limited. You know, you 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.240 can technically clone a person on screen using multiple exposure, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.960 but you know, if they cross paths, you get this 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.160 kind of ghostly effect, and you would have to do 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.679 it with right lighting so that no one appeared kind 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.080 of like transparent, unless I guess that's what you were 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.839 going for, in which case, go for it. But you know, 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.160 the next example is one that more closely ties into 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.720 what the volume and the A R wall are doing. 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.440 And it is called background projection. And yeah, it's it's 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:17.120 exactly what it sounds like. It's projecting a background. So 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.600 imagine here's a very typical use of it. Imagine that 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.880 you've got a sound stage, right, you can control everything 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.720 in the sound stage. It's an ideal environment for shooting 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.440 a film. You don't have to worry about being on 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.360 location and dealing with things like whether or noise or 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.160 anything like that. So you're on your sound stage and 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.400 you want to shoot a sequence where your characters are 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.080 in a car and they're traveling somewhere. Well, clearly you 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.679 can't actually have the car driving around on the sound 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.400 stage at least not more than a few feet. So 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.400 one way you would get around this is you would 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.600 set up your car. You would have your actors sitting 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.680 in the car, and behind the car, to the side 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.960 of the car, whatever angle you were looking at, you 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.439 would set up screens or plates, and upon that you 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:08.120 would project video or really film of movement that would 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.360 be in the right angle compared to the vehicle's orientation. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.840 So this is something that would require a lot of uh, finagling, 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:19.360 just to make sure you had it right, otherwise it 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.400 would be very off putting. Your camera would need to 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.240 be at the right angle, pointed at the car, and 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.520 the screens would me need to be at the right angle, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.079 and the footage would need to be shot at the 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.280 right angle to give the illusion that the people saying 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.040 in the car actually traveling down like a country lane 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.600 or something like that. Meanwhile, you film the whole thing 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.560 in your film camera, so you're actually shooting not just 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.600 live actors, but you're shooting pre shot filmed footage that's 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.640 playing in the background. It wasn't perfect, you know. You 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.920 can definitely tell when this is used. If you watch 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.320 any old film or old television series, you can pick 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.360 out when this happens when characters are in a car 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:03.880 and you just look and you say, yeah, that that 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:09.000 that is clearly background projection. And obviously if you didn't 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.760 have the alignment right, it would be kind of weird too. Right. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.839 Let's say that the angle you've chosen to shoot your 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.199 scene is kind of a three quarter profile type thing, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.760 but the angle of the footage is straight on going 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.480 down the street, Well, it would look like the car 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.040 was somehow traveling out of its alignment down the road. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.720 So everything had to fit or else the illusion was 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.000 completely broken. And even when the illusion wasn't completely broken, 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.360 it's still pretty obvious. So if you watch films from 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.480 the so called Golden Age of Hollywood, you're probably gonna 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.440 see a lot of background projection. It was very, very popular, 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.800 and you can usually tell right away the background tends 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.400 to be extra grainy compared to stuff that's going on 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.800 in the foreground. Film has a grainy quality to it, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.640 So shooting film on film gets you know, that grain 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.480 equality gets amplified, right, because you're picking up the grain 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.480 of the background film. Plus it's the grain of the 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.600 actual film you're using, So it's stacks and there are 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.360 tons of other camera tricks that I could talk about 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.920 from the classic film age, but most of it doesn't 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.680 actually actively apply to the volume and the A R wall. Instead, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:26.280 we should specifically talk about techniques where you're trying to 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:31.760 create foreground action and a manufactured background, because early on 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.959 filmmakers would create elaborate backdrops to serve as a background. 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.240 And again that meant that you could shoot on a 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.600 sound stage, so you had your controlled environment and it 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.000 would cut back on a lot of things that could 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.400 potentially waste your time. You have to also remember in 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.600 the film days, you had a limited amount of film 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.400 that you had at your disposal, right, and if you 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.400 ran out a film, you would have to purchase more. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.880 So you couldn't just shoot and shoot and not care 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.679 whether or not it was working. You had to care 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:08.520 a lot because it directly related to how much money 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.120 you had to spend in order to make the movie. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:15.160 So sound stages were preferred in many cases to shooting 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.800 on location because of that. So if you could create 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.600 a really detailed background that you know due to how 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.960 the camera is going to focus on characters in the foreground, 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.160 it can pass as realistic. Right. You can have a 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:30.080 painting in the background and it's fine. Uh. Some of 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:35.160 these backgrounds called mats were pretty convincing. Some we're not. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.440 But a great matt painting is something that I always 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.640 enjoy seeing in a movie. And once in a while 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.480 you'll get a filmmaker that uses matt paintings today, typically 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.439 because they want to evocus specific sort of reaction from 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:52.000 their audience. It's not not used as a common technique today. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:56.400 It's almost more as a stylistic choice and the word 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:58.400 that would be used for a lot of different techniques 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.840 and equipment to achieve the goal of come binding image 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.920 elements from separate sources into a final image. We'll talk 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.160 about more of that after we come back from this 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:17.840 quick break, Okay. So ultimately, matts can be different things, 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:19.680 Like it could be a little bit confusing when you're 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:23.640 talking about mats in filmmaking because I don't know about you, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.400 but I'm used to using a word to mean something specific, 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.560 and matt is usually used more as a way to 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.800 achieve a specific result. So a matt could be a 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:39.120 mask that sits on the camera that shields the film 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.280 from being exposed to light beyond a certain point. So, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.960 in other words, it's it's like you're you're keeping a 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.280 blackout area so that film doesn't get exposed to light. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:53.160 And then you're shooting another scene where it's the complementary scene, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.360 the couple of mimmentary footage I guess I should say, 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.360 and has an opposite mask, right, It masks every anything 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.640 else and leaves open the part that had been covered 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.680 in the first mask. And then you combine these two 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:11.480 sources of film together to create your final image. Uh, 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.720 here's an example. Let's say that you're shooting a scene 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.880 in which your hero is in an alley and their 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.840 back is against the brick wall of a shop, and 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.080 the hero is close to the corner of the front 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.000 of the shop, and so the way you positioned the camera, 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.040 you can see the hero in the shadows of this alley, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.640 and you can also see on the you know what's 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.240 around the corner. And let's say you wanted a really 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:42.840 interesting shot of a foggy street. Well, you're brick building 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.560 is a facade that's inside the sound stage, and what 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.920 you've done is you've created an amazing Matt painting of 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.720 a foggy street. And so you've got a mask on 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:57.040 your camera that blocks everything that's around the corner of 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.680 the wall, so that you can fill it in with 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.280 something its later. And then you shoot a a shot 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.840 of the matt painting where you've got a mask that 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.760 blocks out where the brick wall would be and your hero, 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.880 and then you combine these two elements afterward to create 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.360 the actual finished effect where you have your hero against 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.880 the brick wall in the shade and the alley and 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.360 around the corner you see this foggy street. That's a 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.280 very super simple example. The mats in that case are static. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.480 The camera is locked down. You can't move the camera 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.960 at all in that kind of shot. But let's say 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.440 that you do want to create a shot in which 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.160 people are moving, or maybe stuff in the background is 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:45.120 moving with relation to the people. Uh Like, Let's say 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.320 that you also want a shot where our hero is 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.280 stepping beyond the corner of the building to look down 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.720 this foggy street that doesn't actually exist in the sound stage, 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:56.320 or maybe you want the camera to be able to 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:00.640 move to pan and and dolly and that sort of off. Well, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.400 in that case, you need what is called a traveling matt. 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:05.720 Also a shout out to those of you who are 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.960 familiar with Fraggle Rock. That show used a few different 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.040 technical film terms in it. Uncle traveling Matt was named 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.920 after this particular thing in filmmaking. Gobo is another example, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.280 but I digress. There are a couple of different approaches 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.840 to traveling mats. You know, it's not again just like 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.760 the word matt. There are multiple examples of it, but 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.480 the one that I referred to earlier was one where 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.199 you use a green or a blue screen. And if 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.840 you're talking about traditionally in the old days of filmmaking, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.320 it was typically a blue screen. This is called chroma keying, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:46.000 and the basic idea is simple to understand from a 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.760 very high level, but it's actually really tricky to make 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.679 it work properly in the film days in particular. So 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.199 you take a solid color such as blue, and you 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.359 use that to serve as the background as you're shooting 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.760 your principal action. You make sure none of your performers 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.320 have any closer props that are that color of blue 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.199 really blue at all if you can avoid it, and 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.639 you film your actors in front of this blue screen, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.920 and then you pair that with other footage that's meant 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.000 to be the background. It effectively replaces all the blue 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.680 parts of the background with this other footage that you've 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.480 shot or created. Now, doing this was not easy back 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.120 in the film days. To accomplish a traveling matt, you 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.320 had to shoot on three separate strips of film simultaneously. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:34.960 One strip would be for red, one for blue, and 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.840 one for green. You would take the negative image for 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:39.960 the blue strip of film and the positive image for 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.440 the green strip of film to combine those to create 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.960 a solid matt. Then you could composite that with the 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.960 background footage that have been shot against a separate blue screen, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.439 and these separate strips of film would be fed to 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.800 an optical printer to create the composite final image and 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.640 the whole system you would be calling this keying out. 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.840 You'd be keying out in edges to replace with some 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.000 other footage. And it worked, but you typically could see 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.879 the effects on screen. Um, if people were really, really, 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:14.280 really meticulous about it, it was pretty effective. But largely 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.240 you would look at this and think like, oh, no, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.800 I know how they did that. I'm not necessarily completely 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.600 pulled out of the action. But depending on how bad 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.800 the effect was, it could do that. So you know what, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:27.840 when you see it, there's this kind of there can 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.560 be a hard line between the borders of an actor 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:33.800 and the background, and you can tell that the people 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.160 who are in the scene aren't really in that environment, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.240 whatever that environment might be. Now. Back in the day, 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.479 movies that did use chroma key typically use blue screens 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.240 because film itself has a blue emulsion layer in it. 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.280 And when the transition to digital cameras happened, there was 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.240 a switch to green screens, which were more effective with 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.320 digital cameras, and you could set up enormous green screens 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.639 outside even and not have to worry about the camera 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.960 catch blue sky and creating an opportunity for the chroma 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:07.080 key process to bleed over um. In that case, obviously, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.200 you don't want people wearing green stuff because it would 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.200 be the same issue where the whatever the background footage 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:17.919 would be replacing the green on the character or proper whatever. 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.560 Green screens gave filmmakers the chance to transport characters to 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.280 places that don't exist without having to actually build all 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.120 the darn fantastical landscapes themselves. But as I mentioned earlier, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.520 this also puts a burden on the actors as they 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.320 can't actually see whatever it is that's going to show 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.560 up in the final film. They have to imagine it. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.840 That's not always easy when you're also trying to hit 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.080 your mark and say your lines in a way that's, 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:46.520 you know, good. And obviously the more unusual the location 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.320 or the characters that are surrounding you are, the more 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.280 it's asking the actor to use their imagination. And it 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.160 could very well be that the actor is totally off 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.679 base when they're imagining what the filmmaker is imagining. It 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.480 could that those two visions don't line up at all. 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.160 It creates problems and chrome Mickee also has some limitations 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.040 that you have to light the shot really well or 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.920 else the effects won't look as good. And by well, 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.480 I mean that that can limit how much you can 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.680 play with light and shadow. So you can create incredible backdrops, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.119 and you might not be able to to tell the 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.520 difference that you know that backdrop wasn't actually there, but 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:27.159 you might not be able to light the scene in 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.439 a way that's really compelling. It is possible to do, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.800 but it's pretty complicated because you have to very carefully 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.000 light your foreground and your background separately, and then you 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.639 have to keep in mind stuff like reflections and shadows. 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.080 It's just it's really hard to pull off, and it's 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:47.440 very easy to make mistakes, and for the very keen 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:51.120 eyed movie goers out there, those mistakes end up being obvious, 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:53.840 not not to me so much. I typically don't notice 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:58.320 unless it's unforgivably obvious. Now, what if you could combine 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:02.840 elements like background for action, traveling mats and a controlled 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:08.240 studio environment. What if your actors could actually see the amazing, 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.639 perhaps even entirely virtual locations that their characters in habit, 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.439 which eliminates the need for them to rely solely on 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.560 their imaginations. What if you could leverage the benefits of 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:23.359 computer generated environments and put real world actors, props, and 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.560 set pieces inside it. What if these environments were generating 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:31.000 light that could interact with the stuff that's really there 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:34.040 in front of the camera, So you get reflections and 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:38.040 shades of light on the performers because it's not that 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.399 they've been virtually put into this environment, it's that the 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.520 environment is virtually around the actors. Here's where we get 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.480 to the volume and the A R wall. So these 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:52.520 are systems that use L E D screens, huge l 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:56.159 E D screens, much much bigger than your television and 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:02.240 they are positioned around and above a studio area, and 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.920 it creates a panoramic view that partially surrounds the actors 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.040