The hit Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian made headlines recently for the unique technology it utilized in its production. Chiefly among this new tech was a sort of "video wall" that can display real-time backgrounds to be used in filming sets, which was deemed by many as "The Volume."
This technology is intended as a way to save time & money, making it easier for the cast and crew to visualize scenes while also giving visual effects artists more to work off of in post-production.
NEWS
Via The Hollywood Reporter , Industrial Light & Magic chief creative officer Rob Bredow announced that The Batman is now set to use several of these virtual production methods popularized by The Mandalorian for "select scenes."
Bredow shared that The Batman's production design team have built practical sets in the UK and are constructing LED walls around them to allow for virtual production.
WHAT THIS MEANS
This method of making movies (and television) seems to be catching on as of late. Marvel Studios' forthcoming Thor: Love and Thunder is also confirmed to be making use of "The Volume"
In addition to making things easier on the cast and crew of these projects, this could also be a good safeguard against the pandemic. If you can create an environment that resembles an outside setting in a more controlled, indoor environment, then it just makes practical sense to do so.
Given how popular and multi-faceted this technology seems to be, there's a very fair chance that it'll be in use long after there's a vaccine and the pandemic is over.
For gaming fans, "The Volume" is reported to utilize a very popular video game engine known as the "Unreal Engine" which boasts real-time rendering with high levels of detail.
As seen with The Mandalorian this tech appears to be so seamless that the average viewer won't even know it's in use.
The Batman will debut on March 4th, 2022.
