Ewan McGregor Was Impressed With The Tech Behind Obi-Wan Kenobi Series
The Mandalorian seemed to impress everyone both in Hollywood and outside of it with the groundbreaking "stagecraft" tech used to create the series. Its use of giant screens and photorealistic 3D modeling software seemed to have created a turning point for how movies and shows can be filmed going forward. Well, it looks like the Star Wars folks love it so much, they want to keep using it, and Ewan McGregor is particularly enamored with it after working on Obi-Wan Kenobi.
McGregor, currently filming as the lead role in the upcoming Disney Plus series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, had nothing but praise for the stagecraft technology being used for his own show and an ever-growing number of others. Not only does it do away with the overreliance on blue and green screens that saturated (and some might say "plagued") films of the 2000s, but he said it reminds him of the old days of the movie industry in a strange retro-futuristic way. Plus, now that Hollywood at large may soon adopt The Mandalorian's stagecraft as a new standard, it may very well become a new renaissance for the industry.
"It's like the beginning of Hollywood," McGregor said when speaking to Variety in a joint interview alongside The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal. "It's almost like when they had three-sided sets all in a row, and a bunch of guys with windup cameras, and you would just go from one stage to the other, one background to the other. Well, we're doing sort of the same thing, except just the background changes instead of the stage." He went on to praise the versatility of the technology, saying that it basically means anything is possible now that certain aspects of filming are so much more streamlined than they used to be. As someone who's worked on plenty of films that took advantage of both physical sets and blue screens like Guardians of the Galaxy, his endorsement carries a lot of weight.
McGregor's praise didn't just focus on the technical applications, however. He also seemed to be overjoyed at how much more convenient it makes things for actors who don't necessarily want to always shoot on location. "And also, you don't have to fly ever," he added. "I mean, traveling has been great for the first 30 years of my career, but now I just want to stay at home. I just want to drive to work and drive home from work. I want a proper job." Considering how long he's been in the industry, McGregor makes some excellent points, and progress such as this is sure to help not only himself, but a number of other actors who might not have been willing to put in all the extra legwork otherwise. It will certainly be novel to see him play the same character he played in the Star Wars prequels, but now with these more modern shooting methods.
Some might argue that stagecraft is just another form of blue screen tech, with actors being made to play off nothing but a flat surface. But if recent leaks are anything to go by, Obi-Wan Kenobi is still using physical sets alongside the new filming techniques. Plus, since the brightly lit screens of stagecraft allow the whole scene to use perfectly accurate lighting and move the background with the camera, it's far more immersive than a simple 'ball on a stick in front of a sheet' trick that many film productions still use.
It seems that everyone who gets to experience the filming magic of stagecraft is instantly converted to a believer, and now McGregor is no different. It may sound too good to be true, but based on how many people likely had no idea how much of The Mandalorian was filmed using that tech, this might be one of those few situations where something is exactly what it claims to be.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is currently still filming.
Source: Variety
Post a Comment