Massive LED walls (yes, physical walls in a film production studio comprised of LED screens) is unleashing creativity and speeding up production at the world famous Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) studio in San Francisco. Production of the TV series The Mandalorian pioneered the use of rear projection LED walls in the film industry. Actors perform scenes in front of immersive LED screens in an effort to transform a sound stage into a completely new (digital) world. Everyone in the production can see, in-real-time, how the finished scene will look (during production).
And the verdict is in: the Mandalorian won 7 Primetime Creative Emmy Awards in 2021 including the Emmy for Outstanding Special Effects. The use of LED walls (as opposed to green screen) not only enhanced creativity in this project but also significantly sped up production time.
LED walls give actors contextual and environmental cues that add to their performance and reduce the need for retakes. In addition, the director can see scenes in real time without the need for post- production compositing and rendering. So, artistic and practical decisions regarding the scene, or the production in general, can be made on set.
Exciting news: our Deep Dive Digital Media studio, located at the STEMulus Center in downtown Albuquerque, will be installing a mobile LED panel for education and small video production this Fall (2021). While our LED panel is smaller (85 inches) to the Mandalorian set, it has the same basic functionality. Our Deep Dive students will be some of the first film students in New Mexico to use LED wall technology in their classes and productions. Come on by and check out our new LED wall project!
For more information on this project, contact Dr. Rod Sanchez ([email protected])
