'Thor: Love And Thunder' Will Use 'Mandalorian' StageCraft Tech, New Lighting Technology
We already know that the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder will probably be gorgeous, but director Taika Waititi is taking extra steps to make the film a visual feast. In an interview with Wired, the director shared some of the groundbreaking technology that will bring the film to life, including a new lighting system and the same tech that makes The Mandalorian possible.
New Ways of Capturing Light
There's a lot of cutting-edge technology going into the creation of Thor: Love and Thunder, including updates on techniques that were developed for Taika Waititi's previous Marvel film, Thor: Ragnarok. For that film, creative studio Satellite Lab developed Dynamiclight, a technique which uses a special rig to move the lighting at eight times the speed of sound. That's how Waititi was able to create the massacre of the valkyries flashback sequence, in which light moves rapidly over footage shot at 1,200 frames per second.
Waititi is excited to take that concept to the next level with a new Satellite Lab technology called PlateLight. It uses the same principle (high-speed lights and slow-motion footage) to capture multiple lighting set-ups simultaneously within a single shot.
"And then when you break down that footage into increments of 24 frames per second," Waititi said. "You have every single kind of lighting, all individually captured. So later you can choose your lighting in post-production."
Waititi is also using Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft technology, which he first used directing the season 1 finale of The Mandalorian. It allows filmmakers to generate reactive digital backdrops in real time through LED screens wrapped around a set. It's kind of like old movies shooting driving scenes in front of a screen projection, just far more advanced. Waititi is a fan of this method, because it harkens back to the "old school" way of filmmaking.
"The actors can be in the environment; they can see what everyone else can see," he said.
What's Next for Waititi
Having finished filming on Thor: Love and Thunder, Waititi is now focusing on his upcoming Star Wars film.
"It's still in the 'EXT. SPACE' stage," he said, joking about the way scenes are opened in scripts. "But we've got a story. I'm really excited by it because it feels very me."
Waititi's one busy creative. In addition to his Star Wars movie, he's also tied to making a sequel to What We Do in the Shadows, an animated remake of Flash Gordon, two animated series of Roald Dahl stories for Netflix, and a live-action adaptation of Akira.
"It's my comfort zone to have a lot of things on," Waititi said. "That chaos is where my best work comes from. Someone said to me, 'You need a break, man'. Yeah, but I feel like I was on a break for 35 years. I'm working now. I don't want to stop."