With travel limited, Hollywood looks to 'game changer' tech

NEW YORK (AP) — New LED video wall technology used in making last year’s “The Lion King” and “The Mandalorian” series could become more widespread as Hollywood production ramps back up during the pandemic.

Instead of shooting on location with a full cast and crew and navigating stringent social distancing requirements, it allows filmmakers on a studio lot to spread out individual scenes captured virtually using a variety of techniques.

Unlike a traditional “green screen,” the actor can see the background and cinematographers can match perspectives and camera parallax to look like a location shoot.

“The Lion King” visual effects supervisor Robert Legato calls the video wall and move toward virtual production a “game changer” that’s being embraced by necessity during the pandemic.

“It is something that was going to happen anyway. It just would have taken longer because there would be no need for it immediately. Some people, you know, are stuck in their ways,” the three-time Oscar winner said.

More than half of “The Mandalorian” scenes were filmed with the technology. Emmy-winning visual effects specialist Sam Nicholson says it represents a “natural evolution” in the Hollywood effects world, where new technologies have been embraced after past crises — including a clampdown on travel after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

“We started taking shows like ’E.R, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Walking Dead’ and saying, ‘Look, we don’t have to be on location to actually shoot there.’ It’s easier to bring the location to the production than the production of a location,” Nicholson said.

He believes the pandemic will move Hollywood “from the Cecil B. DeMille era where ‘everything is real’ and going to more of a...