“Andor” differs from the rest of the “Star Wars” series on the Disney+ service by eschewing the use of StageCraft in favor of real locations and practical sets rather than CG backdrops.
“The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” all rely heavily on the LED screen meets game engine technology to the point it became a bit of a crutch and had an impact on the staging and composition of various scenes in those shows – especially ‘Kenobi’.
Creator Tony Gilroy originally said the series “didn’t use StageCraft at all” a while back, but it turns out that’s not quite true – rather, they didn’t use the traditional 360-degree StageCraft studio but did implement the technology in a limited and more practical way combined with sets. “Andor” VFX producer TJ Falls tells Slashfilm about one key location they used the tech for:
“For ‘Andor,’ we didn’t use one of the standing StageCraft sets, but we still used the StageCraft technology… We built a specific LED screen around the embassy where Mon Mothma works, and so they’re having their party and you’ve got wonderful screens. And it’s like, well, now we’ve got a wonderfully practically built set. We’re immersed with our environment of people, we’re utilizing new technology in terms of StageCraft and blending everything together.”
The Chandrilan Embassy, where Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) lives on Coruscant, has a key party sequence in the show’s eighth episode where the tech comes into play as it shows Coruscant outside the windows.
“Andor” is now streaming on the Disney+ service.
