One distinct pleasure of the live-action “One Piece” series is its old-school filmmaking approach that’s impressively practical. The result is a tonal and visual throwback to the old “The Mask of Zorro” or first “Pirates of the Caribbean” style type of filmmaking.
The production uses impressive scale real sets and locations throughout – much of it was done for real with visual effects limited mostly to digital set extensions, wire removal and judicious use of CG from the invisible to the more obvious (eg. Luffy’s stretching).
A new interview at The Direct with cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker revealed that those involved were against using tech like The Volume/StageCraft seen on the shows like “The Mandalorian,” “Ahsoka” and some other sea-faring series like “Our Flag Means Death” and “1899”:
“My director comes from the theater. So I think he was very much against that type of filmmaking for a show like this… He really felt like it was important for the actors to be in a real environment.
Even when we shot [the] Gold Roger [sequence], even though that was a lot of blue screen, he took us to a real location and we shot in a castle so that they were surrounded by the walls and that they felt like they were in a space.
Everybody else wanted us to shoot in a parking lot. He was like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that. We need them to feel there. And know where they are.’ And I really respect him for that.”
Hirsh Whitaker has no problem with The Volume tech itself, calling it a “wonderful tool,” but for this production, it was not the right fit – especially as it has “a lot of exteriors and a lot of daylight”.
She confirms sets like Windmill Village (the Shanks/young Luffy flashbacks) were completely practical, as was “all of the work during the day on the water” which allowed them to use natural light and natural settings: “We were able to do something much more organic than most shows.”
The result was a series that came in at a reported $138 million budget for the eight-episode season, which works out at around $17.3 million per episode.
Head over to The Direct for the full interview.
