Rogue One Clip Shows How The Tech Made Scenes Seamless

It’s no secret that Rogue One had been a major effort for all those involved in production. Apart from doing several scenes, some of which didn’t make it to the final cut, there have also been a lot of editing post-production to get the right angle that they wanted.

Part of the process was director Gareth Edwards’ hands-on involvement with the movie, and in an insider look with BBC Click, we’re given a sneak peek at how the magic happens—and what was the technology that helped them.

It appears that the production crew had very unique tech kits that let them match the director’s pace when shooting Rogue One.

“He’s a very hands-on filmmaker. He likes to walk around his sets and physical pick up the cameras himself. Walk around and find interesting angles that may not have occurred to him when he was planning out the shoots in preproduction. Our visual effects advisor John Knoll was really keen that he be able to apply that same style of filming to the synthetic cameras. So we use a real-time virtual reality system and therefore he gets to show us rather than try to explain to us.”

As pointed out, the gadget is none other than an iPad with a Vibe controller stuck in the back. The nice thing about this is that, while the use is specific to Rogue One’s production, the materials used to create the toolkit are basically in their hands already.

What happens is that, with the tool kit, they are able to explore different angles and instantly communicate it with the director. No more storyboards or extensive editing, because the rough look is where the edits will be built.

More than the technology, we also get to see some of the faithful recreations of the ships from the old movies to the ones seen in Rogue One.

“Our friends and colleagues in San Francisco took digital scans of the original models from the art department and lots of texture references, and faithfully just recreated them so there wouldn’t be any jarring differences between these shops and the ships in A New Hope.”

Check out the video below and get a feel of how Edwards worked on Rogue One. Personally, I can feel the reporter’s enthusiasm, considering that the little nuances in the film’s style do contribute to how it eventually carved its own space in the Star Wars franchise.

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