Spoiler Warning: Obi-Wan Kenobi Parts I-III

Disney has proved they may be having some difficulty creating believable action sequences in their recent Star Wars titles. Both Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett have seen some sad attempts at fights and chase scenes. They are moments that instantly pull the viewer out of the story. Despite how much we may want to suspend our disbelief for either of these shows, many of their action shots have people lingering in confusion instead of suspense. And while choreography may be somewhat to blame, there is more to this issue than just where the actors put their feet.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Disney recently began employing a new technology to film many of their Star Wars titles. It’s called the Volume, and it helps create stunning visual effects and makes it easier to create realistic lighting and environments without having to film at a specific time on location. The Volume is essentially a big room made out of large LED video walls. While the giant screens make it possible to go from Tatooine to Yavin in an instant, they may restrict the movement of actors when it comes to chase scenes and significantly limit the arena in which two Jedi can duel. While not all of these action sequences are filmed in the Volume, those filmed outside it still suffer from a lack of cinematography. This new filming technique might help in some places, but it hurts in others.

Filming Star Wars Chase Scenes in the Volume

     Disney+

Ok, so you’re a filmmaker who’s just pitched a huge sci-fi epic to Disney executives. You come to them with the added bonus of doing everything under budget because you can use the Volume instead of building a set. But then there’s the action to think about. Naturally, you can’t film a big chase scene in a room you built inside a warehouse. You have to take it outside. So, you film in a setting that has just enough space to pull one or two shots that you can cut together quickly in order to create suspense. This will make it easier to keep your budget down, and you can still film 90% of your show inside the Volume. You’re not filming the opening scene of 1917; you just need some quick shots in the woods. This might make everything look better on paper, but what you get are some big cut corners.

The Book of Boba Fett famously had a terrible chase in one of its last episodes where the mods took their mopeds down 50 feet of city street for half an hour. The scene seemed to take place in one or two constructed sets that built a marketplace out of what might have been cardboard boxes and bedsheets. The mopeds and speeders probably traveled a total physical distance of half a football field, and they didn’t seem to move very fast at all. Even with all the practical effects and shooting techniques used to make the chase more exciting, the whole sequence seemed to be finished before it started. We were just waiting for one of the mods to make their unnecessarily “cool” finishing move. The actual chase was just a waste of time until we got there.

Obi-Wan Kenobi experienced a similar problem in the many scenes when Leia is running away from people; people who seem to be unable to outrun a ten-year-old despite being much taller and more capable than her. Everyone loves those classic scenes when a kid outsmarts an adult, but these chases don’t give that effect. Instead, they come off as cheap moments of waiting to get back to the Volume instead of an exercise in the skill of practical cinematography. Darth Vader chasing Obi-Wan in the third episode of the series looked more like a scene out of Austin Powers than it did Star Wars.

What the Volume is Meant For

     Walt Disney Studios

Although the Volume shouldn’t be used as a substitute for setting when necessary, it is still extremely valuable when filming things like Star Wars. It was, after all, invented on a Star Wars set. The Volume was created on the set of Rogue One to solve a lighting issue that occurred while filming an X-Wing dogfight. The Star Wars studio title scene that you see before every movie is a tiny hint at that. The light moving across the masks in different ways is the effect that Greig Fraser was trying to create for an X-Wing pilot flying through space. Instead of using a complicated lighting rig, he decided to project the actual setting onto a screen that would then surround the cockpit where they filmed the pilot.

The Volume was designed to simulate motion and perfect background lighting at any time of day. This is its chief purpose, and despite how new and exciting the technology is, cinematographers shouldn’t be drawn away from the artistry of real-life situations to film inside this projected landscape. While it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between a scene filmed in the Volume and one filmed outside, it’s a distinction that must be made when it comes to action sequences. And a prominent, well-constructed set should never be sacrificed in the name of budget at the advantage of using the Volume.