The Mandalorian filming approach is an interesting new hybrid of the CGI use & shooting with them live in a 360 screens. This gives interesting lighting also allowing more use of practical fx.
Notably, The Mandalorian used puppetry for all the aliens. Using CGI for backgrounds but practical effects for stuff the cast actually interacts with seemed to work really well.
Not all, but a lot of them, but they also couch this specifically as a reference to... mostly Return of the Jedi, many shots contain puppets or stop motion animation that is actually shot at a lower framerate to play up the unreality.
The Volume is an impressive feat of cinema technology, but once you notice how the camera never goes long, everything is clearly shot within a small soundstage area. The new Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett suffers from this limitation more than its predecessor.
I dont think that is necessarily a limitation of this at all - more of an aesthetic choice. They could have easily composited long shots.
The bigger thing I notice today with these products is that everything is just too damn CLEAN. When you have a bunch of real people shooting on what is supposed to be "tatooine" there is real dust flying everywhere and sand getting on their shoes and whatnot. On a light stage unless you have people specifically making the outfits and whatnot dirty and ragged it is going to start and stay perfectly shiny and new. It seems ridiculously honestly.
I have not actually looked up if that new Sci Fi "Foundation" was shot mostly on light stages but I suspect it was as the supposedly uber rugged colony that was supposed to be so limited in supplies with extremely harsh weather ends up just having a bunch of colonists with perfectly done hair and perfectly clean sci fi getups and a total lack of weather or clouds. It really took me out of it.
yes, I was going to say the same thing as a general response to the article in the OP. Even apart from the suspension of disbelief thing, CGI is very constraining in terms of the shots you can make, it all has to fit on a soundstage. It's paradoxical but while you can make a fantastic setting, it is also very constraining on the cinematography itself.
Sadly, I think most people don't really care about any of this, they just want to switch off for an hour and a half. I always feel isolated about this among my friends and family, I already get lots of time mindlessly staring at a screen reading some HN article or Reddit or clicking aimlessly through wikipedia, if I'm gonna watch TV or a movie then I want it to be something highbrow, not the latest MCU trash or whatever. If I'm gonna sit on the couch and scroll through my phone, I'd rather be scrolling on my PC instead, thanks.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/20/how-the-mandalorian-and-il...