It seems that the Volume technology is no longer restricted to just a galaxy far, far away, but is now heading to Coronation Street.
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The long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street has revealed that an upcoming storyline will be enhanced by the use of a Volume Wall. Producer Iain MacLeod spoke with Digital Spy in regards to the upcoming exit storyline for Kelly Neelan (Millie Gibson), and how the Volume Wall is adding to the exit of the character.
“It’s called a volume wall, which was relatively new to me. Essentially, it’s like a very new fandangled version of what they would’ve called a green screen or back projection back in the early days,” said MacLeod.
ITV
“It means you can put your actors anywhere that you can imagine,” MacLeod continued. “So you can essentially design a 3D world, like the surface of Mars and you could stick Ken and Rita up there having a Mr. Kipling and a cup of tea, should you wish. Now clearly we didn’t want to do that because that would be slightly bizarre!
“So what we’ve done instead is create this incredible rooftop sequence with a twinkling cityscape behind it, so that we can do things that you could never normally do in a location shoot.”
The Volume – also known as StageCraft – is becoming well-known in television and movies thanks to being used in productions such as The Mandalorian and The Batman. The real-time nature of the Volume technology allows for special effects backgrounds to be rendered while filming and appear in camera with the actors. It provides a far more realistic final shot, and it also allows the actors to have a better idea of what they are reacting to.
With television productions now having the ability to rent even just one wall, this opens up a lot of new technology to the medium, and we’re interested to see where it may lead. Just from simple changes in scenery no longer needing as many sets built, to moments like this that would be too dangerous to film in real life with your lead actors. It definitely opens some more doors for television storytelling.
ITV
ITV said the episodes will air the week of Sept. 19. Coronation Street airs in the U.K. on ITV, and episodes are later available on the ITV Hub. In the U.S. you can watch the series on BritBox and Hulu.
Correction: A previous version of this post did not include the date of when the episodes would air.
