Can you talk about your approach in creating the world of “The Mandalorian” and specifically using real-time, in-camera compositing with the Volume?

The process of shooting in the Volume, or the way we did it on season one of “The Mandalorian,” is very untraditional. You’re scouting with the director 12 weeks out [from an episode], and you’re building your loads (images for the Volume) 12 weeks out. There was a very close relationship between Baz Idoine, the other DP, and I. He was physically present on the other episodes, but he also helped me by being on the floor of episode one when I was off lighting episode two backgrounds. It was very much a joint, communal effort and very unusual for standard TV, but I think quite successful. It allowed us to work in sync as a partnership so that he could be photographing on a day where I was lighting, or vice versa.

There is a lot of buzz about real-time, in-camera compositing being groundbreaking. How does it compare to green or bluescreen technology?

I think this technology is the most groundbreaking, revolutionary breakthrough in maybe 50 to 70 years, or even since sound. I mean, when processed screens came along as a technology, that was sort of a breakthrough, but they looked, to be frank, a little hokey in the early days. You know, I still question bluescreen’s effectiveness because it’s not a lighting tool. For me, I have major contentious issues with processed screens as they stand. Effectively if you are trying to light a set, with in-camera VFX, everything around you is a lighting tool for you to use.

I’m always having conversations about where this technology will be in 10 years and what it will do. We were able to put a bounty hunter on a desert planet, but really the technology is in its infancy. As a cinematographer, it allows you more control than a bluescreen. It even allows you more control in other ways that you wouldn’t have thought. For example, if a production designer loves the look of a location but the location is impossible for a film crew to get to, you can send a photographer out to get photos and build this location in 3D. It just opens the door to hundreds of possibilities that we haven’t thought about.