Sound stage

Early stages for silent movies were built, either as a three-wall open-roof set, or with large skylights, until electric lighting became powerful enough to expose film adequately.

With the coming of the talkies in the late 1920s, it became necessary to enclose and fully soundproof these stages to eliminate noise and distractions from outside, including limiting access.

[1] An enclosed stage makes it easier for the crew of a production to design and build the sets to exact specifications, precise scale, and detail.

With the use of bluescreen or greenscreen techniques (whereby backgrounds are inserted electronically behind the actors in the finished film) and a sound stage, extensive control of the production process is achieved.

According to audiophiles, the quality of the playback is very much dependent upon how one is able to pick out different instruments, voices, vocal parts, and such exactly where they are located on an imaginary, two- or three-dimensional field.

[2] The latest technology and software can render basic previsualisation effects into scenes in real time while recording, before post-production, with the use of sensors detecting the position of actors and elements, in the staging of the frame.

The director during filming can view what the composition of the picture is with basic digital objects and surfaces included and how it appears, assisting the creative process.

These screens, most commonly large arrays of LEDs, show a version of the set that was constructed in 3D (using software such as Unreal Engine) that tracks its motion in real time with camera movement.

These types of objects, such as eyeglasses, glassware, and shiny armor, are often very difficult to deal with in a conventional chroma key work flow.

This technique also minimizes the amount of tedious rotoscoping work required in post-production to cut out what was not picked up by chroma keying.