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Beloved classics like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
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were made long before modern digital chroma key technology.
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So, how did Bert dance with penguins?
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Or Ms. Price journey to the Isle of Naboombu?
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Well, it all starts with this prism.
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This is the Sodium Vapor Process.
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The magic of Disney starts with storytelling,
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and since the company's beginning,
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we've relied on innovation to bring our stories to life.
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From the multi-plane camera
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to the virtual production technologies of today,
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each creation is another step in Disney's legacy of innovation.
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But what if we told you that the cutting edge technology
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you see behind me
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has roots traced back over 60 years on the backlot
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soundstages of the Walt Disney Studios,
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including right here on Stage 1.
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The sodium vapor process is a technique for doing compositing.
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That's where you take a real image that you shot in camera
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and want to intersperse it
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with other imagery that you're adding later on.
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Instead of capturing actors in front of a blue or green screen,
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this technique would shoot actors
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in front of a white background
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that was lit with yellow sodium vapor lights.
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Coupled with a very special prism
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that went inside the camera,
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you were able to take the light
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coming into the lens and separate off
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all the rich colors that you were getting away from that
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very narrow spectrum
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that was behind the elements on that yellow lit wall.
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The wavelength of this light was so narrow
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that it could be precisely separated onto two film strips
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using this beam splitter prism.
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It would simultaneously capture both a color
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image of the action in the foreground
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and a flat, high contrast image of the background,
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which would then be replaced with the desired imagery for the movie.
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It was animator, inventor, and special effects technician,
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Disney Legend Ub Iwerks,
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that helped bring this technology
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to The Walt Disney Company in the 1950s.
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And Ub pioneered the production of two additional prisms.
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The original prism was used on Mary Poppins,
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which won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
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and was filmed in part here on Stage 1
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on the Burbank Studio Lot.
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The technology of the sodium vapor process
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was really ahead of its time.
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Because of that narrow band, that narrow
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spectrum that it was able to detect
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and put onto the separate layer of film,
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you could really get nice tight edges
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around your live-action performers.
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In addition, things that are actually pretty hard
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to capture in any other way.
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So, things like fast motion,
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which we might make some motion blur.
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Things like translucent objects, soft edges,
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transparencies. Those are all things
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that are actually quite difficult to do even today,
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with traditional bluescreen and green screen techniques.
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And the sodium vapor process
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really handled a lot of those
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tough and difficult scenarios really well
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and with a lot of precision.
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To this day, the prisms are stored safely
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within The Walt Disney Archives collection,
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and their legacy continues even in this very same spot.
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The sodium vapor process of today
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is virtual production using ILM Stagecraft.
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This combination of hardware and software allows a director
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to walk on set with a camera,
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and it tracks exactly what the camera is looking at,
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and then can be optically correct as to the perspective.
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So, now if the actor is moving through the scene,
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if the lens is is moving,
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that environment will adjust and it will move correctly
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as if they were physically in that space.
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When we think about ILM Stagecraft
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and how it allows an actor to be placed in the location
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that is being imagined
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that enables them to bring a more emotionally grounded,
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compelling story, and performance to the screen.
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It allows all of the other departments
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to see what the visual effects artists have created.
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Everyone can be part of the director's vision
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at the same time.
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Thinking about Disney's legacy...
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Bambi, Fantasia, Dumbo.
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It's been at the forefront of entertainment since the 1940s.
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Both Disney and ILM have really moved the industry forward.
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Innovation has always been a part of Disney's legacy,
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which is allow them to create more complex, realistic,
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and relatable worlds and bring those worlds to life.
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See the legacy of Disney's innovation in action with Mary Poppins,
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Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,
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Marvel's The Avengers,
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The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
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All streaming on Disney+.