Dune: Part One is by all accounts another example of the atmospheric sci-fi that director Denis Villeneuve has become known for, having also directed Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Dune in particular sports several immense alien worlds that tease distant horizons, even in interior spaces. You'd be forgiven for thinking that some of these interior sets, like the fortress of Arakeen, were built with green screen sets, but you'd be wrong.
As SlashFilm reports, production designer Patrice Vermette avoided green screen by using simple painted fabric.
Vermette, who is also working on Dune: Part Two and Tron 3, said that the production crew built any interior set higher than 24 or 30 feet all out of fabric. This fabric was replaced in post-production by the usual special effects software, but the real benefit of fabric was giving actors and artists a more believable space to work in, rather than a barren green screen.
Having fabric painted to mimic what the set would ultimately look like also allowed post-production artists to avoid having to paint out awkward green shades of color produced by green screens. The use of fabric to imitate a deeper space than is financially or physically possible is a common practice in theater, where actors are often limited to a small (by comparison) stage.
"That technique would dictate where the light would be coming from, and the obstacles that the light would hit," Vermette told SlashFilm.
"So the sets would be lit, it would help light the set properly to represent what was on the concept part. It also would indicate to the VFX, the areas that needed to be collided with the right texture. Overall, it gave the right light environment, so the VFX part would be integrated better. So, the light is not contaminated by green. It all creates this world, that makes it more real."
Dune: Part Two will begin filming in July 2022, a producer confirmed earlier this month. If you're interested in how Dune's VFX artists brought the winged ornithopters to life, check out our video. You can also check out what to expect from Dune: Part Two's story.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.