Why Fallout Didn't Need To Use CGI As Much As You'd Think To Create The Real-Life Wasteland
Prime Video’s Fallout is one of the biggest new series of the year. It takes the Wasteland of the classic Fallout video games and brings it to life in live-action. Considering the world of the Fallout games involves mutated creatures and massive destruction, you might think the series used a lot of CGI to create its vision, but apparently not so much.
While the Wasteland of the Fallout games might not technically exist, there was apparently a place in the world that looked enough like the end of the world that it worked. Fallout star Aaron Moten recently spoke with our sister site GamesRadar and talked about what it was like filming in the desert of Namibia. He explained:
We were transported, truly, to a desolate set. It became our set, the sands of Namibia. That first feeling – I remember walking out and doing the scene. It took away a lot of the work you sometimes have to do as an actor. I obviously believe where we are. It felt like I got to reinvest in my scene partners and really dig deep into the story.
When actors do make movies that involve lots of green screen and CGI, we often hear them talking about the imagination required to try and act against something that doesn’t actually exist. Moten shows just how vital shooting on location can be for exactly that reason. He didn’t have to imagine the post-apocalypse, because he really felt like he was there, allowing him to focus his efforts elsewhere.
Working with green screen and digital effects can be expensive and time-consuming, but sometimes there just isn't another option. Often it's the best way to make fantastical things look real. Many projects, including streaming series, have gone the route of digital effects. The Star Wars movies used the desert to create Tatooine and Jakku, but The Mandalorian used The Volume, large video screens to create the same places.
Obviously, while working in the desert may have made imagining you were in a wasteland easier, other parts of the job were still quite difficult. Ella Purnell spoke with friend Chloë Grace Moretz for Interview Magazine and talked about the incredible heat, as well as the fact that the series used additional practical effects rather than CGI to create some of the creatures. Purnell said:
It could be 105 degrees during this fight scene when you’re wearing 300 layers. Walton had it really bad. He’s in head-to-toe prosthetics. The waistcoat was made of leather. Hot, and there’s no shade, of course. We’re doing this fight, with this 15-foot mutated salamander that I was talking about. Well, originally the fingers were teeth, when we were filming it, because they made that puppet.
All that work seemed to be successful. Fallout is one of the most watched projects in the history of Prime Video and Fallout Season 2 is now on the way. Of course, for the cast that likely means going back to the desert. However, based on the Fallout Season 1 ending, they may have to start using digital effects unless they plan to build New Vegas in the middle of nowhere.
