It has been revealed by Insider how the 26,000-seat stadium seen in Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso was created using a crowd of just 20 people. Check it out below:
Now, for those that don't know, the show is about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who has a similar personality to The Simpsons' Ned Flanders, but in no way annoying.
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After coaching a lower-tier Kansas college American football team - he moves to the UK to coach AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League team, despite knowing absolutely nothing about football (soccer).
As reported by Insider, the Ted Lasso team, along with Barnstorm MVFX, constructed a 'CG stadium' and used a technique called 'plate extras'.
Insider wrote on Twitter: "#TedLasso won at the #Emmys for comedy series. In one of the show's scenes, this 26,000-seat stadium looks filled to the brim, but what most people don't know is the crowd is mostly made of fake people who weren't even filmed in a stadium."
The way it works is - plate extras are filmed in front of a green screen and then digitally scattered into the desired shots.
Insider explains: "The team used crowd tiling to shoot one small group and physically move them around the set.
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"They're then combined together in postproduction to look like a cohesive crowd. Digital doubles helped fill in the rest of the crowd.
"It's a method that's less realistic up close but can be used to fill in gaps from a distance.
"Digital doubles made up an estimated 90% of the show's crowd shots.
"Because they're completely CGI characters, they can be programmed to have the same reactions, depending on what's happening in the game.
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"In order to have real human movement in the crowd, Barnstorm's animators donned motion-capture suits and fed every movement to the software.
"Clapping was particularly important to make the crowd look realistic."
Basically, they use a mix of real people and 'fake people' to film big crowd scenes.
The up-close shots of fans are filmed with real people because the typical emotions of a fan are hard to replicate.
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When I say typical reactions, I don't mean middle fingers and constant swearing at the ref, more like the clapping and cheering sort of stuff.
Ted Lasso is now available to watch on Apple TV+.
Featured Image Credit: Apple TV+Topics: TV and Film, US News