To craft realistic digital backdrops, location scouts took photographs of exotic landscapes like the tops of the Austrian Alps and California’s Death Valley. Then VFX engineers stitched the images together to create a virtual 360-degree world, called a bubble. The bubble is used only during the production of the film; the landscapes and backgrounds seen in the movie are completely digitally re-rendered.
After filming a scene in front of the green screen, the cinematographer, directors and actors can catch a preview of the shot on a display called a field monitor, which shows the actors inside the bubble. The bubble saves studios hours and money by helping directors avoid reshoots, which happen when, for example, an actor isn’t perfectly synced with the digital action of the scene.