how did they film the little mermaid

They filmed Disney’s live‑action The Little Mermaid (2023) mostly on dry land using blue‑screen stages, elaborate motion rigs, and heavy visual effects, then turned it into an underwater world in post‑production.

H1: How did they film The Little Mermaid?

H2: “Dry‑for‑wet” instead of real underwater

Instead of putting the cast in huge water tanks, the filmmakers used a dry‑for‑wet approach: actors performed on a large blue‑screen stage, while VFX added oceans, castles, fish, and bubbles later.

• Underwater scenes were shot on land at studios, with the “water” created digitally.
• Only small portions involved real water (mainly surface splashes or reference plates).
• This avoided safety issues, let actors do complex choreography, and gave the team more control over lighting and camera work.

In interviews, the team has described this as one of the most complex productions they’ve ever done because of the number of digital layers and steps involved.

H2: Rigs, wires, and “tuning forks” for swimming

To make Halle Bailey and the others look like they were floating and swimming, the crew used custom rigs rather than actually submerging them.

• Harnesses and wires : Actors were suspended in body harnesses with counterweights so they could “hang” and move as if buoyant in water.

• Teeter‑totters and “tuning forks” : Special seesaw‑like rigs and fork‑shaped arms let the actors tilt, roll, and spin smoothly in multiple directions.

• Manual puppeteering : Crews literally pushed the bases of these rigs around the stage while puppeteers guided the actors’ hips and torso to create flowing motion.

On many setups, the actor was fixed at one end of a moving arm; a small team would roll the base, pivot the arm, and gently “puppeteer” the performer to simulate gliding through currents.

H2: Faces real, bodies and tails CG

Most mermaids in the movie are a hybrid: the actor’s real face and hands, but a fully animated digital body and tail from the collarbone down.

• Live‑action elements : The camera mainly captured the performance of the actor’s face, eyes, and sometimes arms.

• Digital bodies : The torso, tail, fins, and even parts of the shoulders and back were replaced with CG models, carefully tracked to the actor’s movements.

• Digital doubles : In wider or more dynamic shots (fast swims, big stunts) the mermaids could be entirely CG, using facial and motion‑capture data from the performers.

This hybrid method let Halle Bailey lead the emotional performance, while animation and VFX handled anatomy that would be impossible to perform physically (like a powerful, flexible tail).

H2: Underwater hair and lighting tricks

Hair and lighting are two of the hardest parts of underwater scenes, and both were almost entirely digital.

• Hair simulation : The team filmed reference footage of real hair underwater, then recreated that behavior with digital hair, adding forces like drag, buoyancy, and gravity in the simulation.

• Stylized realism : Animators purposely gave the hair a bit of weight so it would float but not explode into a messy halo, saving the big, flowing motion for character gestures and songs.

• Caustic lighting rigs : On set, special lights mimicked how sunlight dances and flickers through water, so those patterns could hit the actors’ faces in a believable way and be matched in CG later.

Different lighting “looks” were created to suggest different depths: stronger, sharper caustics near the surface; softer, more diffuse light for deeper scenes.

H2: Previs, choreography, and music staging

Because everything underwater required coordination between live action and animation, the film was heavily pre‑planned.

• Previsualization (previs) : Sequences were first built as rough animated mock‑ups so the crew could test camera moves, rhythm, and action beats.

• Rehearsals with dancers : Director Rob Marshall worked with dancers and choreographers to block musical numbers on land, capturing rehearsal footage with lightweight cameras to refine timing and staging.

• Facial capture sessions : After shooting scenes on the main stage, actors like Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy repeated their performances in a specialized facial‑capture booth (ILM’s Anyma system), providing ultra‑detailed face data for fully digital shots.

This layered process—rehearsal video, previs, blue‑screen acting, facial capture, then final animation—helped keep the musical rhythm and emotional beats intact even as the shots became complex CG composites.

H2: Above‑water locations

Not everything was digital: the “human” world above the sea used real locations.

• Key coastal and castle exteriors were filmed in Sardinia, Italy, to give Prince Eric’s kingdom a tangible, grounded feel.

• Those real environments contrast intentionally with the more magical, stylized ocean world created in VFX.

H2: Latest chatter and forum‑style discussion

Online discussions and behind‑the‑scenes breakdowns since the film’s 2023 release keep circling back to a few recurring points.

• Many viewers are surprised most “underwater” shots were done completely dry with rigs and CG, comparing the methods to other big aquatic movies like Aquaman.

• VFX artists and technical blogs highlight how ambitious the mix of photo‑real animals, stylized hair, and musical‑number choreography was for a family film.

Typical forum take: people are impressed by the technical craft, even if they debate whether the ultra‑realistic sea creatures feel as charming as the animated originals.

H2: TL;DR – Quick scoop

• They used dry‑for‑wet shooting on blue‑screen stages, not giant water tanks.

• Actors were put in harnesses, on wires, and on custom “tuning fork” rigs to simulate floating and swimming.

• Only actors’ faces and hands are usually real; tails and bodies are CG, with fully digital doubles for some shots.

• Hair and underwater lighting are almost entirely digital, guided by real‑world reference footage and caustic light rigs.

• Above‑water scenes used real locations like Sardinia to contrast with the CG ocean world.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.