Sandra Bullock in "Gravity"
For his film Gravity, set entirely in space, director Alfonso Cuarón had to throw out the normal sci-fi playbook. Working with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and VFX supervisor Tim Webber, he created a “lightbox”: a 20-by-10-ft. (6 by 3 m) structure covered with 196 panels of 4,096 LED bulbs each to simulate the extreme light in outer space. The box had the added bonus of being able to project images that would be added later in CGI, so that the actors had a visual reference.