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Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two made its bow into theaters last Friday and has been taking the world by storm. Now, you can prepare for it to land in your own home by securing yourself a Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite with custom packaging in celebration of Dune: Part Two. The tale of Paul Atreides’ and his epic odyssey across the desert planet of Arrakis is brought to life in stunning visual immersion, enhanced immeasurably by the technology on offer via the Dune-inspired home entertainment technology. In the world of film, lighting does more than just illuminate; it serves as the essence of visual storytelling. Dune has secured its place in the history of cinema through its extraordinary cinematography and visual prowess. Govee, as a frontrunner in the smart lighting sector, seeks to elevate the home entertainment experience, crafting an impressive movie-themed ambiance within the home that is sure to dazzle viewers.
Since 2020, Govee has pioneered the development of the first-of-its-kind TV backlights that utilize camera technology for color matching, setting a new standard in the industry. In their latest venture, Govee has partnered with Dune to introduce a range of new features specifically designed for fans of the franchise, including a customized Dune-themed color-matching mode and various lighting effects, among others.
The Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging represents a significant leap forward in enhancing the home viewing experience into a theatrical one, offering a simple yet highly effective way to elevate the ambiance of any entertainment setup. This innovative lighting solution is designed to extend the visual experience beyond the confines of the screen, creating a more immersive and engaging viewing environment that captivates the senses and draws viewers deeper into the action.
What Makes Arrakis So Unique?
Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction novel, Dune, brings to life the breathtaking majesty of Arrakis with a stunning visual and auditory depth that captures the imagination and transports audiences directly into the heart of this desolate, yet awe-inspiring world. Its vast deserts stretch into the horizon, an endless sea of sand that undulates in the harsh winds, creating patterns that are both mesmerizing and foreboding. The cinematography captures these landscapes with an immersion and scale that emphasize their majesty and the isolation of those who navigate its dangers. The visuals are complimented by a soundscape that mixes the howling winds, the shifting sands, and the distant cries of the planet’s fearsome sandworms.
The Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging significantly elevates the viewing experience of Dune, masterfully captured by Greig Fraser’s meticulous, Oscar-winning cinematography. Fraser’s keen eye for detail brings the planet Arrakis to life through Villeneuve’s direction with stunning visual clarity — thanks to its Dune-themed lighting effects — from its expansive golden skies and vast sands to the intricacies of the spice melange and the imposing scale of its sandworms. The Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging, with its advanced color-matching capabilities, complements Fraser’s cinematographic artistry by extending these vivid visuals beyond the confines of the screen, immersing the viewer in a fully realized world.
Fraser’s portrayal of Arrakis is characterized by a palette of deep golds and bright oranges that reflect the planet’s relentless sun and arid landscape. When these tones and hues dominate a scene, the Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging responds in kind, projecting a similar spectrum of colors onto the walls behind the screen. This creates an ambient glow that mirrors the desert’s vastness and heat, drawing the viewer deeper into the narrative and closer to the planet’s surface.
The spice melange, central to the Dune saga, is often shown shimmering in the desert sands, a visual cue to its value and mystical properties, both spiritually to the Fremen, and as a resource to the rest of the universe, while the radiant blue of the Fremen’s eyes — lit up by the spice they ingest — pops and sizzles on-screen. Fraser captures this with a detail that exaggerates its allure and mystery, while the Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging enhances this effect through dynamic lighting adjustments that mimic the spice’s glow, adding a layer of immersion that feels almost tactile and with subtlety. This not only highlights the importance of the spice but also amplifies the sensory experience of its presence on screen. Created in partnership with Warner Bros., this new themed lighting effect merges Govee’s smart lighting expertise with the mesmerizing visuals from the movie. This innovation provides users with an unprecedented opportunity to dive into the breathtaking sceneries and thrilling action scenes of Dune in a way never experienced before.
The Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging introduces an advanced Envisual™ color-matching technology, enhanced with a new processor, improved color-matching features, and superior light strip quality, offering users a superior viewing experience. Compatible with Matter and supporting a broader array of smart controls, the Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite stands out as the latest and most accessible model in the TV Backlight lineup, making it a perfect option for those looking to upgrade their viewing experience with smart lighting.
The Majesty of The Sandworms
Image via Govee
Perhaps one of Villeneuve’s most significant achievements is his depiction of the sandworms of Arrakis. These behemoths — known by the planet’s natives, the Fremen, as Shai-Hulud — are presented with a scale that is both awe-inspiring and terrifying, showcasing Fraser’s ability to convey the immense size and power of these creatures through his lens, alongside Villeneuve’s creative direction. The Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging adds to the drama of these moments by adjusting the lighting to match the intensity on screen, such as darkening to mimic the shadow of a looming sandworm or brightening to reflect the explosive action of their emergence. This responsiveness to the cinematography’s nuances enhances the sense of scale and danger, making the presence of the sandworms an even more thrilling and immersive aspect of the viewing experience.
In essence, the Govee Backlight 3 Lite with custom Dune-themed packaging acts as an extension of both Fraser’s cinematographic vision, and Villeneuve’s cinematic blueprints, bringing the detailed and dynamic world of Arrakis into the viewer’s space. It does not merely light up a room; it deepens the connection between the audience and the film, making the experience of watching Dune a journey not just of sight and sound, but of space and sensation, too. Through this innovative backlighting technology, the majesty and mystery of Arrakis are felt more acutely, making every detail of Fraser’s cinematography even more impactful. The user also has the ability to sync other Govee light products, for a more immersive Dune world. DreamView mode allows users to align the Sandstorm lighting effects of the new TV backlight to other Govee smart lights within an entertainment ecosystem, creating an immersive lighting experience.
How Did Denis Villeneuve and Greig Fraser Bring Arrakis to Life?
Image via Warner Bros.
Speaking to promote Dune’s launch in 2021, Fraser discussed with Collider’s Steve Weintraub the process of making the film, crediting the importance of the visual effects team that helped both he and Villeneuve create the planet upon which both the story is set, and the images are projected, both in cinemas and at home. As a pioneer in the smart lighting industry, Govee is dedicated to enhancing the entertainment experience through its state-of-the-art TV backlight series. These backlights, emitting a soft ambient light, serve as the ideal accessory to any great movie. They draw viewers into the film’s world, mitigating the stark contrast between the bright TV screen and the surrounding darkness, thereby offering an escape from reality. Over the past three years, Govee has introduced three generations of TV backlights, establishing itself as a formidable player in the market. It continues to focus on revolutionizing the home viewing experience with its forward-thinking technology.
“In
Dune
, we had Paul (Lambert), who was our VFX supervisor, and he was all about the light. He knew that if I shot something incorrectly, that it would look wrong. There’s nothing that he could do. The best VFX people on the planet could not solve bad lighting. And it’s not that DPs do bad lighting, it’s that they’re given bad situations to do lighting with. And they can’t fix it. They’re trying to light a street scene outside in the middle of the day, and they’re on stage. Yet they’ve got tungsten lights and an HMI. It’s not enough lighting to do the right thing.
So there were certain scenes that we had, like the ornithopter scene that’s flying … the worm eating the spice harvester. When we’re in the ornithopter, flying over the desert, you sit around in a production meeting, and you say, “Okay, scene 52, ornithopter interior. How do we shoot that?” Everybody goes around and says how they would like to shoot it. And invariably, everybody wants to shoot it on stage. Because inside, it’s controllable, and you can light it, and there’s no issue with running out of daylight. There’s no issue with rain. There’s nothing. It’s just completely controllable. But Paul and I both knew that would never look good. So then we went, “We have to be a outside for it. We have to use real daylight and real sun.” So therefore they pushed it to the back lot. And the back lot wasn’t right. So the back lot wasn’t right, because the back lot, we have to surround with blue, to block out the buildings on one side, the road on the other side, the telephone poles on this side.
Suddenly you’ve got blue screen all around you, which means the light is affected. So what we pitched was the idea that we find a hill in Budapest. So we found the highest point in Budapest. We put the gimbal on the highest point, and we built a dog collar type thing around the base of the gimbal, with the ornithopter on it. And that dog collar was the color of sand. So when you looked outside and blurred your eyes, there was sand color from here down, and sky from here up. That was it.
We were just replicating the real world, and it looked amazing. It looked so real and all Paul had to do…He just had to do very little VFX on that, to make it feel right. It all stems from the beginning, that the reality of how you shoot it. And how you shoot it to be real and correct? If you are trying to blow your eyes and say, “It’ll be right later on, we’ll fix it later on,” it won’t be, it can’t be.”
The movie stars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in the lead roles alongside newcomers Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem, Léa Seydoux, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Stellan Skarsgård, and more. Anya Taylor-Joy rounds out the cast with a surprise appearance at the premiere in London — but don’t worry, it’s not for us to spoil her role for you. Dune: Part Two releases in theaters on March 1.
To experience the best in home theater entertainment, upgrade to Govee now. The Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite with Dune-themed packaging is available for purchase at $89.99 for sizes 55-65 inches and $109.99 for sizes 75-85 inches on Amazon and www.govee.com.
Dune: Part Two
Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
Release Date March 1, 2024
Director Denis Villeneuve
Runtime 166 minutes
Main Genre Sci-Fi