VIRTUAL PRODUCTION ROUND TABLE INDUSTRY.
understood by most of the team members and management involved. Until today, virtual production has no ‘home’ in the overall structure. Pioneers in the industry, companies like ILM, have placed virtual production organisationally with post- production and VFX, being the current budget owners. In the meantime, virtual production has reached every department in film and broadcast, and we need to rethink virtual production being anchored everywhere, organisationally and financially, as in an agile matrix-based production structure. In the future, it would make sense for production designer and DOP to work together on the planning and involve other departments as needed. In any case, a clear ownership for virtual production must be defined. A new generation of producers will emerge who will incorporate immersive storytelling and revisualisation into new narrative forms and formats as a matter of course. How is that affecting traditional and existing VP processes? TK: OS-IBL will increase the realism and quality for more people, and bring the fun into this process. Volume or rear projection work has always been difficult to achieve true viewer immersion, but the OS-IBL advent will make it much easier with more believable fall-off, light shape variety and realistic colour rendition. AI techniques like NeRF will reduce production cost and time, helping VP teams provide more cost-effective backdrop solutions for more clients. DL: Education is helping to increase adoption and utilisation of the tech by demystifying the processes and practice of what are actually relatively simple concepts. In turn, this improves confidence, and acceptance by those who might otherwise be unwilling to take the perceived risk. CM: Companies that specialise in virtual production or make products for the market must integrate forward-thinking network engineering into their business. Companies with the best-designed and implemented network infrastructure and workflows almost always perform best. In the demanding and ever-changing world of video content production, speed is key. Almost all the levers a creative would want to pull to produce a more vivid or interesting picture will inherently create more data. This data needs to be stored,
Education is helping to increase the tech adoption by demystifying the process
transmitted and processed, and any link in the chain that isn’t adequately fast will inhibit the speed of the entire system. CC: The finer pixel pitch will lead to more pixels required, and as a result, content rendering will be directly impacted. The incorporation of RGBW and other advancements in LED processing will enable virtual production processes to achieve more realistic lighting. JTR: Existing VP processes are changing and evolving. Now producers, production companies, DOPs, gaffers and other team members are having prior experiences at other stages or using other workflows. This is a blessing and a curse because the industry changes so quickly. Workflows and processes are often not the same from stage to stage, VAD to VAD, rate card to card – and so forth. Because of this, the depth of our conversations with production teams increases and our focus is turning towards standardisation. At XR Studios, we are aiming to be the leaders in a standardised process, so that our client’s experience is never disrupted. We offer a seamless process from load in to load out; so as the industry rapidly grows and constantly changes, we aim to find a happy balance. OS: The industry may be reaching the limits of efficiency using traditional production methodology. VP can support better planning (previs) and creative
outcome, and potentially significant cost savings. One of the biggest inhibitors is the lack of experience and patience of the teams. Virtual production is currently disrupting the traditional film and TV production, therefore we are facing familiar resistance to adapt to these new workflows. Industry-leading companies in this field can actively help overcome this resistance by focusing on training, education and information.
53. APRIL 2023
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