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of LED panels, the machines to run it and the generators they are often powered by – not to mention the hardware. However, it does save on the environmental costs of sending an entire crew to a location, instead only requiring a small team to scout and capture footage to be filmed against in a volume. Filmmakers can also easily collaborate across the world in real time, by joining remote sessions for scouting with virtual cameras and VR, and even doing motion captures remotely. Using a virtual set also offsets the footprint of a full physical set build, only requiring what’s inside the volume to be built instead. OS: I take a realistic view on this. I would love us to be very impactful on green by reducing travel and so on. But that can be used for greenwashing – we’re not doing that. We’re not a greenwash company: we have to say that it costs energy to produce the LEDs, it costs a lot of energy to develop it. At ROE Visual, we’ve created an app where clients can plan what they buy, decide what type of power consumption they could use, and we give them recommendations. We can let them know that you do not need to run an LED on 100% all the time. So this service app will allow people to view all product information and calculate what they need, and we’ll add a green button which will give a tip on how clients can do it in the most sustainable way. In that simple way, we start the dialogue. Def: How has virtual production opened up new storytelling possibilities? MC: Virtual production has been used largely on science-fiction content, as it makes the creation of inexistent or imaginary environments feasible. However, drama and standard fiction can also benefit from virtual production for many reasons, by allowing lower- budget productions to improve their looks and locations easily. CC: You can create the real world – and ultra-realistic environments – but they don’t have to follow the laws of physics. So if you want the trees coming out of the clouds, you can make that happen in very realistic way. You can control this world during shooting. You might think:
IN DEMAND Wuxi Studios announced the launch of a VP studio with China’s largest LED volume, powered by Brompton Technology (above); XR in action from Brainstorm (bottom left)
characters and lenses against a rough build of the environment. DL: We’ve had several recent projects shot at ARRI Stage London that utilised virtual production to tell a story which could not be achieved in any other way. A great example is the Chemical Brothers’ promo film for Live Again . It follows a dancer emerging from her trailer into a series of environments – with several scene transitions taking place live, within one continuous shot. Using Unreal Engine’s sequencer tools, the Stage team from ARRI Solutions, Creative Technology and Lux Machina provided the production with full 3D control over each environment in an animated sequence built by Untold Studios. Careful coordination was essential: virtual transitions, lighting sequencing, camera movement, set dressing and atmospheric elements needed to be choreographed and rehearsed down to the tiniest detail. OS: With GhostFrame, we allowed TV makers to be able to tell stories in one frame for different audiences. It combines the possibilities of LED and camera technology, to enable creative use of video and broadcast tech.
that mountain doesn’t look very good in this shot, let’s move it to the right; that tree is too green, it would be nice if it could look a bit moodier; or let’s make it autumn. And you can change it on the
spot in that moment – it’s easy. JL: Virtual production has given
filmmakers lots more freedom to tell stories in any environment they can dream of, with the flexibility to bend the environment to suit their vision. For example, during one of my recent projects, a location very central to the story needed to be shot on a bridge. With a small section of the bridge as a physical set on rollers, the filmmakers were able to rotate the set to capture different angles with the main, seamless section of the LED wall displaying the virtual set. The environment was set up for different times of day and weather conditions, as well as in points in the story years apart. This was a great use case for VP as the actual bridge is in a difficult-to-reach location as well as being very narrow. By using VP, the bridge is clearly recognisable as the same landmark, but slightly modified to help tell the story. The show also used virtual production techniques to plan the shots, using AR cameras to block out
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