DEFINITION THE VIRTUAL FRONTIER
ROMAN’S REVENGE CASE STUDY Ancient Roman epic Those About to Die brought the Colosseum and chariot racing to an LED stage. We hear from Dimension about how it was done
WORDS KATIE KASPERSON IMAGES PEACOCK/AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
R ome wasn’t built in a day – but on Those About to Die , it didn’t take too much longer than that. With VP handled by Dimension Studio and DNEG 360, Roland Emmerich and Marco Kreuzpaintner’s TV epic travelled back to ancient times without leaving the comfort of an LED volume. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Those About to Die is an adapted historical drama set amid the construction of the Colosseum. Of course, the real Colosseum, as it stands today, is
dilapidated yet finished, making on- location filming almost impossible. To jump this hurdle, Dimension’s VP supervisor James Franklin oversaw the production of various virtual backgrounds, which ultimately served the series in more ways than one. MAGIC HOURS Partially filmed on an LED volume at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios , Those About to Die had the benefit of being filmed at magic hour – all day. “Emmerich
knew he wanted to shoot a lot of this at magic hour or with interesting lighting that would flatter his actors,” begins Steve Jelley, co-founder and managing director at Dimension. “He knew he couldn’t achieve that practically – it’s very difficult to achieve with blue screen and VFX,” Jelley explains. “He was drawn to the lighting that VP gave him.” One scene features a four-minute shot, set at magic hour and captured in one take via a camera on a crane. “Imagine trying to do that in real life,”
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