VIRTUAL PRODUCTION CASE STUDY
Broadley Studios gives us a peek into its work on Jimmy Fallon’s star-studded Christmas special
T his holiday season, NBC will be screening Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular featuring a host of celebrity guests. Although the special was primarily filmed in-studio in New York, the showrunners sourced Broadley Studios to contribute to a key segment of the show. Featuring a glittering line-up of A-listers, this scene utilised Broadley’s unique virtual production set-up. Read on to find out how our team made it happen! THE SET-UP The shoot required three motion-tracked cameras, each with their own render engine. These were Sony FX9s equipped with Canon CN7x17 lenses, each having a Mo-Sys StarTracker and a render engine running Brainstorm’s InfinitySet. The Christmas scene was generated in Unreal Engine (UE) 5.3; these tools allowed us to produce precise, high- quality footage that aligned with the production values of the festive special being produced in the US by NBC. The decision to use Sony FX9 cameras paired with Canon CN7x17 lenses gave us flexibility and a high picture quality. We also had to match the style of the images being shot in the US, and the FX9 allowed us to record internally in S-Log3 and also output in Rec. 709 over SDI to create a comp. Using tracking data from
each camera, InfinitySet provided us with three clean background renders. The cameras’ channels were passed through Ultimatte 12 keyers from Blackmagic, then compiled and recorded. We were then able to composite the final pixel shots from the matte and background recordings that were taken, as well as Raw green rushes in S-Log. Mo-Sys StarTrackers ensured seamless integration between physical and virtual environments by tracking every movement with pinpoint accuracy. This system allowed us to easily capture lots of dynamic shots, following along with the movement and energy without compromising on visual consistency. Every camera move was reflected accurately – and in real time – in the Unreal Engine virtual environment thanks to the Mo-Sys system.
52
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook