Virtual production, the great tech talking point of the last few years, is now increasingly seen as another very useful tool in the producers’ toolbox as more and more productions employ it. But the possibilities for the technology keep on expanding. Michael Burns reports
Step on to a virtual production (VP) set in the UK today and you’ll sense more than one shift in reality.
LED walls and real-time engines are still placing actors in elaborate digital environments, but the technology is settling into everyday use. “It’s less talked about in a highly hyped way,” says Rob Chandler, founder of Starting Pixel. “It’s starting to settle down and is just used as a production tool.”
He believes the focus is moving from tech specs to what VP enables. “People don’t buy ‘speeds and feeds’. People buy how good the result is.”
Russ Shaw, co-founder and VP Supervisor at Quite Brilliant, has used the technique since 2020, though his first VP-like production was back in 2014. Coming from post, he saw how VP could shift VFX from post to pre-production while offering controlled shoot environments. Now, increased interest from filmmakers at its Twickenham Film Studios base has seen Quite Brilliant recently triple the size of its previous VP stage.
“The goal is really to have it all in-camera,” he says. “In an ideal world, you’d be walking away with those camera rushes, and everything would be perfect in the background. No glitches. It’d just be an edit and a grade.”
Jon Creamer
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