London-based Great Point Media is collaborating with Fields Park, US-based Volume Global and Media Cymru to build a world-class virtual production hub at Great Point Seren Studios in Cardiff.
Along with hosting film and high-end television projects, the facility will comprise a virtual production research and training academy in collaboration with Media Cymru aimed at continuing to develop the region into a thriving global hub for media innovation – with a focus on emergent and green technologies.
The new facility, dubbed Seren Virtual Productions, will offer a one stop, end-to-end solution supporting all aspects of virtual (and physical) production – including a range of volume (LED wall) configurations.
Jim Reeve, Great Point Media’s co-founder and CEO said: “LED walls and virtual production workstreams are already beginning to reshape the business of making films and television programmes. We want to keep pace with that innovation to ensure that we can offer any production the facilities and systems required to meet their diverse and changing needs.”
Professor Sara Pepper OBE, Deputy Director of Media Cymru said: “The development of a world-class virtual production studio and training and research facility at Seren will have a profound impact on the media cluster in the Cardiff Capital Region and a ripple effect throughout Wales and the UK. It signals a clear ambition: to provide a high-end facility which will attract interest from content creators across the globe. We look forward to the potential for boundary-pushing research and development (R&D) activity in this new space in our city region.”
The entire Great Point Seren Studios complex is powered by green electricity, generated on-site by a dedicated wind turbine – and planned new studio buildings will feature “green rooves” as part of a landscape masterplan aimed at enhancing and protecting the habitats of the local flora and fauna. The site recently hosted Gareth Evan’s Netflix action-thriller, Havoc, staring Tom Hardy and is currently home to a major high-end US television production.
Great Point Media was founded in 2013 by Jim Reeve and Robert Halmi. Halmi, with partner Fehmi Zeko, now manage US-based The Studio Fund, a specialised investment fund that is developing and managing film and television production centres in the USA, including Lionsgate Studios in Yonkers, NY, Lionsgate Studios in Newark, NJ and others to be announced soon.
Seren Virtual Productions will welcome outside productions from autumn 2023.
Jon Creamer
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