Virtual Production Explained — Is This The End of the Green Screen?

What is Virtual Production — an introduction to the latest filmmaking technology, including how virtual production works, the pros and cons, and why it may be here to stay.

What is a Virtual Production? ►► https://bit.ly/wi-vp
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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction to Virtual Production
01:03 - History of Virtual Production
03:46 - Chapter 1: How It Works
06:42 - Chapter 2: Built-In Lighting
09:50 - Chapter 3: Flexible Locations
13:46 - Takeaways

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VIRTUAL PRODUCTION EXPLAINED

If you’ve been paying attention to current filmmaking technology and techniques, you’ve likely heard of virtual production. On shows like The Mandalorian and films like The Batman, virtual production seems to be the next big thing in how projects are shot. But how does virtual production work, and is it really the wave of the future or just another Hollywood tech fad? In this video, we will dive into these topics as we explore the pros and cons of virtual production in film and TV.

WHAT IS VIRTUAL PRODUCTION

In short, virtual production is a broad term in which live-action and virtual elements are captured simultaneously. To explain how virtual production works, we need a quick lesson in film history. For decades, filmmakers have “cheated” backgrounds with techniques like rear and front projection. Then green and blue screen technology became the dominant way to composite real foregrounds with fake backgrounds in a process called “keying.”

But all of those technologies have drawbacks. Virtual production is something of a hybrid between the projection and keying systems of the past, with improvements in both. Let’s discuss how virtual production works.

HOW VIRTUAL PRODUCTION WORKS

The most common virtual production setup these days is a set surrounded and covered by LED walls. On these screens, any background can be shown. Usually, these are CG backgrounds created by software like Unreal Engine, mostly known for creating video game environments. One thing missing from the original rear- and front-projection systems was something called parallax — when background elements move according to the camera's movement. But in a virtual production setup, the camera has trackers that connect its position to the background software, effectively eliminating this parallax problem.

THE PROS AND CONS OF VIRTUAL PRODUCTION

Virtual production benefits film and TV productions in a few ways. The lighting emitted from the LED walls matches the scenes exactly. The production can switch “locations” easily. The actors have an environment around them instead of a blank green void. Atmospherics like rain or smoke can be captured live on set. And as mentioned, it solves the parallax issue.

But there are drawbacks to virtual production as well. To shoot on a soundstage with a full virtual production setup like The Mandalorian is highly expensive. Low-budget alternatives are emerging, however. Even though realistic parallax is possible, the camera movement is still limited to the confines of the set. At the moment, direct hard sunlight is hard to capture realistically, which limits most exterior settings to darker or overcast conditions.

So, that is a quick introduction to how virtual production works. It solves a lot of problems in film and TV production, but it doesn’t solve them all.


#FilmTheory #VideoEssay #Filmmaking

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