Testing an action sequence with Virtual Production

Shot in one standard shoot day, it was a great experiment to show that virtual production can do more than spaceships and car process scenes. A portion was also filmed live as an event in front of an invited audience of 100 guests. If we’d had another day to shoot (let’s face it, who attempts to shoot an entire 2 minute fight scene on top of a train in one day anyway?) then we certainly could have finessed a few of the shots where the VP shows a little.

The VP team spent several days expanding the size of their permanent LED volume wall from 19m wide to 21m wide and from 4m high all around to an additional 5m of height along the sides. The set was built to look like the tops of two train cars and the stunt rehearsals took place over 3 days.

Some of the key objectives we had in putting on this event were to demonstrate the versatility of a VP environment and the speed and safety that can come from choosing a VP shoot over a traditional location shoot.

The Garden Studios team created a custom, automated workflow that had the lighting from the LED track with the position of the moving train so that the sunlight and shadows always lined up correctly with the take. The realistic directional sunlight was programmed into unreal engine and the lighting rig to make this work

Another important feature for the audience was in seeing how much flexiblity the director had to make creative decisions on the spot and have those changes happen within minutes. As well as how many scenes can be shot in a matter of minutes or hours compared to a location shoot.

Finally, often VP is the best solution for a scene because it is the safest for everyone involved, especially the talent and crew. Whether it’s the use of practical effects, like squibs, or stunt scenes on a moving train, the controlled environment of the studio keeps everyone safe – which is priceless.