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The future of content creation: Virtual production Unlocking creative vision and business value The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value Pressure is building in the industry as traditional and disruptive content creators compete for not only customers, but also production, visual effects, and postproduction talent and resources. As the COVID-19 global pandemic introduces further complications, virtual production capabilities may become a competitive advantage for content creators. 2 The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value What is virtual production? Every director and visual effects (VFX) professional will define virtual production slightly differently, but at its core, virtual production is modern content creation: It is an agile process characterized by starting VFX earlier and leveraging technology throughout the entire production life cycle to enhance the way content is created.1 Traditional production is highly linear: Directors and cinematographers plan scenes using storyboards and shot lists; actors are filmed on sets, on locations, and against green screens; and editorial and VFX development starts and finishes after filming is complete.2 This one-way procession through preproduction, production, and postproduction can encourage negative outcomes, such as a “fix-it-in- post” mentality, destructive or duplicative VFX labor, and expensive reshoots. Virtual production is iterative and creative: Beginning VFX in preproduction makes digital assets available for planning and shooting, making it easier to continuously refine the final look and feel throughout the course of production. Virtual production is an expansion of the traditional filmmaking playbook, enabling studios to pursue greater experimentation while controlling the time and cost of production. 3 The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value There are four key use cases that fall under • Hybrid camera (aka Simulcam, green the umbrella of virtual production: screen hybrid): Compositing digital VFX with live-action camera footage in real • Visualization: Using 3D VFX assets time. Simulcam was originally developed to visualize and plan a task. There are and coined by Weta Digital and James many types of visualization (for example, Cameron for the first Avatar movie in pitchvis, techvis, and postvis), but the 2009.10 It is a direct improvement over preeminent form is previs: planning shooting against green screens, because a scene in 3D before shooting.3 While visualizing the digital and physical experienced VFX professionals may say simultaneously with accurate parallax previs has been commoditized,4 only a helps directors gain a better spatial handful of VFX studios have developed understanding of the scene.11 Actors also a reputation for providing visualization benefit from seeing a preliminary view of services on tentpole productions like the visual effects instead of acting against Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)5 or Pacific a green wall. Hybrid cameras have been Rim: Uprising (2018).6 used on films like Blade Runner 2049 • Motion capture (aka mocap): Capturing (2017)12 and Ready Player One (2018).13 the movements of people to animate • LED live-action: Replacing shooting VFX assets. Mocap systems have been against green screens with shooting used in film since the 1980s, but over against LED panels that display final- time, hardware form factors have shrunk, quality VFX. LED is a natural progression and software has become increasingly from the technique of 2D video screen automated.7 Excellent motion capture is projection, and LEDs’ ability to cast light still technically and artistically challenging, for accurate reflections is a significant but it can be critical for realistic animations benefit to post-production. LED panels of digital humans and creatures such as have been used to replace windows in in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) 8 and projects like Murder on the Orient Express Game of Thrones (2019).9 (2017)14 and Nightflyers (2018).15 Preproduction Production Postproduction Visualization Hybrid camera Editing Physical art Virtual art Story Filming Showtime Visual effects Post VFX Motion capture LED live action 4 The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value “Our latest developments enable final pixel quality in real time, which empowers content creators across all stages of production, and equip them to shoot their visual effects in camera. It’s a game changer." – Marc Petit, general manager at Epic Games Why now? Virtual production isn’t exactly new, • Increasing accessibility and jockeying also for content production resources. and some use cases have already between game engines and studios: In our interviews with industry players, seen significant adoption. However, Development in consumer augmented and they described a global squeeze on a combination of industry, tech, and virtual reality has brought down costs and media production resources, including macroscopic developments is accelerating reduced barriers to experimenting with acting talent, VFX talent, and even Hollywood’s interest in virtual production: virtual production.18 Game engines provide sound stages.23 In these times, virtual the real-time rendering that powers virtual production’s proposition to support more • The popularity of VFX-heavy genres production; Epic Games’ Unreal Engine efficient production can be especially and recent virtual production 4 (UE4) was used for The Mandalorian, attractive. breakthroughs: The highest-grossing and Epic has stated that virtually all the films of the past decade generally fall • COVID-19, physical production, and functions used for that show will soon be into VFX-heavy genres like action/ avoiding a “content desert”: The global built directly into the engine.19 At the same adventure and sci-fi/fantasy.16 Virtual pandemic has halted film and episodic time, leading VFX studios like ILM and MPC production techniques have been a production, and this lapse in content are going to market with their proprietary critical enabler for both feature films and generation could lead to a “content desert” virtual production platforms, StageCraft20 episodic content, as demonstrated by the further down the road.24 Governments and Genesis,21 respectively. aforementioned titles. However, in late around the world are cautiously looking to 2019, The Mandalorian was released and • Competition between streaming reopen with new safety measures set in widely lauded as the world’s first show platforms and film studios: Episodic place.25 Virtual production could be such to be virtually produced using an LED content and feature films are converging an opportunity: Virtual sets shift crews volume: a semicircular LED wall and ceiling in terms of budget, talent, and VFX quality. from the risks of travel and on-location spanning an entire soundstage.17 The In 2019, Netflix spent $15B on original shooting to the controlled environment technical difficulty and potential benefits content creation, which is the same of a sound stage.26 Taking it even a step associated with this technique have amount as ViacomCBS, the parent of further, digital humans and motion helped reinvigorate conversations about Paramount Pictures.22 These players are capture could enable completely remote virtual production. competing not only for customers, but productions.27,28 5 The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value So far, virtual production has been driven by the creatives Across the many use cases and virtual to wait until post-production to see the production tools, there are common output. Hybrid cameras and LED volumes themes, including: allow creatives and talent to see what they’re interacting with and producing in • Improving storytelling: Visualization real time. spans the entire production life cycle and is used to plan scenes and shots. • Unlocking possibilities: This helps ensure that the storyline, Photogrammetry and 3D scanning captured footage, and VFX being produced enable virtualization of real-world sets accurately reflect the director’s vision. and environments. Inside game engines, filmmakers can reshape mountains, move • Resolving ambiguity: Historically, actors the sun, and create a 12-hour-long sunset. and directors shot against green and had 6 The future of content creation: Virtual production | Unlocking creative vision and business value Adoption of virtual production can support desirable business outcomes, like cost savings and accelerated time to market According to our interviews with VFX against an LED wall significantly reduces producers, VFX artists, and film studio postproduction VFX costs like compositing producers, Hollywood may be reaching and rotoscoping and helps filmmakers get the limits of efficiency using the traditional ready for test screening more quickly.30,31 production methodology. The mindset and toolset of virtual production can support Virtual production may also have cost not only better creative outcomes, but also benefits further downstream from principal potentially significant time and cost savings. photography: LED volumes and virtual sets can be used by marketing teams to shoot Visualization can help enhance planning, commercials, and VFX assets can be reused increasing shooting efficiency and reducing for sequels, subsequent seasons, and other the occurrence
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