Good news for budget-conscious producers – virtual production technology has reached a level of maturity in which it can deliver high-quality results at lower price points, according to Dark
Slope co-founder Raja Khanna.
At its core, virtual production merges the digital and physical worlds in real-time. It has become nearly synonymous with the technique brought front and centre by the debut season of Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019), which leveraged game engine tech to create real-time photorealistic sets displayed on massive immersive LED walls. Khanna tells Playback that, at the time, the technique was actually a more expensive way of doing things.
Toronto’s Dark Slope is well-versed in the tech, operating two sound stages that are purpose-built for virtual production. The company launched an advanced virtual production smart stage with SideFX Software in the city this spring.
“The technology and the processes have evolved very quickly [since],” he says, adding that, other than its benefits of cutting production hours and removing time and location constraints, virtual production can provide cost efficiencies of up to 40% when compared to location shoots for certain types of shots or scenes. And it can help lower a production’s carbon footprint from between 20% to 50%, according to a 2023 study by Belfast-based Studio Ulster.
Nic Altobelli, producer and owner of Vancouver-based naltobel productions, who recently worked with Vancouver’s Versatile Media to shoot a proof of concept for A.J. Garces’ film Iron Flower (pictured), agrees that the tech allows for greater production value. For example, films in the $5 million to $15 million budget range can capture scenes that would previously have been associated with projects of a budget of $50 million to $100 million, says Altobelli.
The market for virtual production is also growing. Revenue from LED walls for virtual production is set to expand from $28.5 million in 2023 to $66.7 million in 2028 in North America alone, according to tech research and advisory firm Omdia.
Khanna says he anticipates the wider adoption of the tech will spark more creativity and “breathe new life” into formats such as reality and competition shows. In an indication of what that may look like, last year Dark Slope partnered with Toronto’s Insight Productions to produce a pilot of a Wipeout-style TV competition show for WildBrain and Peacock, titled Speedrun. In it, a virtual obstacle course is generated using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, with participants materializing as CGI avatars.
Key drivers for wider adoption are purpose-built stages and LED walls, the rapid evolution of tools that are simplifying virtual production workflows and the entry of more players in the LED wall manufacturing market, says Khasan Aripov, CEO at SP Studios, which launched its virtual production studio in Mississauga, Ont. last May. There were a record number of LED manufacturers at the 2023 NAB trade show in Las Vegas, according to a post-show report. Aripov predicts that increased competition will result in reduced supply costs.
A big trend Aripov is seeing is medium-sized stages and mobile walls that don’t require large crews to operate, just a stage operator, an Unreal Engine artist and a VFX supervisor. Aripov says more projects are turning to these more agile walls for car shots as an alternative to the traditional process trailers. Barriers to wider adoption include skill gaps and learning curves.
The library of worlds that game engines like Unreal and Unity can be used to create is also expanding exponentially and providing better-quality assets at significantly lower costs, says SP Studios’ VFX supervisor Conor McNeilly. Generative artificial intelligence tools, which can be plugged into these gaming engines and create 3D elements within minutes, are set to turbocharge these processes.
Altobelli says there is excitement among filmmakers to see how the space is evolving, adding, “when it comes to lower budget and independent movies, there’s a lot of support and drive to test this kind of tech.”
This story originally appeared in Playback‘s Spring 2024 issue
Photo by Nate Dickson, taken at Vancouver’s Versatile Media