Every shoot is an ‘oh wow’: virtual production, which The Mandalorian on Disney+ pioneered, cranks up – a meeting of video game and film technology
- Virtual production replaces green screens with wraparound LED screens that can display anything creators want, and allow shots to be edited in real time
- Insiders saw the future after it was used to make Star Wars show The Mandalorian, and since then music videos, commercials and movie scenes have been shot
The building housing Vu Orlando, in the US state of Florida, looks like any other office building. But inside, past the lobby and the green room, lies another world – or rather, infinite worlds.
A massive LED screen – 8 metres by 47 metres (26ft by 155ft) – wraps around three sides of Vu’s stage one sound studio. The screen, which is known as a “volume”, immerses those standing inside it in anything from green-peaked mountains to a vast alien desert to a city found only in the imagination.
“With virtual production, whatever you dream … it’s possible in this environment,” says Vu co-founder and president Jon Davila.
Vu is the latest player in virtual production, which is a relatively new method of film production that replaces green screens with huge displays that can be shot and edited in real time.
Virtual production merges video game and film technology to render environments that react to cameras and actors the way the real world does.
