Virtual studios are making big waves in the film industry. With Virtual Production and XR (Extended Reality), LED screen technology is used to create the environment around a person or subject. To create a whole world beyond just an LED backdrop, camera tracking and real time rendering are combined. This process enables the content on these screens to be rendered dynamically from the point of view of the camera. The content moves along with the camera.

An XR studio is an immersive space where the actor can physically see or interact with their surroundings unlike a regular studio or set. The entire production is captured in-camera, with very minimal post-production work needed. Because the background and environments are already visible in the shot, production crew and cinematographers can frame and light with confidence. Having to re-shoot scenes also becomes much less of an issue – you can load the same background and you are good to go again with no extra hassle of going back to a specific location/set.

The main benefit is that this kind of pre-production work is also a lot easier, and a lot less expensive, to shoot on set than sending cast and crew across the globe to real-world locations. By using Virtual Production you could be in the mountains in Switzerland in the morning, a beach in Thailand at lunch and on the Brooklyn Bridge in the evening. In the time of social distancing and COVID, being in a controlled virtual environment helps enormously in keeping the cast and crew safe.

Go2 On Set

At Go2, we’ve created the content for the on-set magic for several TV and commercial projects. For the hit show Heroes Reborn, our team’s beautiful 2D and 3D-animated sequence was rear projected on set, creating a spectacularly dream-like sequence intended to be a huge TV moment.

For the Audi commercial, A Projection of Greatness, the entire shoot was filmed at Fortress Mountain in the Rockies, 7500ft above sea level in -25º temperatures, pushing both technology and personal limits to the maximum. All the visual effects were caught in camera – happening live on site using multiple projection rigs and techniques, with no post production visual effects being added to the commercial.

For the latest series of Dell commercials – Magic, GE, Chitale Dairy and Columbia Sportswear – we worked on set for 6 days, projecting content onto massive scrims, a jet engine, a boat, a snowboarder and even a real live cow named ‘Molly’. Projectors needed to be elevated up on scissor lifts to get over cameras and lighting rigs swiftly, and to ensure we had surface coverage, and we had to focus as fast as possible on each surface as it changed position from shot to shot.

And for Target’s 2018 Grammy spot featuring Maren Moris, our rear projection set up made the elevator scene look flawless and helped set the tone for the rest of the video.

Contact us to learn more about our Virtual Production services and ideas.