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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1359241
platforms we expect will become the standard for future TV/film production. Everyone in the M&E industry is familiar with the good old green screen to shoot your actors/action and then add the appropriate background and content so viewers believe they’re in the desert, on a mountain top, in the ocean, screaming down the highway or flying among the stars. The results can be okay, super cool or OMG! Green screen is an established, well-understood technology that post people have learned how to optimize the scene and overcome the shortcomings. But walk onto a set with a LED video wall and you say, “Holy (words you can’t say on TV).” Disney/ILM used the LED video wall technology in making Cats, The Lion King and The Mandalorian. The Mandalorian video wall cost upward of $1M and there are already 100 plus installed/being installed in studios around the globe and a couple of hundred more on order. And yes, the cost has been steadily dropping as more walls are installed and studio owners (and producers) see the creative possibilities. Last fall, Pinewood Studios in Atlanta opened its LED-stage virtual production service in partnership with MBSi, Fuse and SGPS/ShowRig. The initial LED-stage system will be used to eliminate the need for traditional car process trailers and set-builds in addition to reducing the cost and production time. There are already plans to expand to a larger permanent stage facility since the initial LED-stage system is already booked for … a few months. The game changer for the industry has been the solving of camera parallax, real-time interactive lighting, real-time interaction with video elements and real-time interaction with cast members and virtual characters that have been programmed in. Unlike traditional green screen sets, actors can see the background and cinematographers can match perspectives and camera parallax so that it looks like an actual location shoot and the lighting is more dynamic. For example, with The Mandalorian, the LED walled stage directors were able to manipulate their surroundings, providing endless creative opportunities. But perhaps one of the best “Ah Ha” advances for film/TV production came when a few creative crews took advantage of the real-time technologies built into game engines like Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and Unity. Kathleen Maher, analyst and editor at Jon Peddie Research, explained that we don’t have to wish for a production advance because it’s already available