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from firms like London-based The Foundry which has become the go-to production tool during the pandemic by studios and post-production houses like Pixar, ILM, MPC, Disney, Weta Digital, DNEG, Framestore and other shops. The best part was that she pointed me to a YouTube segment of Epic’s video series The Pulse that does an excellent job of explaining Epic’s view of how real-time filmmaking and virtual production is taking film/TV production to a whole new level for film/TV production just when we need it most. Truthfully, we spent about three hours studying this video - https://tinyurl.com/y2nysc4z - and other segments of The Pulse and all we can say is “Freakin Awesome!” The great thing is that it’s not just for deep pocket tentpole projects, but it can be affordably and creatively used by indie filmmakers who want to take their projects to a whole new level. Our friend Mark Poppin, founder of BabelTechReviews, who knows that all things are possible with VR, patiently explained how game technology has become a fundamental part of the way today’s filmmakers create and shoot in virtual sets … in real-time. We probably should have realized this because games have become so “real” since the days we worked with Atari. Kathleen and Mark noted that the software allows multiple production folks to create open worlds with textures, near-perfect lighting and the ability to tweak the scene/set almost instantly. Kathleen said that technology continues to evolve to enable production team members to collaborate on the virtual sets regardless of where they are located or where the shoot location is. She emphasized that the pandemic has caused a horse race among tool makers to innovate virtual production methods. “We aren’t saying multiple location shoots are completely gone,” Kathleen commented, “but it’s entirely possible to reduce the time and money budget by bringing locations on various parts of the globe to the crew rather than traveling to three or four countries to set up and shoot segments that are then brought together in post.” An excellent example of this was with The Mandalorian where crews used drones to capture detailed images of Monument Valley in Arizona. Then, with Unreal Engine and/or Unity, they used the data to “build” the rock formations and desert on set. Going beyond that, the folks in The Pulse virtual production video said they could see a time when producers could almost eliminate physical set construction and instead draw from a digital library of virtual sets, select those that best worked for a specific segment, digitally modify them, shoot the scene and prepare for the next segment without using a single hammer, nail, saw or board. It helped production teams