ACQUISITION & LIGHTING www.content-technology.com/acquisition
Weta Digital, Streamliner, and Avalon Studios Launch LED-Stage Virtual Production Service NEW ZEALAND’S WETA DIGITAL, Avalon Studios and live event company Streamliner Productions, have announced a new LED-stage virtual production service, based in Wellington. A modern take on using front or rear projections of landscapes or rolling streets, Weta Digital Executive Producer David Conley describes LED stages as “… the latest technique to take advantage of game engine technology to provide virtual production workflows that can greatly expand what is possible on set. Being able to shoot final VFX imagery at the same time as principle photography adds another level of creative control for producers and filmmakers.” According to Richard Lander, Studio Manager at Avalon, the service can be scaled to cater for smaller productions and TVCs right up to a 270-degree screen scenario of the type used by ILM and Disney on The Mandalorian. “Each partner’s a different part of the puzzle,” says Lander. “We’ve provided the studios. Our Studio 8 measures in height to its grid 8.4 metres, and it’s got 23 metres wide and 33 metres deep. And then our Studio 11, which is going to be used in the same way, has the 17 metres wide and it’s 30 metres deep and it has an extra height of 10 metres. “We’ve done experiments where you can potentially put screens on the grids because our grids are enabled to do a clip on type scenario where you can clip the screens to the roof of the grid, but we’ve also worked out that you don’t always need a screen on the grid or a screen necessarily on the floor, it’s more the walls, because obviously on the floor the Art Department is laying something together to give you that illusion of there’s a bit of sand, for example, that people have used regularly, or a bit of a prop in the foreground that then the background so the screens takeover and give you that 3D imagery out the back. And on the grid, you can do that.” The studios can also employ J-arm cranes with LED screens attached that can “float” or be positioned above the acting talent. “For example, if they’ve got a helmet on and you want that reflection to appear truly in the top of the helmet, or if you’ve someone with glasses and they’re looking up, the reflection from the screen is appearing in that,” says Lander.
ACQUISITION
Provided by Streamliner, the facility’s large, configurable LED panels are able to display imagery beyond 8K as a way to augment practical sets or replace greenscreen shots. With screens for indoor and outdoor use, options include a variety of small pixel-pitch arrays (the smaller the pixel pitch, the higher the pixel density, and resolution).
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“We’ve got some which are 3.9mm pitch and some which are 2.5mm pitch,” says Richard Lander. “Those are the indoor ones and then the outdoor ones we’re carrying are 5.9mm and 6.9mm pitch.
“We know in the next few months there’ll be one that will become more the standard, which is going to be around the realms of 1.9mm pitch. I think the industry standard will become 1.9mm near the end of the year, so that’s what we’ll gear up to as well.” Another piece of the puzzle provided by Streamliner are strong relationships with augmented reality technology provider Disguise, as well as Epic Games, creator of the Unreal Engine. In addition to delivering high quality VFX/ graphics to the LED screens, the systems can also be used to trigger studio lighting. “The lighting board is also being driven by Disguise and the Unreal Engine,” says Lander. “So, the lighting board is getting triggered by what the screens are doing to actually enable the lights to flash to a particular timer or to a certain colour temperature or whatever you wanted to use. “We’ve done tests with a car scenario where someone’s gone out and shot a plate scenario. A car was mounted with five cameras on it inside and on the roof, it recorded the environment where it drove for ten minutes down a road and then we come back and that imagery from all those five cameras is then played onto the five screens surrounding the car and then you’re getting the true reflections of that. And not only are they acting as the reflection, but the panels or the LED screens are so strong that they become the lighting in a sense as well. “The car was travelling through trees, so obviously you’ve got the light coming through the trees, which is exactly like a shaft of light, so you were getting an effect of that by the screens themselves but to augment that, the DOP put a light through one of the panels so he gave that extra flash to give the illusion to the person in the audience watching it, there was a shaft of light striking the car every three or four seconds. The beauty of that now, because of all of this technology, the guys are timing the screens, they’re using the screens, which is driven by the
Disguise system, and the Unreal Engine, but they’re tying it to the lighting guys or the lighting board operators. “The beauty in using the LED screens of course, is you’re getting true reflections all in time in sync with the driver who is driving, and then the director of course is just able to back up the thing, repeats the link, as opposed to driving down the car down the road or closing off a road.” According to the Avalon Studio Manager, test scenarios have involved different models of camera to ascertain compatibility with the LED set-up. “That proved really successful,” says Richard Lander. “We’ve tested with RED cameras to know their capabilities and their lens variations on a screen. We’ve tested with ARRI cameras and Sony cameras, and Panavision cameras. “To be fair, some cameras performed better than others in this environment, which would be true anywhere. [For example] the ARRI camera and the Sony camera have a subtle shutter thing within them that enables you to clear up any of the what we would term, ‘a Moire effect’, when you’re in close to a screen.” In addition to enabling more control, and reducing production and costs, Richard Lander says LED stages suit the requirements of a COVID-safe workplace. “In a COVID sense,” he says, “the programmers, or the people prepping the production, can be upstairs using that space in a comfortable environment to do all their design elements, and then it’s controlled where we can patch it to the floor straight away and to the screen, so that means there’s actually less people on the studio floor, which is good for long form or TV projects because then you’re keeping that social distancing factor on the floor.” For more information, contact sales@wetafx.co.nz
