5 minute read
Real-time Revolution
Image: e set of 1899 © Alex Forge & Netflix.
Are games and television and film coming closer together? After years of developing along very separate lines, there are more signs than ever that these distinct worlds are starting to intertwine.
For years, the video games industry has developed completely independently of the film and television business – with very little crossover of talent or production technology. And it’s has done so very successfully too. The video games market is on track to pass the USD200 billion mark by 2023, according to Newzoo figures. For comparison, the global film industry first hit USD100 billion in 2019. But there are signs that these very separate worlds may be starting to converge. At a corporate level, there are signs of change. Netflix officially unveiled its plans to enter the video game market in July, and soon after acquired game developer Night School Studio. Initially, the streamer will start with mobile games, seeing it as a new content category that will help it attract and retain customers. Also in July, UK broadcaster ITV invested in mobile games firm Live Tech Games. Disney’s Marvel, meanwhile, recently partnered with the new-media unit of Skydance Media to build what it describes as “a narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game, featuring a completely original story and take on the Marvel Universe.” However, the most interesting signs of convergence are taking place at the production level – whether that’s television companies helping games tell narrative stories or visual effects companies embracing gaming technology to create film and television content. Best known for producing television shows such as Horrible Histories, Lion Television, for example, has been working for the past three years with Xbox Game Studios’ World’s Edge Studio and Relic Entertainment on strategy game Age of Empires IV, which was released at the end of October.
Age of Empires IV has drawn upon Lion’s expertise in making factual shows to produce 50 short films which help provide historical context for players throughout the game about conflicts such as the Battle of Hastings or the 100 Years War.
Image: Disney Gallery: e Mandalorian © Disney & Lucasfilm Ltd.
Image: 1899 © Rasmus Voss & Netflix. For Lion executive producer Bill Locke, the experience was eye-opening. “They are vast enterprises – like big movie franchises like Marvel or Bond. They have a big user community, and an amazing relationship with their fan base, which TV could learn from. They really engage with their fan base, and take it very seriously.”
Asked if the two industries are coming closer together, Locke says he thinks they will. “There is a great synergy between the two. We’re used to pointing cameras at things, and they create virtual worlds within computers. But you are still trying to tell a story, and to lead people enticingly through something.”
Still, he is surprised by how few people who work in television have played games or know anything about the games world. And he recognises that the skills for creating games are very different to those in the television world.
However, production processes themselves are starting to overlap – in particular in the field of virtual production – which makes use of the real-time engines used in the games industry.
Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, is making a name for itself in the film and television industry by providing its Unreal Engine software for virtual productions.
Famously, over 50% of The Mandalorian’s first season was filmed using this ground-breaking technology, eliminating the need for location shoots entirely.
Complex shots were filmed completely in-camera using Unreal Engine and LED screens that provided photo-real digital locations within a studio setting.
Since then the demand for virtual production has accelerated hugely, says Framestore global real-time director Karl Woolley. He says the vfx house’s virtual production team shot up from zero to 100 within the space of a year in 2020.
This year, Framestore has been working on Netflix series 1899, which has filmed at Europe’s largest virtual production stage at Studio Babelsberg in Berlin.
1899 hails from the German creators of supernatural drama Dark, and is a period mystery set on a migrant boat sailing from Europe to the United States. The series had been in prep since 2018 and planned to shoot in Spain, Poland and Scotland. When the pandemic hit, these plans were derailed and the show pivoted wholesale to virtual production techniques.
Visiting the set earlier this year, Netflix chief Reed Hastings hailed the show as a new benchmark for series production. “Right now, the most advanced production technology in the world is here [in Berlin], it’s really cutting edge and amazing.”
Real-time engine skills for virtual production are in high demand, say Woolley. “At the tools level, the industries are heavily intertwined and will only become more so.”
Framestore has created a training partnership with Epic called Fuse to help retrain its existing talent and allow it to create a large-scale real-time VFX pipeline to be used in the production of a film, created from concept to final pixel entirely with Unreal Engine. It has also hired senior figures from the games industry, including Grant Bolton, lead technical director for engine.
Eventually, the shared use of real-time production tools that span the games, television and film industries will allow creators to output content more easily across multiple platforms – be that games, film or virtual reality – rather than having to start from scratch for each medium. This is what Framestore had to do when creating the Niffler creatures for
“The adopTion of real-Time engines in film and Television is moving as fasT as The indusTry can Train and recruiT sTaff.”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; it had to remake the Nifflers three times – once for film, the other times for games and VR – as they had to be created with different technology.
The adoption of real-time engines in film and television is moving as fast as the industry can train and recruit staff. Framestore’s team that handles in-camera visual effects shoots is having to turn down work, says Woolley. In October, London’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) announced the launch a new course to service what it described as the ‘unprecedented demand’ for virtual production skills within the screen sector.
The convergence of games and film and television production techniques is still very much at the early stage – but it seems it is only going to accelerate.
