Over the years, technology has driven film production, from innovations in camera technology to motion capture, visual effects, and digital compositing. Now people are seeing how virtual production is starting to make an impact. There are many forms of virtual production, so it can be hard to make sense of it all. It has become a catch-all term for computer-generated film production and visualization techniques (Bornkamm, Köhler, and Petraitis, 2018, p. 42). Rear projection, which goes back to the 1930s, was the original method of simulating an ambient background on a sound stage (Bowditch, Williams, and Durado, 2021, p.37). This has mainly been replaced by green screen technology, allowing directors to replace the environment in post-production, as well as providing the ability to create increasingly complex visual effects sequences (Brown, 2021). Modern virtual production now uses high-resolution LED screens and game engine technology to give creatives control over the entire scene, from weather to vantage point.
Recent films that have used implicit composition include “The Jungle Book,” “The Lion King,” and “The Mandalorian.” Ben Grossmann, visual effects supervisor and co-founder of Magnopus, an Oscar and Emmy Award winner, was the supervisor of the virtual production of The Lion King. He explains virtual production as building a game called “Filmmaking,” in which a person builds the world of the film (Bosworth and Sarah, 2018, p. 134). Instead of guns or jetpacks, filmmakers give players traditional movie equipment such as cameras, carts, and flashlights. When a person uses VR to make a movie, it is like standing on a movie set in the real world, even if it is entirely virtual (Carrier and Miller, 2020, p. 35). Virtual production blurs the line between preparation, production, and publication (Grabowski, 2020). This nonlinear, collaborative, and efficient process can be used to overcome a number of practical, creative, and budgetary constraints.
With virtual production, the workflow shifts from a “fix it when published” approach to a “solve it in preparation” approach. This gives filmmakers the opportunity to experiment and visualize footage with immediate feedback (Deshpande and Mazaj, 2018, p. 124). It gives the actors a better acting experience because they can actually immerse themselves in the environment and see the virtual actors they have to interact with. Recent advances in real-time computer graphics, combined with the constraints imposed by the COVID crisis, have created unique opportunities for production companies (Agarwal and Sunitha, 2020, p. 435). The fact is that in the era of the coronavirus, most companies are trying to limit face-to-face communications with their employees.
The same is valid for movie production corporations, for which filming movies has become a real problem. Admittedly, the film industry and cinemagoers have not seen this kind of upheaval since World War II (Bhowmik, 2021). Moreover, this applies all over the world, from China, which was the first to close cinemas due to an outbreak of disease, to the United States, where the most extensive film distribution chains have stopped working (Fang, 2021). Because of the quarantine, many premieres were canceled and postponed, causing companies to lose a lot of capital investment. For example, the creators of the new movie “Mission Impossible” had hoped to spend the summer in Italy, filming Tom Cruise, once again dodging bullets and driving a car (Williams et al., 2021, p. 137). The new part of the action movie was due next summer, but the release was postponed by almost six months – the shooting had to be postponed because of the pandemic (Nhamo, Dube, and Chikodzi, 2020, p. 47). “Mission Impossible” was one of the first, but not the only, Hollywood project to be affected by the coronavirus.
When most countries imposed self-imposed isolation, Universal Studios was working on the last part of “Jurassic World” and Disney – on the new “Little Mermaid.” Now most projects are on hold, with some high-profile premieres postponed-often indefinitely (HanzlĂk and Mazierska, 2021, p. 47). Since the film industry is a big business machine, stopping its work is not possible. Studios, producers, and union members are trying to figure out how to resume filming without endangering everyone involved (Lupton and Willis, 2021, p. 114). The state of California should soon be issuing new rules that will allow studios to get back to work. So, during the quarantine period, due to the covid pandemic that virtual production began to gain popularity (Cockerham and Cockerham, 2020, p. 58). An important advantage at this point is that virtual sets can be assembled by people working from home, and remote directors can manage shooting details (Day, Couch, and Dhesi, 2021, p. 147). Using game engines such as Unreal and Unity, combined with powerful video cards, camera tracking, and VR and AR, filmmakers can now create scenes in physical and digital worlds.
The film industry is not alone in quickly realizing the benefits of virtual production. Tools and techniques are being used in many other industries, including broadcasting, music, fashion, and advertising (Dooley, 2017). Much progress remains to be made to transform the film industry through virtual production. Advances in processors and graphics processors will continue to improve the quality and current limitations of real-time rendering (Dowling et al., 2018, p. 23). Over time, virtual production needs will also help open up creative possibilities for the broader industry (Dmytryk and McElhaney, 2018, p. 57). These technologies will become cheaper and more accessible, allowing a more comprehensive range of creatives and industries with smaller budgets to adopt virtual production to create new and exciting content.
To summarize, virtual production is radically changing the film industry. Having become popular during the coronavirus pandemic, it offers a solution to many of the problems that have arisen for the industry. Chief among them is the inability to comply with quarantine measures while interacting on the set. Because of this, many premieres have been canceled, and seeds have been put on hold until better times. As a consequence of canceled screenings, movie studios lose more capital investment and may cease operations altogether (Menkes and Suska, 2021, p. 132). This is why virtual filmmaking became so important during the pandemic. It allows the director to work remotely and simulate the situation on the set as it would be in real life.
In the future, virtual production may change not only the film industry but the entire media space. This will happen because many more areas need to buy filming remotely, such as advertising and media marketing (Irwin, 2020). Thanks to virtual filmmaking, directors, and actors will be able to continue their work without the risk of getting sick. This will revolutionize the world of digital production and save the economy of the film industry from substantial financial losses.
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