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Recently, Epic Games and Bullitt brought together top filmmakers to create
The Origin.
In the process, they put the new virtual production toolset in Unreal Engine through its paces.
RYAN MCNEELY: As a director, time is your biggest enemy.
And the thing about this, the speed
at which we're able to move and the amount of setups,
that's honestly the dream.
The ability to find new shots on the stage is just incredible.
We can really get to the core of what a scene is about,
and then use the volume to help tell that story.
ANTHONY RUSSO: One of the things that excites us most,
of course, about this is that the fact that we
can do in-camera choreography where
all the elements of the frame are actually
in concert with one another and organically
working on one another to create a more visceral experience.
JOE RUSSO: If an actor has an idea
or a camera operator wants to reframe the shot,
you can make those alterations in the moment.
Everyone is working in a very tactile way.
RYAN MCNEELY: In the same amount of time
that it would take me to change a light in the physical world,
I'm able to have new lighting on the wall.
As a director, that's a game changer.
MATTHEW JENSEN: It's so much easier now to be able to make the changes
in real time, see their effects, and then make adjustments
from there.
RYAN MCNEELY: And it's immediate.
So your whole world that you're shooting in is changeable.
MATTHEW JENSEN: It allows for a happy accident.
It allows for more spontaneity in the creative process.
KIM LABRERI: So from day one with virtual production,
we build a real-time engine, we want
to make sure that all processes are real-time or can
happen incredibly quickly.
In the moment, you change your mind,
you want to change the light, you want to move the rock,
you want to do stuff right in front of your eyes.
What's the point of deploying real-time technology
if you don't have a real-time feedback loop?
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RYAN MCNEELY: The really exciting thing about this
is the fact that we're not pushing everything to the end
anymore.
This isn't something that like, oh,
we'll just deal with it later.
We're making those decisions with our entire team,
our production designers, our DPs.
Everybody is there on set and working on this stuff together.
DIANE CASTRUP: It's not separated
into components of preproduction, shoot,
and post-production.
Usually you just have your physical set
that you're standing on and this green screen is behind you
and you just kind of give it over after you're done shooting
and you hope that it all works out.
QUITO COOKSEY: Once physical photography ends,
post takes over.
And if you're not part of that, everything
that you really envisioned and designed goes through a filter
and doesn't always come at the other end in the way
in which you envisioned.
With this, you have the virtual art department
with control of the concept designs all the way through
to final pixel.
SEAN HARNER: I have to admit, I was skeptical
when I first came here, but four or five days into it,
I am totally blown away with how you can move things around how
we can change sun direction, how you can physically change sets.
We're taskmasters, and it's all about time.
If I lose an hour on a commercial or a movie,
I can't get that time back, and that
could be $100,000 or that could be $500,000.
We shot four sets over the course of four days--
four big sets.
I mean, they looked gigantic.
And then we realized we didn't have shots that we wanted.
I went to the guys and I said, all right.
I need the cave entrance.
I need the spaceship set, and this is how I'm going to do it.
So not only did we shoot all those big set piece up,
but I'm going to shoot all those pickups.
And just in between the sets is 20, 30 minutes setup.
It was photo-real and it was ready to reel.
That means that you could go from shooting it
to projection in the same day.
That's the technology at its finest.
QUITO COOKSEY: I don't think there's any turning back.
When silent films are going to speaking,
you better learn how to start speaking.
DIANE CASTRUP: If it was up to me,
I would shoot like this on every production.
I love it.
I absolutely love it.
JOE RUSSO: Feels like we're moving
from filmmaking 1.0 jumping to filmmaking 5.0,
and I don't see any other path forward as
nearly as exciting, compelling, or freeing for artists
as this path.
find out more www.uevirtualproduction.com