Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1451742
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION www.postmagazine.com 19 POST JAN/FEB 2022 Dimension, with studios in London and Newcastle, UK, considers itself a new breed of production studio — one that creates content using a combination of volumetric capture and realtime engines. Steve Jelley, the studio's co-founder and joint managing director, says Dimension has more than seven years of experience with leading edge virtual production techniques, having gotten its start in immersive content production using Unreal Engine. "We've built what you would now call a 'virtual art department,' though we didn't know that's what we were going to call it," he explains. "We were an early pioneer of volumetric capture array-based pho- tography and virtual humans/avatars. We also have a lot of skill set in terms of large-scale production, so we own and operate our own studios." The company's move into virtual production was led, in part, by sustainabil- ity, he notes, and how they could do things more efficiently y reducing the need to fly la ge crews around the world for shoots. "We started…doing some internal tests. And then when the pandemic hap- pened, we found ourselves in the position of being able to do it at scale in the UK. We've been in continuous production for the last couple of years on virtual production jobs." While many of their current projects are still in production or for clients whose programming hasn't aired yet, the studio has several examples of its capabilities on its website (www.dimensionstudio.co). In fact, Dimension part- nered with Sky, Dneg and director Paul Franklin to showcase what's possible using these latest techniques via a series of proof of concept videos. The ex- amples call attention to a number of benefits or using virtual production, one being 'instant locations,' which play into the initial idea of being more efficie with travel, etc. 'Durability of the day' is another concept that is illustrated on the Dimension site. Rather than having to schedule shoots during the golden hour, which has limitations due to both timing, duration and the unpredictability of weather, using an LED volume can provide productions with an unlimited window in which to shoot at a optimum state. In addition, the acting talent has a more interactive experience, which tends to improve performances. "Every shoot I've ever done, the actors are such fans of doing it this way, because they can see what they're doing," he explains. "Our model is one of an end-to-end engagement in making a film or TV show, or an hour-long drama," Jelley continues. "We will get involved right at the conceptual stage, when people will be thinking about, 'What does this look like.'" This includes meeting with the production designer, director and visual effects supervisor. "We'll be concepting what things might look like, whilst at the same time… going through a previs process," he explains. "We will also run a techvis pro- cess, which is really just about: What does it look like in real life? How big are the LED screens? What kind of lenses am I going to use? Can I actually do a wide shot using 135mm lens?" The ultimate goal, says Jelley, it to capture as much in-camera visual effects as possible. "If you're shooting final pi el — you're photographing it — that's your image. You might do some things, like wire removal or something…but you're not relying on VFX putting the majority of the image into the frame. So that is the goal: in-camera visual effects. But virtual production is wider than that." In his time working with LED volumes, Jelley says he has come to a number of conclusions: "They are better at some things than others. Environments, vehicles, those kinds of things [are phenomenal]. But water? Not so much." Dimension has a small stage of their own and will help configu e larger stages when needed, based on the production. In fact, most of their work is produced on major soundstages throughout the world. "You tend to need large stages," he notes. "Once you put the range of lenses you want to on it, you end up needing quite a big (LED) wall, so we tend to follow production decisions. We will build a stage to suit each production generally — build out the soundstage wherever they shoot — and we do that globally. We've done productions in UK, North America and Eastern Europe." Partnerships, note Jelley, are important in furthering the use of virtual production processes, and played a large role in the demonstration videos it features on its website. Dimension has been working with Microsoft on many levels, particularly volumetric capture. They've also had a long-standing rela- tionship with Dneg as a visual effects partner. Sky is a long-standing client and is looking to explore virtual production as an option for its content. "I think there is a myth that only the very large scale Hollywood productions can use this," says Jelley of the technology. "That's one of the reasons we did that shoot, because we wanted to prove that that wasn't the case." Right now, Jelley feel virtual production exists in its 1.0 iteration, and that both growth and opportunity are on the horizon. "The technology works. It's complicated, but it defini ely works. Innovation? That's going to continue in this space…Where the real innovation is going to come is when people start writing for this technology. They started writing scripts. So if I'm sitting down, writing my series and I wanted to set it on a space station, but I never thought I could, now I can! I can do it all in an LED volume. Just as people wrote great westerns for the western sets they had in the '40s, you'll find people writing scripts or LED stages and writing around them, and writing content that's actually (for) what this technology can do best. That's going to be the biggest change. And that's already happening. I can see that in scripts that I'm reading now." Embracing the possibilities Steve Jelley Dimension is seeing scripts that embrace the concept of virtual production.