Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531981
40 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Spring 2025 the opportunity it created. Films like 2013's Oblivion had started experimenting with virtual production by stitching images from front-screen projectors together to simulate environments that could be captured in camera instead of using a green screen to composite scenes together in post-production. Unreal Engine took this process to the next level. Rather than shooting environmental plates, it was suddenly possible to play back virtual environments rendered within a video game engine to create realistic scenery on a film set. Today, Unreal Engine stands as the most popular game engine in the world and is used on virtual production sets around the globe. In late May 2024, the Local 695 BRIC Grant cohort met at the Mo-Sys offices in Hawthorne to begin learning the ins and outs of this system. The classes were primarily taught by Local 695 member Eric Rigney, who currently serves as the Global Director of the Mo-Sys Academy training program. Both Eric and Mo-Sys were incredible partners throughout this process and were incredibly generous with both their time and the support of our members. As many of the participants within the cohort are new in their careers or come from other areas of the craft, it was important to start out with a foundational overview of signal routing, video engineering, and computer networking. These are foundational skills in the field of virtual production, and anyone interested in learning more about this area of the industry is encouraged to spend time on LinkedIn Learning (all IATSE members have access to a free LinkedIn Learning account through the union). With that done, the course shifted gears into how Local 695 members would utilize Unreal Engine on set. Virtual production is a complicated crossroads of crafts, requiring input from the art, lighting, camera, and video departments to implement the final scenes. It is important for members to understand where their jurisdiction begins and ends on set. For example, Local 695 members are not responsible for creating an Unreal Engine environment, but they do need to be able to set up a project, import an environment, and manipulate it so that the image being played back is correct for the scene being shot. This means everything from adjusting the 3D viewer to see the right part of the virtual map to adjusting the size or lighting of objects in the scene to adding graphics or effects to an existing map to create a specific look. After their two weeks with the Mo-Sys Academy, the cohort moved onto training modules with Lightning LED, facilitated by Local 695 members Shahrouz Nooshinfar, Seth Fine, Storm Flejter, and Connor Solomon. On the first day of the second training module, students were given an intensive overview of how LED walls work, down to the circuit level. By starting with basic electrical engineering and going through the nitty-gritty of tile management, maintenance, and replacement, participants were exposed to a variety of panel types and workflows so that they would be prepared to start on any production, regardless of its particular LED infastructure. Then the group moved onto WATCHOUT. Virtual production often requires sending video signals to many displays at the same time, with very large video walls sometimes being made up of dozens of individual panels. WATCHOUT is one of several media-server products that allows video engineers to map