Business Use Cases of Virtual Production
“This technology is not a gimmick. It is changing what’s possible within brand and corporate video production by unlocking any location you can imagine for your shoot.”
Callum Swan - Creative Director at Lamplight Media
What if you could be on the beach in Nice, in your London office, and taking a stroll round Central Park; all within the space of 30 minutes? You’d tell us that isn’t possible. However, in a secluded corner of Windsor, this is a reality. Virtual production has already revolutionised the high end TV & film world, and now it is starting to become attainable for mid-sized commercial productions. Could virtual production be the tool that helps your brand’s new video stand out from the crowd by making ambitious creative visions realistic for your budget?
Virtual production is a bleeding-edge filmmaking technique that combines LED walls, 3D game environments, and camera tracking; to create a seamless blend between your live subject and the virtual world. A world that can be reframed, re-lit and remodelled in real-time. This technology, which until recently was only available to productions with deep pockets, is now useful for a wider range of budgets and production types. At the VP studio at Windsor College, we’ve been producing some spec work to demonstrate the commercial applications virtual production is great for.
We created four separate scenes which pushed the technology in different ways & explored their utility for business:
Fireside chat talking head interview.
Creative: Using a slider & a photorealistic 3D FAB model of a modern office interior, we replicated a traditional 2-shot fireside chat, typically used in corporate explainer or thought leadership content.
Business use case: Imagine your CFO was in your London office, but you needed them to be in a video on the same background as the CEO, based at your Frankfurt office. Now you can without losing any valuable time & money to travel, by replicating the office in 3D and filming the CFO in a nearby London studio.
2. Summer Althleisure clothing brand film.
Creative: We placed a fitness model in a photorealistic 3D FAB environment of a sunny park & outdoor sports complex, coupled with handheld cinematography to inject energy.
Business use case: No concerns about weather, as it’s always sunny in the virtual world. Dynamic lighting changes and different locations without the model or crew needing to move a muscle.
3. Alcohol brand hero film
Creative: We used motorised product spinners, a virtual beach environment, & warm tungsten lighting to transport the alcohol bottle to an environment evocative of crashing waves and Pina Coladas. This was coupled with fast slider push-ins and slow motion cinematography to add energy & dynamism to the scene.
Business use case: Similar weather & lighting advantages to the clothing film, the granular control required for slow-motion product cinematography, plus complete control over wind, waves, and sand. We hate sand…
4. TARDIS miniature scene
Creative: Combining motorised spinners, a 3D virtual camera travelling around a planet, and Mimik lighting panels - we transported a model TARDIS into low-planet orbit.
Business use case: The world of sci-fi has commercial use - we promise. These techniques are the same used for making phones and other tech products float in mid-air.
This technology is not a gimmick. It is changing what’s possible within brand and corporate video production by unlocking any location you can imagine for your shoot. In the attention economy, that’s invaluable. Save time, money, and headaches with virtual production.
