All hail the virtual production revolution

Time, costs and carbon emissions are key factors for the future of our industry. Filmmakers once needed to spend millions of pounds and many weeks scaling the Alps to film in increments at sunrise, but advancements in virtual production now mean that all that can be done in a studio.

So much has been written about the technological revolution changing the TV and film industries. From my seat I can see the limitless possibilities that come with embracing the new. I’ve always worked at the forefront of media and innovative technology, but when I started my career in New York I honestly could never have imagined that I’d be working with the most technologically advanced virtual production facility in the world - or that it would be in Belfast, where we have just launched Studio Ulster.

Why does the virtual production revolution matter? Facilities like ours mean that DOPs can keep their golden hour sunset for hours on end – or alternatively transition very quickly to another setting and stage configuration quickly.

The eagle-eyed production managers among you will spot that means savings on flights, carbon outputs, and overall production costs. We can be comfortably and safely filming indoors versus atop a frozen mountaintop or a busy street at night. It’s a game changer, and very importantly also means we can be more environmentally conscious in how we do it.

Plus, we’re proud the facility operates on 100% renewable energy and has achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating, making it the only virtual production stage in the UK to hold this standard.

Virtual production also means we’re protecting the more vulnerable locations around the world which can’t withstand an entire crew arriving without damage to the site. By creating digital versions of the locations and using them to shoot in VP, the location is still promoted but also preserved.

Over the last decade, big projects across Northern Ireland such as Game of Thrones, The Fall, and Derry Girls have showed an intent from the region which has only gathered steam and we hope that Studio Ulster will continue to secure Northern Ireland as a premier production destination for the next decade, bolstered by the UK’s generous screen sector tax reliefs for high-end TV, Film, Animation, and Video Game productions.

Virtual production can play a huge part in that ambition – as it can across the whole industry as we search for new production models that create TV and film in sustainable and sophisticated ways. 

• Alyssa Boyle is head of commercial operations at Studio Ulster