Snowfall Uses Virtual Production to Recreate 1983 Los Angeles

SONY CINE, David Heuring - June 6, 2022

LED tools offer flexibility, efficiency.

Virtual production is making inroads throughout the motion picture industry. Pioneered in its current form on Avatar and The Polar Express, and further refined on mega-projects like Gravity and Jon Favreau’s live-action The Lion King (2019), as well as on commercials and car shots, the technique is now finding its way to projects of almost any description or budget. Advancements in tracking tools, LED pixel pitch, and other fundamental elements now allow filmmakers to shoot surrounded by an entire virtual world that is visible to the camera, the actors and the crew. That means realistic interactive lighting effects are captured with cameras and lenses naturally adding subtle cues like lens distortion and depth of field, bokeh and lens flare. Filmmakers can work more intuitively, with the technology enhancing rather than encumbering the creative process.

Orbital maintains a 36,000-square foot facility in Los Angeles, and will soon open up an operation in Chicago. A.J. Wedding, Orbital’s founder, says that the process is now sufficiently evolved to meet demanding television schedules and changing storylines.

The workflow moving from production to post is really tough on a television schedule, so we’ve been developing a system that uses video plates layered in rather than full virtual worlds. That’s something we can do very quickly. We can turn plates around in a couple weeks. Being a part of the planning is extremely important.

A. J. Wedding - Co-founder & CCO, Orbital Studios

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