A NEW ERA FOR VIRTUAL PRODUCTION AT GARDEN STUDIOS
Garden Studios’ extensive hands-on virtual production experience has resulted in a volume stage designed to offer productions greater creative flexibility through smarter design, advanced LED technology and collaborative expertise.
Garden Studios is one of the longest running virtual production facilities in the UK; the first iteration of the stage was built in February 2021. Since then, we have delivered more than 150 VP productions across multiple volumes, from commercials, music videos and documentaries to high-end television dramas and feature films. Each project has contributed valuable lessons that feed into continuous R&D and improvement, ultimately shaping our most advanced facility so far.
Proximity improves adoption
Over the past five years, Garden Studios has seen growing adoption of VP, with most of our HETV clients now integrating the volume stage into their production schedules. Garden’s head of commercial, Debbie Adler, has observed that “when clients that are on site in any capacity realise the opportunity of working next to a volume stage, they quickly embrace the benefits. Teams can arrange for demos with directors and DPs, adjust schedules to save time with talent and reduce the risks of location shoots”.
Many of these HETV clients are using the volume for driving process work. Garden Studios VP stage has accommodated everything from a Mini to a Bedford bus, large stunt vehicles and motorcycles, as well as train cars, boats and helicopters.
Reducing friction
Alongside staying current with the evolution of VP technology, we have gained a clearer understanding of common issues encountered across productions and designed our newest volume stage to reduce that friction.
For example, one of the slowest parts of a car process shoot is repositioning the vehicle. Our new volume stage maximises the number of camera angles that can be covered without the client needing to move the vehicle, resulting in 90% of angles being achievable with just one 180-degree spin.
Over the past five years, Garden Studios has seen growing adoption of VP, with most of the company’s HETV clients integrating the volume stage into their production schedules (Credit: Courtesy of Garden Studios)
Reflections, especially on windscreens, are another challenge. “On some shoots we don’t get the hero car until the shoot day. It can take multiple moves to line up the reflections correctly. Different windscreen curves and angles affect the optimum position and height of the ceiling panel. All of which eats into shooting time,” says VP supervisor, Sam Kemp.
A new resolution
As driving scenes have emerged as one of the primary use cases for VP over the past year, we’ve invested in upgrading our space and equipment with this in mind. A key consideration has been the balance of brightness versus resolution of the LED ceiling panels. Driving process work typically demands less brightness from the ceiling compared to exterior Unreal Engine scenes. Resolution and black level are the new priorities for crisp reflections. We have installed a brand-new 2.6mm pixel pitch panel from Absen which will provide clients with crisp reflections and true blacks — no more worrying about seeing pixels in reflections or milky blacks due to diffusion.
The new ceiling panel is fully motorised with the ability to tilt up to 90°, allowing it to be used as a front LED wall to form a 360° volume. It can also traverse up to 18m front to back, allowing conversion from a fully encapsulating ceiling to a rain-ready stage in minutes. The ceiling is also doubled in area compared to the current stage, further reducing the risk of seeing the edges of reflections.
“The experience I had on Goodbye June would not have been possible without the wonderful support of the entire team at Garden Studios. Their willingness to accommodate the requirements of our cast and crew was outstanding, especially given the limited budget we had and with so many of us! They simply made it a joy to come to work every single day.” – Kate Winslet, director, Goodbye June
Let there be light
To support traditional lighting fixtures, Garden’s Lily Stage configuration is built with a complex system of rails, motors and trusses, allowing independent control of four lighting trusses. Clients can now position lighting above or around the volume, even under the ceiling panel if required. All are prewired for power and data to support efficient rigging.
These lighting fixtures can be driven by pixel mapping to create Image-Based-Lighting effects, removing the need for manually syncing chases and effects with video plates – reat for driving into tunnels! The stage also integrates with Pomfort Livegrade Studio for intuitive colour control including end-to-end pipeline calibrations like OpenVPCal.
Beyond plates
While Garden Studios has made improvements to support the growth of car processing, we remain committed to bringing our expertise with Unreal Engine based realtime workflows to all clients.We offer both inhouse 3D technical art support and the connections to work with any external provider that our clients prefer.
Garden Studios remains committed to bringing the team’s expertise with Unreal Engine based realtime workflows to all clients (Credit: Courtesy of Garden Studios)
Our most impressive differentiator remains the versatility of our team’s knowledge, skill set and competency. Whether clients are seasoned VP users or exploring the technology for the first time, we pride ourselves on guiding them through the process, demystifying the tech, offering practical solutions and ensuring the workflow serves the story. It’s this combination of advanced facilities, studio-scale support and hands-on collaboration that allows productions of all kinds to realise the full potential of virtual production at Garden Studios.
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