INTERVIEW

AbelCine and The Garage Showcase Virtual Production Insights at NAB NY 2024

VP Land

Nov 22, 2024 · 3 min read

Industry experts gathered at NAB NY 2024 to discuss how this technology is becoming more accessible and revolutionizing video production across budgets and formats.

The Big Picture

While early virtual production required massive LED walls and huge budgets, the technology is now scaling to fit different needs and budgets.

It could be as small as something to fill a window frame of LED panels to the full room. For us in commercials, we see the use case of virtual production very different than students going to film school trying to make films.

Steve Giralt, Founder of The Garage

Key advantages include:

  • Eliminates costly location shoots and company moves

  • Provides consistent lighting conditions ("all day magic hour")

  • Allows real-time creative decisions and adjustments

  • Gives actors better performance environments compared to green screens

  • Enables immediate in-camera reviews vs. waiting for VFX

While virtual production can save money on locations and logistics, it requires significant pre-production time and coordination.

You need three, four, five, six months in advance to create your environment, or you could do it in a couple of weeks if you've got downloadable assets.

Rosanne Limoncelli, Senior Director for Film Technologies at NYU's Tisch School

What's Next

The industry is working to establish standards and train more professionals. NYU launched a master's program in virtual production, focusing particularly on recruiting women and people of color to help diversify the field.

Virtual production is creating new collaborative workflows between departments that traditionally worked separately.

It's more collaborative than ever before. There's a lot of talk about virtual production being its own department within a film set almost, but it really touches on every department.

Steve Giralt, Founder of The Garage

The Bottom Line

Virtual production is becoming an essential filmmaking tool, not just a high-end special effect. As the technology becomes more accessible and standardized, it's enabling creative solutions across budget levels while creating new career opportunities in the industry.

It's very similar to filmmaking from regular filmmaking, especially on a soundstage. There's just extra things to know and you could teach yourself a lot of that.

Rosanne Limoncelli, Senior Director for Film Technologies at NYU's Tisch School
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