Affordable virtual production techniques

Back projection as an affordable approach to virtual production

Haddenham Studio has been experimenting with a new projector and our existing back projection screens to create an affordable solution to the usually expensive technique of virtual production.

There are boundaries placed by the limits of the projector. For example it’s not excpetionally bright, but it does provide enough light to hit ISO 1250, T/2.8 at 25 fps. All tests were done with our in-house F55 on its base ISO of 1250 and we didn’t find ourselves needing more light. 

What are the applications?

We see this as a solution for talking heads and PTC for anything from broadcast to commercials and branded content.  It’s an option for where green or blue screen could have been considered but where you want to do the effect in-camera, saving post production time and money, and the green spill on the subjects, especially if they’re shiny or transparent products.

and the limitations?

LUX / Nits or brightness is the main limitation but what you loose there you make up in the incredible contrast ratio, colour fidelity and lower costs of the technology.  While we’ve tested going over-speed we see it mainly as on-speed application.

Pixel mapping the lighting

A major benefit of Haddenham is our in-house skill across lighting, both with the fixtures we have here but moreover our knowledge of modern lighting techniques.  We have Art-Net and sACN infrastructure and transmit both CRMX and Multiverse signals, and provide 8 Universes of wired DMX.  

Put simply, we can map our lights into the background which means they can inherit both the luminosity and colour of the background. The enables practical lighting effects such as lights passing – for example in a driving scene – or hue and saturation blending with the main source in the background.  The aim being to facilitate more complex lighting effects and setups quickly because we have both the expertise and the in-house lighting equipment and infrastructure.  

This is a key match and a key point to use virtual production techniques over green or blue screen.  It is complicated, however, but because it’s our area of expertise and passion, we have done the complicated setup already.

Summary

We think this solution has real merit and offers a striking and creative opportunity to film makers. If you think this could be of use then please do get in touch and we can discuss further.  We’re especially keen to hear the use cases that could appeal.