philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

HOW WRITING FOR VIRTUAL PRODUCTION HAS FLIPPED THE SCRIPT

... Virtual production technology has altered the writing process when it comes to writing for films and series that use the technology. “The difference – or at least in my singular experience working on 1899 – was that much of the rewriting in post is happening in pre-production or during production latest,” says Juliana Lima Dehne, who was Story Editor and wrote Episode 5 of the Netflix series, a show that relied on virtual production to create its vivid landscapes. ...

“One of the reasons for it is that locations – for example – are set. You can’t change your mind; nor will the controlled environment change once you start production. It’s all definitive,” Dehne adds. “The sets and the images projected onto the LED screens have already been designed, and the soundstage has already been dressed to match it. It’s like a game. You have to work with what’s there. You can’t decide to go off script in the middle of a game because you want to enter a door that doesn’t open because nobody designed what’s behind that door. ...

For Emma Needell, writer and director of the short film “Life Rendered,” virtual production greatly affected the writing process. “This was because I embraced the tools of virtual production for story development specifically. I first learned how to use Unreal Engine – which is free to download and use – then I created an animatic of my short film in the program, experimenting with pacing, cinematography and music all before we began pre-production in earnest,” Needell remarks. “As a filmmaker, the ability to iterate through ‘drafts’ of your film via an animatic is extremely advantageous. ...

See the full story here: https://www.vfxvoice.com/how-writing-for-virtual-production-has-flipped-the-script/