Transforming CINEMA

In a few years, virtual production won't be qualified as such; it will simply be called production. Because that's how production will happen.

- Rajesh Ramachandran

IMAGINE the following scenario: You’re a filmmaker who has to shoot a complicated action sequence in a remote jungle with a big movie star. Normally, you’d travel to such a location with your crew, spend money on stay and travel, and worry about other logistical hassles that accompany shooting on locations. But now, with a technology like virtual production, you don’t have to. A technology that’ll not just change how films are made but also conceptualised. But before I get into its intricacies, let me first tell you how it all began.

Digital technology made filmmaking affordable and accessible. Before digital, only a certain kind of movie would even get distribution—or a theatrical release. But now that’s no longer the case: if you’ve made a solid film, you can get it out there. Around 2016, LEDs and movies started to intersect. We, at Qube Cinema—a firm providing end-to-end digital cinema technology and solutions—began building LED cinema systems, deviating from our previous focus on projectors. During that process, we noticed that LEDs had marked their presence in production. That intrigued us, the opportunity to get into production technology. Besides, over the last five years, the quality of LEDs has improved by leaps. So, when you’ve a high-quality and large image on an LED wall, you can place actors and props in front of it to create a seamless blend when viewed through the camera. The audience should look at it and feel that it’s real and authentic—and not something powered by an LED.