The technology of The Mandalorian and other big Hollywood productions isn't so far, far away. Charter and Forge Virtual Studios are bringing some of the film industry's top innovations to the local level.
Virtual production studios use screen walls, in-camera tracking, and other advanced technology to expand your film's creative potential while preserving your budget and schedule. This isn't about chasing a trend or a shortcut — it's about intentionally employing technology to support your story and vision.
Discover what visual production studios are, how they support film-led storytelling, and when they make sense for brands.
Virtual production studios are large, physical studios that use light-emitting diode (LED) walls, camera tracking, and real-time visual effects (VFX) to recreate practically any location — real or fictional. This filmmaking innovation lets you capture your final-pixel image right on set, limiting your post-production VFX needs.
Virtual studio technology also eliminates many of the frequent challenges of green-screen studios, such as inconsistent lighting, extensive post-production needs, and green spillage in footage. With your background already illuminated by a massive LED wall, your on-set crew won't have to guess how to recreate the lighting, and you won't have to wait until post-production to see how your footage looks.
More organizations are considering virtual studios for their practicality in production, speedy post-production turnaround, and ease of reuse. Once you've created the right background and assets for your brand, you can easily return to the same virtual studio to film new footage and updates with minimal production requirements. Additionally, you can capture exterior-style footage without the challenges and risks of outdoor filming.
Explore the key components of virtual studio sets to understand how they work.
A virtual studio's LED wall or "volume" is a massively wide, typically curved screen that serves as the backdrop for your footage. It uses high-resolution LED panels with images that move in real time in response to your VFX input, camera movement, and other production components. Beyond the wall, these LED panels can also stretch to the floors and ceilings, depending on the studio, to expand your potential camera angles.
As well as serving as a background, the LED volume emits a noticeable, diffuse light that simulates the lighting of your background environment. This primary light source casts realistic light and reflections onto actors and physical props, making them appear naturally integrated into the scene.
Combined with a professional production lighting setup, the LED wall can recreate natural outdoor lighting or produce a soft glow that makes your subject stand out in a dim setting.
The LED volume's visuals are created with real-time, in-camera effects, significantly reducing post-production time. This integration's real-time flexibility supports creative freedom and on-set collaboration.
Rather than requiring the camera crew and actors to move in sync with fixed, pre-rendered footage, the virtual background now moves with the camera, talent, and other creative minds on set. Decisions and adjustments to the virtual environment, lighting, and effects can all be made on set, maintaining visual cohesion and reducing the risk of consistency or continuity errors in post-production.
Initially developed for immersive video games, the Unreal Engine is a powerful animation, VFX, and computer-generated imagery (CGI) system that creates 3D landscapes and effects in real time. Many LED volume studios use UE platforms to create their virtual backgrounds, using one of the strongest game and augmented reality (AR) engines to create the most realistic effects possible. UE-powered environments also let you easily visualize and refine every detail long before the camera rolls.
Virtual production studios use sensors and camera-tracking technology to connect your camera and other equipment to the UE-powered LED environment. This integration gives your footage a realistic-feeling depth of field, using parallax scrolling to move the landscape and background with your camera and subject.
For instance, when your camera is circling around your actor, the background rotates with it to show the virtual environment from different angles while preserving depth, shadows, and image quality.
UE, camera tracking, and other virtual studio technologies can make your footage highly immersive, but you can't always rely on the background alone. When necessary, physical set pieces, decorations, and props can further enhance the realism of your virtual studio productions.
For example, if your background is the front of a house, you could have a physical mailbox on set to expand the depth of field and increase immersion, as well as make the actor feel more "at home."
Virtual studios such as Forge Virtual Studios have changed the way films are made for productions that leverage this technology. These innovations offer quicker turnaround at significantly lower post-production costs, expanding your creative potential without compromising quality or realism.
The ability to simulate virtually any background means you can make your footage look like it was filmed from pretty much anywhere. This can benefit you whether you're recreating a real-life outdoor location or capturing a fictional world you entirely made up. Either way, you can focus on the truly creative aspects of filmography rather than being bogged down by the limitations of traditional productions.
Beyond simplifying the film production process, virtual studio technology delivers lighting realism and in-camera results that took extensive time, effort, and skill to achieve before. General production teams can hone in on realism and visual engagement, even without blockbuster budgets or Oscar-nominated VFX and camera crews.
The LED volume was first used and popularized in the 2019 Disney+ and Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. The technology was developed as "the StageCraft system" by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).
Of course, though The Mandalorian was the first use of a physical LED volume, the technology didn't come out of nowhere. The use of interactive lighting and LED boxes expanded on previous innovations featured in Light Stage 3, Spider-Man 3, Gravity, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and many other films. But ILM's system took it to the next level.
Previous Star Wars projects typically required physical sets and on-site filming at locations around the world, such as Tunisia, Spain, Ireland, and Thailand. With this technological innovation, the characters of The Mandalorian could travel to various exotic locations without requiring the cast or the primary crew to leave the studio.
The in-camera VFX production technology became especially crucial following the COVID-19 pandemic, letting productions such as The Book of Boba Fett and The Batman continue with minimal travel. Since then, LED volumes have become more diversified across Hollywood, being used in productions such as Dune: Part Two, The Creator, Barbie, and House of the Dragon.
Virtual studios give you more control over your production than filming in a physical location or with other traditional strategies. This can contribute to a clearer message and a stronger, more confident filmmaking process.
Compare virtual film production to other alternative production approaches.
Virtual studio sets are sometimes useful even in situations when filming on set would traditionally be feasible. This is because the technology eliminates many of the constraints of filming at a physical location, including:
A virtual studio set provides crucial consistency, repeatability, and precision for brand film campaigns or long-term productions. You can always return to the same studio with the same backgrounds or assets to build upon your brand imagery, capture high-quality reshoots, or build upon what already works.
Virtual studio sets notably replace the need for green screens, depending on your production and budget. These production studios basically serve the same purpose as green screen studios, letting you capture your subject in front of an immersive backdrop. However, virtual studio technology resolves many common green screen challenges, such as:
Virtual studios also pose a potential alternative to animated film. Animation can create bright, engaging imagery that offers visuals that live action can't, whether you're bringing blueprints to life or creating an adorable character that kids will love. It lets you present your vision in unique ways, such as honing in on a distinctive color scheme or traveling to a fantastical world.
The most significant difference between animation and traditional live-action film is the sense of realism. Audiences must suspend their disbelief to follow an animated story and characters, consciously and subconsciously accepting that what they're seeing isn't real.
But with virtual studio technology, you don't have to choose. By seamlessly combining animation and live-action with virtual studio technology, you get the best of both worlds, immediately engaging audiences and delivering your message.
For an easy comparison, consider the difference between Disney's live-action adaptations of The Jungle Book and The Lion King. Notably, both of these movies were directed by Jon Favreau, who later helped pioneer LED volume technology in The Mandalorian.
Both productions used technology similar to virtual studios to create CGI environments that mimicked the real world. However, The Jungle Book arguably captured a stronger sense of realism by filming with a physical actor on its green-screen sets. Meanwhile, beyond the realistic camera movement, The Lion King was primarily driven by its CGI, without a human actor to ground the movie in reality.
It's no coincidence that The Mandalorian wasn't just the first production to use LED volume studio technology — it was also the first live-action Star Wars TV series to make it out of development. All previous Star Wars TV series throughout the decades were animated, largely due to the production constraints of the live-action TV ideas. The LED volume changed that, allowing real actors to exist in purely imagined worlds.
By working with a local virtual production studio like Forge Virtual Studios, businesses, corporations, and other organizations can leverage the latest film technology for their commercial and brand campaigns.
LED volumes can significantly simplify the film production process by capturing all your content in the same studio, potentially even on the same day. Plus, you can significantly expand your production capabilities to capture visuals and stories you never could manage before on a marketing budget.
Virtual production studios also let you double down on your brand imagery and cohesion. It's easy to reuse backgrounds and color schemes when revisiting virtual studio sets, reducing pre-production time and ensuring each film in your brand campaign looks consistent.
Virtual production studios are much more than technical solutions and processes. They provide you with the ecosystem and space to build on your creative vision and leave a lasting impact on your audience.
At Charter, we recognize that story leads production; the technology is there to support your vision. By emphasizing collaboration, direction, and discipline on set, our experienced production teams can hone in on your creative goals to build with purpose and help you make the best film you possibly can.
When searching for virtual studios near you, seek partners that understand collaboration and stay up to date with the latest technology. Charter's production team prioritizes creative direction and fluent storytelling throughout each stage of the production process, helping you maintain production quality and your initial vision.
Ready to learn more? Get in touch to discuss your next film production.