Technology is playing a bigger role in entertainment than ever before.
Today’s film and television industry is becoming more digitized in production, in particular, with physical risks being replaced by digital risks.
“We’re seeing technology increasingly play a more important role in film production,” said Fred Milstein, CEO of Media Guarantors, a CAC Group company. “I’m not even getting to AI tech, I’m just saying really just on the actual film side, a lot of production is shifting to what we call virtual productions.”
Finding the right location to film a movie has always been a critical part of production. But now instead of finding that “weird house” to shoot a horror movie inside the living room, filmmakers are turning to digital tools rather than physical sets. “Now you can use very sophisticated LED screens on a sound stage,” Milstein said, instead of moving an entire cast and crew to a physical location in another state or country.
Milstein recalled a recent major film production that was shot entirely on a sound stage in Las Vegas. The film took place primarily inside an aircraft, so instead of using real flights, the cast and crew only used virtual production on a sound stage that could be tilted and maneuvered to simulate flying. “Basically, the airplane stood still, but backgrounds kept moving and changing per the director’s instruction.”
Virtual productions give film creators more control over things like natural landscapes, he said. “When shooting a scene, the director has the ability to do things like move the sunset to the right angle, manipulate the scene digitally.”
“We’re seeing more and more of that ‘virtual’ type of production, and I think it’s going to continue to see growth,” he said. “At a certain point you won’t have to go anywhere; you will be able to shoot a lot of what you need just on a sound stage.”
The new world of virtual moviemaking changes the risks, he said. “The physical risks to some degree are still there, but not to the same extent that they were before,” he explained. “You’re not climbing up a mountain or flying in an airplane; you’re shooting on a sound stage.”
