MONTREAL — As it adapts to the changing needs of its customers, TVA Group’s MELS Studios and Postproduction division announced today it is launching a new virtual stage with an LED wall (pictured), built in collaboration with Solotech and powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.
Virtual stages allow productions to work with smaller crews, facilitating physical distancing and reducing the size and scope of shoots, sets and crowd scenes, explains the studio’s press release.
“2020 was a challenging year for everyone but we also saw it as an opportunity to leverage the know-how of MELS’ teams to implement innovative turnkey projects that deliver the best possible service for our customers,” said MELS president Martin Carrier, in the release. “To design and develop our virtual stage, we partnered with the leaders in their respective fields. Their contributions coupled with our production savvy enable us to offer a quality product that meets the expectations of our local and international customers.”
Solotech will supply the LED screens, which will provide flexibility and the ability to adapt the sets to each customer’s requirements, says the release. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine will link all technological resources and provide real-time, in-camera visual effects to create the virtual stage. ARRI, a global company in the motion picture media industry, is a consultant on the project.
“Completed in six weeks with support from the Unreal Engine team, MELS’ virtual stage is an integrated production platform that equips MELS to offer a complete virtual production solution. All services — visual effects, cameras, lighting, post production, technical crews — are linked by fibre optics to all the sets. This turnkey model allows producers and filmmakers greater agility, efficiency and creative latitude. MELS also offers the option of creating specific virtual stage configurations to meet the needs of projects of all sizes,” reads the press release.
MELS created a video showing the virtual stage being built, which can be viewed here.
For more information about the technology being used for the virtual stage, please click here.
