SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine as a director you want to film a scene that takes place at the Great Wall of China. In the past you would have to send the crew, the actors, hair and makeup people and probably producers to China, and pay for them. That would be a very expensive endeavor for a few scenes.
Maybe someone builds a set of the Great Wall, but it probably will not look great. In more recent decades, you could use a green screen, have actors perform in front of it and add pieces of pictures and videos of the wall later with a computer. The problem is, audiences are becoming aware of when a green screen is being used — think of car scenes on TV’s “Seinfeld” — making scenes unreal, a no-no in films and television.
Enter the virtual production stage, an LED wall that uses video game-like technology to project videos of any background from any location to be used on screen. No need to send everyone to the Great Wall of China. Instead, you can send someone with a drone to get the images you need and project them on the virtual production stage. This saves money, allows actors to see what they are supposed to see in a scene and creates images that are more authentic…