Starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, Poor Things is the latest high profile production to take advantage of virtual production and in-camera visual effects to achieve its desired look.
Synposis
“Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”
The virtual production shoot and in-camera visual effects were completed at HALOSTAGE in Berlin with elements also shot in Budapest. Writing on Linkedin, editor of Virtual Producer Noah Kadner tells us this about the studio set-up:
“The volume comprised 2,400 InfiniLED 2.6mm LED panels arranged in a 197’x33′ semicircle, with NovaStar Technology processors fed by four AV Stumpfl Pixera One servers. The wall resolution was 23,040×3,840 pixels, running at 10-bit color and 24 fps. Instead of LED panels overhead, gaffer Andy Cole and crew installed approximately 150 ARRI S60 SkyPanels for fuller-spectrum cinema lighting. Meanwhile, four Arri 18K HMIs simulated sunlight in the scenes.
Unusually for virtual production, director of photography Robbie Ryan, BSC, shot the entire show on film using Arricam ST cameras and Eastman Kodak Company Ektachrome and Vision3 film stocks.”
VFX on the film were handled by Union Visual Effects.