BURBANK, Calif. — When COVID-19 shut down film and television production, Hollywood had to come up with new ways to continue production safely for both casts and crews.
Production designer James Pearse Connelly had been designing sets since moving to L.A. in 2003 and desperately wanted to figure out a solution.
"You don’t want to run the risk of shutting down a production, even for a week," he said. "That can cost millions. This was a big challenge for us. We had to dive deep into virtual production."
Inspired by software used to create video games, Connelly pivoted from 3D physical rendering, which requires long lead times to present to producers, to 3D real-time rendering, which lets designers make changes in an instant. Not only are the environments dynamic, but props such as cars look amazingly real.
"I look at this green like a blank slate," said Connelly. "We can turn this whole space into anything. This could be a game show in like, two days."
Growing up in New Jersey with an architect father and an art teacher mother, Connelly realized that production designing would be a perfect fit.
“We use computers, but the only way to me to flesh out an idea and see anything first is just to sketch it out and not worry about all the technicalities,” he said.
He started out as a carpenter, building sets for theater, and eventually self-taught himself how to use software to design virtual sets.
“Good sets are a blend between physical architecture and virtual technology,” said Connelly. “When you can have a host interact with a set as if they normally would, and then the audience at home see incredible visuals, then you know you have a good show.”
Now, due to COVID-19, virtual sets are being used on competition shows, awards shows, variety shows, and talk shows, which allows producers to limit the number of crewmembers as well as surfaces to touch, keeping indoor spaces as safe as possible.
Brett Pipher, director of technology at L.A. Castle Studios, says the switch to real time rendering was a game-changer.
“The great thing about this technology is it’s so easy to make changes on the fly,” he said. “You can quickly reposition this warehouse, slide us around, change colors of the car, change out the car for an entirely different model if you wanted to.”
Quick, creative, and entirely virtual, it's technology that Hollywood is embracing out of both necessity and safety.
According to Connelly, it won’t be long before it’ll get adopted by everyone.
“YouTubers, TikTok artists are going to be able to create these dynamic environments at home,” he said. “To me, this is like a paradigm shift. This is like a whole new medium to mix together with traditional ways of doing sets and it’s beyond exciting.”