NETFLIX - HEARTSTOPPER
TV SERIES

Avoiding Unpredictable Weather Conditions by Filming on an LED Volume at Virtual Production Studios by 80six  

See Saw Films approached 80six to hire our studio to deliver a number of driving scenes on a custom-built LED vehicle processing stage using in-camera VFX for the second season of the popular LGBTQ+ teen drama, Heartstopper. The hit series, masterfully shot by Simona Susnea DOP, is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.

The Challenge:   

During the production of season 2, the See Saw team feared weather complications that could’ve disrupted their 2-day schedule to shoot on-location scenes depicting a coach school trip to Paris. Taking the entire crew and cast to Paris, including over 50 teens with conflicting school schedules, involved significant production logistics, making the prospect of last-minute weather changes potentially halting the production a severe issue.  

Line producer Emma Biggins adds about the benefits of shooting on an LED vehicle processing using virtual production:

‘Another key reason to shoot these scenes in a volume was an insurance and safety point. Shooting what we wanted to on public roads, both in the UK and abroad, on a moving coach full of young actors and crew was a safety risk and as such pretty much impossible to insure’.

Emma Biggins, Line Producer

To mitigate the threat posed by the uncontrollable weather and the insurance issues, they decided to shoot the coach scenes in the controllable environment of our virtual production studio. 

Behind the scenes of Netflix’s Heartstopper at Virtual Production Studios by 80six  

The Solution:

The primary focus was to capture interior coach shots, simulating the journey to Paris, including scenes on UK motorways, the coach inside a Eurotunnel train carriage, and on Parisian streets. The complexity arose from the need to film different angles inside the coach with both side and rear coach windows in the frame, all while containing a group of teenagers inside.  

Our team designed an innovative vehicle processing LED Volume with award-winning ROE Visual Dimanond 2.6mm. The LED Volume stage was suspended from the ceiling and shaped like a horseshoe, spanning 38 linear meters. This unique configuration allowed the coach to be driven inside the LED Volume, enabling the DOP to capture shots from the driver's perspective while looking forward. Subsequently, the entire coach was turned around to achieve the desired shots from the rear windows. 

We proposed a rigging solution that used Kinesys motors, enabling the LED screens to be raised or lowered whilst eliminating the dynamic load and matching the correct eye level for seamless integration with the 2D plates shot by DrivingPlates.co.uk. The virtual production workflow was driven by image processing Brompton Technology and powerful disguise media servers, with the colour pipeline managed by Framesync. 

Implementing these virtual production solutions as a response to last-minute weather changes allowed the production to continue shooting without any costly delays.