Shooting car scenes using an LED volume stage comes with many benefits - from capturing reflections and shadows with fidelity, and improving the actors’ performance to time efficiency (especially when A-list actors are involved and their time is limited). In addition, everybody on set can see the driving scenes rendered in real-time, increasing the authenticity and quality of the final image. So what’s left for post-production when real-time production takes the lead? Adding extra vehicle motion to build on the illusion that the vehicle wasn’t mainly static when filmed.

The ROE Visual LED Volume used in Man Vs Bee by Netflix

The in-camera shots were filmed in August 2021, before our recent studio expansion, in a space totalling 3500 sq ft, almost three times smaller than our current studio. The car processing LED Volume featured the following modular LED screens, all easily adaptable:

LED back wall for in-camera VFX: 8m x 3.5m curved LED wall built with ROE Visual Diamond 2.6mm, with a 2.5 degrees curvature.

Off-camera LED screens for reflections & shadows: a heigh-adjustable LED ceiling for interactive lighting mimicking the sky reflections. The ceiling is built with an outdoor LED product of a lesser pixel pitch - ROE Carbon 3.7mm.

Mobile LED Dollies – two LED Dollies (2.4 x 3.6m) built with ROE Carbon 5.7mm, easy to move around the set-up to capture corresponding lateral reflections.

When reflections are key, there needs to be a consideration of resolution vs. brightness. In smaller volumes, where we have created ceilings that can be lowered in front of the rear wall, we have chosen ROE Diamond 2.6mm or ROE Carbon 3.7mm. In larger volumes, where the ceiling has been fixed, and 9m off the ground, we choose ROE Carbon 5.7mm as it's more cost-effective at scale, and when it’s rigged far away, pixelation is not an issue.

The technologies involved in shooting the ICVFX scenes included also:

Image processing: award-winning Brompton Technology SX40, 4K LED processor

Media servers: the powerful disguise VX4 was used for content playback.

The 80six team guided the production crew throughout pre-planning, pre-light, and calibration to the live on-set programming. At the front of the studio, we had the brain bar, with multiple workspaces, from where 80six’s LED Technician and Disguise Operator controlled the LED Volume.

BEHIND THE SCENES - IN-CAMERA VFX WITH ROB DUNCAN (FRAMESTORE)

Rob Duncan, VFX Supervisor at Framestore, led ICVFX on Man vs Bee: “It isn’t just a general driving down the lane sequence. We had some very specific beats that we had to dial into the action with the driver, so having something for them to react to, as if they were in a driving simulation, benefited from keeping everything in synch.”

BEHIND THE SCENES - LIGHTING THE VOLUME STAGE WITH GAFFER CULLUM ROSS

Gaffer Cullum Ross shares his first experience lighting an ICVFX scene: “I came to the studio with the intention of using sky panels to key, light blades and other artificial sources. I found that using the volume and the lateral dollies was bright enough to key our actors inside the vehicle. It exceeded my expectations.”