Virtual Production in Portland

Kevin Fletcher on set Virtual Production
DP Kevin Fletcher and actor Nancy Ortiz on set

AFUERA

In a not-so-distant future, an off-world syndicate of couriers transport precious and illicit packages via inter-planetary portals. They alone hold the secret to the dust that powers them. Our story takes place in the early morning hours, when a disheveled retired bureaucrat wanders through the unfamiliar streets of Neo Tokyo to hand off a mysterious briefcase.
 
That’s the premise of the short narrative technical test recently completed on the LED Volume at Picture This.
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The New Normal – How Our Production Community Is Adapting to Covid – Picture This

In our series of blog posts – the “New Normal” – we are looking at what creative options have been put in place to offset the disruption that Covid-19 has caused for production businesses here in Oregon.  This month we caught up with Picture This, one of Portland’s leading provider of Camera Rentals, Projectors, and Picture This Production Services that have offered over 30 years of excellence in production and live events in the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon Film (OF): Assuming the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted your business, like so many others, what aspect would you say has been the most surprising? Continue reading... “The New Normal – How Our Production Community Is Adapting to Covid – Picture This”

Virtual Production, Utilizing Unreal Engine, At Picture This In Portland

Marrying game-engine technology to virtual production techniques cracks open an expansive new world of creative filmmaking and business opportunities.

Virtual production, utilizing Unreal Engine, a video game rendering technology, and immersive LED screens, will be the new driver for innovation in cinematic storytelling enabling a creative flexibility previously unimaginable.

The first production to truly take advantage of this revolution, and helped create it, was The Mandalorian, on Disney+.

And now this technology is in Portland.

This innovative workflow was used to film more than half of “The Mandalorian” Seasons 1 and 2, enabling the filmmakers to:

  • greatly reduce on-location shoots
  • capture a significant amount of complex VFX shots with accurate lighting and reflections in-camera
  • simultaneously integrate and manipulate live-action and computer-generated assets
  • actors work in an actual virtual environment–combining advantages of location shooting with CGI imagination.
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Green Happenings – Walking The Green Talk

Last week I attended the Go Green Portland conference with such speakers as Cylvia Hayes, the founder and CEO of 3EStrategies, (a clean economy consulting firm) and partner of Gov. John Kitzhaber; Duncan Wyse, president of the Oregon Business Council; Carol Sanford, author of “The Responsible Business” and Nick Barham of Weiden and Kennedy.   It seemed that they had a common theme; many valuable and interesting businesses are blossoming here in the Pacific Northwest and much useful work is underway but there is much yet be done.  Continue reading... “Green Happenings – Walking The Green Talk”