NEW YORK, July 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — MetaisBeta LLC, a New York City based television producer released a proof-of-concept video demonstrating the viability of using accessible virtual cinematic technology to produce realistic historical drama. The video, which can be seen at The Pale Series, portrays scenes from the pilot episode of The Pale, a series that takes place in 18th century Poland and Russia.
Produced by a half dozen people working part-time over four months under the supervision of Savannah College of Art and Design professor Joerg Schodl (https://cinemyscope.net/) with direction by Porter Justus, the sets, lighting and camera shots were created and executed in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. The actors’ likenesses were scanned as MetaHumans, their performances recorded using motion capture suits and their costumes created in Marvelous Designer.
“We set out to raise the bar for the quality of cinematic realism that can be achieved using cost-effective, virtual production technology,” states Ira Fuchs, the series’ writer/producer. Up until now, no virtually generated cinematic experience created using these tools and techniques has achieved this level of sophistication. To date, the best in class virtual cinematic production is Blue Dot, produced a year ago by Epic Games with a substantially larger budget. “Our intent was to exceed the excellent production values demonstrated in that work.”
“We had very specific design objectives for the proof-of-concept,” according to Fuchs: have multiple characters wearing intricate period costumes interact with each other as well as physical objects, within highly detailed sets. In addition, the emotional dynamics of the characters had to infuse the scenes.
The technology is in its early stages, but its capabilities for rendering high-quality photo-realistic cinematics are advancing rapidly. Even with the limitations encountered, in addition to budget and resource constraints, the POC unquestionably demonstrates the viability of using this methodology to produce scripted cinematic narratives.
This POC proves that photo-realistic cinematics can be produced for significantly less cost than conventional methods. That’s a game-changing paradigm shift for cinematic storytellers, making it possible for them to actualize their vision. The cost to produce a period piece episode using conventional methods ranges between 5 and 7 million dollars. “We can produce the pilot episode virtually for a small fraction of that,” says Fuchs, which is what our next step is.
Additional information about the proof-of-concept project and The Pale series is available at The Pale Series. Contact Ira Fuchs directly at NUMBER or [email protected] or Joerg Schodl at [email protected].
SOURCE MetaisBeta LLC
