We get a lot of enquiries from productions that are excited about virtual production but aren’t quite sure what they need to have sorted before they arrive at the studio. It’s a fair question. VP shifts a significant chunk of what would traditionally be post-production work into pre-production, and that changes the timeline in ways that catch people off guard if they’re used to a conventional shoot.
So we thought it would be useful to lay out what a well-prepared VP shoot actually looks like from the pre-production side — what you need to bring, what we can help with, and where the common pitfalls are.
The Big Shift: Post Moves Forward
In a traditional shoot, you capture your footage on set and worry about backgrounds, extensions, and visual effects later. Virtual production flips that. The virtual environments need to exist before the camera rolls, because they’re being composited in real time behind your talent on our green screen stage.
This means the environment work that would normally happen in post now has to happen in pre-production. For some productions, that’s a revelation — it means the director can see the final composite on set and make creative decisions in the moment. For others, it’s a planning challenge they hadn’t anticipated. Either way, the earlier you start thinking about your virtual assets, the smoother your shoot day will be.
Virtual Assets: What You Need and When
The most important thing to have ready is your Unreal Engine environment. This is the 3D world that appears behind your talent during the shoot. There are a few ways this can come together:
Option 1: You bring finished assets. If your production already has a virtual art department or a relationship with an Unreal Engine environment artist, you can deliver a packaged Unreal project to us ahead of the shoot. We’ll load it into our pipeline, test it with our Mo-Sys StarTracker Max tracking system, and make sure everything runs smoothly at the frame rates we need for real-time compositing.
Option 2: We build them together. We work with productions from concept through to delivery, and that includes environment creation. If you have concept art, reference images, or even just a clear creative brief, we can build or source the Unreal environments for you. We often use a combination of custom-built assets and high-quality marketplace environments as a starting point, then dress and light them to match your creative vision.
Option 3: Off-the-shelf environments. For corporate content, music videos, or projects where the background is more atmospheric than specific, there are excellent pre-built Unreal environments available. We can help you pick the right ones and customise them to suit your shoot.
Whichever route you take, we recommend having environments locked and tested at least a week before your shoot date. Last-minute asset changes are possible — that’s one of the advantages of real-time rendering — but having a solid baseline means the shoot day is spent on creative decisions, not troubleshooting.
Shot Lists and Storyboards Matter More Than Usual
On a location shoot, a director can pivot. If the light changes or a better angle presents itself, you adapt. Virtual production offers its own kind of flexibility — you can change the time of day in your virtual environment with a slider, or reposition an entire cityscape in seconds — but it works best when you’ve planned your shots in advance.
A detailed shot list helps us prepare the right camera angles and virtual camera positions in Unreal Engine before you arrive. If you know you need a wide establishing shot, a medium two-shot, and a series of close-ups, we can pre-build those virtual camera setups and have them ready to switch between on the day. Storyboards are even better, because they give us a visual reference for framing and depth of field that we can match in the engine.
This doesn’t mean there’s no room for spontaneity. We’ve had directors walk in, see the environment on the monitors, and immediately want to try something different. That’s fine — and it’s one of the joys of working in real time. But the planned shots give everyone a solid foundation to build from.
Wardrobe and Props: The Green Screen Factor
Because we use green screen compositing rather than an LED volume, there are some wardrobe and prop considerations that are worth flagging early. Anything that’s bright green or highly reflective can cause issues with the keying process. We’re not talking about a subtle olive jacket — modern keying software is very good — but a neon green t-shirt or a large piece of shiny chrome will give your compositor a headache.
We always recommend sending through wardrobe references ahead of the shoot so we can flag any potential issues. It’s a two-minute conversation that can save hours in post. The same goes for props — if you’re bringing anything translucent, reflective, or green, let us know and we’ll plan accordingly.
Talent Preparation: What Your Cast Should Know
For actors and presenters who haven’t worked on a VP stage before, the experience can be a bit disorienting at first. They’re performing in front of a green screen, but the monitors around the studio are showing the final composite in real time. Some talent find it incredibly helpful to glance at the monitors and see the world they’re supposed to be inhabiting. Others prefer to ignore them and focus on the performance.
It’s worth briefing your talent beforehand on what to expect. Let them know they’ll see the composite on monitors around the set, that the green screen behind them will be replaced in real time, and that eyeline and blocking are particularly important because the virtual environment responds to camera position. A few minutes of orientation at the start of the shoot day goes a long way.
Technical Specs We’ll Need
Before the shoot, we’ll ask you for a few specific things:
Target resolution and frame rate — we typically shoot at 6K on our Blackmagic Pyxis 6K, but your deliverable specs will determine how we configure the pipeline. Aspect ratio — 16:9, 2.39:1, 9:16 for social content — this affects how we frame the virtual environment. Colour space preferences — if you have a specific LUT or colour pipeline you’re working in, we need to know so our real-time composite matches your post workflow. Audio requirements — if you’re recording dialogue, we’ll set up accordingly. Green screen stages can be echoey, so we plan acoustic treatment based on your needs.
What Happens Next
We’re currently putting together a downloadable pre-production checklist that covers all of this in a format you can share with your team. In the meantime, if you’re in the early stages of planning a VP shoot and want to talk through what you’ll need, book a studio visit — we’re always happy to walk productions through the process and show how everything works on our stage.
This Fortnight in VP
Unreal Engine 5.7 is now available — The latest release brings production-ready PCG tools, Nanite foliage, and the new Substrate material system. The improved animation rigging and built-in AI assistant are worth a look for any VP pipeline.
Brainstorm launches Suite 7 ahead of NAB 2026 — Their InfinitySet virtual production platform now supports dual-GPU workstations and 360° output per render, with tighter Unreal Engine interoperability. One to watch for broadcast VP workflows.
Dallas College opens VP soundstage for students — A Vū Technology LED stage is now training the next generation of VP crew in Texas. More educational institutions investing in VP infrastructure is good news for the industry’s talent pipeline.
VP goes corporate: 40% of enterprise executives now using VP tools — CGW reports on Altman Solon research showing virtual production adoption is accelerating outside of film and TV, particularly for internal communications and product launches.
