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August 17, 2022

Mentorship for Next Gen Filmmakers Joined By Academy Award Winning Cinematographer

In partnership with The Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival, Versatile Media Ltd. has launched The Blue Planet Versatile Vision Science-Fiction Film Initiative in China that will allow up-and-coming filmmakers to explore the possibilities offered by Virtual Production. Pairing a traditional Sci-Fi script competition with creative workshops and our technology, winning teams will unlock opportunities for training and production at Versatile Media’s studios.

A collaboration with Academy Award winning cinematographer, Peter Pau of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is confirmed. As chief mentor for our Sci-Fi initiative, Mr. Pau will provide hands-on guidance to the selected filmmaking teams, advising participants on how to utilize Versatile Media’s cutting edge technologies for artistic storytelling.

Known for profound achievements in the art of film, Mr. Pau has always encouraged innovative filmmaking techniques and paid attention to how new technologies are changing the film industry and society. He has actively promoted the application of Virtual Production in the film & television industries and is one of the earliest supporters of the Versatile Production Pipeline. He believes that Sci-Fi and high-tech films are inseparable from virtual production.

Mr. Pau has extremely high standards for new filmmaking techniques. For him, virtual production technology must be able to bring creative artists enough freedom and allow them to shoot films indistinguishable from, or even better than traditional principal shooting.

Virtual production is not just the use of LED volumes, it’s a whole new way of thinking about filmmaking. In the past year, Mr. Pau was able to work directly with our team and The Versatile Stage, utilizing the production-intuitive tools that are setting our system apart. When the opportunity came along to mentor a new generation of storytellers, he was on board.

Mr. Pau adds: “You can shoot your film partially or entirely through Virtual Production, depending on your budget. It allows projects to have boundless creativity with imagination being the only limits to the appearance of the final picture.”

More on The Versatile Vision Science Fiction Film Initiative

Earlier this year, we launched Versatile Vision for its inaugural year in partnership with the 4th Annual Blue Planet Sci-Fi Film Festival. Twenty-one teams will be selected based on their sci-fi project submissions. These teams will be invited to an immersive training with our virtual production technology. Five of those teams will have the chance to utilize our technology to film a short proof-of-concept for their projects to then pitch at a large-scale industry event that Versatile Media will host at the end of the year.

*The Blue Planet and Versatile Vision Initiative*

The Versatile Vision program inspires great sci-fi projects and filmmakers with a platform, training, and experience with the most cutting-edge filmmaking technologies.

About Versatile Media Ltd.

Versatile Media Ltd. is a global media company founded in 1993. The company has nearly 500 creative and technical artists and R&D staff, globally. The newly created North American virtual production studios are based in Vancouver, Canada. The company has built a full cycle virtual production workflow for both servicing the film and television industry as well as producing its own IP and co-produced projects.

International Growth

Versatile Media’s global expansions include a 44,000 square foot film centre in Vancouver that will include at least one high-end, large LED volume as well as traditional sound stages and amenities. In addition to Vancouver’s stages, the global initiatives will also see the construction of a 12 acre film base near Hangzhou where, among other installations, 5 LED volumes will be built, in addition to 2 existing LED stages, as well as capture and visualization stages.

The goals for Versatile Media Ltd., are to contribute to the technological transformation taking place in the entertainment sector, empower filmmakers and to bring audiences completely new experiences.

About The Blue Planet

The Blue Planet is China’s first Sci-Fi-themed film festival and an all-embracing cultural event that crosses boundaries and opens new frontiers. Since its inception in 2019, it has collected over 750 Sci-Fi projects from more than 30 countries and regions around the world. It showcases the new explorations and vision in Sci-Fi movies of young filmmakers, globally. The Blue Planet is now the biggest platform in China for Sci-Fi film screenings, talent exchange and Sci-Fi content gatherings. Blue Planet is also the only domestic platform for the integration of technology and film & TV. The Blue Planet initiated the Global Alliance of Sci-Fi Film Festivals, aiming to promote the communication and co-operation of domestic and international Sci-Fi films.

Check out the first Sci-Fi short film produced entirely on The Versatile Stage:

For more information please contact:
Joan Xu
Versatile Media Ltd.
joanxu@versatile.media

website: versatile.media
Twitter / IG / Facebook /LKD @filmversatile

#filmversatile #versatilemedia

August 5, 2022

Vehicles, Action Sequences & LED Stage Filming

It’s been 4 long years since Vancouver hosted SIGGRAPH and the wait is finally over.

This year we are more than excited to take part in both the NVIDIA Session Series, Illuminating the Future of Graphics and the SIGGRAPH Job Fair.

From Script to Screen: Virtual Production For LED Filmmaking

August 11th at 11am join our VP, Steve Read and Virtual Production Supervisor, Raphael Gaudin. This session will talk about how cinematography, VFX, and Editorial for complex vehicle and action sequences come together in a real-time environment to deliver the final pixel on our LED volumes.

Raphael will be presenting our latest work on vehicle chase sequences and how we use our virtual production workflow to achieve the director’s vision as well as taking advantage of Unreal Engine 5 to bridge the gap between previz and final pixel LED content.

*Previsualizing a car chase sequence in real-time using UE5.*

We will also be premiering our latest techviz workflows and R&D technology to demonstrate how complex car-driving sequences are taken from script, to principal photography on our LED volumes.

*Shooting complex car-driving scenes on The Versatile Stage.*

Our session seats 80 attendees, classroom style and audience is first come first serve. In case you do miss it, SIGGRAPH will be including all sessions here after the show.

SIGGRAPH Job Fair

Meet our recruiting team at the SIGGRAPH Job Fair on Monday, August 8th.
Want to learn about our job openings and our upcoming LED sound stages opening in Vancouver? Come see us at SIGGRAPH 2022.

For more information please contact:

Roula Lainas, Marketing & Business Development Executive
Versatile Media Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
roula@versatile.media

versatile.media

Twitter / IG / Facebook /LKD @filmversatile
#filmversatile #versatilemedia

July 13, 2022

How We Filmed our Sci-Fi Short in 4 Days

*Shooting New Air on The Versatile Stage*

Versatile Media Ltd. releases its first short film, New Air produced entirely using the company’s virtual production workflow and patented tools, marking the first project achieved entirely with real-time workflows. The featurette was prevized, shot and posted in 10 days.

There are many great examples of Virtual Production having a heavy hand in the creation of A-list films and series including The Mandalorian, Star Trek, WestWorld and the newly released The Batman to name a few. The percentage of what was shot on a volume versus other traditional methods may vary.

But for director and CEO of Versatile Media Ltd. Leo Lee, the challenge and goal has always been to make every production step real-time. The industry may still not be there yet, however, we are moving at lightning speed towards that goal.

The essence of Virtual Production, which is also the core of the Versatile Virtual Production pipeline, is to make every production step real-time through technological tools and methods. After four years’ of extensive R&D, we’ve developed several core technologies including the elimination of moire patterns, seamless camera tracking and virtual focus pulling, allowing filmmakers to fulfill their creative vision without decay.

Every iteration of Epic’s Unreal Engine also brings exciting and disruptive changes to the production pipeline of the entertainment industry and thus brings our sector closer to real-time production processes. Our R&D team have embraced the UE technology and have worked over the past 4 years to build upon it with our holistic virtual production filmmaking solution that enables more filmmakers and creators to utilize these new advancements.

“We purposely chose to make a VFX-heavy Sci-Fi short film, with the intention to prove to the industry that a film can be produced entirely through VP with ease and efficiency. – Leo Lee, Director.

The 9-minute sci-fi short was filmed on one of Versatile’s largest stages spanning 270 degrees in diameter, 6 x 24 meters with 2.0 pixel patented panels and running on 116 NVIDIA RTX 8000 GPUs. The processing power provided hash rate for full-screen, real time rendering, meaning all 10,000 panels were refreshing digital environments at full resolution. Two sets of tracking systems work together to achieve the low-latency tracing. Together with the great advantages of UE, our cinematographer was granted an enormous amount of creative freedom with their camera movements, setting up multiple camera positions and pointing cameras within 2 meters of the LED panels. The camera used for this film was the RED Helium.

Versatile’s lighting control system was combined with UE’s built-in lighting design along with physical lighting to achieve the reliable control of both ambient and hard light set ups.

“Live action shooting is limited by physical space, but Virtual Production allows us to set lighting and camera positions at any place. We can always maintain the best on-site lighting, that’s really a re-definition of time and space, giving us so much more creative freedom.” -Marc He, Cinematographer, New Air.

Sets & VAD

New Air tells the story of a mother and daughter struggling to live on an alien planet with no oxygen.

As an apocalyptic Sci-fi film, New Air is made up entirely of VFX scenes and 3 sets; a sandy alien surface, interior cabin of the spacecraft and a laboratory; each scene was large in scale and unique in style.

*Only 3 physical props were used on-set of New Air*

A traditional production workflow will shoot with physical sets & location, greenscreen and a VFX-post method. In the case of New Air, the only physical sets were the space craft door, rock cliff and a medical gurney; the rest of the set-decoration relied on digital assets built by the Virtual Art Department.

Our VAD (Virtual Art Department) team spent half a day processing the 4D photogrammetry to Elizabeth Tuner, the actor who played the mother, in order to duplicate her for the last scene. While our actress was on-set shooting, the asset team was simultaneously optimizing her CG model version.

Tuner talks about her experience as a performer and working through a typical timeline in post. ”The whole on-set day was very efficient, I immediately went to ADR right after finishing our shoot. Seeing what could be the final product so quickly, is amazing! It normally takes months before I even have a taste of that.”

*Actors prepare before shooting opening scene*

Synopsis

On a distant planet, human explorers are forging a new future on a brutal, resource-scarce world. A mother and her young daughter battle for survival together, and sometimes against one another, as they fight to stay alive with humanity’s punishing new rules. How far will mankind go to forge new roots in a new, untamed environment? What endures when civilization is gone and survival is all that is left?

About Versatile Media Ltd.

Versatile Media Ltd. is a global media company founded in 1993. The company has nearly 500 creative and technical artists and R&D staff, globally. The newly created North American virtual production studios are headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The company has built a full cycle virtual production workflow for both servicing the film and television industry as well as producing its own IP and co-produced projects.

International Growth

Versatile Media’s global expansions include a 43,000 square foot film centre in Vancouver that will include at least one high end, large LED volume as well as traditional sound stage and amenities. In addition to Vancouver’s stages, the global initiatives will also see the construction of a 12 acre film base in Hangzhou where, among other installations, 5 LED volumes will be built, in addition to their 2 existing LED stages, as well as capture and visualization stages.

For more information please contact:

Roula Lainas, Marketing & Business Development Executive
Versatile Media Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
roula@versatile.media

versatile.media

Twitter / IG / Facebook /LKD @filmversatile
#filmversatile #versatilemedia

May 9, 2022

The Versatile Stage debuted at NAB

It felt great to contribute and physically attend this year’s NAB Show 2022. We started our NAB journey with rehearsal time at our co-host’s booth where we presented Empowering The Art and debuted our short sci-fi film and how we fully utilized The Versatile Stage to produce our 9-minute featurette, New Air. Our two presentations were made possible with the support of our co-hosts, NVIDIA and Absen.

A phenomenal turnout at the 12th annual Devoncroft Executive Summit. Our VP and Head of Studio, North America, Steve Read joined the discussion on Cinematic and Live Virtual Production along with an impressive panel that included Rob Bredow, SVP and CCO of ILM, Dylan Boucherie, VP Production Technology: News & Sports at Warner Bros. Discovery and Barbara Ford Grant, President at Prysm Stages. Moderated by Founder and President of Devoncroft, Joe Zaller.

*Steve Read*, *VP, Versatile Media Ltd. N. America at Devoncroft Executive Summit session*.

Our Virtual Production Supervisors Chelsea Shannon and Raphael Gaudin had a blast talking with our VP, Steve Read on all things virtual production. A New Era of Filmmaking was recorded live at DELL TALKS @ NAB 22. The organizers and crew at IABM along with co-hosts DELL Technologies and NVIDIA, were a breeze to collaborate with and did a fantastic job at presenting emerging ideas to NAB guests and the global community. The question still remained; to storyboard or not to storyboard. Log on to the session and find out the answer.

*Our Virtual Production Supervisors before the start of our DELL TALKS @ NAB 22 sessions*

About Versatile Media Ltd.

Versatile Media Ltd. is a global media company founded in 1993. The company has over 450 creative and technical artists and R&D staff, globally. The newly created North American virtual production studios are headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The company has built a full cycle virtual production workflow for both servicing the film and TV industry as well as producing its own IP and co-produced projects.

For more information please contact:

Roula Lainas, Marketing & Business Development Executive
Versatile Media Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
roula@versatile.media

versatile.media
#filmversatile #versatilemedia

April 19, 2022

Construction Begins on LED Film Stages in Vancouver

Versatile Media Ltd. announces its Premiere LED Stages, Film Centre and Global expansion.

Versatile Media Ltd. Vancouver, Canada has confirmed the location of its new Vancouver film studio, which will include multiple soundstages, both traditional and LED, totaling 43,000 square feet purpose-built for live-action filming. The film complex is strategically located in South Burnaby near Marine Way, but more importantly it will house Versatile’s first permanent virtual production LED volume in Canada, which is promised to be one of the largest feature-rich LED stages in North America.

Versatile will take occupancy of the building in December 2022 which will provide a traditional soundstage as well as coinciding amenities including paint and sawmill, dedicated costume areas, general offices space, and parking to accommodate a full production. The new building will complete the full-cycle virtual production pipeline service that Versatile Media has been developing over the past five years.

In 2021 Versatile opened its Canadian headquarters on Pandora Street offering performance capture and visualization stages embracing the industry’s drive towards real-time production. Services offered include virtual location scouting, previz, techviz and stuntviz enabling full editorial of sequences and camera blocking for principle photography. The Burnaby location will complete their services offering an end-to-end virtual production and LED stage workflow to the global industry.

Steve Read, VP and Head of Studio for Versatile Media Ltd, Canada explains. “Filmmakers are embracing Virtual production to better serve the creative process. We want to empower filmmakers and expand the limits of what is possible with our technology. Our ultimate goal is to accelerate and nurture great storytelling and allow film production to catch up to the tremendous changes of distribution demanded by its appetite for global content.”

When founder and CEO of Versatile Media, Leo Lee, completed his first feature film as a director, he began developing solutions for filmmakers to release the creative process from any technical limitations. The company began to invest heavily in technology that would augment the filmmaking process. At first these tools were created for internal use and to make the film process more efficient, but after experiencing the creative freedom and success these advancements provided, the company’s endeavors turned outwards.

Not just another LED stage. Empowering Filmmakers.

Versatile’s Vancouver LED volume will comprise of 12,000 LED panels creating a 270-degree cylindrical volume spanning nearly 90 ft (27.5 meters) diameter with a connected flat ceiling at 30 ft (9 meters) and will integrate Epic’s Unreal Engine and powered by NVIDIA GPU technology. More importantly Versatile’s research and development team worked tirelessly to fully resolve the moiré effect allowing the Versatile LED panels to be filmed from any angle while in focus and up to 6 ft (2 meters) proximity of the panels. Other core cinematography features include, low latency camera tracking, filming up to 8k resolution at 120 fps, integrated virtual and physical DMX lighting console for creative lighting and colour management as well as integrated camera focus pull allowing DPs to adjust focal length as part of the brain-bar system.

“After we developed the technology, we realized how it could empower filmmakers everywhere. Film is a collaborative art. Going global is about making it possible for the best talent everywhere to work together to create better end products. We are breaking down the barriers between animation and live action workflows so that talented artists from both industries can cross over and participate, to create more potential for storytelling. I look forward to seeing exciting creative work produced in our Vancouver studios and seeing our global industry embrace new filmmaking techniques.” – Leo Lee, CEO & Founder, Versatile Media Ltd.

The building complex that is being developed by Beedie will be completed by late 2022 and ready for productions by early 2023.

Founded in 1954, Beedie is Western Canada’s largest private industrial developer and property manager, having completed more than 35 million square feet of new development, with an ever-expanding industrial portfolio of over 11 million square feet. With over six decades of building for good, Beedie has traditionally specialized in the development of state-of-the-art industrial business parks and build-to-suit facilities having customized space for both national and international companies to meet its clients’ present and future building requirements.

“Versatile Media’s LED sound stage centre represents the first purpose-built LED film stages in Beedie’s portfolio. With the continued growth of film in BC, we’re very excited to welcome Versatile and look forward to supporting their continued growth.” – Blake Asselstine, Vice President, Asset Management with Beedie

Versatile Media’s Global Plans

In addition to Vancouver’s stages, the global initiatives will also see the construction of a 12 acre film base in Hangzhou where, among other installations, 5 LED volumes will be built, in addition to their 2 existing LED stages, as well as capture and visualization stages.

As a filmmaker who has worked in the entertainment & advertising industry for over 30 years, CEO and Founder, Leo Lee has served in many capacities, from CG artist to cameraman, director and screenwriter, and thus brought his varied experience into the design of Versatile’s technology.

The goals for the company are to contribute to the technological transformation taking place, empower filmmakers everywhere and to bring audiences completely new experiences.

We look forward to sharing and being a part of the revolutionary transformation in filmmaking with producers and studios, across the globe.

Behind the scenes on Versatile LED stage set

About Versatile Media Ltd.

Versatile Media Ltd. is a global media company founded in 1993. The company has over 450 creative and technical artists and R&D staff, globally. The newly created North American virtual production studios are headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The company has built a full cycle virtual production workflow for both servicing the film and small screen film industry as well as producing its own IP and co-produced projects.

For more information please contact:

Roula Lainas, Marketing & Business Development Executive
Versatile Media Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
roula@versatile.media

versatile.media
#filmversatile #versatilemedia

April 13, 2022

Meet Us In Las Vegas

We have 3 exciting presentations, networking and news on our global expansion.

Saturday, April 23rd @ 2:40pm

Kicking off NAB 2022, this years’ Devoncroft Executive Summit, in its 12th year running, will showcase many of the industry’s market research and the latest trends. Our VP, Steve Read is honoured to join industry veterans on a panel talking about virtual production and the future of filmmaking.

Sunday, April 24th

By invitation only, this year at NAB 2022 Absen, Versatile Media, and NVIDIA are co-presenting a virtual production solution unlike any other – The Versatile Stage.

We are presenting a new excellence in virtual production solutions and are excited to share the stunning results. From precise set-up of NVIDIA GPU power, customized Absen LED panels, to Versatile’s patented brain-bar solutions that, together will set new industry standards. We are excited to share with filmmakers our innovations empowering the art of film.

The presentation will feature the debut of the sci-fi short film shot within The Versatile Stage, followed by an in-depth demonstration of how the film was shot in an immersive LED volume.

Directed by Leo Lee

On a distant planet, human explorers are forging a new future on a brutal, resource-scarce world. A mother and her young daughter battle for survival together, and sometimes against one another, as they fight to stay alive with humanity’s punishing new rules. How far will mankind go to forge roots in a new, untamed environment? What endures when civilization is gone and survival is all that is left?

“Together with two of our key collaborators, Absen and NVIDIA, I’m very excited to share with everyone two of Versatile’s creations: our film and the technologies and workflows we designed to empower the art of filmmaking.” – Leo Lee, Founder and CEO, Versatile Media

Our collaboration with both ABSEN and NVIDIA are key elements to our LED volumes.

“NVIDIA has been working since our inception to empower artists with advanced technology to bring their visions to life. We’re excited to join forces with Versatile Media and Absen at NAB to showcase the very latest breakthroughs in real-time production that will enable the next generation of creativity.” – Rick Champagne, Global Media & Entertainment Industry Management, NVIDIA

Even though Sunday is an exclusive showing, the presentation will be open to the public on Monday, April 25 9:30AM at the Absen booth. Catch us in person or online live streamed via Absen channels at YouTube @Absen and on Facebook @LEDAbsen.

Monday, April 25th

Glimpse of our Virtual Production workflow

The Dell Talks @ NAB 2022 is an open presentation hosted by Dell Technologies, NVIDIA and IABM. We are excited and honoured to be part of this series taking place at IABM’s BaM Zone in N116, off the central boulevard of the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Join our VP for North America, Steve Read and both our Virtual Production Supervisors, Chelsea Shannon and Raphael Gaudin where they will present A New Era of Filmmaking covering our production workflow focused on the foundation of real-time filmmaking and moderated by Lorenzo Zanni, Head of Knowledge at IABM.

Planning on attending NAB? Drop by the Absen Booth #C8915 Central Hall and meet our team and learn about our LED and Virtual Production pipeline.

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Mentorship for Next Gen Filmmakers Joined By Academy Award Winning Cinematographer

Vehicles, Action Sequences & LED Stage Filming

How We Filmed our Sci-Fi Short in 4 Days

The Versatile Stage debuted at NAB

Construction Begins on LED Film Stages in Vancouver

Meet Us In Las Vegas

We have 3 exciting presentations, networking and news on our global expansion.

Saturday, April 23rd @ 2:40pm

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