The Bobcat Shoot - A Little Bit of Everything
- Jan 20
- 4 min read
The Flint Group’s Studio 46 approached us over a year ago with a client and some bold ideas for a shoot. A huge, futuristic, underground warehouse which would be the location for the beginning of Bobcat’s latest campaign – The Bobcat Advantage. Where would you get a studio like that somewhere in the Midwest, let alone Minnesota? At D&N Studios, of course. With a virtual LED screen.
With Studio 46’s great aspirations, our awesome tech, and Bobcat’s courage to try something new, we were bound to create an awesome campaign. All of these combined set up the production with a little bit of everything to give Bobcat the full immersion they needed.
Now, doing a regular shoot – trying to find specific locations, props, vendors – it can cause a lot of stress. With virtual production, all of that stress can be relieved. In fact, you are allowed to go even further and dream even bigger than you ever once thought possible! The challenge, really, is having a well laid-out plan.
Virtual production demands a heavy emphasis on pre-production, but not without a huge gain in your final product. Much planning is needed, between Studio 46 and Bobcat approving various Unreal Engine designs, figuring out set design elements/props, keeping everything circulated in communication with all teams; it can be a lot! However, it is well worth it. The same amount of pre-production planning can happen for a regular, same-old video production shoot, though therein lies the mystery of what may actually occur during said production – and if post-production has the potential to salvage whatever may go wrong.
One amazing feature with Unreal Engine – the design software used to create our virtual worlds – is that you can create virtual copies of anything. So of course, we scanned and rendered the product using photos taken, and bam! Bobcat’s Zero Turn Mowers were put in the big screen. Along with a few other props, of course – for added immersion. We even added their cat head logo in the background! How much would you say something like that’d cost for a shoot?
During production days, everything in front of the camera and LED wall that you see truly make the frame. It all allows for changes to be made in real-time: whether that be for lighting, set design, virtual set design, talent positioning – all of it adjustable with no worries of how it will all look in post. Real-time camera tracking makes it so there is perfectly-smooth coordination between the camera’s location and the display of the wall’s movement according to it. This leaves no cause for concern when it comes to an awkward and incorrect-looking background. Your camera movements capture your subject perfectly in respect to where it is within the virtual Unreal world.
The frustum cam, a.k.a. What the camera sees within the frame, allows us to perfectly render only that and nothing beyond. Whatever is beyond the frame is still seen (and can be used to help with lighting, grip, and set design), though at a much lower quality to allow our LED wall some breathing room as far as what must be rendered as we shoot.
The best part of the shoot, or any virtual production shoot, for that matter – is seeing the look and reaction of the clients. Even the people on the production teams are taken aback by the endless possibilities of virtual production! The culmination of all the pre-production had paid off. After setting up our virtual world, the product, set design, and lighting all for the first time, everyone – cast, client, and crew – were all ecstatic by the image displayed on the monitor.
Seeing everything on screen makes the production so much easier for the crew, too. During set up, everyone can have a look into the monitor and see what slight differences need to be made. Set design can be moved, added, or taken away. Lighting can be changed according to the hues and brightness of the virtual world. The virtual can be changed with a couple of clicks, according to however the client would like.
Finally, like has been said before, with virtual production, post-production is barely needed. Compiling the shots together according to how you like them, hit export, and that’s really all that must be done! You may delve deeper into colorization, but unless you plan for any VFX to be added afterwards, you won’t need to worry about it in post! That’s the magic of virtual production; the future of filmmaking. The final product is delivered to you as it is being created.
The Bobcat Advantage is one of our favorite shoots to look back on. Studio 46 desired to use our wall and all of its features in such a way where we could incorporate a little bit of everything into the shoot. They were happy, Bobcat was happy, and we were happy. Everyone won those two shoot days, and they have a fantastic final product to show for it.
View the final products on Bobcat's Website!
Check out Studio 46!
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