CASE STUDY
Installing a State of the Art Virtual Production Studio
Empowering the next generation of the UK's Film & TV Industry
National Film & Television School
For over half a century, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) has developed some of Britain's and the world’s top creative talent.
The NFTS is a globally renowned production powerhouse. Where Students create award-winning content within state-of-the-art production facilities, guided by world class professionals.
"We have been working with ProAV now for more than 10 years. Pretty much anything thats got anything to do with shooting for Film and TV courses has come from ProAV"
Designed for Flexibility
Crucial to NFTS was the ability to use this new screen across the variety of course subjects available at the school. They run a dedicated Virtual Production course, but the entire design of the institution relies on collaboration between courses to cover the multitude of skills and disaplines requried for a Film or TV production, from art design to cinematography.
This approach means that students from every course will graduate with experience of working alongside this state of the art technology. This is crucial for the wider industry, as this generation will play an important part in filling the current skills gap in the industry around Virtual Production technology and large scale LED volumes.
"Everyone in the school wants to get in there, to test it and see how it will work for their shoots."
Manifesting a vision
Connecting audiences with the natural world through spectacular and often emotional sequences is the driving force behind why the majority filmmakers do what they do. Bringing the deserts of Namibia or the boreal forests of Siberia to our living rooms as well as getting intimate glimpses into the lives isolated native communities, allows us to experience the abundance and fragility of our one planet. Responsible for delivering this to our screens, is most likely Toby’s Kinefinity MAVO 6K camera and it’s ability to manifest the cinematographer’s “ideal vision”:
“One’s imagination should always exceed one’s grasp, so you must strive to achieve your ideal vision. That camera with its beauty, softness and its small form factor allows me to get really close to manifesting my imagination, and the tools I’ve developed over the years enable me to get as close as I can to achieving that vision.”
Toby revealed that a large portion of his creative vision begins with assessing the way light and softness interacts within classical artworks: "At heart, I’m a romantic. I look at the old masters and how they painted and what they were able to achieve with oil paints hundreds of years ago. Since the start, I’ve always strived to achieve an organic, soft image, the way I see the world in my imagination. I adore the softness of the Kinefinity image. I love the colour rendition, I love how it deals with the highlights, I love how it deals with the darks, there’s a real artistic beauty to it that keeps drawing me back."
The right tools for the job
"Sometimes I will just have the Edge 6K with me and if I’m shooting wildlife, I’ve had a plate made so if I’m shooting on the Canon 50-1000mm it just steps me up so that I can very easily shoot 50-1000mm and I can drop it to super 35 and that gives me that extra punch in because that lens only covers super 35.
For the majority of my handheld shots, I just have 1 handle on the side, the top monitor and my prime lens, and that allows me to be so understated. If I want gimbal shots, the Kinefinity is small enough and can be mounted with a battery on the Ronin RS3, it’s such a low profile.
If budget and time allows and if I’ve got an assistant perhaps, I’ll keep the Kinefinity for the beauty shots and for the people, I’ll have the RED on the 50-1000mm lens and then I’ll always have the Sony FX3 as well, just because it’s just there for when I need it and there’s nothing that can touch that for super low light at night.
So, I’ll always have those 3, but the Kinefinity my prime camera there."
