Introduction
Imagine you get to develop a complete film set on a virtual platform. You can do away with green screens, heavy lighting, and everything else that increases the cost of production. If that’s what you want, it’s best that you study the difference between virtual sets vs. physical sets first.
After you get the concept of virtual sets, the imagination rules you and takes over the centre stage. It’s up to your creativity and the level of decision-making you want to dive deeper into.
It depends on how much fine-tuning you want to enable through virtual sets and what you wouldn’t compromise, even when it’s virtual.
So, get a better knowledge of what it means to create a beautiful film, ad, or any campaign. Then, study at a glance the difference between the two sets, which are covered in this post today.
Later, you can re-engineer your mindset on filmmaking in modern times by taking a comprehensive course from Frameboxx 2.0. This prepares you for the creative and self-driven future in filmmaking that awaits you.
So, let’s get started with the advantages and challenges of each of these sets. That way, you will have a better understanding of each one to create an art form that speaks about your worldview.
What are virtual sets vs. physical sets in film production?
Virtual sets use advanced computer-generated images or graphics technology. Filmmakers create immersive backgrounds and forefronts using these virtual sets. They need their concepts to be clear-cut and visually appealing on the vision board first, though.
Virtual sets transport the live audience online or in the virtual world when it comes to live events, concerts, film shows, etc.
Whereas when we talk about physical sets, you need everything on time and accurately placed. From lighting, camera, spot boys, props on the scenes, and actors rehearsing their dialogues, everything has to be proper.
Physical sets help create big banner films or series that do not require heavy virtual or special effects involvement. When the budget is also not a constraint, producers and filmmakers can invest more in bigger sets, like renting a studio in the film city.
What are the advantages of a physical set?
Connect with world-class actors and actresses in person. This helps you to get instant fame and spread positive word of mouth if you’re new to filmmaking. Your networking with high-class people and more producers is on point when you install and shoot with physical sets.
- Reshooting a scene is easier:
We know that dismantling a shooting scene is a hassle. At the same time, it makes it easier for actors to get their best shot with multiple takes. This does not seem like an ideal case for virtual sets, though.
- Get into details of an architecture:
You can fill the set with as much detailing as possible. Architecture is your playground when you have no budget constraints. Art directors can really play their best foot here. They can help make a scene more profound, emotional, or thrilling.
- Get creative with guerilla shots:
Physical sets are best when you want to take guerilla shots for a scene or sequence. You can literally go to a public scene, shoot a sequence, and return to the studio on time.
Otherwise, it’s the best place to shoot when you want to get real responses from your actors and actresses. Each dialogue will be more meaningful and impressive when artists are on set, giving their best to follow the cue.
What are the disadvantages of a physical set?
Film sets are costlier than virtual sets. It involves daily rent of the place and each item or prop used on the set. So, it requires careful calculation and planning before actually going live with the shoot.
- Requires a lot of rehearsal:
Physical film sets can be tiring and taxing. Artists are often there for 10-20+ hours of shoot. Thus, to bring perfection in any sequence or shot, artists need to be sure of their dialogue screen presence, and master their memory to deliver emotions on time.
What are the advantages of a virtual set?
- You can be a lot more creative without increasing the cost:
Delve deeper into your creative mindset when creating sequences online on a virtual set. Do this even on live shows to add thrill and excitement. It does not cost you anything extra when you are using free transitions and filters to make the scene fuller, more immersive, and more appealing.
- Faster turnaround time to render the sequence or entire film:
When you’re creating the entire sequence or film virtually, you can render it on time. You no longer have to wait for the shoot to be complete physically and send it to the editor and colour corrector to do further changes.
A scriptwriter, director, and video editor can work together in front of the virtual engine. They can finish the film editing, processing, and rendering within hours.
- Add more shots if not satisfied with earlier ones:
When you shoot on physical sets, everyone has a certain schedule to follow. That might not be the case on a virtual engine. You can create, design, and launch virtual characters with voiceovers from an AI generator.
So, your dependency on real artists reduces. You can leverage virtual engines to get appropriate work done in minutes with extra shots without increasing the cost.
- Catchy content in minutes:
The best usage of new-age virtual filmmaking tools is for short ad shoots or catchy digital campaigns. It won’t take you much time, and still, you can still integrate AI tools to generate scripts within seconds. Then, you can use CGI tools to design the character in another set of minutes.
The entire project for a short film, ad, or campaign is completed easily. You still manage to get creative with the visual storyboarding, without a doubt.
What are the disadvantages of a virtual set?
When you’re heavily dependent on generating AI scripts and characters, these might not be original. The references will be generated and moulded from the already given library on the net.
- Not suitable for long-format content:
The virtual engine might cause errors in consistency, originality, continuity, and lighting in the long durations. You have to manually supervise each frame to reduce as many errors as possible.
Conclusion
We read the blog post above about the extensive knowledge of virtual sets vs. physical sets. This information comes in handy for new-age filmmakers. Know more on our blog posts. Or else, enroll in a comprehensive course on filmmaking at Frameboxx 2.0 today.