The Digital Age Stone Age

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The Lion and the FirebirdRising fire, an early human, flees with her small daughter KONA pursued by a violent warband the Lion Men. When she is inadvertently saved by one of the last Neanderthals, the two struggle to communicate and find trust. But when the Lion Men return, they become the key to one another's survival and the future of humanity

The Lion and the Firebird is an independent epic action-adventure film set in 40,000 BCE during the last conflict between early humans and Neanderthals. A world of fierce creatures and breath-taking landscapes, where the forces of nature could determine the fate of the entire species. To bring this ancient world to life in all its glory, Director Daniel Byers and DP, Zachary Ludescher, turned to virtual production technology and some real-world lighting power from Litepanels Gemini panels.

T-Rex Sized Budgets Not Required The filmmakers wanted to take the audience back to this time when the Ice Age was oncoming, triggered by massive volcanic activity. Originally planned as a physical production, the team soon realized it was unrealistic to achieve the five different unique environments required for the film in the limited production schedule of five days. Instead, they opted for virtual production technology in the Unreal Engine, which allowed them to build a virtual world and populate it with volcanoes, weather effects, and active lightning and eruptions.

Virtual production proved to be the most efficient solution for the film's tight budget and production schedule. It made making prehistoric filmmaking as easy as a walk in the (Jurassic) Park, allowing the film to look and feel great without the resources of a major studio. This is a grant-funded student film - my thesis at Columbia University, says Daniel. So, it was a kind of case test, can you use this technology at an independent scale budget level to make something that looks and feels great?

Daniel and Zachary worked with environment designer Francisco Barros, who previously worked on Disney's The Mandalorian. He came on board and built all these beautiful unique environments, says Daniel. The filmmakers then shot the epic short film in an epic short time using virtual production, with only minimal special effects added in the editing room, as they did most of the work in-camera.

We had caves, steps, plains, erupting volcanoes, and lightning-filled stormy jungles, all in just one prep day

Daniel ByersDirector

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Making Tracks to Virtual Production But creating a world before history came with its own set of challenges. One of the biggest hurdles the team faced was figuring out how to bring the lighting to life to be both convincing and immersive. Zachary, who has a background in visual effects, was eager to explore the possibilities of LED volume walls and virtual production. The physical space was at World Stage in Manhattan, says Zachary. It is an older space, converted into an LED studio with a three-wall volume rather than a curve.

Utilising the studio's MoSys tracker with a Sony Venice camera, and the LED stage, they achieved beautiful levels of immersion. Zachary came up with a brilliant lighting design that made it possible for us to quickly realize scenes, crucial for finishing the movie in time, says Daniel. With a steep learning curve, the first few days were challenging, but the crew soon found a rhythm and were moving quickly in no time.

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Zachary had just one day to rig his lights for the five-day shoot, and he had to contend with unique challenges such as the emitted light from the floor, which created an under light that could kill the illusion. When do you get underlit by grass? he says. Definitely not a thing that happens in real life. He spoke to the tech crew, who told him he could turn off the floor everywhere except where it needed to be rendered out. Once I did that, it was a game changer, he adds.

Selling the effect To create active lighting effects, like lightning flashes and erupting volcanoes, Zachary cued events in Unreal and disguise to trigger the effects. A lightning flash or the explosion of a volcano in the background emits some light from the volume, but not anywhere near enough. So, we must supplement it, says Zachary. To supplement the effects, he used Litepanels Gemini 2 1 LED panels. The Geminis came in particularly useful because we could hook them up to the DMX board and I would cue them all together, he says. Let's just say all right, cue lightning and then they would trigger the lightning effect in the volume at the same time as they triggered the lightning effect from the Geminis, which was really crucial for selling the effect.

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