Masterwork Films advances brand storytelling with virtual...

Branded cinematic shorts and documentaries have surged in popularity as more companies strategize out-of-the-box ways to connect and engage with audiences. While these projects benefit from higher-end technology, they often come with tighter budgets and same-day turnaround expectations. To address these challenges, Masterwork Films CEO Biro Florin built a green screen virtual production studio in the heart of Brighton, England. It houses all the equipment to streamline and accelerate production on branded storytelling projects, including a workstation running Epic Games' Unreal Engine, an AJA ColorBox for color management, and AJA GEN10 for sync gen, among other equipment.

Fusing technological expertise with a passion for creativity

Channeling a passion for filmmaking, cinematography, and gear, Biro established Masterwork Films in 2024. Today, he runs the company and acts as DP (Director of Photography) on client shoots for branded storytelling, film, commercial, and masterclass projects. In addition to servicing clients in the UK, US, and Canada, Biro and team run a green screen virtual production studio and a kit rental business.

Biro sees green screen virtual production unlocking new doors for brands looking to deliver believable compositions quickly and affordably. He explained, Virtual production can prove costly if you're building sets and virtual worlds from scratch, which is why we try to strike that middle ground with our new studio, where we can get a nice output with stock and marketplace type assets. Another big benefit of executing green screen virtual production, especially with a tool like AJA ColorBox, is that it minimizes post production work so we can reduce costs and production times for our clients all around.

Envisioning a green screen virtual production studio

Recently launched, Masterwork's u-shaped green screen stage is six meters wide and three and a half meters deep. It features up to 3 cameras that send a REDWideGamutRGB (Log) SDI signal of the talent and the green screen to its keyer while a PC sends another SDI signal transporting the Unreal Engine virtual camera feed that also uses REDWideGamutRGB (Log). The keyer receives the camera signal as the foreground feed and keys out a flat-looking green backdrop, leaving an alpha foreground layer of the talent. The same keyer also receives the Unreal Engine SDI signal as the background feed and applies it as the background layer of the foreground keyed talent.

Given both foreground and background signals are REDWideGamutRGB, the composited image on the keyer has the same flat look. Biro's team sends that flat video signal via SDI to an AJA ColorBox and uses Assimilate Live Looks to color correct and grade it. They then send the graded output to director and talent confident monitors using the ColorBox SDI output, and the loop out to a focus puller and for low-latency critical tasks.

Whether on a virtual production or traditional set, there's something magical about being able to use a device like ColorBox to upload a LUT and get a rough view of how things will look, plus have the control to tweak the color and contrast in real time. It gives you an extra layer of confidence as you light the scene and confirm that you structured it the right way, he explained. I also love that ColorBox is integrated with so many great color grading and correction tools to support live grading on set and that I can easily export changes to a LUT or a grade and send them down the pipeline in post to editors and colorists; it's very useful.

ColorBox, Biro said, also saves the team time because they're able to do everything on the computer without having to process the 4:2:2 10-bit signal they're shooting; it receives the feed and outputs the exact same signal with its LUT. And Biro's team can do an SDI loop out or pass through, so he can send a signal from the ColorBox to two recorders one with the color grading and the original signal as it comes out of the compositing server.

In addition to ColorBox, Masterwork Films uses an AJA GEN10 sync gen generator because its cameras and lens trackers have genlock and SDI reference inputs. Biro explained, Prior to GEN10, the background would stutter when we'd move the cameras. I quickly found that we needed a device to synchronize all these devices doing genlock, so I installed GEN10, and the stuttering disappeared; it's been amazing.

Laying a solid foundation for the future

Biro anticipates client demand for more distinctive backdrops for brand videos will only continue to grow, which is partially why he created the studio. We saw this new studio as a solution to help diversify the look and feel of projects, especially for our more consistent clients, without it costing an arm and a leg like most LED studios do, he added. So far, they like the variety of options we can offer at an affordable price point, as there aren't many non-LED options in the south of the UK.

For the time being, as Biro continues to grow the business, he's keeping an eye on AI developments related to virtual production, game development, and motion tracking. He concluded, We're heading into a very disruptive world, especially with the advent of generative AI. Virtual production presents an opportunity where AI, green screen, and motion tracking developments can converge to truly reshape how we create content. As we experience this shift and take on more new clients, it's very possible we may start taking more of our studio equipment, like ColorBox, on location, as I could see it being useful for real time visualization of color grading and correction on projects outside our studio.

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