Raising the Volume!

Raising the Volume! A qualitative study into LED Volume a virtual production technology. This is an explorational research study about the impact of virtual production technologies like the LED Volume on the process of production, roles and responsibilities, decision-making, and business models of media companies. As the production technology is recent and there are limited research studies on it yet. The study's main research question is how virtual production technologies like LED Volume affected the production process and business of media companies. A qualitative method of data collection was used for this study with semi-structured expert interviews. 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with industry experts in the field of virtual production with experience with LED Volume. The method of analysis used was inductive thematic analysis. The study's main findings were that the virtual production industry combines the two industries of gaming and filmmaking to collaborate and work together. While the technology of LED Volume could be a tool, the operator or the communicator of the technology is the utmost essential role that has emerged. The virtual production supervisor is the role that emerged within the communication gap between the industries. They act as mediators between the two industries. A part of using the technology causes a workload and budget shift from post-production to pre-production this requires a decent amount of pre-planning for the proper execution of the technology. The industry has shown a mixture of Diffusion of the Innovation curve with the Gartner Hype Model for the growth and adoption of virtual production. There were multiple studios that emerged during the pandemic across the world but post-pandemic a majority of full-scale Volumes were dismantled. A new trend of business model emerging in the field of virtual production is ‘Pop-up’ Volumes. These are Volumes that are portable, they can be dismantled and carried to the shoot location which provides more flexibility to the rigid wall of Volume that is fixed to a studio space. While there was not any direct impact on the creative process of the storyline and production timeline this could shift gradually to have more imaginative scripts, according to the data.