Content Creation Using The Power of Virtual Production – with London Tech Week

Back in June, we were delighted to partner with London Tech Week to deliver a fringe event at The Creative Digital Lab, supported by Croydon Council.

There is often a huge debate as to whether Croydon is in London, Surrey, or both. As the most southernly London borough and historically part of Surrey, it’s easy to see why there is confusion; however, we are very much part of London and were delighted to be on the map as one of London Tech Week’s events.

Our event aimed to shed light on why Virtual Production is so useful for Marketeers, and the highlight was to showcase the amazing equipment in our Creative Digital Lab.

We were also delighted to announce the new Manager of the Creative Digital Lab, the talented and focused Herty Owusu, who has taken the lead in all operations of the studio. Although Herty has been part of our team for a couple of years, her passion lies in filmmaking, and her industry knowledge has helped us to develop new products and services – coming soon!

Virtual Production is a relatively new concept, one that Video producers and marketers have not yet fully utilised. We therefore partnered with LSBU and hosted Dr Leon Barker, Reader in Performance (Knowledge Exchange) at the University of the Arts London. Dr Leon Barker pursues research in robot-human interaction, machine learning, performance capture and other emerging technologies.

Leon spent some time explaining his career and how he developed from a curious art student in the 90s to the world of digital and immersive technologies. He then explained some of the user cases for Virtual Production, including projects he and his previous student had worked on, such as Punch Drunk, an immersive theatre production and even The Barbie Movie.  The presentation culminated in showcasing our screen and its use in collaboration with AI.

We then hosted a panel of expert marketers who discussed in detail user cases and the future of Virtual Production.

Our panel consisted of three of our trustees, people who support our mission and want to help the local economy go from strength to strength:

Panalist one, Neil Ginsburg.

Neil is an entrepreneurial and award-winning creative agency leader with 15+ years of experience driving growth, culture, and innovation across content, digital and social agencies. Co-Founder & CEO of creative agency Ruffle. He has a proven track record of building teams, scaling operations, and delivering revenue growth with clients like Amazon, PepsiCo, Samsung and TikTok.

Neil uses VP to avoid issues and keep things within budget. When hiring a studio and the VP kit, you are entering a sterile, controlled environment that helps filming stay on schedule and budget. Any production crew will know all too well what can happen when the wind changes and a storm comes in, or in the winter when the days are short and there isn’t enough time before the sun sets.  A VP studio offers a solution which provides cost benefits to the entire production, no need to get location permits from the council, no running over due to weather. It’s a no-brainer, especially as sustainability is high on the agenda for so many businesses these days, showing that your agency is using new methods to minimise carbon footprint can make all the difference commercially when winning jobs.

Panalist two,  Jo Gumb.

Jo is Co-founder and Director of White Label Creative – an award-winning content marketing, design and events agency. The agency specialises in: Regeneration and Renewal, Brand management, Creative Design, Content Marketing. Online editorial and commercial content management; digital marketing, including social media; Corporate communications and crisis news management- White Label has become the go-to agency for economic regeneration.

Jo feels the Creative Digital Lab is so important for the South London region, in terms of the power it can give businesses to deliver successful outcomes and what it can give back to the local economy. When working with local authorities, there is resistance to using new technology; however, they as an organisation are using new tools all the time to support their own strategy. Virtual production and AI offer more imaginative, innovative and exciting ways to communicate stories, which will offer a chance for more diversity within the industry.

Panalist three, Dee Miller,

Dee Miller is the founder and MD of Siege Business Development and co-founder of Seminal. Dee drives brand growth, market acceleration, and powerful connections through bold strategy, innovative marketing, and high-impact events.

Dee believes Virtual Production has been around for a long time, delivered in a crude and startup fashion. Fast-forward to today, and because of advancements in technology, it’s more accessible to gain a higher level of quality for forward-thinking agencies. Creators, especially YouTubers, are experimenting with new modes of content creation. They are younger and much more well-versed in using technology, which makes content creation more innovative and exciting. Things are always changing; look at podcasts, which traditionally were all about audio but now have become very visual. Screens and spaces like this help creative people to showcase what they find interesting, and the sky is the limit. Digital marketing is changing the landscape and spending of big brands; all of the sports brands that would usually spend on billboard advertising are now redirecting that spend to digital strategy and delivering on-demand mini programmes that represent their brand. This means being able to measure engagement through trackable clicks, likes and click-throughs to e-commerce. Dee believes smaller businesses will start to consider this style of advertising in the future.

Panalist four, Dr Leon Baker,

After delivering his presentation, Leon took questions relevant to where he sees Virtual Production taking us in the future. Virtual production is an emerging technology that needs to be played with to experiment and discover what can be achieved. The play space is all about doing things you cannot do in reality, and that doesn’t just mean in camera production. Live events, theatre and concerts have spectacular backdrops these days, often using the same technology. In the business world, this can be transferred to product launches to transform space and create exotic visuals in nearby locations.

Virtual production is limited only by imagination; we can create anything anywhere within our controlled environment to support your vision.

We recorded the presentation and panel so you can watch the video here and on our Youtube channel 

If you’d like to speak to us about a potential project, say hello, and one of our team will be in touch to help bring your ideas to life.