Emerging tech like virtual production is evolving rapidly. Is Hong Kong ready?
- Virtual production is gaining industry and government support as it is safer and more time- and cost-efficient than traditional filmmaking methods
- That interest extends to Hong Kong, where the government needs to explore funding and support to keep pace with emerging technology and nurture local talent
Virtual production is when creators use real-time game engines to create interactive virtual backgrounds and put them on large LED volumes – a system of linked high-end LED panels used to display video footage or 3D content – to create a realistic film set.
Special effects that are normally added in post-production are instead brought forward to pre-production. In essence, virtual production enables physical – that is, actors and props – and digital elements, such as special effects, to come together in real time.
Compared with traditional methods of filmmaking, this can be more time- and cost-effective. The workflow allows for on-the-spot iteration and modification of scenes without posing too much risk to the production timeline or budget. Lighting, colouring and other background visualisation can all be altered in real time. A sunset could become a sunrise in an instant, for example. This can shorten week-long, multi-location shoots into several days in a studio.
More importantly, this has given rise to libraries of digital assets and virtual environments. These can be reused as long as they are compatible with the game engine.
Although virtual production is unlikely to replace existing workflows entirely, it could still represent the future of content creation for film, television, music videos, advertisements, live events and the like. It is no wonder that its market size is growing steadily. In 2022, the global virtual production market was valued at US$1.82 billion, and this number is expected to grow to US$6.79 billion by 2030.
Given its rapid rise, virtual production has garnered government support. To build capacity for local content creators, Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority introduced a Virtual Production Innovation Fund in partnership with the UK’s National Film and Television School last year. The fund supports the use of virtual production technologies in short-form content such as music videos, short films, commercials and live streaming.
To advance research and development in this area, Innovate UK also funded the virtual production R&D of disguise, a leading software company in the field, when the technology started garnering widespread attention in 2021.
Developing virtual production capabilities requires significant training and expensive hardware, and testing space. Qualified experts are in high demand, but they remain scarce.
This prompts deliberation about the importance of building bridges between higher education and the industry so future creative talent can learn the right skill sets and keep pace with the latest advancements. It is therefore a good time for the government to explore ways to fund and support capacity building and R&D in virtual production and other emerging technologies.
Virtual production is innovating the way stories are told and forging new careers paths. Can Hong Kong’s policymakers keep up?
Yolanda Lam is a researcher at Our Hong Kong Foundation