Carstage is a company that provides In-Camera Virtual Effects (ICVFX) and operates an LED stage in Long Island City, NY. They specialize in car process work, and have learned that their system also works well filming out of the car environments with disguise and Unreal Engine. Dozens of productions have utilized Carstage, but the demand for their ICVFX work—at remote locations—is growing. When the production team of the Hulu series’ Wu-Tang: An American Saga had an episode that took place primarily on a tour bus, they brought Carstage onboard. They were tasked with creating the ICVFX for the bus trip on a temporary stage in New Jersey. The season three ‘Daytona 500’ episode, centered on a road trip down the East Coast with coverage needed on not one, but two tour buses. Production secured the filming location, a warehouse in Secaucus, NJ and Carstage brought in the gear and their team. Carstage was brought onto the job through the early discussions between Gail Barringer, Co-Executive Producer on Wu-Tang: An American Saga and Mike Sime, owner of Visual Alchemy, one of Carstage’s strategic partners.
While dealing with ICVFX for such a large vehicle like a bus may seem daunting, it was something Carstage had already tackled. “Actually, our first ICVFX shoot at Carstage was a bus, so we were just going back to our roots,” comments Isabella Hinojal, Stage Manager and Coordinator with Carstage. “But here we had to build it out in a different stage. For us it was about trying to figure out how to be able to cover everything that we need to cover without our flying walls on our own stage that we normally have.” Kimberly Dowd Petritsis, Director of Technology for Carstage, adds, “For this bus shoot, we knew we would need several LED walls, some stationary and some rolling.” Their first call was to the video rental company Nationwide Video. As it happened, Nationwide’s Secaucus warehouse was just a five-minute drive from the filming stage. Carstage worked with Nationwide to source the video equipment, including the LED panels for the bus surround to turn a warehouse into a functioning LED stage.
Gearing Up
Brad McMartin, National Customer Service Manager of Nationwide Video, noted “We have eight locations across the country, and we were fortunate that this production was happening right down the road from our Secaucus location, though we would have supported them wherever they wanted. We had the initial list of all the gear that Carstage needed, but we also took care of other items that we felt they might need during the shoot. Something else we provided for this project was space for Carstage to prep the gear. They wanted to be able to go into that filming facility completely 100% ready to roll. They didn’t want to prep onsite; they wanted to roll off the truck and be production ready walking into that warehouse location.”
For a week leading up to the shoot, Dowd Petritsis and her team worked at Nationwide’s Secaucus warehouse prepping the equipment. McMartin explains, “Our warehouse manager, Alex Gaspari, carved out a floor space for them, and said, ‘You have our support. Hit me when needed and I’ll get you what you need.’ All the gear coming from Carstage’s own facility was shipped to us for them to prep in our warehouse, along with the gear they were getting from us at Nationwide. We then trucked it all together to the filming warehouse for the shoot. They were able to prep everything, put it all into their racks and workflow, cable manage it, etc. We even took back to our shop all the empty cases from all of the LED panels to give them room to work on the set.” Besides supplying the gear ordered, Nationwide handled all the logistics to move equipment back and forth between the shop and the shoot.
Building the Road
Carstage was pleased to be working with Mike Sime and the team at Visual Alchemy, who played a key role in the setup and refinement of the system. Like Nationwide, Visual Alchemy’s shop was also conveniently located in Secaucus. The LED surround for the bus, which Carstage built, was built as a heptagon spanning just under 90’ and consisted of over 450 tiles of INFiLED’s DB2.3 LED panels. The LED panels were built into seven walls—five fixed and two that were movable—that surrounded the tour bus. “The 2.3mm LED panels were the right choice since the LED walls had to actually be pretty tight on the bus,” comments Dowd Petritsis. “Having that higher resolution allowed us to fit in the space. If we had a lower resolution, it would’ve been harder because we would’ve had to have larger walls and have them further back from the bus.” The Virtual Environment Supervisor, David Smith, designed the LED octagon configuration for optimal coverage. Dowd Petritsis designed the system, built it out, tested it, and then programmed for the shoot. Tony Bonilla at BNW Rigging designed a custom rig using Mod Truss products to support the LED walls.
Nationwide and INFiLED have a strong partnership and McMartin appreciates the support the manufacturer provides his company. “From what we’ve seen in the LED world over the last three to five years, I would say INFiLED’s quality is at the top of my list. The partnership that we have with them is certainly unique. They do have a U.S. presence now in Los Angeles which helps strengthen our partnership and our ability to work together with folks locally for service and repair, as well as support. We own a lot of INFiLED’s DB panels as well as their AR outdoor products.”
The Carstage team used disguise VX4 media servers and NovaStar UHD Jr processors—also provided by Nationwide. Dowd Petritsis, Media Programmer on the shoot, was able to control the driving plates, some of which were custom plates created by production services company PlatePros. “With the Wu-Tang series taking place in the 90’s, the current skyline of Manhattan had to be augmented to match the 90’s time period,” explains Hinojal. “With our ‘fix it in pre’ mantra in mind, and the quick thinking of PlatePros, a TIFF image file of the twin towers of the World Trade Center provided by their team was laid in to create a more authentic environment.”
For the shoot, the Carstage team used the timeline control on the disguise servers to control the LED walls, thereby not needing a console for control. They appreciated the flexibility the media servers provided them with for the shoot. Dowd Petritsis describes “We were able to change the LED walls separately. We have this ability at our Carstage studio, and sometimes use it on remote shoots. Normally, we had the same color on each of the separate LED screens, but there were times that we needed to be able to brighten certain screens depending on what they needed for each shot.”
Smith, the Virtual Environment Supervisor was the direct line of communication between the Carstage crew and production, ensuring the vision of the DP, Gavin Kelly and director, Matthew Ross, was executed efficiently with each take. “Clear communication played a critical role in this project, in all aspects and stages, and all of the client interface paid off,” says Hinojal. The production team were impressed with the work Carstage provided for this shoot. “The team at Carstage was professional, reasonable, and some of the hardest workers I’ve encountered to get the job done,” says Rocco Nisivoccia, Jr., AUPM, Wu-Tang an American Saga. “We brought them on location, and they worked hard to achieve a great visual goal for our episode.” Barringer, Co-EP, commented, “Being handed an episode where 80% of it takes place on a moving vehicle could be considered an overwhelming challenge. After consulting with the amazing staff at Carstage we were able to shoot our scenes in a controlled space with realistic driving shots that made you feel like you were truly in a moving vehicle. We could not be more excited with the final results.”
Supportive Teamwork
Virtual production for In-Camera Virtual Effects still has some misconceptions about what it is—and isn’t. Hinojal points out, “I think a lot of the time when people think of virtual production, they think it has to be a built-out world for each production. But I think the way that we mostly do it, using driving plates, just simple solutions sometimes end up with the best outcome. Certainly, this was a very good outcome and we are proud of our work. The final product was the culmination of all the diligent work contributed by those who collaborated on this project.”
McMartin states, “This is the kind of job that let Nationwide provide the level of customer service that we pride ourselves on; going above and beyond and finding new ways to support our clients. We provide gear to the people that deal with the end clients. This was a unique opportunity for us to provide additional services, without stepping into the services of any of our clients.”
In regard to Nationwide’s support, Dowd Petritsis says, “They were amazing to work with; so helpful. They let us infiltrate their shop to get whatever we needed, and they were always willing to lend a hand if we needed something.” Hinojal echoes that sentiment, adding, “Through the entire eight-week process, from planning to wrap-out, the team at Nationwide Video was nothing but accommodating and helpful. We know the possibilities that virtual production offers are endless, and we look forward to continuing the innovation with our trusted partners.”
Learn more about Nationwide Video at www.nationwidevideo.com and find info about Carstage at www.thecarstage.com