High marks for the new studio

Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Communication and Multimedia Studies in Boca Raton, Florida, is home to a new virtual production studio designed to develop the next generation of media and entertainment professionals. BrandStar, an integrated production and strategy marketing firm based in nearby Deerfield Beach, Florida, has donated and implemented an LED Volume Wall along with ICVFX (in-camera virtual production) systems powered by Unreal Engine 3D graphics and gaming software in a modernized television studio in the university’s Dorothy L. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters.

The new facility, which opened in March, is called BrandStar Studios @ Florida Atlantic. In conjunction with the technology donation, BrandStar provides mentoring and training for FAU staff and faculty, as well as internship and mentoring opportunities for students.

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Carol Bishop Mills, Ph.D., director of FAU’s School of Communication & Multimedia Studies, explained that the department has three major majors: Communications Studies, Film and Media, and Multimedia Journalism. The school also offers courses in animation and games, sports broadcasting, and public relations. Initially, the facility will house FAU students majoring in animation, film, games, and media. However, as the school’s programs expand, Mills said other departments — such as sports broadcasting and even theater — will be able to take advantage of the technology.

BrandStar Studios @ Florida Atlantic also has the potential to be a revenue generator for the university, offering virtual production services to businesses and organizations in the community. This would not only allow the school to financially assist students, but also give them the opportunity to gain real-world production experience. “If our students can do this and get paid for it — and the rest of the revenue goes to things like scholarships — that would be amazing because part of our mission is to make sure we can support our students,” Mills said.

In construction

As an integrated production and strategy marketing firm, BrandStar’s offering is similar to that of a full-service ad agency, but “with a twist,” as its marketing literature says. Through its partnership with Lifetime, it has six original TV series, including An Act of Balancingmorning show co-hosted by Montel Williams and Olga Villaverde, which is in its 20th season; a home improvement show Space design; and Military metamorphosisa veteran-focused home improvement show (also hosted by Williams). The company also does advertising and marketing for clients like Amazon, Ford, Google, The Home Depot, Toyota, Walmart and many others.

Mark Alfieri, BrandStar

Mark Alfieri (Photo source: BrandStar)

“The heart of it all is production,” explained Mark Alfieri, founder and CEO of BrandStar. “We’re always thinking about, what are the best and newest technologies and storytelling advances that we can leverage to tell amazing stories and create amazing productions—and do it in a highly cost-effective way?”

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The company has five studios in South Florida, including one at Lynn University in Boca Raton and another in Miami through a partnership with broadcast and production company Mediapro. Alfieri said a key driver behind BrandStar’s donation to FAU is the connection between community and developing new talent.

“I’ve noticed over the last two decades that there are a lot of amazing schools here in South Florida. People go to school here and then to get a job — especially in entertainment and production — they have to go to California or New York,” Alfieri explained. “They train them and then they send them away. It’s not good for Florida.”

Through partnerships with higher education institutions, BrandStar can help retain manufacturing talent in the state while also growing its own employee base. The company has a significant year-round internship program, and many interns go on to full-time employees after graduation.

“If we have a chance to train and develop them while they’re in school, they’re fully equipped with a hands-on, experiential work environment — they actually see (technology) in play,” Alfieri added. “(That) creates a competitive advantage, not only for us, but for those students.”

Mixed reality

Like many production professionals, Alfieri became interested in virtual production after watching The MandalorianThe prospect of being able to film without having to invest in on-location filming presented a more creative and cost-effective way to approach production, and he began exploring how he could incorporate the technology into BrandStar properties.

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After crunching the numbers, Alfieri decided it would make more sense for his company to build its own LED Volume Wall. Using his relationships with other manufacturing veterans, they visited a factory in China that ultimately built the wall.

“Our first wall was 1.9mm,” he recalled. “That allowed us to stand six feet from the wall—because we didn’t have a big stage—and still get photorealism.”

To track motion in the camera, BrandStar partnered with London-based virtual production technology developer Mo-Sys. “They built a plug-in for the Unreal Engine, so the game engine is connected to the motion tracking,” Alfieri explains. “Then that software connects to what we call the Brain Bar, which has the Unreal Engine, a wall, and connects the physical cameras that we’re shooting with to the virtual cameras in the Unreal Engine.”

Each camera lens, both physical and virtual, is adjusted to create a 3D perspective. At the same time, the technology will include real-world set pieces or props, such as physical chairs.

“It’s a mixed reality set, which means you’ll have props in the middle, behind you, in front of you and on the wall,” Alfieri said. “But you can digitize and match physical props with Unreal Engine props to get an identical fit.”

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Unreal Engine also provides a library of environments that artists can customize. BrandStar has its own visual arts department that creates environments from scratch, but Alfieri said that sometimes you just “grab something and customize it, and now it’s original to you.”

New workflows

For BrandStar Studios @ Florida Atlantic, BrandStar took a similar approach to its first virtual production space, outsourcing the production of the LED Volume Wall to order and integrating it with the necessary support technology. This technology teaches students virtual production workflows that are very different from traditional ones.

For example, instead of fixing issues in post-production, virtual production allows the post-production team to make changes while shooting. “It becomes much more of a collaboration between production and post-production,” Alfieri said. “Once it gets to the finishing team, you do some color grading and maybe add some additional graphics, and then you’re ready to ship.”

Carol Bishop Mills, FAU

Carol Bishop Mills (Photo source: FAU)

For a project like this to be successful, Mills said faculty and staff need to make an effort to learn the technology well enough to teach it to students. “It’s a significant investment of time and skill for faculty and staff,” she said. “You need to know they’re committed, because if you don’t, the equipment is just going to sit there and never get used.”

Mills says partnerships like the one FAU has with BrandStar allow both higher education institutions and employers to better develop the next generation of professionals who are ready to go straight out of school. “Universities—especially public universities—are very interested in these public-private partnerships because they give them resources that they otherwise wouldn’t have with limited state budgets,” she explains. “I think that’s a real win-win. And if you approach it in a really ethical, committed way, it can be a great partnership.”