Sam Nicholson, founder of Stargate Studios, walks through the hybrid virtual production workflow behind “Shrapnel,” a live-action project built around Unreal Engine 5 game assets. The production combined LED volume and green screen shooting on a single stage, flipping between the two approaches as scenes demanded, while maintaining a pace of roughly 70 setups per day. Nicholson describes how the Blackmagic Ultimatte system, ATEM switchers and eight HyperDeck recorders formed the technical backbone, with the Ultimattes providing real-time composite previsualization and the HyperDecks capturing isolated feeds, backgrounds, foregrounds and alpha channels from every camera simultaneously.
Circled Takes
