For the BBC documentary Civilization: Rise and Fall, our core challenge was the schedule. We had extremely tight deadlines to deliver the finals, making a heavy post-production phase impossible. To survive the turnaround, we committed to executing 99% of the project as on-set virtual production using Unreal Engine in real time, leaving only one or two classic VFX shots.
This meant the show lived or died in camera. We had to perfectly lock physical and virtual lighting on set in real time. Because no visual effects were planned to fix the virtual production shots later, the interactive light hitting the talent had to integrate flawlessly on the day. Falling back to a standard green screen workflow would have forced us to rebuild environment lighting in post, which would have instantly blown our short deadline.
Because our in-house team handled all the concept art, we built the virtual environments directly from our own pre-approved designs. This gave us a locked foundation before the clock started on stage. During the shoot, we ran an onsite VFX supervisor alongside our virtual technicians to manage the volume, instantly troubleshoot the engine, and bridge the gap with the physical camera crew.
With no post-production safety net, the final lighting was adjusted live on set with the actors blocked in and the director running the floor. We balanced the virtual environment's exposure on the LED screens while the DP tweaked their practical fixtures. Dialing in the interactive light and locking the final look directly through the camera meant we caught our integration issues on the day, walking away from the shoot with our shots practically finished.
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