EVCOM attends the Distortion Studios Launch

This May we travelled to Bristol for the very exciting launch of Distortion Studios. Distortion Studios are a new virtual production studio, the first of their kind in Bristol and a really exciting new venture. Distortion Studios has been set up by the team at Studio Giggle after several years of R&D. We were welcomed into the space for one of several presentations they were putting on that day. Founder and Director of Studio Giggle, Steve Garratt, welcomed us into the 200 sq m studio space. He showed us the 11x4m curved LED screen which sits on one side of the space and the built in green screen which fills the other, and discusses the many possibilities of the space, how it can be used, what can be created within it.

But seeing is believing, and the team planned a wonderful demonstration for us to see the scope of what the studio offers. In the first set up, the team filled the LED screen with a TV-style news room backdrop and positioned an armchair at exactly the right place in the studio. Simple, but the result was the look of a professional broadcast ideal for a CEO delivering a message to his staff globally, or a panel discussion with gravitas.

Next up, the team transported us to French wine country. They filled the screen with rolling hills, birds flocking at a diagonal across the scene. Front and centre they set up a the shot of a wine bottle, a glass, grapes, the lighting directed in such a way to create the effect of sunlight bouncing off the bottle. The effect was authentic and classic, and we were transported from the studio to the warmth of a French vineyard, table laid ready for us.

For their next shot, the team filled the screen with images of Tokyo, red light blaring down onto a dancer who twisted and turned in the middle of the studio space, the result of which was a dynamic and eye-catching film that I could’ve watched again and again.

To give the filmmakers in the audience who are creating dramas an idea of what the studio could do, the team brought in an actor who performed a short scene: loading his gun in a motel room. The room itself was projected onto the screen, but the team had brought the screen and the studio into the same space by positioning the set just right, and using the three lights that were in the picture on the set, to create a completely three dimensional look on screen.

Want to shoot on a train? Using “good old fashioned filmmaking techniques” the team positioned the two actors between a cardboard tube window and a window on the screen with city running past it. It was incredibly impressive to see the studio set up translate into an entirely believable shot of two people sitting on a train, the world whizzing past them as their tickets are checked.

Finally, the team demonstrated their expertise in Unreal Engine, a realtime 3D animation software that they use to create a photo-realistic animated environments for virtual production, moving the content in
relation to the camera position.

It was brilliant to see so many examples of the range and breadth of what the studio can offer to filmmakers and to film production agencies, both in the set up they’ve created and the excellent team that they’ve resourced it with. That evening we returned to the Studio to celebrate the new space over drinks with production companies and filmmakers from Bristol and beyond. Thanks so much for having us!

Take a look at the day caught on film below: