Australia’s most experienced virtual production team is back in the LED volume studio, bringing Audi’s Open Haus Sale event to life.
In just three weeks, the campaign has already reached 3.3M views on YouTube with an impressive completion rate, showcasing the power of innovative production.
Keep reading for an exclusive interview where Clockwork Films’ EP, Heath George, shares how virtual production redefines automotive storytelling.
Q: How did virtual production enhance the storytelling for this campaign compared to traditional filming methods?
EP Heath: Virtual production perfectly reflects Audi’s philosophy of “Vorsprung durch Technik” — progress through technology — providing a cutting-edge platform to craft stories with the same spirit of innovation, precision, and forward-thinking that defines the brand. As a premium brand Audi Australia are always seeking to elevate the production design and value with strong, bold, and graphical key visuals. Luxury is often achieved through curated simplicity, for instance an architectural built-for-purpose structure with a high-quality finish and texture. Virtual production allows us to create such environments that would be impossible or cost prohibitive in the real world. Virtual also allowed us to seamlessly integrate animated brand elements into the scene.
Q: What were some key advantages of using the LED volume studio for this shoot?
EP Heath: The primary advantage of virtual production is the unsurpassed control of the environment design and lighting. Virtual allows us to create the perfect photoreal setting in Unreal Engine with simulated time of day lighting, in camera timelapse, or
animated elements that look stunning reflected in duco. Cars are highly reflective in 360º – the NANT wrap around studio with 12m high walls and ceiling allows us to accurately reflect the environment or if we wish to remove a reflection, highlight a feature or clean up a line, instantly replace a section of the environment with positive or negative fill. Outdoor shoots have the challenge of changing lighting, weather, and expensive overhead rigs – all eliminated in the virtual environment. Shooting multiple cameras and changing setups is also extremely fast in the virtual production workflow compared to traditional shooting. While comparable to the cost of a traditional shoot, the shoot day is far more efficient and predictable.
Q: How does this project align with Clockwork Films’ vision for the future of production?
EP Heath: Clockwork Films values are excellence in production, humility in relationships, and joy in service. Virtual production facilitates a level of production excellence often impossible in real-world environments where elements, such as weather, are beyond our control. Real locations are always a compromise, and best practice automotive lighting requires time, skill, and resources that challenge production budgets. We’re also exploring combinations of bespoke, kit bashed, and AI generated environments. Having the freedom and control to help our clients realise whatever they can imagine is an extremely fun way to work. Finding innovative ways to do that cost effectively is where we see our biggest value add. We’re also always learning and improving our workflows and approach.
Q: The campaign has now reached 3.3M views on YouTube in just one month. What do you think contributed to its success?
EP Heath: This is an incredible result for what is effectively a retail sale event campaign, and of course the media strategy played a huge role in achieving those numbers. But it’s clear from the reach of this and the previous virtual production shoot we did with Audi, combined both well-and-truly among the top performing campaigns they’ve produced, that there’s an audience for crafted, elevated visuals – especially when trying to reach luxury consumers. Taking the same budget on location (assuming you can find one that hasn’t been filmed multiple times before) and attempting to capture key feature coverage for three cars while dealing with the challenges of exterior lighting in a one day shoot simply wouldn’t deliver the same level of sophistication or interest.
Q: How should directors or creative agencies approach virtual production if they haven’t worked in this space before?
EP Heath: Firstly, talk to us early and often about your ideas. We can share a wealth of knowledge and examples to help you ideate and guiderails to ensure your creative is viable before presenting to client. Avoid treating it as just an alternative production option among standard bids. Virtual production works best when the creative and execution are developed hand-in-glove. Currently the predominant approach in virtual is to replicate reality or create a heightened reality, but virtual production has so much more potential. One of our expat OS directors for example is doing amazing work in China and Germany generations ahead of anything happening here – as there seems to be a willingness to explore more fantastic and graphical environments. Instead of a car driving along an ocean road, what if the car was on a platform in the middle of a raging ocean, or the road twisted into a ribbon and flipped into an alternative world of contrasting colours revealing the new model driving on the underside of the road at the same time as the camera rotates around? We’ve learned through experience and collaboration that different approaches suit different budgets and there are best practice workflows.
Not every production (or setup) needs 3d environments or wrap around LED screens for example. There are risks and traps associated with virtual production for the inexperienced and cost blowouts from over complicating the approach, overtime or post fixes are common among first time production and creative teams. Seams between the floor and walls for example require careful consideration, a natural boundary can be designed into the set or art department can be used to break up the transition. Likewise certain environments and lighting conditions work better. We’d also recommend not to dictate the approach or design but instead provide a creative brief and empower the team of experts to come back with options. Environments could be repurposed from kits to save time and money, and optimised for the studio space, product, creative, or to reduce post-production. Likewise, working with an experienced DOP and Director is key. The learning curve is steep and there’s a range of tracking technologies for cameras and rigs that come with their own pros and cons in production and post. If your DOP approaches the virtual shoot as a traditional shoot without collaboration, they will likely be accommodated at the expense of painting out sensors from every shot in post-production or wasting time on set recalibrating between lens changes for example. While predictable as humility is one of our core values, we’d recommend approaching virtual production open to collaboration and advice for the best outcome. But if you do that, your imagination is the limit.
