‘It used to be fix-it in post production! now it’s fix-it in pre-production’: how virtual production is changing production networks in film and television

Abstract

This article examines how the development of virtual production is disrupting the film and television industry. Virtual production is a way of creating content which captures digital assets and environments ‘in camera’ and in real-time during shooting, rather than these assets being added in post-production. We review the use of the production network concept - a systematic way of examining a set of linked economic activities - to analyse film and television production, and present a new version which includes virtual production activities. We mobilise this model to explore how virtual production is creating a major shift in film and television production. We explore the movement of work from post- to pre-production and how virtual production is facilitating new business models that allow companies to shift their focus to other parts of the production network. Finally we examine how companies and individuals are responding to the emergence of gaps in the tradition film and television production network through entering it for the first time, mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships.