The Development of Virtual Production in Film Industry in the Past Decade

Virtual production (VP) is a computer-aided production and visualization filmmaking method, which was first officially applied in “Avatar” directed by James Cameron in 2009. After ten years of development, in the “Lion King” directed by Jon Favreau in 2019, VP’s concept and technical level reached a new level, bringing a revolutionary impact to the film industry. This project’s research objective is to explore the development trend of virtual filmmaking from 2009 to 2019 and make a reasonable prediction of the VP’s future development in the film industry. This research selected four VP films as research cases: Avatar (2009), Jungle Book (2015), Ready Player One (2018), and Lion King (2019). The research method used is Historical Research (Longitudinal Studies), which collects secondary data in the form of text and videos related to the four cases in the database and other network sources for analysis and longitudinal comparison to conclude. After data collection and data analysis, three reasonable global production trends are drawn in the past ten years: The digital models and tools for CG scene and character creation are transformed from traditional animation software to game engines. The participation and collaboration of various filmmaking roles in VP have gradually increased. The combination of VP technology and traditional filmmaking culture has steadily enhanced. This research also made reasonable predictions on the VP’s future development prospects on “actor immersion and participation” and “popularization of VP.” This research can be regarded as an introductory guide and historical review of virtual filmmaking. It may inspire and support readers who want to contact and understand the VP industry. It also provides some information about the latest developments in the industry for filmmakers and virtual reality workers. This research can also provide an academic reference for filmmakers who want to make films through VP.