Producing HIGH.
🚀🎬 Every great film begins with a compelling script and visionary directors, and HIGH is no exception. This unique narrative, initially developed in the Sundance Development Lab and further refined in the Epic Games/Tribeca WRITING IN UNREAL program, illuminates the world of cellphone tower workers. As a line producer at MESH, I'm excited to share our journey of translating this innovative concept into a groundbreaking virtual production, expertly guided by directors Tisha Robinson-Daly and Jonathan Mason, and produced by Indie veteran, James YI.
With HIGH, we ventured beyond conventional boundaries. Our goal was not only to test technology but to explore the potential of virtual production to elevate a Tier 1 independent film. This wasn't a typical sci-fi franchise but a deeply human relationship drama requiring authenticity and depth.The feature script required the depiction of practical weather elements—wind, rain, and shifting light conditions—elements that traditional green-screen techniques couldn't fully satisfy.
Mesh’s virtual production producer, Ben Baker, broke down the script, led the creative team through the storyboarding and visualization sessions, and assembled an exceptional virtual production (VP) team, spearheaded by our skilled Virtual Production Supervisor, Nhan Le. Nhan’s expertise in storyboarding, pre-visualization, and technical oversight played a crucial role in molding HIGH's visual narrative and got the creative team all on the same page.
In about 3.5 weeks, our Virtual Art Department Lead, Kourosh Pirnazar, and his team developed an impressive 40 square miles of Pennsylvania countryside, starting from a geophysical survey scan and some high-resolution satellite photos. The distances meant that we wouldn’t achieve any parallax- we were 200 ft up a tower away from the nearest asset, but that didn’t stop Kourosh at just terrain—this extensive virtual landscape also included lots of procedural forest, an animated river with boats, highways bustling with cars, and a small town complete with animated, twinkling lights. The town's lighting could be adjusted on a virtual fader, providing our Director of Photography with direct control over this important visual element while setting lighting, enhancing the depth and realism of our shots.
To fully exploit what VP does best, we carefully designed three distinct lighting setups for the film—a golden hour sunset, a night scene, and an overcast afternoon, consciously avoiding hard light setups.
Integral to our mission were our partners, disguise and ROE Visual. Their unprecedented support, providing us full access to the Disguise Accelerator Volume in Chatsworth for a week, was invaluable. This facility's cutting-edge technology allowed us to create a hyper-realistic environment that exceeded the visual limitations of traditional methods. And the time that the team had spent in visualization and planning really paid off- with a 6-person production team we were able to get through 25 setups in two days, taking over 70 shots. The creative team were over the moon both with the production values that we were able to bring into the film, and with the relative ease that they made every day of their shoot.
At MESH, we're immensely proud of our contribution to HIGH. This project stands as a testament to the transformative power of virtual production, demonstrating how innovative technology, used consciously and deliberately, can redefine storytelling. We proved that given the right use cases and a team willing to put in the pre-produciton time to plan the shoot, that VBirtual Production is not only viable for independent filmmaking, but it can be a net positive and really lift a script off the page and onto the screen. We invite you to join us on this exhilarating journey with HIGH. Can’t wait for you to see it! 📱🎥
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