Owning the next adventure with virtual production

Working with the Isuzu UTE team, SteelBridge Studio was able to showcase the upgraded technology and refreshed styling of the new Isuzu D-MAX from City to Beach via the harshest of Australian conditions, all without leaving the studio.

For decades, wanting to market a new vehicle meant turning to the classic running footage we all know; gleaming vehicles negotiating the vast Australian landscape. While this traditional style of footage is likely to be around for a little longer, there’s a new kid in town. A new method of creating marketing assets that’s not only more cost-effective but provides more creative options too.

Rather than having to transport the new model D-MAXs and a large crew out to exotic far-flung locations, while being at the mercy of the physical elements, not to mention the weather, SteelBridge brought the locations to the studio via the magic of virtual production. This turned a potentially logistical nightmare into a creative joy.

Faithfully recreating a cityscape, a Pilbara cattle station, the Victorian highlands and a remote Western Australia beach; on-road and off-road, all bases were covered by SteelBridge Studio’s talented Virtual Art department team.

The ISUZU UTE team needed to maintain the secrecy around the new model but by using Virtual production the Isuzu UTE team could realise the DMAX film’s adventure narrative without ever leaving the comfort of the studio.

"We found ourselves in a unique position filming this campaign. The Isuzu D-MAX can go pretty much anywhere in Australia, but with this being a new model, it was also under strict embargo conditions. Enter VP, where we found ourselves securely tucked away from prying eyes in a Screen Queensland soundstage, yet also travelling all over Australia at the same time. To really reinforce the benefit, one afternoon it poured down outside, yet inside the new D-MAX was on some remote beach in Western Australia with perfect weather," Lee Griffin, Creative Director, Publicis Worldwide Australia.

Virtual production accelerated the production day allowing the team to capture everything they needed and more, and with plenty of great material in the can there was plenty to sift through to get the final cut just right.

“The detailed planning undertaken by SteelBridge/Alt VFX, Publicis and our team prior to the shoot to ensure the shot list was locked and all angles were covered meant we were able to go into the studio confident we could capture all the footage required. Having such a controlled environment allowed us to increase our production efficiencies – with a shoot that could have easily taken a few weeks in the “real world” being reduced to only a few days,” Mike Conybeare, EGM Marketing, Isuzu UTE.

Set design was so much easier than on a traditional location shoot with the team able to control the background and foreground with ease. Need to move a rock or a bush - no problem. Reset those cows for every take? Done with just the push of a button.

“What makes virtual production, virtual production is that you have your environments, which are being rendered live in Unreal Engine. But then you have the crown that sits on top of the camera, which is mapping your position in that space. So we actually create a 360 degree environment so that we can find shots just like you would in a real location. We can control the environment and we can shoot in any direction we want. This gives us unlimited possibilities with the least amount of hassles.