Locascope - Virtual Filming

To explore the use of new technology to facilitate the return of the UK television and film industries into production:

* make use of existing and new technologies to enable remote working;
* exploit new technologies to permit a _virtual_ recce (reconnaissance);
* exploit new technologies to create a _virtual_ set;
* use existing motion-control technology to film action in the virtual set.

**Remote working:**

* established filming practices require a production team to be present in the studio or on location. This can be replaced by a marriage of existing and new conferencing technologies to enable group decision-making.

**A virtual recce:**

* traditional production methods rely upon a "technical recce" to decide on a location, attended by heads of department. This can effectively be replaced using new techniques to create a 360-degree controllable walk-through that can be remotely viewed simultaneously by department heads.

**A virtual set:**

* LiDAR photography can be used to "capture" a location interior in high definition. This capture (a "Locascope") exists in the digital world as a full 3-D representation of the location interior.

**Film action in the virtual set:**

* existing motion-control rigs can then be set up - _in any studio anywhere in the world_ - to film actors and action that will appear to be within the location interior.

Each camera motion around the foreground action will appear to have been shot in the location itself. Thus a movie star may be filmed in a Hollywood (or Bollywood) studio but the action appears to be taking place in, for example, an English stately home.

Location Works has the connections and affiliations to quickly access historic and sensitive locations in the UK, enable Locascope scanning, restart production to get crews working again, and open vital revenue streams to location owners.