SAN FRANCISCO — Magicbox (www.magicbox.ninja) brought its Magicbox Superstudio mobile virtual production trailer to this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, The semi truck transforms into a turn-key virtual production studio upon arriving on location, providing an LED volume with camera tracking and computer control. The trailer opens to a 25x25x10-foot footprint with a 21x17x10-foot 1.3mm pixel pitch LED volume inside. Its hard-shell exterior keeps the inside volume dark, quiet and cool.
At NAB, the company showed different scenarios of how Superstudio could be deployed. In one, a luxury automobile was loaded into the volume and footage of passing landscapes were fed to its LED screens, creating the look of a moving vehicle. This could be used for an advertising campaign or feature production.
Sisu Cinema Robotics’ (www.sisucinemarobotics.com) robotic camera technology was a part of the demo. The Austin, TX-based company makes easy-to-use equipment that allows users to program motion-control camera moves. In the demo, a director instructed a motion-control operator to create a sweeping camera move that began at the front of the car, travelled along its side and captured the interior occupants before moving over the car’s roof. Unlike other motion-control cameras that are currently in the market, the Sisu unit uses a familiar joystick and trigger controller that allows new users to get up to speed very quickly. Pressing the button saves a keyframe to a timeline before moving on to the next position. The simplicity in the way it works will allow productions to speed up their shots, as well as capture more shots in a typical production day.