Lower Boom is doing a deep dive on Virtual Production here in Portland, OR, and we’re fortunate that our team has access to a working LED volume, at Picture This Production Services.

Among other projects, we’ve just completed post-production on a narrative shoot utilizing Unreal Engine and the Volume.

This narrative short, titled AFUERA, was intended as a technical test as much as anything. Co-created by noted Director of Photography Kevin Fletcher, Lower Boom founder/CEO Matt Schulte, and filmmaker Wil Magness, it showcases the fact that the same tech that made The Mandalorian possible is now in Portland. This has the potential to have a huge impact on the local filmmaking scene, as well as an additional incentive for projects from out-of-town to shoot here.

Matt Schulte, Founder/CEO of Lower Boom, did a short write-up of the project at the behest of the Oregon Film Office, who posted it on their blog here.

Lower Boom has put together a 5 project slate and assembled a team that marries traditional indie film production to expertise in the technical production details of utilizing Unreal Engine and LED screens to bring the stories to life.

All the stories will utilize the latest in Virtual Production technology with locations and environments created in Unreal Engine. To build the multiple sets as imagined by each project – from the jungles of Borneo to the gothic squalor of Oz or to the literal depths of Hell – would be enormously, prohibitively expensive using CGI, locations, or physical sets. Virtual Production, however, will allow these stories to become fully realized as envisioned by the filmmakers.

We believe that Virtual Production, and Unreal Engine, can be the spark that starts the literal re-invention of Independent Filmmaking.