How To Make An Indie TV Pilot 100% In Virtual Production: The Making of Resignation

An 8-episode web series about rethinking the filmmaking process.

Last winter, we made a list of all the things “they” say you can’t do with virtual production, and decided to do them all at once:

1. We decided to make an independent TV pilot, 100% in virtual production. 

2. The show is not sci-fi; it’s a sitcom. “They” say virtual production doesn’t make sense for sitcoms with normal locations: offices, classrooms, bathrooms, bars, coffee shops, and the streets of Chicago. So we challenged ourselves to do all of those.

3. There were 16 locations in this 30-min episode. “They” said that’s too many for an indie budget, especially in virtual production. So we upped it to 22.

4. We made a list of camera shots “they” say you can’t get in virtual production, and wrote them all into the storyboards: walk-and-talks, whip-pans, ceiling shots, etc.

5. And then, as you’ll see in Episode 7, there was one day where we shot 8 locations in a single day. “They” didn’t have to tell us that was absurd; we knew it was absurd.

6. We aimed to do all of the above within a budget that’s a fraction of what “they” say you can do virtual production for. If Mandalorian is 8x cheaper than a Star Wars movie; our show would be a level of magnitude cheaper than that.

7. And we did it all with a rule: No overtime for the crew; and all crew get paid a real living wage.

Does this all sound insane? It was.

Over the next few days, we’re going to share the story of what happened, along with specific innovation and teamwork lessons from them.

So without further ado, here is:

The Making of Resignation:

Episode 1: So You Wanna Make A TV Show?

[click the video thumbnail to watch]

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We believe that the most exciting innovation in Hollywood right now—virtual production—can be accessible to more than just the big shots.

Big-budget TV series like The Mandalorian, House of the Dragon, and 1899 use newfangled “virtual production” technology to do something magical: They can put actors and props inside of a room made out of video walls, and make it look like they’re on a desert planet in the morning, an icy castle at lunch, and a jungle in the afternoon.

This technology is incredible. Whereas the latest 2-hour Star Wars movie cost well over $200 million, virtual production has allowed Disney to make 8 hours of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian for a bit more than $100 million. That’s at least 8x cheaper.

But… it still cost $15 million per episode.

So whereas virtual production technology is exciting, conventional wisdom has it that you can only use it for big, splashy, fancy, expensive content. Think: Super Bowl commercials, Formula 1 intro sequences, and The Batman.

Filmmakers who have dug into virtual production are convinced that the costs are going down. (We recently conducted a state-of-the-industry survey that showed a ton of growth and optimism in the virtual production space.)

But even so, you need special expertise; you need expensive computer servers and technicians to operate it all; and, well, “they” say you shouldn’t use it for anything with crazy camera shots, or for grounded content that isn’t big-budget sci-fi.

And that’s the part that got our team going.

The “you can’t” part. 

About a year ago, we launched our technology company to help film studios run like smart homes. Our SHOWRUNNER platform is designed to help filmmakers who don’t have $100 million budgets do what Star Wars does.

And since the parsnippety rumors about what “can’t be done” in virtual production persist, we decided to do something brash: make a whole TV show using this tech to prove that virtual production can actually democratize filmmaking.

Stay tuned for Episode 2 tomorrow.

Thanks for watching!

— Shane, and the SHOWRUNNER Team