A few years back, not long ago, a Berlin setting echoed with a distinctive vibe. The character from La Casa de Papel greets the sunrise as the line and the sun rises lands on his lips. Capturing that perfect moment on camera would demand many takes and hours of waiting. In the latest Netflix arc featuring this same character, none of that was necessary; a computer or several, plus virtual production tools, did the heavy lifting. As one director involved in this work, Geoffrey Cowper, puts it, the result feels like being a god on stage, relentless.
Virtual production now stands as a predominantly audiovisual technique, combining computer generated elements with the entire set and scenery. It is spreading rapidly through the industry, arriving with a bang and joining hands with artificial intelligence. The fusion of these ideas is reshaping how films and series are conceived, and it was a central topic at the recent Integrated Systems Europe conference in Barcelona.
The event opened with a keynote from a prominent filmmaker. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy explored cinema’s power to illuminate social causes, while also hinting at new directions for future Star Wars installments. The conversations that followed highlighted how virtual production can redefine scale and scope for big productions, without sacrificing emotional impact.
During another roundtable, two virtual production teams from Orca Studios, Adrian Pueyo and Sergi Silva, along with cinematographer Manu León and director Geoffrey Cowper, described how The Mandalorian served as a proving ground for these technologies. The industry learned that LED walls, combined with real-time rendering and camera tracking, can recreate complex environments convincingly. The collaboration among Orca Studios, El Ranchito, Vancouver, and Netflix on Money Heist in 2020 demonstrated that such tools can realistically simulate confinement scenarios and dramatic settings without lengthy location shoots.
Action without doubles
In practice, the film world is shifting toward letting actors perform scenes that once relied on stand‑ins. Virtual production makes it possible to simulate dangerous or intricate actions in post, using screens, fans, and effects. For many performers, working against a hyperreal background is more immersive than the traditional green screen approach.
“This isn’t always the perfect solution, but it often opens doors that would be closed otherwise”, say the panelists. Others noted that the most challenging goal today is achieving convincing realism. Voices from the industry, including Seagull Wide, Billy Brooks, Patrick Morris, David Bermbach, and Bruno Corsini, weighed in on the evolving role of virtual production in filmmaking.
The core driver behind the rapid adoption is rapid progress in technology and, naturally, in artificial intelligence. AI is described as a toolkit that can blur lines between real and simulated content, prompting ongoing debate about authenticity and ethical considerations. A conference hosted by the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia featured insights on the impact of AI on the audiovisual field and touched on future workflows.
Artificial scenarios, music and videos
Analysts now see AI as a collaborator capable of generating scenarios, composing music, producing sound effects, and crafting images. Some say video creation is entering a new era, with platforms and tools that promise rapid generation of visual content. Services from major tech developers claim ongoing improvements, bringing more ambitious projects to life with less time and effort.
Industry players have even showcased campaigns built around evolving digital personas, including the use of increasingly sophisticated character models. Advances in hardware and software are paving the way for interactive experiences where a game character can respond to a player’s voice from home, or where a digital likeness can carry forward a character’s life across many years.
In a similar vein, a media group announced partnerships that integrate AI into multilingual content production, including voice cloning for language adaptation and crafted narrative experiences.
One seasoned observer notes that one of the biggest shifts is time itself: less time is needed for writing, scoring, and completing pre‑ and post‑production tasks. Yet there is a long list of questions to answer—copyright, bias, misinformation, and sustainable economics among them. The audiovisual world is standing at a hinge point, balancing human creativity with technology, and the question remains whether that balance can endure into the future.