ITV’s four-part drama Believe Me employed a controlled LED workflow to support the story’s creative, technical and performance requirements.
Developed by fivefold studios, the virtual production elements used a 30m-wide by 4m-high ROE Visual BP2V2 LED wall driven by four Brompton 4K Tessera SX40 processors.
Much of the action is set inside a London Black Cab, which would traditionally be placed on a lowloader for night shoots in the city.
“The controlled environment helped protect the performances from the practical pressures of shooting such disturbing material at night on the streets of London,” said Tom Murphy, head of production at fivefold studios.
“Many of the key dramatic beats depended on traffic lights changing and the cab following specific routes. Being able to programme those events, trigger them on cue and repeat them accurately allowed us to remain faithful to the script in a way that would have been extremely difficult on a low-loader.”
Working closely with cinematographer Bryan Gavigan, the gaffer and the DIT, fivefold aligned the LED imagery with the physical lighting and camera requirements. “Our main job was to ensure that the background never took the audience out of the moment or the performance,” Murphy added. “That meant getting the brightness, contrast, colour, perspective and scale right, while maintaining a detailed record of every setup so that the production always had a faithful reference.”
The controlled workflow also expanded what the production could achieve beyond the cab sequences. One opening shot, featuring a bus crossing a bridge and passing the London Eye, was written into the drama because virtual production made the sequence achievable with significantly less practical risk.
