EP+Co Develops Virtual Production Technology During Covid-19 Pandemic

As Covid-19 is forcing us all to take a big pause, we, like everyone, are stepping up to try and help our clients figure out what happens next. So as travel is halted and shoots are placed on-hold, we’re now rethinking how we approach live-action production, developing a new virtual production model for our clients, ‘CoVillage.’ Concepted and built in-house, our Creative Technology and Content Production teams developed the new platform from design and wire-frame upwards, enabling clients to sit in on a traditional ‘video village’ from the safety – and distance- of their own homes.

Clients will be able to access any video production by way of the ‘CoVillage’ software. The technology can be utilised for any scale production, but most predominantly when only a small and nimble crew are physically needed on set or for timely quick-turn social shoots. An interactive dashboard will be shared that is custom to each individual shoot and brand, with the key visual being a livestream from the main camera to the dashboard. With playback options, additional camera views and a feedback mechanism, clients can have full ‘access’ and control of the production from wherever they’re located. The virtual interaction will enable retakes, shot list changes and live direction from clients, without requiring an on-set presence.

“This idea is one that we’ve actually been playing around with for a while – every time we had a shoot with our clients we’d ask ourselves if it was really necessary to have that many people on set. As awesome as our team and clients are, we’d often look around and wonder whether we could be nimbler, leaner, not to mention reduce our carbon footprint,” said Con Williamson, EP+Co president and CCO. “Now is the time to innovate and adapt to this new way of business, so for us it was a no-brainer to offer a solution that keeps the wheels rollin’ as ‘normal’ and the kick-ass work coming.”

EP+Co has over 15,000 square feet of production space via its ‘CoLab’ production facility located near our Greenville, SC office, which is equipped to handle broadcast, daily content shoots and everything in-between. The technology may be utilised directly from any of our internal production spaces or on an off-site location. Even without a global pandemic we’d be using this as a production innovation our clients could utilise (helping to reduce travel and out of office time overall), but obviously trying to expedite it given the current situation!