Synapse Virtual Production Launches its Premiere Virtual Production LED Stage
Synapse Virtual Production announces the November 1 grand opening of its state-of-the-art flagship LED Volume stage located on the edge of downtown on the famous Los Angeles Center Studios campus. The opening of its LA Volume represents a significant milestone in the company’s mission to redefine the future of filmmaking and is just one of many new initiatives that the company has planned for the next year.
Since launching in 2022, Synapse has rapidly emerged as a leading authority in the world of cutting-edge imaging technology solutions for the film and entertainment industry. With a focus on virtual production, the company is more than just a cutting-edge LED stage, Synapse offers support across all aspects of the image creation process, including: consulting, budgeting, scheduling, creative development, boarding/shot creation, previs, production services, environment design/VAD creation, post-production and VFX. Synapse empowers filmmakers to push the boundaries of cinematic storytelling by enabling their clients to tap into Synapse’s collective of industry professionals and experts who offer technical guidance and shepherd their clients throughout the entire span of a project’s workflow.
Designed as a convergence point for both creative and production collaboration, Synapse’s newly-minted LED stage offers a premiere virtual production solution in the heart of Los Angeles. And by locating their flagship studio at LA Center’s 150’ x 120’ Stage 4, LACS’ complex brings with it all of the conveniences of a major studio lot, offering multiple modern soundstages, a standing office tower building (which houses many preexisting sets as utilized on shows like Mad Men, as well as additional production office space), established studio infrastructure amenities and an exterior backlot with downtown LA as its sweeping background.
Synapse’s LED volume itself is 60’ wide, 22’ tall and 35’ deep and its placement on the stage permits tracked cameras to shoot the full 60’ width of the volume from up to 100’ away. This allows for unmatched extreme wide shots to be captured with maximized practical set depth, or to shoot scenes with large cranes and high angles of up to 35’. The volume’s LED panels are also only an inch off the stage floor, allowing for easy set-dressing integration without having to bring in cumbersome customized steel deck platforms. Car shoots can literally drive into shot on a freshly installed polished dark epoxy floor. Having an epoxy floor added to the volume allows for the in-camera capture of practical reflections of assets being displayed on the LEDs that interact dynamically with the polished floor.
Utilizing 2.3mm pixel-pitched LED panels that boast 170-degree off-axis viewing capability, 1500 nit peak luminance level with 6000:1 contrast ratio and an industry-best 1:6 multiplexing is second to none in the virtual production arena. And having finer-pitched 2.3mm panels means less need to throw the LED panels so far out of focus (or stage the action farther and farther away) just to avoid possible moiré issues. Additionally, their 170-degree viewing angle capability means virtually no exposure/color shift at oblique angles and freeing up the filmmakers to shoot from virtually any position in the volume.
Synapse’s unique volume design and shape also incorporates a matching full-resolution 2.3mm seamless ceiling that perfectly marries the ceiling to the main wall, with no tracking cameras, gaps or other obstructions to be painted out. This truly represents “final pixel” in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) captured live on set, under the guiding eyes of the filmmakers and in real time. Two differently-sized mobile LED wild walls add wall extension and off-camera lighting/reflection flexibility to be utilized as needed for the particulars of the filmmakers’ visions or simultaneous photography of insert materials. Furthermore, Synapse’s signature volume design has been crafted with audio recording in mind. The unique specification significantly minimizes unwanted audio reflections prohibiting clean sound recording.
The Synapse volume is currently set up for dual “Inside-Out” camera tracking capabilities, both within the volume’s physical footprint dimensions, but also outside of its form. This configuration allows for cameras to be tracked continuously and uninterrupted from within the volume to outside its confines up to 100’ back and from extreme oblique side angles as well. An additional secondary “Outside-In” tracking system is also available to track actors, props or any other object. No other virtual production stage offers these capabilities in freeing creatives from technological limitations imposed by the VP process.
Synapse is excited to show the filmmaking community their vision of how virtual production can be best utilized. The company’s guiding ethos is grounded by their filmmaker founders’ backgrounds and production experience. They now bring those battle-tested insights to bear for their filmmaking creative clients. "We believe in pushing the boundaries of cinematic storytelling," says Synapse’s CEO Justin Diener. "With our LA Studio, we're inviting filmmakers to dream bigger, create bolder and redefine what's possible in the world of entertainment."
