LED UNIT and FORMA PRO Merge Brands with Launch of New Commercials Division

Above: Carl Wyant

Virtual Production studio LED UNIT and top film production house FORMA PRO are merging brands with the launch of a new commercials division headed by veteran industry executive producer, Carl Wyant.

On the back of the rousing success at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for their latest co-production ‘Limonov’, starring Ben Whishaw, and on the eve of another co-production with Ridley Scott’s team at Scott Free that’s being kept under wraps until filming is completed in July, Forma Pro and its virtual production studio LEDUnit have decided to expand their interests into the commercials and branded space, and have tapped Carl Wyant to head the division as EP.

Already capitalising upon the increasing popularity of the Baltics as a destination for international service production, Forma Pro have recently expanded their production base to the Mediterranean on picturesque, sundrenched Malta, giving the company an even broader variety of locations to offer, across a wider stretch of the calendar.

Along with the growing recognition for their virtual production team and expansive studio space at LEDUnit studios in Riga, the newly merged LEDUNIT FORMA PRO is looking forward to drawing brands, agencies, and production companies alike from across Europe, the UK, the US, and globally to take advantage of the full range of production support that the company has to offer.  

Leveraging the opportunities from a talented and experienced features production team, a multitude of diverse locations from two equally low-cost production environments, pan-European casting, top crews and state-of-the-art equipment, all complimented by one of the largest LED studios in Europe with a top Unreal team, the merger of the two companies interests reflects their collective optimism about the future of production at the highest level in the Baltics, the Mediterranean, and Europe in general.

“Our initial thoughts about taking the international commercials business more seriously came on the back of a project brought to us by EP Carl Wyant, ex HALAL Amsterdam/Berlin, ex Great Guns US/Asia, for Grey New York with US production house Madre,” said LEDUnit and Forma Pro partner, Max Pavlov.

“For a Winter skating script that with its complexity and the need for consistent lighting would have demanded a challenging two day, or more likely two nights of shooting in freezing conditions for cast, crew, agency, and clients alike, Carl approached us about utilising our studio and creating a virtual environment for the urban frozen pond location.”

“The campaign had another rather different set of challenges with a second spot set in a large pro basketball arena that needed to appear populated by a full house in the thousands, so a fair amount of talent, supplemented by a large dose of visual effects.”

“The capabilities of LEDUnit’s sizable virtual studio, in coordination with VFX supervisor Simon Hegarty and their Unreal team, and Forma Pro’s live-action service production team, accustomed as they were to the large-scale challenges of feature films, turned out to be the perfect fit,” added Carl.

“The idea that the combination of their unique skill sets might be right for the international commercials business must have taken hold, as after the project for Grey was completed, Max and his partners approached me about a full-time collaboration.”

“I’d already had some experience with Virtual Production by way of an association with Netflix’s head of VP, Asa Bailey, when I was heading up a boutique production shop I’d help build in Spain, and Asa was on the roster briefly. After working intimately with Simon and the Unreal team at LEDUnit, and subsequently hearing more about the creative level of work in feature films and the upcoming slate of projects that their production side Forma Pro were engaged in,” said Carl “it didn’t take long to understand that the combination of the two companies could be a huge success in the commercials world. That, and I immediately fell in love with Riga, a hidden jewel of a city.”  

Whether there’s an interest in the control and facility to create real-time animation magic in the virtual production LEDUnit studio, or the desire to take advantage of the myriad of location options in the Baltics and the Mediterranean, the ease of diverse casting from every European capitol, the expertise of top service production teams with feature film and commercials experience, and all of this at some of the lowest overall production costs in the world, LED UNIT FORMA PRO is aiming to be that one stop shop.

See LEDUnit FORMA PRO’s recent work for Squarespace with director Felix Brady for Stink Films, and Superbet with director Josh Cohen for Eyeline Productions here and above.