Moonlighting Successfully Implements South Africa’s First Virtual Video Village

Moonlighting has created a Virtual VT Village which it has just used successfully on its recent shoot with London production company 1stAveMachine. The company's clients were unable to travel so Moonlighting took the shoot to them, enabling them to have full, real-time participation as normal.

Using the dual facilities of a conferencing system and a high-resolution video stream, the clients participated in real-time with the team on set and watched the setups without compromise, dialling in from different time-zones from around the world. While the conference system can stream in without delay, the quality is not always as high as is required so the high res stream follows 20 seconds later on a dedicated and secure streaming platform. The images are controlled by the set VT operator as per normal.

It was a first time for everyone. Nisa from 1stAveMachine established a very workable communication strategy with their remote clients; each setup was discussed, a walk-through of the set done and artists introduced to the client. The different camera takes were discussed as per normal and approvals given without delay.

“As this was our third job with this client it was our intention to maintain the same standards, despite the travel ban, and have an uninterrupted service,” explains 1stAveMachine EP / MD Kerry Smart. “Live-streaming became the obvious choice – the quality of both picture and sound of this service was impeccable. It was just as if Video Village was a little further away…12,434km away to be exact.”

Moonlighting’s Philip Key adds: “Of course, it’s preferable for the whole team to be here for the shoot but when that’s not possible for whatever reason, we have a proven and successful solution. It can also be of great benefit where a project’s budget is restricted and when reducing CO2 emissions is a brand imperative.”