Sim-Plates in Action: “Lucky” Short Film Uses Our CG Driving Plate

See the “Country Roads A” driving plate Here

Video Transcript:

Alex Pearce: Can you tell us a bit about “Lucky”?

Michael Langan: “Lucky” is a thriller short film about a woman who’s on a blind date with a billionaire at the moment society collapses, and she has only six minutes to decide whether to join him on his jet to New Zealand.

Alex: What role did virtual production play in the storytelling or visual style of the film?

Michael: The goal was for virtual production to be invisible. They’re speeding through a forest at night, and we needed to create a sense of isolation: just enough visible in the background that we feel like we’re in the car with them, fleeing catastrophe.

Alex: How did the Sim-Plate integrate into your scene? (Interior car shots? Tracking shots?) What customizations did you do to the plate?

Michael: We considered multiple solutions to get the scene: process trailer, traditional rear projection, greenscreen, and the LED volume at Vossler. Then there was the choice between live action plates, Unreal engine, or pre-rendered 360 video (Sim-Plates). Process trailer would have been an impractical nightmare and impossible to catch the right lighting in the forest for more than five minutes. Rear projection would have critically limited our angles. Comping plates with green screen would have been brutal, with handheld footage especially, where the marks would be way out of focus. Unreal sounded fun but was overkill for our purposes. Live action plates don’t loop seamlessly, which ruins takes, and would cause continuity issues.

Alex: Why did you choose the “Country Roads – Night” plate for this project? (What drew you to that environment or mood?)

Michael: Sim-Plates already had a perfect forest plate at the driving speed we were looking for, but it was rendered for daytime. We referenced the lighting on a different plate set at night, and Alex worked with us to re-render our country road plate with the perfect lighting conditions. Our coverage is all handheld: French overs from the back seat, profiles through the driver and passenger windows, and a two shot through the windshield.

Alex: What would you tell other filmmakers who are not sure if Sim-Plates would work for their shoot?

Michael: Our DP, Chris Mosson, sent me a video of Sim-Plates in action on a stage in Mexico City, and we fell in love with it. Sim-Plates was the obvious solution: a seamlessly looping 360 video, so we can point the camera anywhere, and the light wraps around the talent beautifully. We didn’t use a single movie light; just the video volume and the car’s navigation screen!

Alex: How was the image fidelity and realism of the Sim-Plate on the LED wall? (Any feedback from DP, director, or talent?)

Michael: Once the color was dialed in on the stage, the plate was shockingly convincing. We actually added virtual flags to the screen to disrupt the illusion so our talent didn’t get motion sickness.

Alex: Would you use Sim-Plates again for future productions? If so, in what kinds of scenarios?

Michael: I can’t see a world in which we would have gotten nearly as valuable material shooting process trailer on location. Being able to stand at a monitor just feet away from the scene instead of being crushed into the back seat of a moving vehicle, not needing to wait for long resets… it all allowed us to focus on the most important things and really work with our talent (Victoria Ealy and Rowen Kahn) to tell the story. The next time I need to shoot car process, I’m talking to Sim-Plates.

Partnering with Sim-Plates was fantastic. They customized our plates by grading the footage to different times of day and provided multiple versions of the same video, each with unique lighting and exposure adjustments. They even created versions with varying headlight spreads, allowing me to choose the best video for different camera angles. Working on a volume stage offers huge advantages. Actors and crew can see the virtual world in real time, creating more immersive performances and faster creative decisions. Lighting looks natural because the LED walls emit accurate, dynamic light—and relighting is as simple as adjusting the virtual environment. You can film all day in the same setting without worrying about weather or chasing the sun. It also made a big difference for crew safety and comfort—we weren’t stuck on a trailer outside all day, exposed to the elements. The bathrooms and craft services are always just a few steps away. We partnered with Sim-Plates to customize our 360 video, and their team was fantastic. They graded the footage to reflect a different time of day and delivered multiple versions with varying headlight spread on the road and trees—giving us total creative flexibility. It’s a faster, more flexible, and more sustainable way to shoot, and it’s changing the game in modern filmmaking. -Chris Mosson