https://youtu.be/oSvVRt8aKJM?si=GVwRmQDKSvE33z6f
We built a hospital and then we shot in it, and because we built it in Unreal Engine, we had complete control over everything about it.
This wasn't the first time we'd shot in this virtual environment. The hospital had been used across a couple of different vertical drama productions, which is always short-form narrative work with tight schedules, close coverage, trying to shoot 15 pages a day. Each shoot added to our understanding of how the assets came together, which configurations worked for different scene types, and where the environment needed full three-dimensional depth versus where a simpler solution like photographic or generated plates were enough.
An environment isn't a set, it's a library of assets for a location that allows you to build sets in virtual space. The hospital we shot in isn't one room, it's a configurable collection of walls, windows, corridors, fixtures, architectural details, lighting elements, and surface treatments. Every component of a hospital environment, available to assemble into any configuration a brief requires, in Unreal Engine. A patient room, corridor, an ICU bay, a surgery, doctor’s office or a nurses' station all can be built and iterated from the same set of assets. You're not locked into one layout. You're working from a library of assets that continue to be optimized for every shoot.
On a real location, the location is fixed and the production bends around it. Here, the production is fixed and the environment moves around it. That inversion is what made fourteen setups possible in ten hours.
https://www.xcrazystudio.com/post/we-built-a-hospital-14-setups-53-takes-in-10-hours
