"Expedition Files"
October 2024
Josh Gates takes a journey into the past to explore unsolved mysteries, and S4 Studios is proud to have contributed by utilizing Virtual Production for parts of the re-enactments. We developed a custom pipeline featuring innovative tracking hardware, cutting-edge software, and advanced high-speed filming techniques. While we won’t spoil too much of the behind-the-scenes magic, we’re excited to have been selected for this distinctive and cutting edge show. For more details and content, visit the Discovery Channel website at www.discovery.com.
S4 Studios ICVFX Stage
Client: Ping Pong Productions
Geoffrey Kater – Virtual Production Supervisor/Playback Operator
Macario Alvarez – Unreal Engine Operator/Playback Operator
Ben Betts – Playback Operator/LED Tech
View the trailer here!
Movie "The Vortex"
July 2024
Just wrapped on a movie using Virtual Production and Unreal Engine for a 1980’s Las Vegas Fremont street sequence for the movie “Vortex”. Recreating virtual sets that authentically capture the look and feel of a different era is always a challenge. In this project, the story called for the actors to walk up and down the sidewalk, interacting with both real and virtual objects while searching for a cab. To achieve this, we utilized camera tracking, dolly shots, and even a treadmill to create the seamless effect. Movie stars Billy Gardell, Jaina Lee Ortiz, and Christopher Titus fully embraced our virtual production team and LED stages. Special thanks to our director, Richard Zelniker. We’re extremely pleased with the final result and can’t wait for the movie’s release, coming soon!
S4 Studios ICVFX Stage
Geoffrey Kater – Virtual Production Supervisor/Unreal Artist
Macario Alvarez – Unreal Engine Operator/Unreal Artist
GEICO March Madness "Cavemanalyst"
Commercials
April 1st 2024
S4 ICVFX Team was ready and able to welcome one of the most beloved characters in commercial history, the Geico Caveman. These series of commercials feature the Caveman played by actor Jeff Daniel Philips acting as a “Cavemanalyst” delivering funny 30 second March Madness comedy dishing on sports lingo, mascots, to betting advice and of course, the value of Geico Insurance. S4’s team provided the LED stage and video playback for all the spots. Thanks to the great team of folks working on both sides of the camera, you can view these funny spots online by searching “Geico Caveman March Madness”.
S4 Studios ICVFX Stage
Geoffrey Kater – Virtual Production Supervisor
Macario Alvarez – Video Playback Operator
Nature's Bakery Fig Bars: Baked For The Win™
Commercial using Unreal Engine
March 29th 2024
A new Nature’s Bakery commercial was filmed using the S4 ICVFX team and stage. Our challenge was to build a realistic, but somewhat stylized Unreal Engine forest integrated with foreground greens and props to create the perfect trailhead for this family hike. Shot on an Alexa 35 the S4 ICVFX team created the custom forest build using Megascans assets and Unreal Engine, along with our Mars-CamTrack system for camera tracking. We accomplished the 3D build, integration and deployment in a 2 week period and had 1 prep & 1 shoot day. Most of our work was landscaping our forest in real-time as the Director and DP lined up shots from zooms to the wide finale. On many occasions we would swap out a tree or add more flowers to the landscape, adjust the lighting and more. This is the premiere reason to use ICVFX — real-time art direction. Thank you Kristyna for trusting us to help create your vision, you rock!
Client – Art Class
Director – Kristyna Archer
DP – Patrick Jones
Producer – Dan Hernandez
Production Designer – Isaksen Creative
S4 Studios ICVFX Stage
Geoffrey Kater – Virtual Production Supervisor & Unreal Engine Artist
Macario Alvarez – Unreal Engine Operator
DIIV: "Brown Paper Bag" MUSIC VIDEO
Feb. 26th 2024
The concept was for the music video to open with an SNL band intro featuring Fred Durst as the host. Various 3D sets were used to create the look and as the music played, the background changed over time. Shooting with up to 5 cameras at a time and utilizing cast for audience members and key actors all helped to create this SNL inspired music video. Filmed at our new Burbank location featuring our new large curved wall and our experienced S4 ICVFX team.
Special thanks to:
Client – Concord Music Publishing
Producer – Chris Acosta
S4 Studios ICVFX Stage
Geoffrey Kater – Virtual Production Supervisor
Macario Alvarez – Video Playback Engineer
Ben Betts – Audio Playback Engineer
God Body Bingo - Switch Lanes (Official Music Video)
November 11 2023
Another day, another great music video using vehicle process. God Body Bingo was in the house filming their latest music video entitled “Switch Lanes”. The setup used 2 cameras and specialized video plates from Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles and some other custom plates. All in all, a great day and catchy lyrics for another successful shoot.
Credits are listed on the official video youtube page.
The Latinxorcists “We Do Horror” - LED Stage Shoot
October 13 2023
S4 Studios had the pleasure of working with The Latinxorcists on this deep dive into what inspires these writers of the Horror genre. Each interview was a candid look into their inspirations, early influences and their approach into putting pen to paper on what and how they go about writing for this kind of film. Sponsored by GRX Immersive and The Handy Foundation, we spent the day using our LED Stage and over 10 different video backdrops to create the overall tone and look for this shoot. We thank all the participants and great crew for a special day!
Credits are listed on the official video youtube page.
ICVFX used for Daughtry - "Artificial" (Official Music Video)
August 24th 2023
S4 Studios ICVFX team & stage were chosen as the destination to film Daughtry’s new music video “Artificial”. Chris Daughtry and crew were filmed on our LED stage using an Unreal Engine virtual location of the apocalyptical sort. Prepping the Unreal environment and prep took about 2 weeks and the shoot was completed over 2 days. We utilized foreground set decoration elements like pillars, rocks, cables, smoke, etc… meticulously integrated and lit to match our 3D world. ICVFX has totally revolutionized our services, allowing productions to shoot final pixel on the day without a lengthy post production compositing process and had editors cutting the next day. S4 did additional VFX for set extensions and a 3D cyborg face integrated into Chris Daughtry’s face for the final scenes.
We want to thank our client KNR Productions for bringing us this wonderful opportunity!
Credits are listed on the official music video youtube page.
August 11th 2023
S4 Studios creates Demo and Interview for HTC Mars FIZTrack release.
As part of the HTC Mars beta test team, S4 Studios was asked to beta test the new Mars FIZTrack before its release to the public. After testing was completed on our end, we created a detailed tutorial video explaining the setup process of the FIZTrack and how it is used in conjunction with Unreal Engine. An interview with Geoffrey Kater, Owner/Creative Director was also filmed to give HTC clips and sound bites to utilize during their marketing campaign. We are so thankful to Tim Wen at HTC for giving us this awesome opportunity.
June 29th 2023
S4 Studios Talks Virtual Production with the AJA and Mars CamTrack
Creative Director Geoffrey Kater was interviewed by AJA to discuss his experience using the AJA Gen10 for genlock. Thanks to HTC Mars Tim Wen for setting up this great interview!
June 5th, 2023
The Brown Brothers, aka Black Gryphon - Music Video
The Brown Brothers (Black Gryphon) having appeared on America’s Got Talent shot their latest music video at S4 ICVFX stage. The music video was shot in front of several music industry professionals affiliated with the band and was a demonstration of what their live show could look like. More akin to capturing a live musical performance the crew used a scissor jib, easy rig and slider to capture multiple angles in real-time. Video backgrounds and music were synced, as well as vocal recordings were all coordinated by our video engineer Chad Williams. Some scenes were blocked out as B-roll, but very few. Directed by S4’s own Geoffrey Kater, DP Mike Monti from the Cinema Junkies and Produced by Paul Marshal. Big thanks again to Gabe & Nate Brown for choosing our awesome studio and team.
Music Video to be released soon.
Check out Black Gryphon here!
May 1, 2023
Theory of a Deadman
"Two of Us (Stuck)" - Music Video
KNR Productions shot the newest music video from Theory of a Deadman entitled “Two of us (Stuck)” at the S4 ICVFX stage in Canoga Park. The team made great use of our 3 Wall LED volume and video playback systems for real-time dynamic in camera FX. This kind of set up is perfect for interactive lighting & reflection as well as rich dynamic backdrops that sync with the music and sound was provided using our in-house speaker system for the band to play against. Additional photography was completed on our standing apartment set just steps away from our ICVFX volume. Thanks to Rich Ragsdale (Director) and Kevin Ragsdale (Producer) from KNR for bringing this super fun and awesome project to our stage.
S4 ICVFX crew – Geoffrey Kater (VP Supervisor), Macario Alvarez (LED Wall Tech), Chad Williams (Video Playback), Remmet Studios crew Paul Marshal (Producer) & Royce Dudley (Stage Supervisor) and all additional crew to make this happen!
March 22, 2023
Eric Roberts in Studio
Thanks to Eric Roberts shooting with the S4 Studios crew on our ICVFX stage. We used Unreal Engine and two of our unique virtual library locations to complete the ICVFX portion of our shoot. First shot of the day was a movie theater interior and we quickly changed to our NYC apartment location. Between prep and shoot, our whole day was about 5 hours. That is Virtual Production in a nutshell.
Thanks to Eric Roberts, Chris & Jordan supporting roles, Mike & Paul our Producers, Geoffrey our Director, Royce our DP, Cassius from The Cinema Junkies, Ben & Chad on Audio – G&E, Macario & Julio on ICVFX operation and the support staff at S4 ICVFX and Remmet Studios in Canoga Park, CA.
March 15, 2023
Rokoko motion capture suit demo.
Los Angeles based Byron Qiao product specialist from Rokoko visited our stage today to demo the smart suit pro 2. Mo-cap integration into our virtual production workflow is a must have for S4 ICVFX when using Meta-Characters in Unreal Engine, Unity and others. We invited quite a few industry veterans to attend the day for networking, education and biz dev. Powerful, portable, affordable, rechargeable and easy to use. Thanks again to Byron and Rokoko…we’ve got some great new partners in the Virtual Production space!
If you’d like to see a live demo with Byron, contact him at byron.qiao@rokoko.com
-Geoffrey Kater, Owner/Creative Director
Rokoko website
Become a CG Pro event at S4 ICVFX stage!
CG Pro is a fantastic school teaching virtual production to current and future industry pros. For this event, they reached out to S4 Studios to supply our new S4 ICVX Virtual Production stage and technicians to lecture and demonstrate the procedures needed to operate a Virtual Production stage on a daily basis.
The first half of the day was instructed by Scott Rosekrans head of Real-Time at Zoic Studios. Instruction was dedicated to LED Wall Tech procedures and how to operate Unreal projects, nDisplay and more while taking direction from the Director and DP. Students had a chance to jump on the “Operator” workstation and manipulate the virtual world which is the whole point of using this kind of tool.
The second half of our day was lead by instructor Erik “Wolfie” Wolford featuring cinematography for lighting on a Virtual Production stage. Starting with how to program and set up lights for the foreground real world elements to preventing light spill onto the wall and color matching. How to marry the real world stage to the virtual world for a perfect shot.
CG Pro is an authorized Unreal training center employing veteran instructors who are currently working in the Entertainment Industry focused on games, film and broadcast courses using real-time and traditional CG software.
We can’t give enough thanks to Jackie Cooper and Edd Dawson-Taylor, founders of this great Virtual Production School and are very pleased to be part of the CG Pro family to grow, collaborate and succeed with this great group of industry professionals!
-Geoffrey Kater, Owner/Creative Director
Become a CG Pro Website
Sisu Robot arm lands at our ICVFX Stage.
Sisu Robot arm has landed at our ICVFX stage in Canoga Park, CA. The Cinema Junkies have graciously delivered this beauty to S4 Studios so we can test our Virtual Insert Stage with the arm and Unreal Engine. Our 4 stage facility is perfect for motion control product and high speed shoots in addition to our ICVFX solutions.
Book it today! Reach out for demos and availability.
-Geoffrey Kater, Owner/Creative Director
