At our video production company in San Diego, we are blessed to include in our client base a variety of industries. That’s what makes our business so interesting. One week we will be producing a live seminar for a biotech company. The next week we are on location to shoot a commercial for a new golf product. In all cases, we work hard to make sure the client’s needs are served.
Typically all of the footage we use in a production is captured by our crew. But sometimes, it becomes necessary to buy the footage from one of the may “stock houses” available for that purpose. Let’s say, for example, the script calls for an elaborate set design that includes a wall of TV monitors all of which are displaying different images. While it would be nice to have that built for our purposes, rarely does a client want to pay for such a luxury. It is at that juncture that we go online to find a “virtual set” that is, a video file that can be used to create a sense of the environment we desire. The accompanying video in this blog post perfectly illustrates what I describe here.
Virtual sets are usually created by some young genius sitting at a computer playing with the latest software. The end result is a moving image in which a person is seamlessly placed and usually, most viewers believe that the person is actually in that environment and that it is real. But, if there were a moral to this story it would be that you cannot always believe what you see. Video production companies like ours, are experts at creating the desired mood and selling the message on behalf of our client…..regardless of where the images come from.