Virtual production brings Fires to life

The final episode of Fires screens on Sunday night on ABC.

The series by Tony Ayres Productions and Matchbox Pictures was filmed in Victoria but without actual bushfires lit to create realism.

Instead it used special effects for its fire scenes, with director of photography Marden Dean collaborating with Melbourne-based DreamScreen for virtual production.

For firefighters, a “burnover” is one of the most dangerous and terrifying experiences and Ayres knew they couldn’t film the scene surrounded by actual fire.

“Virtual production was the ideal way for us to create this experience, especially mixed with real special effects,” said Tony Ayres.

“We had a screen projecting the fires onto the three curved walls of interlocking LED panels. We had real embers and real smoke and real fire in the frame, and so we created as close as we could a similitude of being in the fire,” he said.

“Virtual production allowed us to film the stories in a way that comes much closer to honouring the incredible existing source material,” said Dean Marden, Director of Photography.

“The burnover scene required transitions in background environments and incorporated practical effects such as fire, embers and smoke. Being able to have all these elements play in real time greatly increased the success of these sequences and helped the cast and camera operators respond to the visual cues in sync,” said Marden.

The interactivity of virtual production also helped the cast give more authentic performances than if they were in front of a green screen.

Season final screens 8:40pm Sunday on ABC.

Photos by Greg Spiller.