BBC Studios and Post Production is using three Quattro SE pedestals with Vision 250E heads from Vinten Radamec for a new children’s show that combines live action and virtual reality. The series, for CBBC and BBC One, is produced in a four-wall studio at Pinewood Studios, in London.
In “Bamzooki Street Rules,” four teams of children design their own “zooks”— 3-D computer-generated creatures — that compete with each other in a range of challenges. The zooks and their games are generated in real time, and the production design immerses the teams in what appears to be four floors of an industrial building.
The Quattro SE and 250E were chosen to give the cameras freedom of movement while retaining perfect synchronization with the computer-generated images. The system provides high precision data on the position of each camera on the studio floor, its height, angles of pan and tilt and lens zoom, and integrates all feedback into a single data channel to the rendering system.
The Quattro SE pedestals are free to move around the studio floor, calculating their positions from an unobtrusive L-shaped marker on the floor. This requires minimal alignment time and does not impose any constraints on the set designer or the camera operator. If during a hectic sequence the pedestal loses positional data, it is immediately obvious, and the operator can reset by going over the target, a process that takes less than 30 seconds.
Series producer for the BBC Rupert Harris said they decided to go for a much bigger CGI game space for the fourth series to really immerse the viewers in the “Bamzooki” experience. “Creative decisions like these significantly reduced the margin for error with the camera tracking system and virtual renderers, and we succeeded in completing an extremely tight filming schedule on time and on budget, and are thrilled with the outcome,” he said.