“Our team started off with the task of building a bespoke V-Cam system tailored to Robert [Zemeckis]’s workflow, so that he and (VFX Supervisor) Kevin [Baillie] could shoot and not be inhibited. 

In a traditional V-Cam setup, you’ve got a heads up display [HUD], and the operator has controls over a wide range of things like: camera settings, lenses, positioning, attachments, scale, and speed, which go beyond just their physical location in the volume. This is what makes the camera tool very powerful. The virtual camera tool we built for Pinocchio was unique in that the director, Robert Zemeckis, wanted all of these features to be available but did not want to control them himself. So we had to really strip back the actual piece of equipment [physical camera rig] and move all of those controls to a separate operator interface. From there, he and I really had to build this workflow, this rapport, where I knew what he was talking about and was able to engage those controls as though he was hitting the buttons. This freed him up to focus solely on the creative control of the camera operation without the burden of the more technical functions.”

~Kristin Turnipseed, Virtual Production Stage Supervisor