The film used to launch Red Bull’s newest F1 car to the world’s press, showed it on a fantastic road trip across America but also on the Moon… without leaving the studio in the North of England.
At the beginning of 2023, Final Pixel created a promotion that took Oracle Red Bull Racing’s RB19 from Manhattan Nevada to Manhattan New York – all from the comfort of a studio in Wakefield, Yorkshire. The car in which Max Verstappen looks set to win the Championship made the short journey to Production Park’s state of the art virtual production studio in Wakefield in January. A unique journey was about to begin, for the car and all those involved.
As Final Pixel notes in an Instagram post, “Earlier this year we creatively produced end-to-end, from initial concept and creative all the way to Final Pixel for Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology using Virtual Production. With our partners at XPLOR we took a Formula 1 car on a road trip without leaving the studio. The film was used to launch the car to the world’s press, driving a new era of innovation and immersive brand engagement using VP.”
The Formula 1 car was driven through the desert, the populated roads of Las Vegas at night, over a Miami highway, past the Kennedy Space station, 23,8855 miles to the moon and back, then to the New York Classic Cars Club over Brooklyn bridge – without leaving the studio in the North of England. The shoot blended real archive footage, video plates and drone footage with Unreal Engine produced scenes, CGI and VFX.
Virtual Production was the perfect solution
Phil Adlam, the Head of XPLOR at Production Park said about the shoot: “Hosting an F1 car at Production Park for the first ever Formula 1 virtual production shoot was a dream job for our team at XPLOR. We have some of the best VP and Unreal Engine technicians in the world, and it was fantastic to see what was achieved with our partners Final Pixel and Red Bull Racing.”
“It’s also great to work on a project that shows the exceptional potential of what we can deliver from our studios here at Production Park, and we are excited to see how we can develop it as a valuable resource right at the heart of Yorkshire’s creative sector.”
Michael McKenna CEO & Director of VP at Final Pixel said: “Virtual Production was the perfect solution here because it allowed us to do things with the car and show it in a way that otherwise would have been totally unachievable. We took Oracle Red Bull’s RB19 through the Nevada desert, into Miami and past the Kennedy Space station – all without leaving the comfort of the studio in Wakefield!
Impossible to shoot on location
“Not only did virtual production aid the sustainability initiative of a carbon net zero production, it also solved numerous pain points for the client that rendered the creative brief, a road trip across America, impossible. The embargoed Oracle RB19 car was of great confidentiality and had not been seen by the public anywhere, so was impossible to shoot on location. The technological advancements that we have built a business out of pursuing made the impossible possible. It is Final Pixel’s mission to open this opportunity up to the many brands and storytellers that will benefit from this craft’’
Production Park is also home to the Academy of Live Technology, which offers degree programmes as well as a range of short courses and bespoke training in everything from virtual production to stage rigging and lighting design.
Final Pixel Academy is the global training arm of Final Pixel, providing online and in person training from experts working in this specialised approach to filmmaking.