Virtual Production: The Giant Screens Behind Modern Movies & TV
Virtual production has quietly rewritten how many big shows and films get made. What began as an experiment on The Mandalorian now sits at the center of budgets and schedules across Los Angeles and beyond. The shift started with Industrial Light & Magic, and six years later the practice feels less like a novelty and more like another tool on the call sheet. The focus concept remains Light & Magic, the same phrase that once described the company and now describes the entire workflow.
Digital Effects in Entertainment
Digital effects have been around since the 1980s, with landmark movies like Tron and The Abyss. Six years after the first Volume stages opened, they are almost a requirement for Hollywood blockbusters. Even relatively mundane projects use a lot of CGI to clean up shots, remove disruptions, and manage reflective surfaces. The use of digital effects isn’t restricted to moviemaking – its use exploded when the internet entered our lives. On the internet, digital effects are used on a wide range of websites, from simple loading screens on blogs to interactive games. In iGaming, similar effects are used to simulate European roulette online along with other table games and slots. When a player spins a roulette wheel in one of those games, the wheel, the table, and everything else on-screen use rudimentary CGI effects. With all that said, Hollywood leads the pack when it comes to the newest and best digital effects. The potential for CGI in movies is much greater than other use cases, so dedicated filmmakers invest heavily in techniques and technologies that push the envelope. That brings us to one of the latest developments in the movie tech space – virtual productions through gigantic video walls.
Market Growth and Industry Adoption
The numbers tell a clear story. The global virtual production market sat at $3.83 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $12.54 billion by 2034, advancing at a 14.1 percent compound annual growth rate. LED volume stages form the fastest-growing slice of that market. Studios that once treated the technology as a one-off experiment now book permanent wall time the way they once reserved soundstages. Smaller vendors have entered the space with modular kits, which means mid-budget productions can test the workflow without flying to an ILM facility. The growth has not erased location shooting, but it has changed how producers calculate travel days and set-build weeks.
Technical Advantages and Real-Time Benefits
The real edge appears on set, not in post. Glass, liquids, and moving vehicles now catch accurate reflections without weeks of roto work. Actors see the environment instead of a green void, which changes eyelines and performance choices. Because the lighting travels with the background plate, the camera records finished composites in-camera. That reduces the number of VFX shots that need later correction and gives directors more control over color and mood while the crew is still rolling. The workflow does not replace every location, yet it removes the variables that once forced expensive reshoots when weather or permits failed.
Notable Productions and Franchise Use
The list of titles keeps lengthening. Andor leaned on the walls for Coruscant sequences. Ahsoka used them for space exteriors and alien planets. Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series leaned on the same stages for mythological environments. Feature films followed quickly. Mufasa: The Lion King, A Minecraft Movie, and the upcoming Tron: Ares all carried sequences built inside LED volumes. Doctor Who series 14 marked one of the first British productions to adopt the method at scale. Each project proved that the technology travels across genres and budgets once the pipeline is in place.
Evolution of ILM StageCraft and Expansions
Industrial Light & Magic did not stop after the first Volume. The company added permanent stages, including a facility in Vancouver, and expanded StageCraft into an end-to-end toolset that covers previsualization through final color. In 2022 the Television Academy awarded the system an Engineering Emmy. What began as a single circular stage now operates across multiple time zones, with trained crews that move between projects the way traditional gaffers once did. The original soundstage remains the most photographed, yet the surrounding infrastructure keeps the workflow reliable when schedules tighten.
On-set virtual production still shares space with green-screen stages and practical locations. The choice now rests on what each sequence needs rather than on blanket policy. Market growth suggests more crews will learn the tools, yet the most experienced operators remain in demand. The technology has moved past the honeymoon phase and into the phase where results, not novelty, decide whether a wall stays booked or sits dark between shows.
