Virtual production training and R&D key to growth

The latest StoryFutures report has found that the UK virtual production industry could miss out on growth opportunities if it doesn’t address the skills gap.

35 companies working or planning to work in virtual production were anonymously surveyed by StoryFutures, including companies from UK Screen Alliance, Immerse UK, PACT, and UKIE. The questions covered information about the organisation, plus information about skills, virtual production training, experience of employees working in virtual production, roles and skills shortages and R&D in virtual production. 

One of the key findings was that one third of the companies surveyed reported that staff have less than six months experience of virtual production. Even for organisations actively working in virtual production and beginning to establish a presence in the sector, two-thirds of those reported that virtual production skills in the employment market are in weak or very weak supply.

In addition, it also found that most organisations involved in virtual production are R&D intensive, actively carrying out research and development on live virtual production projects (79%). At the same time, the vast majority of organisations received funding below £10,000 making it difficult to sustain intensive R&D cultures in these organisations - 67% of which are micro-businesses or SMEs. This is underlined by the fact that less than half of these organisations have ‘in-house’ virtual production-dedicated teams (42%), who can devote time to vital R&D.

Micro-businesses and SMEs are in particular need of increased R&D funding from the public sector, to help them become virtual production-ready businesses and sustain growth in this sector. 37% of organisations actively working in virtual production have accessed public grant funding, and 26% have secured public match funding.

Prof. Peter Richardson, head of virtual production at StoryFutures, said: “With so many companies in the UK poised to add Virtual Production to their already world-leading production expertise, the potential for the UK creative workforce is enormous. However, our research tells us that our UK creative industries risk losing their R&D advantage if we fail to train the creative teams and companies who will innovate, disrupt and advance virtual production techniques and technologies. It is our hope that this research will inform and energise the next phase of training and R&D in this hugely exciting area.”

A number of virtual production training schemes have been launched over the past 12 months, including efforts from Final Pixel/Epic Games, Pixotope, Mars Volume, Mo-Sys, and many more. In addition, there is StoryFutures’ & Future Screens NI VP Futures accelerator programme for SMEs specialised in virtual production. The full StoryFutures report can be found here.