‘Immense worlds’ on offer at film tech hub StudioLab xR one of only four sites in Canada with Unreal Engine training designation By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 8:47 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 5, 2024

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Underneath Portage Avenue, dreams of spaceships, haunted mansions and 1920s Europe are being brought to life.

“We could do old West here. We could do a McDonald’s commercial here,” said Jonathan Phu Son Le, senior manager of StudioLab xR in Winnipeg.

The 3.3-metre by 7.3-m LED wall near him displayed the entrance to a spaceship. He looked to Matt McMahon, an instructor at StudioLab xR, and asked him to change the lighting — perhaps a “more ominous red?”

Red light soon emanated from the spaceship, which was being filmed by a special camera. On another screen, the spaceship blended into a scene with the studio’s physical props.

“You can see why directors would like this,” Le said. “They can basically play God and move worlds around.”

Nearly everything can move within StudioLab xR’s filming space. The desks, the cameras, the props all have wheels.

A group of filmmakers undergoing virtual production training have different needs than a cluster of engineering students taking a tour, Le noted. Putting things on wheels “saves the back.”

StudioLab xR officially opened in the basement of 201 Portage last month. Now, it might see 100 people enter through its doors in a busy week.

The provincial and federal governments gave New Media Manitoba a total $3.5 million to establish StudioLab xR, an extended reality training site. Industry contributed upwards of $1 million.

Since opening, every day has been different, Le relayed.

“It’s technology of the now,” stated Nicolas Phillips, president of IATSE Local 856, which represents members of Manitoba’s motion picture industry.

Phillips has taken virtual production training at the downtown site. The increasingly popular mode of filmmaking will affect departments from props to costumes and lighting, he said.

So far, 20 IATSE members have undergone training. More sessions are to come; the union counts some 700 members and has another 100 working towards membership.

Membership has doubled over the past eight years, stalling briefly during the writers strike in the United States last year. The growth is reflective of the province’s film industry, Phillips noted.

“We’re getting bigger shows all the time,” he said. “To have that exposure (to virtual production) in Manitoba is great for us.”

StudioLab xR is one of four sites in Canada — and the only Prairies location — with an Unreal Engine training designation. The Fortnite video game and Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian helped popularize Unreal Engine and virtual production.

McMahon is among a small group of certified Unreal Engine instructors. He’s often in StudioLab xR’s classroom, teaching clusters of 10 how to use the software.

“I’ve seen people create immense worlds,” McMahon said. “Anything under the sun.”

Worlds to be used in a movie background or video game — or, perhaps, in a construction or architectural firm. Unreal Engine works for anything requiring visualization, McMahon explained.

New Media Manitoba has discussed potential training and collaboration with a number of industries, including engineers and high schools, Le added. He called StudioLab xR a “collision space” for different sectors.

Tyson Caron was one of five directors to undergo training while making a short film in March. He and a crew created 2041, a roughly three-minute sci-fi love triangle story, in a day.

“This industry moves fast,” Caron said. “It’s always evolving, you always have to learn new technologies.”

The 24-year film industry veteran believes both virtual and traditional production — filming on location, or in movie sets without the new equipment — will have a place in the movie industry.

There’s limited space for filming with New Media Manitoba’s screen, noted local cinematographer Vince Tang. Even so, he expressed appreciation for the studio and called it “a very necessary thing.”

New Media Manitoba staff, including executive director Louie Ghiz, hope to see a larger virtual production studio in Manitoba.

StudioLab xR aims to train Manitobans for “these jobs of the future,” Ghiz stated. The 5,500-square-feet facility also books commercial work for a fee.

Prices depend on the project and can vary greatly, Le said, adding it’s hard to give a price range.

“Part of our goal is to make it affordable so that people don’t have to leave the province and pay expensive rates to go to a larger market,” Ghiz added.

StudioLab xR now contains motion capture suits and acoustic curtains for filming, but once, it was a bank filled with vaults and tellers.

The 20-foot ceilings and the location — near the Exchange District, a movie-making hub — are the reasons for planting StudioLab xR underneath 201 Portage, Ghiz said.

“We don’t want to just be doing the same curriculum in five years from now,” he added. “We want to keep iterating with the market, with the industry needs.”

He ballparked the annual cost of upkeeping StudioLab xR at $500,000. The number will change as New Media Manitoba continues through the studio’s first year, he said.

Kelly Fournel, Tech Manitoba’s chief executive, called StudioLab xR a “value add.”

Steven Foster, a business agent for the Directors Guild of Canada, described it as a “tool in our filmmakers’ tool kits.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com