How do you put a TV correspondent inside the internet?

Not near a computer, inside it

That was the brief. A network morning show was running a week long series on the new wonders of the world, one wonder a day, Jerusalem, Tibet, Iceland, Hawaii…. and day five was the internet

You can't fly a crew to the internet

So they came to my virtual set

Sets built in LA, live TV in New York

I produced the segment, which on the credit roll read David Victory, VRset Producer, and in real life meant building the worlds she walks through

She was shot on green screen and placed into 3D sets we built from nothing. A wall of floating monitors full of webcam faces, a tunnel of light beams, a narrow beam she balances on while information roars past underneath her, an animated web of lines standing in for a billion people online

Every one of those camera moves had to match her movement frame for frame, or the whole illusion falls apart and she looks like a sticker on a screensaver

Then it went out live from the studio in New York, the anchors at the desk, her on the monitor next to them, inside the machine

Did the viewers at home know she was standing on a green floor? of course not, that's the point

Why not just build a set?

Here is the deal, a physical set costs money every single day it stands, carpenters, paint, a stage you rent by the hour

And what would a real tunnel of light cost, built for one four minute segment and torn down the next morning? nobody at that network wanted to find out

A virtual set costs once, and you can put your host anywhere. A showroom that doesn't exist yet, the inside of a product, the inside of the internet

Same reason brands use it today for product launches and marketing videos, the impossible location is the cheap one

The producer behind the lens

When the producer is the one framing the shot, nothing gets lost in a meeting. I see the problem through the viewfinder and fix it on the spot, the angle, the light on the green, where her feet land on that beam

It's the same way I run a fashion shoot in my studio, crew, lights, talent, one person calling it. Have a look at the Behind The Scenes gallery or the Fashion Photographer gallery

Network TV, built in LA, on air in New York

Not bad for a wonder you can't visit

Length: 8 min 12 s · Producer & director: David Victory, VRSET video production, Los Angeles & Orange County

Key moments

  • 0:00 Anchors introduce the series
  • 1:01 Series title
  • 2:23 Presenter in the video-wall virtual set
  • 3:46 3D avatar and network sequence
  • 5:48 Presenter inside the light-beam set
  • 7:11 Studio in New York and producer credit

See the matching photography in the Behind The Scenes gallery.

More videos

The full video library

Also on our YouTube channel.

Planning a video or a fashion shoot? Contact David Victory or call (310) 988-6575 in Los Angeles, (949) 873-4551 in Orange County. Free consultation and quote for first-time clients.