The first film shot using video game tech

Find out about Gods of Mars, show entirely in the Unreal Engine.

24 December 2020

Interview with

Peter Hyoguchi, Director for Gods of Mars

Part of the show Christmas Special and Cyberpunk 2077

MARS

Astronauts need faster spacecraft, better radiation protection and heat shields before they can enjoy the Martian landscape in person.

Credit:

CC0 - NASA/JPL

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“Gods of Mars” uses “the Unreal Engine”, which is normally used to make games like Fortnite and Gears of War. But this time it’s creating all the film’s special effects and virtual environments…from rocket ships to robots!

It’s hoped that this kind of technology could save film-makers huge amounts of money. Chris Berrow has been taking a look.

Chris - Gods of Mars is a sci-fi epic… think Star Wars… set on the red planet…

In the first trailer… you can see starships screeching by… as the camera pans to the left… landing in Mars. Normally this kind of shot would involve a huge team of special effects artists…

TRAILER

The big difference is that in Gods of Mars… all of the special effects and outer-space backdrops will be generated using the Unreal Engine which has been developed by Epic Games.

This kind of technology has been used before… most recently in Disney’s hit-series The Mandalorian… but only for certain scenes. This is the first time an entire film is being made using LED walls… and environments and objects… that have been scanned into the computer.

Peter Hyoguchi - is the film’s director… and he has some experience of using this technology already…

So how did the concept for this film come about? Jonathan Schriber wrote the script...

David Stump is the visual effects supervisor...

What’s the point of using this new technology? Director Peter Hyoguchi says it’s a lot cheaper

CLIP final 10’56 - long clip saying that he’s making a Star Wars film on the catering budget of a Star Wars film.

This new “visual reality” approach is expected to save about 70% of the costs of a typical CGI-heavy production. That’s potentially millions of dollars.

The technology also means that production can be very Covid-secure, because you don’t need as many people on set, and the single stage used for the film is very easy to sanitise.

When it’s finished… Gods of Mars will be the first feature-length film to me made with the Unreal Engine… could this be the future of film production?