Disguise servers key to virtual production of ‘La Fortuna’

The miniseries La Fortuna, directed by Alejandro Amenábar and co-produced by Movistar+, AMC Studios and MOD Pictures, had a significant number of scenes shot in virtual production studios managed by disguise vx4 media servers.

La Fortuna tells the story of the discovery of a Spanish frigate sunk by the British navy off Portugal in 1804 and the ensuing legal battle for ownership of the treasure. As such, the series is set in several locations including Washington D.C. In order to include locations in Washington D.C., but still keep the core of the production in Madrid, the series team turned to the virtual production technology of Barcelona-based MO&MO Film.

Cinematographer Alex Catalan AEC contacted the production services company, who would end up designing and shooting the virtual production scenes. MO&MO Film’s Madrid studio features 2.6mm Gloshine MV LED walls with NovaPro UHD processing and disguise vx 4 media servers, technologies that made the virtual production workflow possible.

David Monguet, virtual production supervisor at MO&MO Film Services, said he was “proud” to shoot his first TV series with Alejandro Amenábar, as well as working with Álex Catalán, one of the “most demanding cinematographers in Spain”: “The project went perfectly, like all our projects with disguise, with a simple set-up and programming.”

Scenes shot with virtual production

Benefiting from the virtual production, the La Fortuna team was able to create in-camera VFX for the car scenes shot in Washington D.C. Similarly, sequences showing footage from US television reports were also shot.

The cinematic results for many of these scenes were achieved using disguise Designer in conjunction with the vx 4 server. Some key tools were the colour adjustment layer, which proved to be “indispensable”, or the blur layer, which helped the Catalan cinematographer to show depth of field in some cases.

PreComp, as a type of mapping, was used on a blur layer and the colour adjustment was applied to manipulate all layers simultaneously. The wrap tool helped to adjust the camera perspective in some scenes, while the ACES integration of disguise helped to achieve colour control for b.

Juanma Nogales and Javier Pacín, supervisors of digital post-production studio Twin Pines (La Peste, Élite, Akelarre) told Panorama Audiovisual about the biggest technical challenges of La Fortuna: https://www.panoramaaudiovisual.com/2021/11/16/mayores-retos-tecnicos-efectos-visuales-fortuna-movistar/