The Cowgirl Project: Handmade Charm Meets Virtual Production Wizardry

In the world of filmmaking, where everything is constantly evolving, perhaps one of the most wonderful shapes are those created in the world of virtual production. Both with the high tech of Unreal Engine and the simple craft of cardboard and sellotape, we have found a way to create something truly unique. When we first began collaborating with the wonderful team at Racquet Studios on our short film, The Cowgirl Project, I felt a slight sadness that virtual production was still so dominated by a hyper-real, immaculate aesthetic. With all due love and respect, it sometimes feels like the tech and camera nerds who design this stuff get first dibs, and the result is a beautifully polished, yet sometimes generic, aesthetic.

At Plume Films, our aesthetic is firmly rooted in the handmade and the collage. It is a style our clients and viewers trust, and it is a beautiful medium for conveying difficult messages. This was the challenge we set ourselves. I wanted to roll out our pack of crayons all over the squeaky clean world of Unreal Engine.

A Visual Language Unlike Any Other

The worlds of our film started to form as the script came together and conversations were had. I built cardboard cities at home, which were then scanned and built into the virtual world you see in The Cowgirl Project. What the boys at Racquet Studios did with those scans is completely inspired. Lighting windows, adding atmosphere, and changing the lighting is mind blowing, yet the world still feels tangibly real and made of cardboard. You can still see the oil pastels around the door frames.

All this came from an artist I have admired most of my life, Hundertwasser. His buildings are characterised by an anti-rationalist, anti-straight-line philosophy, featuring vibrant, bold colours, organic and irregular shapes, and a deep integration of nature. He used features like trees growing from inside rooms, vegetated roofs, uneven floors, mismatched windows, and a unique use of spirals and other curvilinear forms to symbolise life and nature.

I wanted to pay a small homage to his work and his vision for the most beautiful, ideal cities. When the child in our story designs her perfect city, we like to believe it would be the most perfect, beautiful city, even if it is very handmade and endearing. I was also very careful to build the models in a modular way, so they could be stacked, rotated, and reconfigured in numerous formations within the Unreal world.

Although it is important to have a strong voice as an artistic director, I also believe deeply in the power of collaboration. What the team at Racquet Studios created from the initial designs was a delightful interpretation that was perhaps not the ideal city of Hundertwasser, but something more like the friendly yet slightly overbearing dystopian city from Fritz Lang's Metropolis. This was actually necessary for the film's narrative, and the end result was completely thrilling.

I think it would be fun to take these assets and make them available for anybody to build any city they like, whether dystopian or utopian. This is something I will look into. But for now, our Cowgirl City exists within the world of the film. I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to push the boundaries of Unreal, and I hope you enjoy the project.

Creative Tools and Technical Power

The seamless fusion of our handmade models and Racquet Studios' technical prowess was made possible by a top-tier crew and a suite of powerful tools.

We used an ARRI ALEXA Mini LF camera with Cooke Optics to capture the physical elements and performances, with a team of expert technicians managing the complex virtual production workflow. We leveraged an LED Volume from ROE Visual and Brompton Technology to create the immersive backdrops in real time. Unreal Engine served as the core of our virtual world, while other tools like Stype RedSpy for camera tracking and Capturing Reality for photogrammetry ensured a perfect synchronisation between the physical and virtual worlds. The lighting, both real and virtual, was meticulously crafted using Litepanels and Quasarscience alongside dynamic real time lighting within Unreal.

The Future of Filmmaking?

The challenges we faced, from blending our handmade aesthetic with a new technology to ensuring the narrative remained at the forefront, all led to innovation. Our hybrid model demonstrates that virtual production is not just for grand, polished blockbusters. It is a powerful, flexible tool that can be used to bring deeply personal, handcrafted stories to life in entirely new ways. This project signals a new era for both commercial and independent films, where creativity is no longer constrained by physical limitations.

We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to push the boundaries of virtual production with our wonderful partners at Racquet Studios. We hope you enjoy the project and see how our passion for blending traditional art with cutting-edge technology can lead to truly unique and engaging content.

Discover more about our services here at Plume Films, and for a closer look at our evolving style, explore our portfolio. We would love to hear about your next project and discuss how we can bring your unique vision to life. Drop us a line.

Production: @plumefilms Virtual Production: @racquetstudios Director: @chrislewortfilms DoP: @robwilton_dp Starring: Lyla Calf @youngactorsagency Head of Production: @jr_lewis_films Head of Technical: @robertruardy Art Director: @plumefilms AD: @ctingols Gaffer: @ironhandfilmlighting Spark: @bogdan.roth.robert Props Assistant: Dave Hipperson Camera Operator: @davidcawleydop 1st AC: @maxedmed 2nd AC: @danzigg Sound Designer: @zai.tangent Floor Manager: @jgr6.6 Trainee Spark: @duqueephoto Camera: @arri (ALEXA Mini LF) Lenses: @cookeoptics Camera & Lens Kit: @vmi.tv Lighting Kit: @ironhandfilmlighting Camera Tracking: @stype #redspy IBL: @litepanels / @quasarscience Stabilisation: @egripment_camera_support LED Volume: @roevisual @bromtontech @videoscreenservices VP Engine: @unrealengine Photogrammetry: @capturingrealitycom IBL Software: @assimilateinc