ATM Grupa S A : Virtual – a new company in the Grupa’s portfolio!

ATM Grupa is expanding its activity in the audio-visual sector by launching Poland's most high-tech virtual cinematography studio. For that purpose, ATM Virtual company has been founded. Its focus is virtual-location-based cinematography, which helps optimise costs and streamline production logistics for commercials, music videos and feature films alike.

We get a taster of the potential of virtual technologies watching "Star Wars: The Mandalorian". In it, the entire scenery has been digitally generated in a studio similar to ours.

The new company will be managed by Radosława Bardes and Andrzej Młynarczyk. "The preparations preceding the launch lasted for months", Młynarczyk explains. "ATM's priority was to create a truly professional team. We specifically searched for specialists with unique experience in virtual production. Our team now comprises professionals from both Poland and abroad. They focus on implementing new technological solutions in the studio work".

The very heart of ATM Virtual are custom-manufactured LED walls that can be positioned at any angle and display any kind of scenography. Depending on the ordering party's requirements, the creators at our new company will supply varied kinds of virtual scenography: from simple film-based designs up to entire "worlds" built with the use of Unreal Engine, a tool until recently only applied in video game productions. Such an ample service portfolio means that we can also tend to productions with modest budgets. Thanks to the so-called Driving Stage and Flying Stage, we can record images of cars, airplanes or boats in motion without ever having to leave the studio. We thus provide a breakthrough solution for the production of series, commercials, events, and even blockbuster features requiring complex FX.

"Our team is ready to guide producers through the virtual world: starting from pre-production work and the development of photorealistic 3D locations up to the stages of shooting and postproduction. Thanks to the latest tech, that latter stage will now be noticeably less time-consuming in comparison to the use of traditional chroma keying methods", says Radosława Bardes. "The virtual production market is growing quickly. Already at the stage of preparing ourselves for the collaboration with ATM, we received numerous inquiries from producers. And let us remember it is an early stage of this kind of cinematography".

Work on ATM Virtual's first productions starts in November. As for the LED wall, it will soon become a part of ATM's sound stage infrastructure in Wał Miedzeszyński street in Warsaw. Meanwhile, in Fort Mokotów clients can already visit the ATM Virtual showroom. There, they will able to "feel" the tech in its demo version, and discuss the requirements stemming from their respective projects.

Radosława Bardes: Since 2014 at ORKA Production Studios, she developed the unit for international postproduction services and co-productions.

Andrzej Młynarczyk: ATM Grupa collaborator since 1999, he acts as director for production, and specializes in TV show productions. As of January 2021, he is a member of the ATM Studio board.