For Those About To Die is an epic historical drama series directed by Roland Emmerich. The director is known as the master of disaster. This was his first move into series television, being very well known for his Sci-Fi epics such as Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, White House Down, and Moonfall.The director, Roland Emmerich on the LED Volume (Photo by: Reiner Bajo/Peacock)Pete Travers was the VFX supervisor onFor Those About To Die. The team used extensive LED virtual production, with James Franklin as the virtual production supervisor. We sat down with Pete Travers and James Franklin to discuss the cutting-edge virtual production techniques that played a crucial role in the series completion.THOSE ABOUT TO DIE Episode 101 Pictured: (l-r) (Photo by: Reiner Bajo/Peacock)The team worked closely with DNEG as we discuss in this weeks fxpodcast. We discuss how virtual production techniques enhanced the efficiency and speed of the 1800 scenes which were done with virtual production and how this meant the production only needed 800 traditional VFX shots to bring ancient Rome to life and enabled the 80,000-seat Colosseum to be filled with just a few people.The LED volume stages were at Cinecitta Studios in Italy, with a revolving stage and the main backlot right outside the stage door. As you will hear in the fxpodcast, there were two LED volumes. The larger stage had a rotating floor, which allowed for different angles to be filmed of the same physical set (inside the volume), and the floor rotated, and so could the images on the LED walls.From Episode 101 (in camera)The actual LED set for that setup (Photo by: Reiner Bajo/Peacock)We discuss in the podcast how the animals responded to the illusion of space that an LED stage provides, how they managed scene changes not to upset the horses, and how one incident had the crew running down the street outside the stage chasing runaway animals!The shot in cameraBehind the scenes of the same shotThe team shot primarily on the Sony Venice 2, but the director is known for big wide-angle lens shots but trying to film an LED stage on a 14mm lens can create serious issues.From Episode 108 (final shot)Crew on set, in front of the LED wall of the Colosseum. Photo by: Reiner Bajo/PeacockThe team also produced fully digital 3D VFX scenes.