For hundreds of years, Belfast harbour has been home to a plethora of different industries, from shipbuilding to aviation. Nowadays, however, the creative industries are supplanting the heavy industries and Northern Ireland’s already stellar reputation as a filming location for international TV and film productions is about to get a major boost with the opening of Studio Ulster.
Developed by Ulster University, in partnership with the Belfast Harbour Commission and supported by Northern Ireland Screen, Studio Ulster is a unique Sterling £72m investment in a large-scale virtual production studio complex in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Located at Belfast Harbour Studios, when it opens in 2024 it will bring together the most advanced technologies in film and television production special effects under one roof, positioning Northern Ireland as a unique destination for big, really big and small budget productions.
Behind the project is Donegal man, Declan Keeney, a Professor of screen technologies and innovation at Ulster University and director of the Ulster Screen Academy. Declan worked in the film and television industry for many years including 13 years at the BBC. He co-founded Studio Ulster with a colleague Professor Frank Lyons in 2022 with funding from the Belfast region city deal. Declan and partners Belfast Harbour Studios and Northern Ireland Screen.
“It will bring together a range of new technologies that are currently unavailable at scale on this island, and even in the UK there is limited availability,” says Keeney. “That combination of technologies under one roof is globally unique and will offer world class solutions for creating film and digital content right here in the harbour in Belfast. It will bring new visibility to the creative sector in Northern Ireland.”
These technologies include everything from virtual and augmented reality to sophisticated 3D and 4D scanning, motion capture technology and mapping techniques. “Virtual production is where the physical meets the digital. It’s transforming how we make content,” he explains.
Next level visual effects and rendering techniques allow for the creation of alternate worlds and characters in real time. Studio Ulster will have a large 3D and 4D scanning stage that allows them to create digital humans, characters for games, or for animations. “We can scan actors and create them digitally – we can almost finish the production without them if we had to,” he laughs.
Game engine technology also allows them to create photorealistic worlds that are animated, with live action happening within the scene and record it all on camera. This is a long way from the clunky looking green screen of before. “In Northern Ireland we can do medieval locations really well,” he says, referencing Game of Thrones, the acclaimed series that used Northern Ireland’s epic scenery as its backdrop for several episodes.
“But now we can recreate new parts of the world that we don’t have here, for example, a skyline full of high rise skyscrapers. We can recreate Morocco - we just bring in a few tonnes of sand and create the world around that using what is a cave full of seamless LED screens.”
This is the kind of technology already used in futuristic shows like The Mandalorian but Keeney says there are many examples of its use emerging across all types of shows and films, as well as big budget productions worldwide. “Everyone from Marvel movies to period dramas are using this technology. When it is most successfully deployed you can’t even see it was used on screen.”
One big local Belfast-based company excited about the project is Humain Studios, itself an Ulster University spin-out. Described as a digital humans company, it is responsible for those hyper realistic characters you see in blockbuster video games such as Call of Duty and Halo. “It is finding it difficult to access the most up to date 3D and 4D scanning technology anywhere else,” Keeney explains. “Now we can offer it to them.”
The ultimate goal of Studio Ulster is that major productions will continue to flock to Belfast Harbour at increasing scale. “That means we can start to have bigger budget films in Northern Ireland which really increases the competitiveness of our offer and really steps us up to a new level, but also this is a massive step change for the visual effects industry on the island of Ireland because of the new technologies we are introducing,” Keeney says.
The business case for Studio Ulster is clear but Keeney is keen to emphasise that it isn’t simply a commercial undertaking. “There is significant revenue to be generated from this but we are more concerned about making sure that the facility is open to local companies as well. Through our research and development programmes we can help local companies make the jump into this brave new world,” he says.
“We also believe this will create up to 500 jobs, with vertical growth in animation companies, games companies, visual effects companies, film production and immersive companies here but there will also be up to 30 full and part-time jobs at Studio Ulster itself.”
On a day’s production, this will scale up appropriately - Keeney says there are over 2,000 experienced film crew in Northern Ireland, “We are listening to industry and their need for skills training in this pipeline, these are new skills that are scarce globally and very hard to find, we set up the Ulster Screen Academy to tackle these demands. It a critical success factor of the entire industry to have the people they need with the right skillsets and soon.” Ulster Screen Academy is training hundreds of people in virtual production skills in partnership with Northern Ireland Screen. “We want to create work for them here on the island of Ireland and keep that talent here,” Keeney says. “As a civic university, Ulster University is very keen to create jobs and a sustainable future for our graduates,” he adds. There are also plans to upskill the local SMEs so that they can capitalise on this influx of investment. “We want people to understand the possibilities with this technology and what it’s capable of and then provide the necessary training.”
Research and development will also be a core offering of the new entity, with Keeney leading a £17 million investment funded in part by the UK Government to establish the CoStar Network Lab at the facility. With four other such labs across the UK, it will be the largest research network in virtual production anywhere in the world.
“We are building a very sustainable model,” Keeney says. “Industry is telling us what the problems are and research is solving the problems and industry is paying us to use these facilities and it will continue to grow in a circular sustainable model to support a world class infrastructure here.”
“We aren’t in this for big profits,” he adds. “It’s about creating new opportunities for growth across the creative industries, levelling up this place and added a new competitive age to our studio offering on this island where we compete in a global market.”
Nonetheless, Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime and their deep pockets will no doubt soon be booking their flights to Belfast. Keeney can’t confirm the big names on their way - ironclad non-disclosure agreements have been signed - but it has already been publicly announced that Bladerunner 2099, an eight-part series based on the hit movie, will begin filming in Belfast Harbour Studios in the new year. A live action adaptation of the 2010 Dreamworks animated movie How to Train Your Dragon is also set to begin filming in Belfast in the coming weeks. “These are £100 million to £150 million projects, they are huge,” Keeney admits. “But there were four or five productions filming around Belfast just this week alone. It is a really vibrant, innovative and exciting scene here.”
To read more on Belfast Harbour Studios click here
