Burbank and Albuquerque
Unreal Engine Virtual Production & Filming Studio
A turnkey Unreal Engine virtual production studio in Burbank and Albuquerque. A photoreal virtual set appears around your talent live, in camera, while you film.
- The operator who runs the virtual sets, included
- One live Unreal Engine render per camera
- 250+ sets ready to load
- Pioneered in 2007, two U.S. patents
Browse the set library: 250+ ready-to-load sets →
Or call 818-934-3775 Burbank 818-861-7317 Albuquerque
Watch the reel
Unreal Engine virtual production, shot live in our studios.
Click any clip to play it with sound.
Unreal Engine sets
Unreal Engine sets you can shoot today.
What's included
The Unreal Engine pipeline comes with the studio.
- The operator who runs the Unreal Engine virtual sets, included in every rental
- Multi-camera: a separate live Unreal Engine render for every tracked camera
- Ultimatte live compositing: the recorded image is the finished shot
- The 250+ set library, ready to load; custom Unreal Engine environments quoted with your production
- Lighting, grip and audio packages and the teleprompter system already on the floor
- Dressing rooms, makeup, green rooms and production offices
- The same pipeline and set library in Burbank and Albuquerque
- A giant LED video village in Burbank, where the whole team watches the finished composite
- Optional crew: three camera operators (one on the jib) and a teleprompter operator
Productions that have trusted us
The networks, the streamers and the studios have all shot here.
Hart to Heart, Aquaman 2, Inventing Anna, Bosch, The Mummy, Greenland, Deadliest Catch and national spots for T-Mobile, Amazon and Domino's. Full credit list
Check availability
Tell us what you want to shoot in Unreal Engine.
Tell us the format and your dates. A producer replies with availability and a quote.
- The operator who runs the virtual sets is included
- The same Unreal Engine pipeline in Burbank and Albuquerque, with custom environments built to your spec
- Quoted against your actual shoot, never a rack rate
Rather talk it through? 818-934-3775 · Burbank
818-861-7317 · Albuquerque
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A producer will reach out to talk through your project and next steps. Need us sooner? Call 818-934-3775 (Burbank) or 818-861-7317 (Albuquerque).
In plain terms: the location your scene needs is a photoreal virtual set that appears around your actors live, in camera, on our stage. Unreal Engine, the video game engine, draws it in real time from each camera’s point of view, and our patented CastleVision method puts actors and location into one finished picture while you film. Nearly any scene can happen on one floor.
A virtual production company built around your shoot, not your credit
Searching for a virtual production company, or virtual production services in Los Angeles? You’re in the right place: and we work differently. L.A. & ABQ Castle Studios is the stage, the technology, and the crew you produce on: productions, agencies and networks bring us the script and the cast, and we hand them a real-time Unreal Engine stage with an optional crew package to run it. You keep your production, your client, and your credit. We’re your virtual production partner, not a competitor for the project.
Less travel. Less waste. More control.
Unreal Engine virtual production isn’t just a way to fake locations, it’s a way to take back the variables that traditional film schedules have been losing money on for a hundred years. The weather. The travel. The permit chase. The teardown. The waiting.
Our two stages, Burbank and Albuquerque, run the same Unreal Engine studio pipeline, with the same library of environments, the same multi-camera workflow, and the same patented CastleVision technology underneath.
Real-time final look on set
Traditional VFX defers the look to post. Green screens approximate, plates suggest, and the director hopes the comp lands six months later. That’s a slow loop, and it costs decisions.
Unreal Engine virtual production closes the loop. The world your actors are performing in is the world the audience sees, rendered in real time, lit to match, with parallax that responds to camera movement. The director makes decisions on set, with the actual shot in the monitor.
An Unreal Engine filming studio, not an LED volume
If you’ve been searching for an Unreal Engine filming studio, or an Unreal film studio, or an Unreal Engine stage, here’s what the term means on our floor. Our stages are green-screen stages, but the green screen isn’t a placeholder for post. Mo-Sys tracking tells Unreal Engine exactly where each camera is, Unreal renders the photoreal environment from that camera’s perspective in real time, and an Ultimatte composites talent and world together live. So what’s recorded is the finished shot, in camera, on every camera at once. It’s virtual production beyond LED walls: no fixed wall size bounding the frame, no moiré from photographing panels, and no wall content to rebuild when the location changes. The next environment loads in seconds.
Weighing an Unreal Engine LED wall against this? The short version: an LED volume displays the world behind the talent, while we composite it in live from the tracked camera, both put the environment in camera, and they trade off differently. Our plain-English guide to what virtual production is lays the two approaches out side by side, and our green screen vs. LED wall series goes shot by shot. For the practical walkthrough of a day here, read the producer’s guide to filming on an Unreal Engine stage.
The multi-camera advantage
Most virtual production stages were designed for single-camera cinematic shoots. Ours run multi-camera natively. Which means coverage in a single take, fewer resets, and a workflow that unlocks talk shows, game shows, news inserts, and episodic TV alongside features.
When you do want a single-camera cinematic look, that’s available too. The stage isn’t married to one shooting style.
Produced on our stages
The pipeline isn’t theoretical. It’s been carrying real productions for years:
- Discontinued, with Bruce Campbell. A scripted comedy series shot on our virtual production stage, worlds swapped scene to scene without a company move.
- The Marilyn Monroe investigation (FOX & TMZ). We helped recreate Monroe’s Brentwood home as a navigable, photoreal digital twin in Unreal Engine for a national broadcast special.
- Hart to Heart (NBC/Peacock). Kevin Hart’s talk show, staged as a grand winery. Guest Bryan Cranston makes a point of how spectacular the set looks: it’s ours.
- Hilton Head Island. A 32-episode series that shot more than 50 locations, all on one Burbank stage.
- The newsroom you’ve already seen, Aquaman 2, Bosch, Inventing Anna, The Mummy and Greenland all shot news scenes on our broadcast sets.
Shot with Unreal Engine here
Want the detail on how specific productions used the stage? Each of these was shot with Unreal Engine on our floor, and each has its own write-up:
- Mr. Spaceship, a feature-length sci-fi drama by Vista Grande Films, captured almost entirely in camera on the Albuquerque stage: deep space, the lunar surface and the interior of a living warship, all on one floor.
- Hart to Heart. Kevin Hart’s NBC/Peacock talk show on the Burbank stage, set in a grand winery environment. Watch the clip.
- Aquaman 2. The news and press scenes only, shot on our Burbank news set. The film shot mostly in the UK; our write-up sorts out which is which.
- Diarra From Detroit, the cast-reunion aftershow only, taped on a virtual talk-show set in Burbank. The series itself shot elsewhere; the reunion was ours.
- T-Mobile. A spot that became one of the most-viewed commercials of 2021, shot on our stage.
How a shoot day runs
You arrive to a working stage, not an empty room. The environment your production chose is loaded and lit; Mo-Sys camera tracking and Ultimatte live compositing are calibrated; and the virtual system operator is already driving the world in real time. If you have added the crew package, it is on the floor too, three camera operators (one on the jib) and a teleprompter operator. You block, you light to what’s actually on the monitor, and you shoot. Change locations between setups in minutes, a CEO office at 9 AM, a beach at 11, a newsroom after lunch, and wrap with final pixels, not a VFX punch list.
For agencies and brands
Commercial teams use the stage the same way: a TV commercial production pipeline built on virtual production, where one day covers what a multi-location spot schedule used to. T-Mobile shot one of the most-viewed commercials of 2021 here; Amazon, 7-Eleven, Domino’s, Sonic and NBA 2K spots followed. Your agency keeps the client and the creative. We supply the stage, the worlds, and an optional crew package.
Pioneered in 2007, now patented
We’ve been doing this for longer than most virtual production companies have existed. Both patents are U.S.-issued, the workflow is mature, and the crews on the floor have been running real productions on this pipeline for over a decade and a half.
Two stages. One workflow.
Pick the location that works for your production: Burbank for the L.A. crew base, Albuquerque for the New Mexico tax credit. The pipeline is identical, so the same shoot can split between stages without losing continuity.
New to the format? Start with our producer’s guide to what a virtual production company actually does. And how to choose a stage partner. Shooting in the L.A. market specifically? See virtual production in Los Angeles.
Sample gallery
Unreal Engine sets, composited live on our floor.
A look at Unreal Engine virtual production shot at L.A. & ABQ Castle Studios.
Click any image for a closer look.
Selected credits
- Aquaman 2
- Bosch
- Inventing Anna
- The Mummy
- Greenland
- Celebrity Crime Scene Marilyn Monroe, FOX & TMZ
- Hart to Heart Kevin Hart, Peacock
- Discontinued host segments, Bruce Campbell
- Abstraction Released feature, 2025
Questions
Unreal Engine virtual production, in plain answers.
- What is Unreal Engine virtual production?
- It's filmmaking where the set is a real-time 3D environment rendered by Unreal Engine and composited live behind your talent. So the final look is in the camera and the monitor on set, not added in post. The world reacts to your camera move in real time, lit to match, with physical props and actors in the foreground.
- How is your Unreal Engine stage different?
- We pioneered real-time virtual production in 2007 and hold a U.S. patent on the method. Our stages are multi-camera native, capture several angles at once, with hundreds of pre-built environments ready to load, an in-house virtual system operator included, and the same pipeline running in Burbank and Albuquerque.
- Where are your Unreal Engine studios located?
- Two turnkey stages: Burbank, California, in the heart of LA's media district, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, which qualifies for the state's 30% refundable film tax credit. The pipeline is identical, so a production can split between them without losing continuity.
- Are you a virtual production company?
- We're a virtual production studio and stage partner. The company productions, agencies and networks book to shoot their virtual production on. We provide the real-time Unreal Engine stage, 250+ ready-to-load environments, and the virtual system operator who runs it, with additional crew available as an optional package; you keep your production and your client. If you're looking for a virtual production company or virtual production services in Los Angeles or Albuquerque, that's exactly what we do, as your stage partner, not a competitor for your project.
- Is L.A. Castle Studios an Unreal Engine filming studio?
- Yes. Both of our stages, Burbank, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico, are Unreal Engine filming studios: green-screen stages where photoreal Unreal Engine environments are rendered in real time and composited live in camera through Ultimatte, so the finished shot is on the monitor while you roll. The Burbank stage is one of the largest virtual production stages in the world, both stages run true multi-camera, hundreds of environments are ready to load, and the virtual system operator who drives the world is always included in the rate. Camera and teleprompter operators are available as an optional crew package.
- What is an Unreal Engine stage?
- An Unreal Engine stage is a soundstage built for shooting inside real-time 3D environments: tracked cameras, Unreal Engine rendering the world from each camera's perspective, and a way to put the actors and the environment into one frame. There are two ways to do that last part. An LED wall that displays the environment behind the talent, or a green screen with a live compositor that keys the environment in. Our stages are the second kind: green screen, Unreal Engine and Ultimatte, with the final image captured in camera, and the same pipeline running in Burbank and Albuquerque.
- Do you use an LED wall with Unreal Engine?
- No. There is no LED wall or LED volume at either stage. We render the Unreal Engine environment in real time and composite it live in camera on a green-screen stage: virtual production beyond LED walls. It's a deliberate choice: no fixed wall size bounding the frame, no moiré from photographing panels, environments that swap in seconds instead of needing new wall content, and a correct perspective on every camera, which is what makes true multi-camera work. LED volumes are a legitimate way to do virtual production; ours is a different one. We pioneered the real-time method in 2007, it's now patented, and it delivers the same in-camera result without the wall.
More on Unreal Engine production here
- Virtual production technology How tracking, Unreal Engine and live compositing fit together
- CastleVision The patented method behind the live composite
- CastleVision 3D Real places captured as photoreal 3D sets
- LED volume vs green screen How the two approaches compare
- Virtual studio rental for film and TV Features and series in Unreal Engine sets
- Virtual production in Los Angeles What it is and how a shoot runs
- Sci-fi and spaceship sets Ships, stations and planets, built and waiting
- Commercial studio rental Spots shot in Unreal Engine sets
- Video gallery Finished shots from both studios
- The Burbank studio Burbank, the Media Capital of the World, minutes from the major lots
- The Albuquerque studio Feature films and New Mexico’s 30% refundable credit
- The set library Every set, searchable by room and theme
- Rates and what drives the cost How a production is priced
- Tour the facility What is on site at each studio
- Credits Features, series and shows finished here
Tours run by appointment at both studios. Bring the script or the rundown and we will price the shoot against it.
