Brompton Technology Underpins Controlled Virtual Production

Brompton Technology's LED processing platform formed the backbone of the virtual production workflow for Believe Me, ITV's four-part true-crime drama from Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios.

Written by BAFTA and RTS winner Jeff Pope and directed by Julia Ford, the series stars Aimée-Ffion Edwards, Miriam Petche and Aasiya Shah, with Daniel Mays as John Worboys.

With much of the narrative set inside a black cab driving through London at night, virtual production specialist fivefold studios devised a tightly controlled LED workflow to meet stringent creative, technical and performance needs. A 30m-wide by 4m-high ROE Visual BP2V2 wall was powered by four Brompton 4K Tessera SX40 processors.

The team said traditional low-loader filming would have meant extensive night shoots on London streets and could have taken between three and five times longer. “The controlled environment also helped protect the performances from the practical pressures of shooting such disturbing material at night on the streets of London,” said Tom Murphy, Head of Production at fivefold studios. “Many of the key dramatic beats depended on traffic lights changing and the cab following specific routes. Being able to programme those events, trigger them on cue and repeat them accurately allowed us to remain faithful to the script in a way that would have been extremely difficult on a low-loader.”

fivefold engaged early, with initial conversations beginning in early 2025. Three months before principal photography, the company collaborated with department heads at its R&D Hub to test and validate the colour and image pipeline. The facility mirrors the complete workflow at smaller scale, enabling technical issues to be resolved and creative options trialled before stepping onto the full-size stage.

A central objective was to deliver a dependable 10-bit image pipeline with accurate references for the displayed image and its colour transforms. Using the same Brompton workflow in R&D and on set allowed fivefold to refine the setup in advance, providing a stable and predictable starting point for the shoot. “Brompton was central to giving us confidence in the image pipeline for Believe Me”, continues Murphy. “Having access to the same Brompton workflow in our R&D Lab meant we could test, refine and validate colour, image transforms and display accuracy before anyone arrived on set. That level of control made a real difference to the production, giving the team a reliable reference for the displayed image and creating a far more predictable virtual production workflow.”

fivefold has relied on Brompton processing for most of its projects, and several team members have worked with the technology since 2020. Familiar workflows, consistent processing and direct support from Brompton helped reassure executives and crew who were new to virtual production.

Working hand in hand with cinematographer Bryan Gavigan, the gaffer and the DIT, fivefold matched LED imagery to physical lighting and camera requirements. "Our main job was to ensure that the background never took the audience out of the moment or the performance," Murphy noted. "That meant getting the brightness, contrast, colour, perspective and scale right, while maintaining a detailed record of every setup so that the production always had a faithful reference."

Lighting fixtures were driven from video playback, so synchronised effects could be mapped to precise areas of content and reproduced consistently across takes. Detailed records were kept for every setup, scene and take to provide a robust reference if material needed to be revisited.

An iPad-based interface enabled the virtual production supervisor to stand alongside Ford, trigger events, reset sequences and reproduce cues swiftly. For performers, the real-time environment offered natural movement and lighting to react to, reducing the need for extra direction and keeping performances in sync with the world outside the cab.

The controlled approach also broadened what was achievable beyond the taxi scenes. An opening shot of a bus crossing a bridge past the London Eye was added because virtual production made it feasible with far less practical risk.

Believe Me resonated strongly with viewers after its May 2026 premiere, becoming ITVX’s most-watched drama of the month and generating 16 million streams, underscoring how a carefully managed technical pipeline can support an ambitious final result.

Image credit: fivefold studios

www.bromptontech.com