Towards the Engine Cinema: The Virtual Production in Chinese Film Industries

Virtual production technology has become a hot topic in the production of Chinese blockbusters in recent years. Virtual production was usually conflated with virtual cinematography and the virtual production LED wall. However, in The Wandering Earth 2 (2023), the integration of previsualisation and digital assets, and virtual characters revealed that the virtual production emphasised a complete multitask workflow blending the virtual environment and physical shooting. This research traces the history of virtual production in the Chinese film and television industries from the use of the on-set virtual camera to the current integration of artificial intelligence (AI)–generated content from the Deleuzian and Guattarian theoretical perspectives of assemblage and becoming. On the one hand, we argue that the development of virtual production reveals an engine cinema that uses previsualisation and digital assets as foundational tools. We suggest that this engine cinema leads filmmaking to a fully digital production environment and AI-engined movie. On the other hand, this notion of engine cinema requires a contextual understanding that Chinese film industries rely on virtual production to produce Chinese blockbusters and to play an important role in global filmmaking.