The Johannesburg filmmakers behind Shadow, In Your Dreams and The Nowhere Man have opened a virtual production studio built around an increasingly important idea: advanced technology means more when the people operating it also know how to tell the story.
Virtual production is becoming part of South Africa’s screen infrastructure, but access to an LED wall alone does not guarantee a better production. Motion Story’s new Johannesburg studio matters because it places virtual-production technology inside a wider filmmaking workflow — development, directing, production, post and delivery — while adding another serious facility to an emerging local ecosystem. The bigger opportunity is not simply making locations virtual. It is giving African productions more ways to control cost, time, safety and creative ambition without separating technology from storytelling.
Virtual production is often sold through spectacle.
The hardware will keep changing. The harder thing to build is an ecosystem around it.
LED walls. Photorealistic digital worlds. Cameras moving through environments that do not physically exist. A desert, city street or night-time highway summoned inside a studio rather than reached after hours of travel.
But for Johannesburg production company Motion Story, the more interesting question is what happens after the technology stops being the headline.
Its answer is the newly opened Motion Story Studio in Randburg: a virtual production facility designed not simply as a stage for hire, but as an extension of the filmmaking process itself.
The company operates a 350-square-metre virtual production studio at Urban Brew Studios, centred on a 64-square-metre LED Volume with a 1.9mm pixel pitch. Motion Story positions the facility as a production hub for filmmakers, broadcasters, agencies, brands and corporate clients, with services extending from story development and pre-production through filming, post-production and delivery.
That distinction matters because South Africa is not starting from zero.
Virtual-production capability already exists across the local industry. Cape Town’s Filmscape operates an LED stage for virtual production and mixed reality, while Johannesburg-based The Continuum works across Unreal Engine environments, camera tracking and LED-volume productions. Other facilities and production specialists are similarly building their own approaches to real-time filmmaking.
Motion Story’s proposition, then, is not that it has discovered virtual production. It is that the people behind the technology should be filmmakers too.
The Studio Is Only Half the Story
Motion Story arrives at the facility with a body of narrative work already behind it.
Its credits include Shadow, Dead Places, Office Invasion and In Your Dreams, while its six-part action drama The Nowhere Man is currently carried by Starz in the United States. Starz lists Gareth Crocker and Fred Wolmarans as directors of the series, with Crocker also credited as writer.
Prime Video’s In Your Dreams, meanwhile, was produced by Motion Story and directed by Crocker and Wolmarans, becoming Prime Video South Africa’s first local scripted series.
That production history informs what the company believes its studio can offer.
“What makes us different is that you're not simply hiring a virtual production studio — unless that’s your preference, of course,” says Motion Story co-owner and creative head Gareth Crocker. “You're working alongside top filmmakers who have successfully delivered premium productions to some of the world's biggest broadcasters and streaming platforms.”
The point is less about prestige than workflow.
A virtual-production stage can solve one part of a production while leaving everything around it untouched. Motion Story is instead positioning the studio inside a chain that can begin with an idea and continue through scripting, planning, directing, shooting, editing and delivery.
“From A to Z, we know exactly what it takes to put a production together,” Crocker says.
That could make the facility relevant far beyond feature films.
Motion Story says the studio has been designed for television, commercials, music videos, micro-dramas, podcasts, product launches, corporate presentations, livestreams and virtual events, as well as individual sequences that would otherwise be expensive or complicated to execute practically.
A driving scene is an obvious example.
Instead of closing roads, coordinating moving vehicles, mounting cameras and repeatedly resetting a physical route, a stationary vehicle can be placed in front of a virtual environment while camera tracking and real-time rendering maintain the illusion of movement.
This is where virtual production becomes less about futuristic imagery and more about production economics.
Making Location Optional
Motion Story’s system combines its LED Volume with Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys StarTracker camera-tracking technology, allowing digital environments to respond to the physical camera in real time.
For filmmakers, that creates an unusual kind of control.
Weather becomes programmable. Day and night become adjustable. Backgrounds can change without moving an entire production. A landscape can be redesigned while the crew remains inside the same building.
Virtual production is built around precisely this relationship between LED displays, real-time engines and camera tracking: as the physical camera moves, the digital environment shifts perspective with it, helping create the depth and parallax required for the background to appear physically present.
The consequences are practical as much as visual.
Location travel can be reduced. Weather delays become less relevant. Certain scenes can be completed with smaller physical footprints. Lighting and environments can be repeated with a consistency that is difficult to guarantee outside.
Motion Story also sees safety as part of the argument.
“Over the years, so many production companies have fallen victim to crime while shooting out on location,” say studio heads Fred Wolmarans and Nick Keulemans.
Moving suitable shoots into a controlled studio does not remove every production risk, but it can remove some of the unpredictability associated with difficult locations, overnight schedules and exterior conditions.
It also changes what “location” means in the first place.
“In the virtual world, the difference between night and day is a few mouse clicks away,” Wolmarans and Keulemans explain. “Want the moon bigger? Extra trees on the horizon? Shooting stars? It’s all possible on the Volume.”
That creative flexibility may ultimately be more significant than the ability to recreate any single destination.
The promise of virtual production is not simply that Johannesburg can pretend to be somewhere else. It is that filmmakers can begin constructing environments around the needs of a story instead of continually reshaping the story around what can physically be accessed, afforded or controlled.
A Different Kind of Production Infrastructure
There is a broader question underneath Motion Story Studio’s arrival.
As African film and television projects increasingly compete inside an international streaming and production economy, the industry’s infrastructure has to evolve alongside its creative ambition.
That does not necessarily mean copying the largest international sound stages or chasing technology for its own sake. It means finding workflows that allow local productions to stretch budgets, reduce avoidable complexity and retain more creative control.
South Africa’s emerging virtual-production ecosystem is already exploring different versions of that proposition. The Continuum, for example, explicitly argues that the difficult part of virtual production is not merely supplying the display but integrating the surrounding content, tracking and production skills required to make it work.
Motion Story reaches a similar conclusion from another direction.
Its bet is that filmmakers who have already been responsible for scripts, sets, actors, schedules, broadcasters and final delivery can approach a virtual stage differently from a company whose responsibility begins and ends with the technology.
That is what makes the studio more interesting than its specifications.
A 1.9mm pixel pitch will eventually be surpassed. Rendering technology will improve. LED systems will become larger, cheaper or more sophisticated. The hardware will keep changing.
The harder thing to build is an ecosystem around it.
“In essence, we’ve created a highly imaginative production hub in the heart of Johannesburg where filmmakers, companies and agencies can collaborate with experienced storytellers to produce world-class content without breaking the bank,” says Motion Story Studio CEO Phillip Wolmarans.
For Motion Story, that is the real proposition.
Not a room containing a very advanced screen.
A filmmaking company attempting to make the screen disappear into the process.
Story index Key points, people & topics
Key points & topics
- The Johannesburg filmmakers behind Shadow, In Your Dreams and The Nowhere Man have opened a virtual production studio built around an increasingly important idea: advanced technology means more when the people operating it...
- Motion Story has opened a 350-square-metre virtual production studio in Johannesburg built around a 64-square-metre LED Volume. But its bigger proposition is not the screen itself: it is putting filmmakers with international...
- Motion Story has opened a Johannesburg virtual production studio combining a 64m² LED Volume, Unreal Engine, camera tracking and an experienced filmmaking team.
Frequently asked Answers from the desk
What is Motion Story Studio?
Motion Story Studio is a virtual production facility operated by Johannesburg film and television company Motion Story.
Where is Motion Story Studio?
The studio is located at Urban Brew Studios in Randburg Johannesburg South Africa.
How large is Motion Story Studio?
Motion Story says the overall virtual production facility covers approximately 350 square metres.
How large is the Motion Story LED Volume?
The studio is centred on a 64-square-metre LED Volume.
What is the pixel pitch of Motion Story Studio's LED wall?
Motion Story lists the LED Volume at a 1.9mm pixel pitch.
What virtual-production technology does Motion Story use?
The studio's public launch information identifies Unreal Engine and the Mo-Sys StarTracker camera-tracking system as part of its real-time virtual-production setup.
Who owns Motion Story?
Gareth Crocker is identified as a co-owner and creative head of Motion Story. The company's filmmaking team also includes Fred Wolmarans Nick Keulemans and Phillip Wolmarans in senior creative production and studio roles.
Who runs Motion Story Studio?
Fred Wolmarans and Nick Keulemans are identified as joint heads of the studio while Phillip Wolmarans is Motion Story Studio CEO.
What has Motion Story produced?
Motion Story's credits include Shadow Dead Places Office Invasion In Your Dreams and The Nowhere Man.
Is The Nowhere Man on Starz?
Yes. Starz currently carries the six-part action drama in the United States.
How we reported this Sources, verification & accountability
- Reporting type
- News
- Verification
- Official source
- Reporter / responsible desk
- Viranova Entertainment Desk
- Primary evidence
- Based primarily on Motion Story Studio launch material supplied around the opening of the company’s new Johannesburg virtual-production facility, including the studio specifications, technology stack, production applications, leadership comments and Motion Story’s positioning of the facility as an end-to-end filmmaking hub. The launch information was independently cross-checked against Motion Story’s official company website, current industry coverage of the studio opening, Starz’s official listing for The Nowhere Man, reporting and official promotional material for Prime Video’s In Your Dreams, and the public virtual-production offerings of Filmscape and The Continuum. Motion Story’s official site currently confirms a 350-square-metre facility at Urban Brew Studios with a 64-square-metre LED Volume and 1.9mm pixel pitch, alongside development, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution services.
- Additional verification
- Motion Story’s official website confirms that the company operates a 350-square-metre virtual production studio at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg, centred on a 64-square-metre LED Volume with a 1.9mm pixel pitch. It also lists services across development, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. Launch coverage confirms the facility’s use of Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys StarTracker, identifies Gareth Crocker as Motion Story’s co-owner and creative head, Fred Wolmarans and Nick Keulemans as joint heads of the studio, and Phillip Wolmarans as Motion Story Studio CEO. It also confirms the intended applications across film, television, commercials, music videos, micro-dramas, podcasts, launches, presentations, livestreams and virtual events. Starz currently carries all six episodes of The Nowhere Man in the United States and credits Gareth Crocker and Fred Wolmarans as directors, with Crocker as writer. Prime Video’s official South African trailer described In Your Dreams as its first South African Amazon Original fictional series. Contemporary South African reporting likewise identified the Motion Story production as Amazon Studios’ first South African scripted series. The wider South African virtual-production context is established independently. Filmscape currently lists substantial curved and flat LED stages in Cape Town together with Unreal render infrastructure and Mo-Sys StarTracker, while The Continuum now operates as a stage-agnostic virtual-production specialist focused on Unreal Engine world-building, tracking, VAD and real-time production workflows.
- Image
- Motion Story · Supplied by Gareth Crocker
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Filed by Viranova Entertainment Desk for the Entertainment desk · Johannesburg, South Africa. Published 11 Sept 2026.
Sources
Primary material
Viranova obtained, attended or witnessed this directly.
- Motion Story has opened a virtual production facility in Randburg Johannesburg centred on a 64 square metre LED Volume with a 1.9mm pixel pitch Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- Motion Story positions the studio as an end-to-end production hub covering development pre-production directing filming virtual production post-production and delivery Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- Gareth Crocker says Motion Story's differentiation is that clients can work with filmmakers who have already delivered productions for major international broadcasters and streaming platforms Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- Motion Story Studio supports feature films television commercials music videos micro-dramas podcasts product launches corporate presentations virtual events livestreams and individual virtual-production sequences Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- The studio uses Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys StarTracker as part of its real-time virtual-production workflow Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- Fred Wolmarans and Nick Keulemans identify production safety reduced dependence on exterior conditions and customisable digital environments among the motivations for the studio Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
- Phillip Wolmarans describes the facility as a Johannesburg production hub where clients can collaborate with experienced storytellers rather than simply rent virtual-production technology Motion Story Studio launch material supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 11 September 2026
Secondary material
Reported first by another publication or organisation, and credited here.
- Motion Story’s official website confirms the 350-square-metre Urban Brew Studios facility, 64-square-metre LED Volume, 1.9mm pixel pitch and end-to-end production services Motion Story
- Independent launch coverage confirms Unreal Engine, Mo-Sys StarTracker, the studio leadership structure and the range of intended production applications LBBOnline / Media Update
- Starz lists The Nowhere Man as a six-episode action drama directed by Gareth Crocker and Fred Wolmarans and written by Crocker Starz
- Prime Video identified In Your Dreams as its first South African Amazon Original fictional series Prime Video ZA
- Contemporary reporting identifies In Your Dreams as Amazon Studios’ first South African scripted series and confirms Motion Story as producer News24 / TVSA
- Filmscape operates LED virtual-production facilities in Cape Town and currently lists curved and flat LED stages with Unreal and Mo-Sys infrastructure Filmscape
- The Continuum operates a stage-agnostic virtual-production model focused on Unreal Engine world-building camera tracking VAD and real-time LED or chroma workflows The Continuum
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