MOOV – The Daily Drop

MOOV – Gossip at a new level in I’m a Celebrity… The Daily Drop

The Daily Drop is the I’m a Celebrity after show where the host Vick Hope and guests chat about the day’s events and gossip. UK leading production company MOOV created a new experience for the famous after show including virtual technology and AR.

I’m A Celebrity… The Daily Drop was a 30 minute show recorded each evening as live and then made available on the ITV Hub for fans to watch from 6am the following morning. The show was set to bring the latest gossip and exclusive content direct from the I’m a Celebrity show which took place at Gwrych Castle in Wales.

Presenter Vick Hope conducted each episode where a panel of ex-campmates and superfans debated and dissected the daily action from the camp. The main show was built within the ruins of Gwrych Castle and so the studio version in London needed to look and feel like the rest of the show.

In addition to overcoming the limitations as a result of the COVID-19, for many reasons like flexibility and cost savings the decision was made to make the studio virtual. When looking for a reliable production company capable of ensuring the quality of the content while being innovative enough to impress the audience, ITV chose MOOV.

Established in 2000, MOOV is a leading sport & events graphics company, offering an array of services and high-quality allround graphics to UK and international broadcasters. MOOV faced different challenges when producing The Daily Drop, starting with the re-creation of the main set in the castle, and continuing with the insertion of different virtual and AR content while ensuring guests were following all healthcare measures and regulations.

The studio included clips, stories and live interviews so the design needed take these into consideration. In addition, MOOV had to ensure all guests were at least 2 metres apart so they designed a large wooden floor arc to allow for this. Everything else was completely virtual, including the carpet. To cope with the requirements, MOOV suggested a fully PTZ solution based on Unreal Engine rendering and driven by Brainstorm’s InfinitySet.

‘We used Ultimatte for keying, with all the compositing in InfinitySet and in addition brought in pictures from Panasonic PTZ cameras with tracking data. Producing 18 x 30 minute episodes without a glitch was more than we could have hoped for, so I thank all the partners and team at MOOV for all their hard work in making this show a success.’ said Nev Appleton, Director and Co-founder of MOOV.

In addition to hosting the guests and presenter, the studio also needed to have the ability to display all the contestants and so the solution was to place them in context with the scenery. Their pictures were hung from the roof on medieval banners, and as people were evicted from the show, their image would become faded on the cloth.

On top of that, the centre of the floor was designed to add AR cutouts for talking points, and it also included any stats about upcoming challenges to further illustrate the evolution of the show. All the design was created and approved remotely ahead of the event. For the technical install, everything was done on-site with a very small crew, 3 people to be precise (Camera Op, VR Op & Keying / Engineer).

I’m a Celebrity… The Daily Drop resulted in an extremely well received show, both by the client and the audience, who not only followed the show live but intensively shared on social media.

To know more about this project, please download the Case Study.