A fierce debate over the state of Kenyan cinema recently erupted online, as audiences took to social media to call out repetitive storylines, recycled casts, and substandard production values.

Some argued that Kenya has the talent but lacks the money, equipment and infrastructure needed to turn good ideas into productions that can compete beyond the local market.

It is a debate the industry has had before, but the latest conversation has renewed focus on what can be done to improve the quality of local productions.

Two filmmakers with experience working on some of the world’s biggest productions believe technology could be part of the answer.

James Hakesley and Kenyan-born Roy Kimani, the budding co-founders of CUBE Studios, have worked on more than 150 virtual productions in the UK, Pakistan and the Middle East, with projects involving global names such as FIFA, BBC, Sky, Virgin, Nokia, Bloomberg, PwC and EY.

Now, they want to bring the technology behind some of those productions to Nairobi as part of a solution to the challenges facing Kenya’s film industry.

Virtual production uses large LED screens, cameras, lighting and Unreal Engine, the gaming engine behind Fortnite, to create digital environments in which actors can perform as though they are physically at a location.

A filmmaker shooting scenes set in New York, Kibera and Mombasa, for example, would not necessarily have to fly the cast and crew to all three locations.

Instead, the scenes could be shot from a Nairobi studio, with digital environments recreating each location.

The same technology can be used to create beaches, mountains, foreign cities or even locations beyond Earth.

“The only limiting factor now is your ideas,” Kimani said in an interview.

Kimani argues that virtual production could also help address one of the industry’s biggest challenges, the cost of producing quality content.

“If you have a campaign that’s required to be in Nairobi, in New York, in Australia, all of a sudden now in one studio space, people are travelling less because they’re all there. Immediately, 30 to 40 per cent of your cost of production is cut,” Kimani said.

But beyond cutting costs, the technology could allow filmmakers to think bigger.

“What virtual production gives people is the ability to dream bigger, think more ambitiously with their creative ideas. You’re not limited now by necessarily where you can travel to, where you can afford to travel to by the budgets,” Hakesley said.

A filmmaker who would previously have had to choose between three locations because of the cost could potentially shoot all three in one studio.

The two filmmakers have previously worked on projects involving major music acts and sports personalities, including Stormzy and Anthony Joshua. Their work has taken them from advertising and corporate productions into film, television and music.

Now, they want to bring that experience home.

Kimani says one thing that struck him while working with Kenyan content creators was how little separated their abilities from those of creators in more established markets.

“I have met…content creators who have the same skill set as people who are considered abroad, famous and well-known and reputable because of their skills. The only difference is that guy is in Kenya and that guy is in another place. Give the Kenyan creator the same tools and the equation changes,” he said.

With a growing number of independent creators, the filmmakers insist the technology should not be reserved for big production houses.

Kimani says they want smaller creators to be able to use it for everything from short social media videos and music videos to feature films.

They also want to work with universities and colleges to train students in the technology, creating a pool of local talent that does not have to travel abroad to learn how modern virtual production works.