#80 David Stapp: This Battlefield Cinematic Proves Unreal Engine Is the #1 Filmmaking Tool

In this episode we sit down with David Stapp, Cinematics Director at Form Studios and host of Virtual Production Insider, to break down his career journey and the creation of his latest Unreal Engine cinematic inspired by the Battlefield universe.

With over a decade of experience across film, VFX, post-production, cinematography, and virtual production, David shares how his background in traditional filmmaking directly informs his work creating real-time cinematics for video games.

We dive deep into the making of “Conquest,” a Battlefield-inspired Unreal Engine fan film developed as a full R&D project for Form Studios. The goal? To test and refine an end-to-end game cinematics pipeline that Form can now offer as a service.

What we cover in this episode:

✅ David Stapp’s career path from film to game cinematics

✅ Unreal Engine workflows for real-time cinematics

✅ Building a Battlefield fan film that stays true to the source material

✅ Using motion capture for realism in game cinematics

✅ Traditional vs markerless mocap solutions

✅ Virtual production pipelines

✅ How R&D projects help studios expand creative services