Question 1

What is a driving plate in film production?

Accepted Answer

A driving plate is footage of a moving environment — a street, a motorway, a stretch of coast — filmed from a vehicle and played back behind a stationary car on set, so the actors read as driving while the car itself never moves. IgelkottPlates supplies 360° plates: on the published spec blocks the projection is equirectangular 360° × 180° with a usable field of view of 360° × 125° vertically, and that figure is stated per plate on each product page rather than as a single house standard. Material with that geometry wraps the car rather than sitting only behind it.

Question 2

What does "360 degrees" mean for a driving plate — is it a video that wraps all the way around the car?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A 360 plate is one continuous video covering the full horizontal circle around the camera, so every window — windscreen, both sides, rear — shows the correct part of the same drive at the same moment. On IgelkottPlates the projection is stated per plate; both published example specs, one 8K and one 16K, list equirectangular 360° × 180° with a usable field of view of 360° × 125° vertically, so the band from road to sky is covered rather than the exact zenith and nadir.

Question 3

Do I need an LED wall to use a driving plate, or can it be used some other way?

Accepted Answer

No. What you licence is a video file, not a hardware-bound format. Specs are stated per plate; the two published examples are both equirectangular 360° × 180° ProRes 422 HQ. An LED volume is one way to play that back — the same file can also sit behind a car as a background element in post. Every plate carries a free sample variant at 0 SEK, so you can put it through whichever setup you have before paying anything.

Question 4

What do you actually get when you buy a plate — what is in the file, what format is it, and how big is it?

Accepted Answer

A video file of the view all the way around a moving vehicle, stored as an equirectangular 360° × 180° image so it can be mapped onto an LED volume. Specs are listed per plate rather than fixed across the catalogue, so read the spec block on the product page. In the two published IgelkottPlates examples the file format is ProRes 422 HQ, with 7680 × 3840 on the 8K plate and 15360 × 7680 on the 16K one. The files are large: 60.04 GB for that 8K Stockholm plate and 94.89 GB for the 16K Hollywood plate.

Question 5

Are all your plates shot to the same technical spec, or does it change from plate to plate?

Accepted Answer

It changes, and the product page is the authority. Every plate carries its own spec block — projection, usable field of view, resolution, frame rate, file format, gamma encoding, shutter angle, duration, file size, vehicle and year — and the values differ between plates. Two published examples show how far: a 16K Hollywood plate is 15360 × 7680 at 24 fps with ACEScct (AP1) gamma encoding, while an 8K Stockholm plate is 7680 × 3840 at 25 fps with HLG (Rec.2020). Both of those are ProRes 422 HQ, equirectangular 360° × 180°, 180° shutter. Read the block on the plate you intend to buy rather than assuming a house standard.

Question 6

What's the difference between the 8K and the 16K version, and how do I know which one I need?

Accepted Answer

Resolution, and the price that goes with it. The catalogue splits into 349 plates sold as 8K360 at 25,000 SEK and 142 sold as 16K360 at 37,500 SEK — 491 in total, so a given plate is listed in one of the two, not both. The published examples give 7680 × 3840 for an 8K plate and 15360 × 7680 for a 16K one, but read the Resolution field on the plate in front of you rather than assuming; specs are stated per plate. Both examples are equirectangular 360° × 180°, so those pixels are spread around the full sphere and the number is not comparable with a flat 8K image. Every plate carries a free sample variant at 0 SEK, so you can put the actual material on your own wall before paying anything.

Question 7

What resolution do I need for a 360 driving plate on an LED volume — is 8K enough, or do I have to spec 16K?

Accepted Answer

The published specs for both list equirectangular 360° × 180°, so the difference is angular resolution: 8K is 7680 × 3840 across the full sphere, roughly 21 pixels per degree horizontally; 16K is 15360 × 7680, roughly 43. Whether that is enough depends on how much of your wall a single window subtends and how close the camera sits. Side-on is where it shows, because a window crops a narrow slice out of the full circle and that slice is then blown up. IgelkottPlates lists 349 plates at 8K and 142 at 16K, each with a free sample variant — put the actual file on your own wall and judge it there.

Question 8

Are these stitched from multiple cameras? I don't want to be painting out a seam directly behind the actor's head.

Accepted Answer

No. These are shot on a single lens and are stitching-free up to 16K, so there is no seam to track or paint out — behind an actor's head or anywhere else. What one lens gives you goes further than the missing seam. The image is taken from one point in space, at a height published on every product page, so near objects like pillars, signs and passing cars stay single and solid rather than having to be reconciled between views. One sensor means one exposure, one white balance and one colour response across the whole sphere and for the whole take, so a grade applied to one part of it holds for the rest, and the plate works as a single source for reflections and image-based lighting rather than only as something to look at. One lens also means one lens flare, moving coherently as the vehicle turns. Geometry is stated per plate; on the published spec blocks it is equirectangular 360° × 180° with a usable 360° × 125° vertically. Every plate has a free sample variant at 0 SEK, so you can look at the image yourself before committing.

Question 9

What height is the camera, and will the background sit at my actor's eyeline?

Accepted Answer

Camera height is published on every product page as Point of View Height. Car plates are shot at 130 cm from the ground — about 4 ft 3 in — which is a seated driver's eyeline, so the world outside the windows reads at the height it should rather than looking high or low. That figure is constant across the car catalogue, which means two different car plates cut together in the same scene without the horizon jumping between shots. Other vehicles are filmed from the height the vehicle gives, and each is constant within its own collection: boat plates at 200 cm (6 ft 7 in), train plates at 220 cm (7 ft 3 in) and bus plates at 310 cm (10 ft 2 in). Read the field on the plate you intend to use.

Question 10

Is there vibration or camera shake in the plates?

Accepted Answer

The plates are shot on a gyro-stabilized rig, and the motion is recorded by one sensor with one rolling shutter behaviour, so the movement reads as a single continuous motion in every direction. That matters more on 360 material than on a flat plate: an equirectangular image cannot be meaningfully stabilized after the fact, because any correction rotates the whole sphere and takes the horizon and every window with it. The steadiness has to be there at capture or it is not there at all. Take the free sample variant at 0 SEK of the plate you intend to use and look at it on your own wall — that settles it faster than a spec line does.

Question 11

How long is a single plate, and how big is the file?

Accepted Answer

Both are stated per plate on the product page rather than fixed across the catalogue. The two published examples: a 16K Hollywood plate runs 3 min 07 s at 94.89 GB, and an 8K Stockholm plate runs 2 min 53 s at 60.04 GB. Both are ProRes 422 HQ, equirectangular 360° × 180°. Those are two data points, not a catalogue norm — read the exact duration and file size off the page for the plate you want.

Question 12

How long is one driving plate — will it cover a whole dialogue scene in the car?

Accepted Answer

Long enough for most car dialogue, and the exact figure is printed on every product page. Measured across the 437 plates published as of August 2026 — the 33 added since are not yet in these figures — the median run time is 4 min 05 s; the shortest is 1 min 18 s and the longest 19 min 04 s. 430 of those 437 run at least two minutes and 395 run at least three. Narrowed to the 391 car plates, which is the relevant set for a scene in a car, the median is 4 min 01 s, 349 of them run three minutes or more, and the longest is 8 min 50 s. The train plates are the long ones: all 17 exceed eight minutes, median 10 min 50 s. Every spec block also states Looping: continuous (non-looping), so if your take outruns the plate, plan on cutting to a second plate rather than looping the first.

Question 13

What frame rate are the plates? We're shooting 24 fps and I don't want cadence problems in the background.

Accepted Answer

Frame rate is stated per plate and is not uniform across the catalogue. Of the two published examples, the 16K Hollywood plate is 24 fps and the 8K Stockholm plate is 25 fps, both at a 180° shutter angle. If you are shooting 24, read the Framerate field on the specific plate before you buy: a 25 fps plate behind a 24 fps camera has to be retimed or conformed, and that is work to budget for rather than something that settles itself on the wall. Every plate has a free sample variant at 0 SEK, so you can run the actual cadence through your own chain first.

Question 14

What colour space and gamma do the files come in, and will they drop into an ACES pipeline without me fighting them?

Accepted Answer

Gamma encoding is one of the listed spec fields and it varies between plates. The published 16K Hollywood example is ACEScct (AP1); the published 8K Stockholm example is HLG (Rec.2020). One of those sits in an ACES pipeline directly and the other needs an input transform, so the answer depends on the plate — read the Gamma Encoding field on the product page. Both published examples are ProRes 422 HQ. Pull the free sample of the exact plate and put it through your own colour chain before you commit; that settles it faster than a spec sheet does.

Question 15

Is there motion blur baked into the plate, and will it match my shutter?

Accepted Answer

Shutter angle is one of the listed specs and is given per plate: both published examples are 180°, one at 24 fps and one at 25 fps, so roughly 1/48 and 1/50 second of exposure behind the blur. Match your camera's shutter angle and frame rate to the plate's and the two agree; open or close the shutter away from that and the difference shows up between background and foreground. Check both fields on the specific plate — frame rate is not uniform across the catalogue.

Question 16

The spec says equirectangular 360° × 180° but usable FOV 360° × 125° — what does that actually mean if my volume has a ceiling?

Accepted Answer

The container is a full equirectangular 360° × 180° frame, but only 360° × 125° of it is listed as usable image — that is what both published examples state, and like the other specs it is given per plate. So roughly 55° of vertical coverage sits outside the usable band; the spec does not say how that is distributed between zenith and nadir, which is exactly what matters with a ceiling in the volume. Load the free sample variant and check the mapping against your own ceiling geometry before licensing, then either keep the ceiling panels inside the usable band or drive them from something other than plate pixels.

Question 17

How much of the sky do I actually get? If we shoot through a sunroof, is the top of frame there?

Accepted Answer

Not the whole sphere. Both published spec examples list an equirectangular 360° × 180° projection with a usable field of 360° × 125°, so roughly 55° of the vertical sphere falls outside the usable area — and since specs are stated per plate, check the page for the plate you are buying. Whether that costs you the top of frame through a sunroof depends on how far you tilt up and how the plate is oriented on your wall. Pull the free sample, put it up, and frame the sunroof shot before you buy.

Question 18

How do I get one of these into Unreal / nDisplay or disguise for playback — will a ProRes file that size even run in real time?

Accepted Answer

Plan on conforming the file rather than playing the master back directly. The published file format on both examples is ProRes 422 HQ: the 16K Hollywood plate is 15360 × 7680, 94.89 GB for 3 min 07 s; the 8K Stockholm one 7680 × 3840, 60.04 GB for 2 min 53 s. Budget for a transcode to whatever codec your playback chain ingests. Specs are listed per plate, so check the frame rate on the one you are using before building the timeline — it is not uniform: 24 fps on that 16K example, 25 fps on the 8K.

Question 19

How do I match the light in the plate to my studio lighting so the actors don't look pasted in?

Accepted Answer

Matching happens on your side of the wall, but the catalogue tells you more than the spec block alone. Weather is tagged on 488 of the 491 plates — 285 Clear, 135 Partly Cloudy, 64 Overcast and 4 Fog — so you know before you open a frame whether the key is a hard sun or a soft dome. Three London night plates carry no weather tag. Season is tagged on all 491. Time of day is tagged too, and a plate can carry more than one such tag: 299 Day, 206 Afternoon, 79 Night, 51 Morning, 32 Evening, 25 Sunset, 17 Dawn, 6 Twilight, 4 Dusk and 3 Sunrise. Gamma encoding is listed per plate, so you know what your grade starts from. Because each plate is shot on one lens, exposure, white balance and colour response stay constant across the whole sphere and the whole take, so a match set once holds. Sun azimuth and elevation are not published. Take the free 0 SEK sample and light a stand-in against it.

Question 20

Which cities and locations can I actually get 360 driving plates for?

Accepted Answer

Sixteen distinct locations in five countries, across 491 plates. By plate count: Stockholm 80, Washington D.C. 79, Uppsala 55, New York 45, Los Angeles 58 including the Hollywood, Downtown and Angeles Foothills route, Big Sur 21 along the Pacific Highway, San Francisco 16, London 22, Upplands-Bro 22, Copenhagen 16 with that run also passing through Lund and Malmö, Dalarna 15, Märsta 14, Lennartsnäs 13, Grövelsjön 8, Stavanger 7 and Idre 2. By country: Sweden 209, United States 219, United Kingdom 22, Denmark 16, Norway 7. Eighteen further plates carry no location tag, 17 of them the train series. Eight of these places have a collection page of their own: Stockholm, Washington D.C., Uppsala, New York, Los Angeles, London, Copenhagen and Dalarna. The other eight do not, so reach those plates through the full catalogue rather than the collection index.

Question 21

Do you have plates for the city, time of day and type of vehicle I need, or only a handful of locations?

Accepted Answer

Vehicle first. Of 491 plates, 445 are car, 17 train, 14 boat and 14 bus; one carries no vehicle tag. Bus exists only in Märsta, boat only in Upplands-Bro, and train only as a single series. Time of day is tagged on every plate: 299 Day, 206 Afternoon, 79 Night, 51 Morning, 32 Evening, 25 Sunset, 17 Dawn, 6 Twilight, 4 Dusk and 3 Sunrise. Only five locations offer both full day and full night: Washington D.C. 53 against 26, Los Angeles 30 against 11, Stockholm 30 against 15, New York 24 against 14, and London 7 against 13. Two more have low light without full night — Grövelsjön with 3 dusk plates and Dalarna with one sunset and one twilight — and everywhere else is daylight only. Resolution narrows it again: all 142 16K plates come from London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Big Sur, Upplands-Bro or the train series.

Question 22

You do not have the road we need. Can you shoot a custom plate for us, and what would that involve?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Custom shoots are run by the parent company, Igelkott Studios, which captures 360° driving plates on assignment and also takes full virtual-production engagements: LED-wall stages, pre-vis and on-set supervision. Behind that are 56 productions between 2018 and 2025, distributed on Netflix, Amazon, Viaplay, Cmore, SVT, TV4, NRK and theatrically. Commissioned shoots start at 125,000 SEK within the EU and 250,000 SEK outside it, and as a planning figure a shooting day yields about three minutes of finished plate. A commissioned plate is shot on the same rig as the catalogue: one lens, stitching-free up to 16K, gyro-stabilized, equirectangular 360° × 180° with a usable 360° × 125°, at a fixed camera height per vehicle — 130 cm car, 200 cm boat, 220 cm train, 310 cm bus. The contracting entity is Igelkott Film AB, org. no. 556998-7794. Brief the route to sales@igelkottplates.com.

Question 23

How much does a 360 driving plate cost?

Accepted Answer

An 8K plate is 25,000 SEK and a 16K plate is 37,500 SEK on IgelkottPlates. Prices are shown in SEK, and VAT varies by country. Every plate also has a free sample variant at 0 SEK, so you can put one on a wall before committing any budget. The catalogue holds 491 plates: 349 at 8K and 142 at 16K.

Question 24

What does it actually cost to license a 360 driving plate, and how does that compare to sending a unit out to shoot our own?

Accepted Answer

25,000 SEK for an 8K360 plate and 37,500 SEK for a 16K360, before VAT, paid in advance — no credit is extended and there is no invoicing on net payment terms. That fee buys a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual licence to use the plate within one named project, with no geographic or time limit, covering all media formats and distribution channels. Named third-party VFX vendors, post-production houses and colourists working on that project can be given the file with no separate sublicence fee, provided they use it only for that project and return or destroy their copies afterwards. For the money, the median 8K plate runs 4 min 13 s at 58.45 GB and the median 16K plate 3 min 19 s at 80.07 GB, finished, stitching-free and gyro-stabilized. What your own second unit, vehicle rig, permits and crew would cost is a figure only you can price; no comparison is published here. Pull the free 0 SEK sample first.

Question 25

Prices seem to be in Swedish kronor — what does that mean for us as a UK production? Is VAT added on top, and can you invoice a company abroad?

Accepted Answer

The store prices in SEK — 25,000 for 8K360 and 37,500 for 16K360 — before VAT. You are invoiced and pay in the currency displayed at checkout, at an exchange rate fixed when the order is placed and not adjusted afterwards. On VAT, the Terms of Use set out three cases. Buyers established outside the EU, which includes the United Kingdom, are charged no Swedish VAT, and you account for any local sales tax, import duty or withholding tax yourself. EU business buyers established outside Sweden, with a VAT identification number validated through VIES, fall under the reverse-charge mechanism in Article 196 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC. Buyers established in Sweden are charged Swedish VAT at checkout. The seller is Igelkott Film AB, VAT identification SE556998779401. Payment is required in advance and there are no net terms, but if you cannot pay by card at checkout a proforma invoice can be raised against a purchase order — ask before you place the order.

Question 26

Who am I actually buying from, and can I speak to someone before I raise a purchase order?

Accepted Answer

Igelkott Film AB, a Swedish company, org. no. 556998-7794, VAT identification SE556998779401. It trades as IgelkottPlates, and Igelkott Studios® is the brand, a Swedish trademark registered under no. 545539 in class 41. Eric Hasso is managing director and the person responsible for the site's content. The parent company, Igelkott Studios, has shot driving plates and 360° backgrounds for 56 productions between 2018 and 2025, distributed on Netflix, Amazon, Viaplay, Cmore, SVT, TV4, NRK and theatrically, and also takes on full virtual-production engagements: LED-wall stages, pre-vis and on-set supervision. The store sells to businesses only, not to consumers. Before you raise the order, note that payment is required in advance: no credit is extended and there is no invoicing on net payment terms. Swedish law governs, with Stockholm tingsrätt as the court of first instance. To speak to someone, call +1 (223) 255-1558 or write to sales@igelkottplates.com.

Question 27

Can I see a plate on my own wall before I commit to buying it?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All 491 plates carry a free Sample variant at 0 SEK; select it on the product page in place of the paid variant and nothing is charged. The sample is ten seconds long, at the plate's full resolution, and watermarked. Ten seconds at full resolution settles the things worth settling before you licence: angular resolution on your own wall at your own viewing distance, the mapping against your ceiling geometry, colour and gamma through your own chain, and how the motion reads. It is a test rather than usable material — the watermark and the length see to that. Beside it, each product page publishes its own spec block: resolution, file format, gamma encoding, frame rate, projection, usable field of view, shutter angle, point of view height, duration, file size, vehicle and year.

Question 28

Are there hidden costs on top of the purchase — do we have to pay someone to stitch, clean up or reformat these before they hit the wall?

Accepted Answer

Stitching is not something you pay for separately: the plates are shot on one lens and are stitching-free up to 16K, and the published specs are finished equirectangular 360° × 180° ProRes 422 HQ files. What does need checking is that specs are stated per plate and differ between them. Gamma encoding is one — a published 16K example is ACEScct (AP1), an 8K example HLG (Rec.2020), so your pipeline may need a transform. Frame rate is another: 24 fps on one example, 25 on the other. Licence terms sit in the site's Terms of Use and are worth reading rather than assuming. Beyond that, take the free sample of the exact plate and run it through your own chain before you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key facts

Driving plates: the basics