Production Design in the Age of VP & UE5 - Early World-Building?

Hey everyone,

I'm Mei-Lin, a Production Coordinator currently on an independent sci-fi feature. We're leaning heavily into virtual production for a significant chunk of our sets, and it's brought up some interesting questions about departmental roles.

Specifically, I'm trying to understand how the Production Designer's workflow, especially in the initial world-building phase, has evolved with tools like Unreal Engine 5. Historically, rough sketches, mood boards, and maybe some basic 3D models were the go-to. But now, with the ability to build and visualize environments in real-time almost immediately, it feels like that early stage could be much more collaborative and iterative.

Our current PD is still very much in the traditional camp with their initial concepts, and I'm wondering if we're missing an opportunity to leverage VP's capabilities earlier on to refine the vision and solve problems before we even hit pre-viz. I've tried suggesting some basic UE5 blockouts to them, but I'm not sure I'm framing the benefit correctly.

For those of you who have worked on VP projects, how has the Production Designer's role changed in the very early stages of conceptualizing and building the world for a film?