Virtual Production in Action: A Creative Implementation of Expanded Cinematography and Narratives

ABSTRACT

Virtual Production fulfills George Lucas's early dream of having an engulfing “space-opera in the sky” (1). Epic Games’ focus on realistic interactive 3D game environments using Unreal Engine, revolutionized the field of film-making, by replacing rear film projections with large format, curved, high resolution, immersive LED video screens, allowing backdrops to adapt in real time to the narrative needs of each scene by tracking the movement of the camera. Cinematographers and Art Directors are adapting to the challenges of virtual and real lighting and props, recruiting animators and new media developers who create, usually in very little time, virtual and real props, and metahuman actors and characters, enhancing the production value, optimizing and reducing costs in unparalleled ways. This poster presents the results of the first Virtual Production class offered by the Film Animation and New Media Department at the University of Tampa. In a very short time span, students working in interdisciplinary teams have seen the possibilities of these new technologies for science fiction, fantasy and experimental films that otherwise would have been impossible to create with very limited student budgets.