Virtually Real—Aesthetics and Perception of Virtual Spaces in Film.

Presenters: Christian Iseli (PI); Miriam Laura Loertscher, Thomas Gerber, Valentin Huber, Michael Schaerer
Registration Number: 070
Institutions: Zurich University of the Arts and University of Bern, Switzerland
Abstract: Due to the rapid pace of the digitalization process, virtual production in film is gaining importance. This paper focuses on an interdisciplinary research project that investigates the effects of virtual production on visual aesthetics, on the changing workflows of filmmakers and actors, and on the perception of a cinema audience. In order to systematically compare conventional filmmaking with new virtual forms of production, two short feature films were shot both conventionally (in real locations) and virtually (in the digitally scanned versions of these locations). The filmmakers aspired to keep all parameters of the production the same so that wherever possible, the only differences would be in terms of spatial representation. The process of virtual production included shooting with green-screen and pre-visualization on the basis of real-time image rendering in moderate quality. The high-resolution variants, however, were still processed in post-production. Theoretical concepts from film and media studies served as an orientational background for this project, while the methodology comprised a combination of qualitative, practice-based research and quantitative methods, in the tradition of mixed methods. The following results are discussed from the perspective of the qualitative, practice-based approach: – In terms of visual aesthetics, the two film variants were hardly distinguishable. Digital artificiality due to visible compositing artifacts in the those with virtual backgrounds could only be determined in specific shooting situations. Furthermore, they were dependent on the resources that could be invested into post-production. – Due to the technical effort, the virtual production processes showed a strongly increased complexity of the workflows. Shooting in the studio was therefore much more labor-intensive. – For the actors, the virtual production process resulted in a high degree of abstraction of their working methods. In the green-screen studio, the spaces could only be experienced via monitors or, at best, with virtual reality goggles. The lack of immediacy in the experience required a high degree of additional concentration. Preliminary results of the quantitative audience study are also included: – The subjects, who neither knew the context nor the actual focus of the comparative study, did not realize that the backgrounds in one film variant were virtually simulated. To some degree, however, they were aware of the different image qualities of the variants. As virtual production continues to develop, green screens are being replaced by large arrays of LED displays, as in, for example, The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm & Fairview Entertainment, 2019). The present study shows that in the first phase of virtual production, in which green-screen procedures are still predominant, composition artifacts occur mainly in the context of moderate production resources and are still measurable in terms of image quality.

Christian Iseli, photo by Pierre Mennel, 2019

Bio: Christian Iseli
Christian Iseli has been teaching and researching at the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK since 1995. He holds a professorship for Immersive Arts, heads the Immersive Arts Space and teaches in the MA Film program. After studying history, German, and English literature at the University of Bern, Iseli was a director of documentary films and worked in editing and cinematography on feature films and documentaries.

Bio: Miriam Laura Loertscher
Miriam Laura Loertscher is the head of the Film Research Unit at the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film. She has been working as a research associate at the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film since 2014, focusing on film perception, digitalization, and acting research. She has worked in the field of cultural education and communication for over 15 years (film festivals / art museums) including video commissions and collaboration in short film productions.

Bio: Thomas Gerber
Thomas Gerber works as a director and editor for feature films and TV series, oscillating between the comedy and crime genre. He teaches directing and editing at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he also is a research associate. Having used CGI effects in many of his own movies in the past, he is interested in the blending of real and virtual worlds. He is currently working on new teaching methods to bring film and game design students closer together by using the tools of virtual film production and looking at cinematic narration through a new lens.

Bio: Valentin Huber
Valentin Huber is a visual artist based in Zurich. With two colleagues he founded the company Das alte Lager, which works in the field of visual effects, 3D animation, color grading and visuals. He also works as a research associate at the Zurich University of the Arts with a focus on virtual production, where he is co-developing an interactive tool for previsualization.

Bio: Michael Schaerer
Michael Schaerer is a film director and editor and holds a professorship for film editing at the Zurich University of the Arts. He is the head of the annual conference ZFiction and a research associate at the Institute of the Performing Arts and Film. Besides his own narrative work, he is particularly interested in using the tools of virtual production for world-building and the crafting of storyworlds with real-time game engines.

Scriptwriting for Interactive Crime Films: The Case of Scapegoat.

Presenters: Ashton Clarke and Polina Zioga
Registration Number: 043
Institution: Interactive Filmmaking Lab/University of Stirling, Scotland

Abstract: In recent years, the increasing number of interactive films being released, has highlighted the need for further development, not only of tools that can facilitate all stages of production, but also of methods and criteria that can guide the earlier stages of development, such as the scriptwriting process. Following the framework of interactive storytelling as a spectrum, it is acknowledged that writing a script for an interactive narrative that involves branching path options for navigating through the story, or even multiple endings, is becoming more common and presents its own particular creative and technical challenges. In this context, this paper examines established criteria used for assessing narrative quality, such as the role of the character/s, the conflict/s, and the structure, with the aim to investigate in practice their application to interactive films. At the same time, by examining currently available tools and software for interactive scriptwriting, we identify their affordances and limitations, together with the current lack of guidance on formatting a script for an interactive narrative. Accordingly, we present Scapegoat, a short interactive crime drama, based on the model of British homicide investigations, and created following practice-based methods, with the objective to investigate the processes and elements of scriptwriting that can lead to a strong engaging narrative. We propose a format that can efficiently incorporate crucial information of the interaction design, be effectively communicated to the crew and cast and used throughout the production lifecycle of the film. We highlight the crucial role of the on-set script supervisor for ensuring the interaction design is not compromised, and continuity is retained. We also discuss recommendations for further developments, including the importance of engaging the crew and cast early in the development process, together with future work into the requirements of interactive commissioners for television and film, and the need for standarization in the industry. 

Bio: Ashton Clarke
Ashton Clarke is Development Coordinator at Rianne Pictures; Senior Film Programmer of Women X Film Festival, an event celebrating women and non-binary filmmakers; and member of the Interactive Filmmaking Lab, a research and production network that facilitates interdisciplinary research and development in the area of interactive filmmaking and media. Her expertise lies in the organization, programming, and marketing of online film exhibition and hybrid film festivals, and industry research. She is committed to advocating under-represented groups and has appeared as a guest co-host on the Not Having It All podcast that discusses the latest releases in film and TV. 

Bio: Polina Zioga
Dr. Polina Zioga is a hybrid artist, lecturer in Interactive Media at the University of Stirling, and the director of the Interactive Filmmaking Lab. Her interdisciplinary practice and research focus on the use of interaction design, novel technologies, and biosensing interfaces, like brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), in the context of live cinema, interactive filmmaking, and neurocinematics. Her PhD was selected as one of the top-ranked thesis abstracts for 2017 by Leonardo (MIT Press). She has written for The Conversation, has appeared on The Guardian technology podcast and TechWorld, and for her projects she has received grants and awards from international organisations.

Narrative Goes the Cyber Way: The Case of "India’s Lockdown Film," C U Soon.

Presenter: Pooja Radhakrishnan

Registration Number: 018
Institution: Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Punjab, India

Abstract: The digital era has been fruitful for Malayalam films, a regional film industry in India’s Kerala, for experimenting with new modes of storytelling. This paper explores a crucial juncture where the Covid-19 lockdown enacted in India, opens up new and innovative spatial experiments within this industry where digital technology plays a dominant role, in ways, hitherto unusual in Malayalam films. Inspired by American mystery thriller, Searching (2018), Malayalam language film, C U Soon (2020), makes use of the limited spatial conditions to shoot a film entirely on an iPhone and narrates it using a computer screen location. With C U Soon, Malayalam cinema supplies novel means of exploring the digital space, and also convincingly depicts technology as part of the Malayalee’s "everyday" (Lefebvre 2008). 

Often known for its experimental cinema, and lauded for its emphasis on realism, the industry has been not so successful in producing overblown technological fantasies liked by the ordinary Malayali. One reason being Malayalam film’s obsession with realistic locations and depicting the everyday. However, in the past few years, the industry has seen a boom of tech jargon pertaining to social networking apps and others. Text messaging, video chats and many other smartphone applications have now become part of the Malayali lifestyle on screen. By resorting to concepts in cinema studies and cultural theory such as realism, the everyday, and space, this analysis tries to understand: a) how the idea of the "ordinary," integral to Malayalam films, reflects in its recent tech genre, b) how tech films like C U Soon overcome the Malayali audience’s general dislike for anything "extra ordinary"? And c) how recent Malayalam films, and C U Soon in particular, have been able to domesticize technology as an everyday Malayali culture? 

Bio: Pooja R. is a second-year research scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Ropar, Punjab, India. She is interested in the discipline of film studies with a focus on post-independence Indian popular cinema. She takes a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the field of film sociology, history, national and global politics, and postcolonial theory. She is interested in the changing nature of spatial practices in Indian films and undertakes its socio-cultural reading. Her research topic focuses on the concept of space, fear, and the theory of the “other” in the context of cinematic geographies of post-emergency Hindi films. She holds a master’s degree from Kannur University, Kerala, in English Language and Literature.

The Forking Paths — Interactive Films: From Basic Interaction Models to Full Interactive Experience.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x82gpgb  (14‘) (password: paths)

 

Presenter: Bruno Mendes da Silva
Registration Number: 008
Institution: University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal
Abstract: Based on The Forking Paths project, this article aims to analyse the different models and levels of filmic interactivity. Through this analysis we seek indications for possible paths of evolution of the audiovisual language that, after the unavoidable contributions of authors like Griffith, Porter, Kuleshov, and Eisenstein, seems to have stagnated in time. Finally, we address the ultimate question: is there really interactivity between spectator and interactive film? The methodology used is based on "practice-based research": original research carried out in order to gain new knowledge through practice and the results of that practice (Candy, 2006; Candy & Edmonds, 2010). According to Candy, originality and contribution to knowledge can be demonstrated through creative outcomes, such as music, images or new media, that result in the cut of that research. The Centre for Research in Arts and Communication (CIAC) of the University of Algarve has been producing digital artifacts that promote the interconnection between arts and technologies, and a significant part of the products developed are the result of projects in the areas of interactive cinema (i.e. The Forking Paths [https://oscaminhosquesebifurcam.ciac.pt/en/]).
With the emergence of the film-application, the spectator has been gaining autonomy in the control and participation of the filmic narrative. However, despite the new interaction proposals being more and more technologically advanced, using sensors, virtual reality or other interfaces, the spectator is still confined to the pre-produced contents. In fact, we can only speak of true interaction when a reciprocal influence is effected in the communication process. Such interaction does not happen in any of the productions made up to the time of writing this proposal, limiting the viewers to certain insurmountable and predetermined choices. However, with the imminent possibility of the Fertile Model (a model whose process of interactivity between viewer and film enables the emergence of new contents that were not pre-defined a priori), the viewer gains creative powers that escape the control of the author, making concrete the idea of meta-author and providing a generation of unforeseen contents, the so-called contents of automatic creation. This will certainly be a break in the logical sequence of the brief history of interactive film, where film may become something it never was until now: a total interactive experience.

Bio: Bruno Mendes da Silva has a degree in Cinema and Video from School of Arts of Oporto (ESAP) (1995), and a postgraduate degree in Arts Management from Macao Institute of European Studies (IEEM) (1998). He received his PhD in Literature and Cinema in 2008 from the University of the Algarve (UALG), Portugal and his Post PhD in Interactive Cinema in 2016, also from UAlg. He is the Coordinator of Communication Sciences area at School of Education and Communication (ESEC) and the Director of the degree in Communication Sciences. He is the Vice coordinator of the Research Centre for Arts and Communication (CIAC). He was a TV Producer and Director from 1995 to 2000 at Teledifusão de Macau (TDM) and has been invited to International Art and Film Festivals such as Fresh (Thailand), Dokanema (Mozambique), Loop (Spain), Festival de la imagen (Colombia), Ecologias Digitales (Colombia), The Scrip Road Macau (China) and FILE (Brazil). He has participated in 18 scientific projects (as investigator-in-charge or research member) and is the author of several books, book chapters, and other scientific publications (over 70). It has several doctoral and master thesis orientations completed. He is the Director of the Journal Rotura -Communication Sciences and Arts. He has dedicated the last decade to the research of the relations between Communication, Art and Technology and won the Ceratonia Scientific Award.