From July 17 to August 1, 2014, a multidisciplinary group of graduate and advanced undergraduate students from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) explored new forms of storytelling and performance using virtual production, motion capture, and dynamic design tools. Each day, they received instruction in cutting-edge technology, and applied these skills to collaborative projects. Each evening, they rehearsed these works-in-progress while creating media at a professional green screen studio, under the mentorship of faculty and invited guests, and with support from REMAP researchers.
Co-organized by TFT Dean Teri Schwartz, Theater Chair Michael Hackett, Film, Television and Digital Media Chair William McDonald, and REMAP’s Jeff Burke (TFT Associate Dean, Technology and Innovation), the Institute was established to enable participants to investigate the intersection of story, performance and digital technology, and establish new modes of collaboration between departments and disciplines.
The theme for the 2014 session’s pieces was the magic lantern, or “laterna magika in the digital age,” inspired by Josef Svoboda and Alfred Radok’s seminal mid-20th century experiments in integrating film and theater with Radok’s collaborator Milos Forman. The institute drew from the inspiring history of this sophisticated, story-driven, interdisciplinary exploration in harnessing an era’s state-of-the-art technology to tell stories in fundamentally new ways, integrating live and cinematic elements. The technologies were chosen to focus on real-time, iterative creativity through the integration of virtual production (such as LightCraft Previzion), markerless motion capture (e.g., Organic Motion OpenStage), and dynamic design (e.g., Derivative Touchdesigner, Ableton Live), used in concert with more familiar digital cinema, lighting, sound, and projection elements.
Expanding upon the 2014 Institute, the 2018 session investigated storytelling in augmented reality, and explored the unique possibilities it offers as a platform for social impact entertainment.
Video recap of the 2014 Institute:
NantStudio, Culver City, 2014.