The subject of the interdisciplinary research project is the virtualization of film production. The focus is on the transition to 3D capturing of real environments and objects using 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry. For a comparative study, short feature films will be recorded both virtually (in previously scanned 3D spaces) and conventionally (in the corresponding real spaces). The film variants are used to investigate the effects on perception and changes in work processes.
Digitalisation has drastically changed film production and the extent of the transformation continues to increase with great dynamism. The transition from photochemical to digital recording and playback can be considered complete. The applicants have already comprehensively investigated this with the SNF project 100013_140401 (Analog/Digital, 2012-14). Meanwhile, 3D computer graphic models are the starting point for a large part of 2D media image production. Digitally generated spaces, objects and characters have become omnipresent in mainstream films. Based on photogrammetry and laser scans, high computing power is increasingly enabling the direct 3D capture of real environments and objects. With these volumetric methods, conventional artistic decisions regarding camera position, camera movement, lens focal length, focal plane and light setting are no longer made in the shooting situation, but only afterwards. And they remain changeable in virtual 3D space. The departure from the camera's apparatus as the cornerstone of cinematographic work begins to emerge. This raises the question of how viewers perceive the increasingly virtual worlds of images. Does this reduce the closeness to reality of what is depicted and does this have an effect on whether someone can immerse themselves in the world shown? What role does the personality of the audience play? For filmmakers, the question arises as to how far they can creatively use the highly complex workflows and the potentiated possibilities of so-called virtual production. And especially for Swiss film productions with limited financial resources, it must be clarified how the latest technologies can also be used in low-budget environments. With the Virtually Real project, a systematic and multi-layered comparative study is being conducted to examine the important changes for both filmmakers and viewers. Two short feature films, each produced in two variants, form the starting material. One after the other, they are shot both virtually (in photogrammetrically captured 3D spaces) and conventionally (in the corresponding real spaces). All design parameters such as découpage, setting sizes, cut and equipment are kept the same, so that the variants differ as far as possible only on the basis of spatial representation. In order to be able to discuss the aesthetic components of the technical and artistic processes in a differentiated way, the two films explicitly show different narrative attitudes. One of the films seeks a stylized-abstracting aesthetic, while the second film strives for a realistic-documentary realization. The research team is divided methodically in such a way that an artistic-research group explores the creative options and their consequences, while the empirically working team conducts viewer experiments on the basis of the feature films and feeds their results back into the artistic-research group. The mutual relationship between qualitative and quantitative research approaches according to the principle of Mixed Methods (Clark & Creswell, 2011) leads to a differentiated exploration of the problem and brings one of the fundamental questions of the cinematic creative process to the fore, namely the effects of creative decisions on the audience. In the context of Digital Lives, the Virtually Real project is extraordinarily topical and highly relevant because it addresses both the change in perception in an increasingly virtual media world and the resulting diversity of options among designers, as well as the upheaval in the working processes of an entire industry. The perceived relation to reality of digital images remains clearly in focus.
In cooperation with the University of Bern, Institute of Psychology
Industry partners: InstaLOD GmbH, Stuttgart; Leica Geosystems, Heerbrugg