In spring 2023, students from the programmes Software development, Digital design & motion, Audiovisual specialist and Creative producer (formerly Media & event management) worked on a Virtual Production film. In doing so, they collaborated with students from BUAS Breda (hbo) and Virtual production company Ironworks, among others. Student Frederique, now a third-year Creative producer student, coordinated the production from SintLucas.
What is a Virtual Production Film?
Frederique: “In a virtual production film, physical and digital platforms are brought together in a film. In our case, part of the set was programmed and shown on an Led screen. With this, you replace the green screen that is normally used with an Led screen. As a result, the actress was immediately in the world of the film and can empathise with it. You also have less post-production work; you can light everything better in advance, for example. And it allows for more flexibility and creativity in productions, because it is no longer necessary to physically build all the sets.” The idea for making this film originated from the Metaverse workshop. A creative incubator in Hilversum where new immersive technologies are developed, and students, teachers and staff of schools and media organisations can experiment.
Creating a team
Her role as Creative Producer on the production team was broad. Frederique: “My duties focused on coordinating the project. I made the schedules, set deadlines and budget and monitored it all the time. But I started by creating a team. In the beginning, the average twenty-five students from the different courses were all sitting separately at tables working. I started talking to everyone and looked at what interested them and what they had in common. I reflected this in the brainstorming sessions. We determined the storyline together and when they felt they thought the same about things and the group was close-knit, they were also more open to each other’s ideas.”
Collaboration
Besides coordinating the project with the students, Frederique had a lot of contact with external parties. Frederique: “Ironworks was the Virtual production company that supported us with the production. The supervising teacher was in particular in contact with them about software issues, for example. I discussed the shooting day with them. We went through the whole production, they gave further tips a points of interest and I met the Ironworks team that would be present on the shooting day. We also worked with the Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUAS), which has equipment to make a virtual production film. Students from BUAS helped set up the cameras’ and equipment. And I approached cinemas to premiere the film, which eventually took place on 22 June at Vue in Eindhoven. They came out as the best party, they also thought well of the decor we wanted and the catering.”
Choice course Creative producer
As a child, Frederique wanted to do ‘something with acting’. After havo, she opted for a higher education course in Photography, but that course did not take off. Frederique: “I quickly had to choose something else and looked for courses in organising and arranging. I ended up at SintLucas and from the first moment I felt I belonged here. From the course you can go in different directions, but later I would like to work in the field of entertainment and productions. That is why I chose an internship at Haegens media (media company of Dylan Haegens and Marit Brugman). Here I shot several productions, which meant that I had to make sure that everything had been arranged for a shooting day. That there was a location, that people were present and informed on time and that we had the right props. I also worked on social media campaigns at Haegens, but I didn’t like that as much. I liked the production work during the internship so much that I was eager to gain more experience with the VPS project.”
Passion for the job
What characterises a Creative producer according to Frederique? “In the programme, you learn all the core tasks such as planning, organising and so on. But above all, you need to have passion for the profession, not only for yourself, but also to be able to enthuse the team and others you work with. For me, it was also important to learn to switch off. I worked on this project on Wednesdays, but tended to check what was going on on Discord, our joint communication tool, at other times as well. In the end, you learn by doing. That’s why this project was really nice for me.”
Frederique is justifiably proud of the final result The film can be viewed here!