Have you seen the new Aussie time travel sci-film 2067? Mod director Michela Ledwidge recalls collaborating with writer/director Seth Larney on the Australian feature.

Mod were instrumental in helping the production team recognise that they didn’t have to wait until the post-production stage to produce holograms on this epic dystopic climate film. Mod could create holographic visuals during filming that brought a raft of advantages to the cast and crew as well as an impressive futuristic, aesthetic and atmospheric sensibility.

“Visual effects supervisor, Mark van den Bergen, was savvy enough to realise that we could pull off what was happening in the script live on set. Even though it wasn’t a complete in-camera effect, the holograms that were produced on set then went through a visual effects pipeline”.

Michela Ledwidge, Director, Mod

Michela has been working with depth cameras that allow a production to create holograms almost like a 3D video live. She notes that it’s rare to actually have the opportunity to use that on a set alongside the camera unit, because it’s new tech and not necessarily recognised by traditional productions as filmmaking process.

“The value of creating the holograms was for the story. It created an opportunity for the actors and the DOP and the Director to see this pivottable story point happening live in the room. And it improves the overall quality of the result” she says.

Michela likened the project to how The Jungle Book film was made. She recalls that they had Jim Henson puppeteers holding quite rudimentary cardboard cut-outs of wolves and bears, or the “stuffy” panther. The live elements weren’t entirely realistic, but they were injecting a sense of magic onto the set for the actors.

“So, an untrained actor, like a little kid who’d never acted before in a major feature film, could be bouncing off these experienced puppeteers and bringing the world to life,” she explains.

“Our role as virtual production experts is partly to help to smooth out the often-clinical use of digital technology where people think it merely involves bringing computers into play, so it deters from the perspective of hard edge sci-fi is or something really geeky that most people think it is”.

Michela Ledwidge, Director, Mod

It’s really just a new class of hammer and nail. Remember when we liked to do things quick and dirty, rather than having endless discussions about what it could be and then quoting for discussing how you’d fulfill the bid? Let’s bring the fun back. Let’s bring the endless possibilities of virtual production to life in real time.