Digital vs. Analog

  Storytelling has seen many evolutions in the manner that it is imparted to an audience. Regardless, the constant has been leveraging imagination for both the audience and the author. Rage against technology all you want but it can be utilized in highly beneficial ways when placed in responsible and skilled hands. Today’s cutting-edge soundstages bear little resemblance to those of the past except in the way they are inhabited by adventurous creatives.

Virtual Extension

  Fathead is a film that utilizes the same LED Volume Stage technology as the prestigious Disney shows The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett. Merging the physical world the actors inhabited on the sound stage with virtual environments, this film offers a twist on the concept of children left to inhabit a world void of adults, at least for the most part. There is an obvious parallel to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but the initial concept is where this ends. Filmed at Amazon Studios with a complex set up of LED screens around a stage and utilizing the Epic Games Unreal engine, this on-set virtual production methodology generates backdrops around the actors in real time to seamlessly blend with the stage and create environments that would otherwise take months of CGI in post-production.

A Test of Character

  The story revolves around a 10-year-old girl named Fathead and her 8-year-old brother Tudaloo, who are the last members of a tribe known as DUMS – the last free children in the world of Junkyard Paradise. They are pursued by the Ragamuffins tribe who capture Tudaloo. To obtain his freedom, Fathead must challenge Ragamuffin’s leader “Ruler” (a 14-year-old) for the right to free her brother and preserve the history of the DUMS. This involves Fathead facing an unseen creature simply known as “The Beast”, a frightening entity who ends up enacting its rage with unexpected results. In the process of deciding between self-preservation and loyalty, Fathead surprises everyone including her brother’s captors.

Technology Requires Communication

  Producer Irina Slepneva is known for her work on films that reject a typical approach, such as the Horror Rom-Com Hide Your Crazy and the Comedy How Was Your Weekend?. Referring to the high-tech immersion process of making Fathead, Slepneva notes, “A new technology always brings challenges to a production. A technology that completely changes how you operate on a studio stage requires an entirely new level of coordination between production departments that previously did not have a department such as a virtual production team. Traditionally, environments created on the LED screens around a stage that can now be accomplished live, in-camera were all made in post-production with CGI and did not involve in-person coordination on set with Camera, Lighting, Grip, Production Design, Sound, Wardrobe and Makeup departments.”  The creation of the Virtual Production department means recalibration but also offers new opportunities in this emerging area. Additionally, this learning curve and the new additional layer of coordination needed between Production, Virtual Production, and each Department Head can result in issues that could possibly derail a production if communication is not highly prioritized.

Embracing the Future

  Every film may not be suited to be created on a virtual soundstage but in an industry that must evolve along with the technology seen in much of modern life, this avenue certainly offers benefits that will serve some quite well. This process is still developing when it comes to live action filmmaking, which indicates that new vocations will be cultivated around it. In choosing to explore this manner of film production, the cast and crew of Fathead have aligned themselves with a future that embraces optimism. While the technology may be new, the same heartfelt storytelling that is evergreen is the foundation of this film. How filmmakers decide to utilize this technology will likely steer the trajectory of the industry itself. There’s an analogous choice in the final choice Fathead (the character) makes near the end of this film and the decision of filmmakers themselves as to how they will wield the power offered them.

Producer Irina Slepneva