Cannes Next

Film Soho, official partners of Cannes Next have revealed guest speakers at the coveted Fireside Chat on Thursday 18th May as the opening event to the Global Virtual Production Summit 2023:

Nik Summerer, cinematographer on Netflix’s epic mystery sci-fi series 1899; David Vickery, BAFTA-winning & Oscar-nominated Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM – a division of Lucas Film –  who worked on Avatar: The Way of Water and Jurassic World titles Dominion and Fallen Kingdom; and British actress Christina Chong of the Star Trek series Strange New Worlds will join together to discuss How Virtual Production is Empowering Film & Storytelling Visionaries, hosted and moderated by British broadcaster and BBC Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb.

This exclusive ticketed event will be held at the new beachside venue Plages des Palmes. The venue will also play host to the official Cannes Next Opening Party on the evening of Thursday 18th May presented by Film Soho.

On Friday 19th May, the Global Virtual Production Summit will be held at the main stage of the Film Soho Innovation Hub, located in the heart of the Pantiero section of the Village International, with Film Soho and their partners: Disguise, world leaders in real-time production technology; V-Studios, the first fully fledged virtual production stage in Soho; Brompton Technology, market leaders in LED video processing for film, TV & live events;  Virtual, the future of post specialising in virtual production and slate creation; Hadean, the metaverse infrastructure powering the creator economy; and stYpe, cutting-edge camera tracking technology for film & television.

Some highlights of the Global Virtual Production Summit include Film Soho’s masterclass sessions: Virtual Production: A Creative & Technical Breakdown in the Real World with ReadySet Studios with VFX supervisor, DOP and producer Kathryn Brillhart  (Black Adam, Top Gun: Maverick, The Mandalorian), Nils Pauwels, Partner and Director of Virtual Production at Ready Set Studios, and Lucus Tucknott, award-winning and inhouse DOP at Film Soho.

Also: Thinking in Miniature: Combining Traditional Model Making with the Newest Virtual Technology with The Magic Camera Company’s prolific Director of Models José Granell (V for Vendetta, The Harry Potter series) and Film Soho’s Head of Development and film producer Leila Mousavi.

Further panel discussions held throughout the day will cover:

• How Markerless Motion Capture Can Change the Future of Film Production with Move Ai
• How to Master the Creative, Technical and Visual Power of Virtual Production
• Investing & Managing the Virtual Production Business: What Producers, Funds, Policymakers & Studios Need to Know
• To Shoot Traditional vs Virtual ? The ABC of Virtual Production for Independent Filmmakers
• Future Forward: Understanding Trends, Tools and Platforms Shaping the Future of Cinema.

Saturday 20th May will see Disguise’s full-day Virtual Production Accelerator Course – a cutdown version of their recently launched Virtual Production Accelerator Programme which provides on-set experience and hands on training in a VP volume to help fill the talent gap in this emerging sector. For Cannes Next, Disguise has prepared a one-day masterclass taking participants on a journey from fundamental technical knowledge all the way to on-set production techniques and beyond.

The rest of the Cannes Next VP programme will be exclusively held on the V-Studios stage of the Film Soho Innovation Hub, offering interactive workshops, masterclasses and technical demonstrations over the course of 18 – 21 May. Film Soho’s V-Studios stage will showcase a full virtual production studio powered by Disguise and will be positioned as the innovation hub and epicentre of groundbreaking ideas and cutting-edge technology during Cannes.