Cannes Next

Film Soho, official partner of Cannes Next, have presented the speakers invited to the coveted Fireside Chat, held on Thursday May 18 to open 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 have joined 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 event have been held at the new beachside venue Plages des Palmes. The venue have also play host to the official Cannes Next Opening Party on the evening of Thursday 18th May presented by Film Soho.

On Friday May 19, the Global Virtual Production Summit was held on the Main Stage of the Marché du Film, an afternoon of discussions dedicated to virtual production that covered the following topics:

• 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.

On Saturday May 20, Disguise organized a full-day Virtual Production Accelerator Course – a cutdown version of their recently launched Virtual Production Accelerator Programme which provided 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 have been exclusively held on the V-Studios 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 workshops included 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 ; How Markerless Motion Capture Can Change the Future of Film Production with Move.ai’s Head of Partnerships & Delivery Niall Hendry.

Check Out the replay of the Virtual Production Summit sessions at the Plages des Palmes and on Main Stage on our Online platform: