Belfast filmmaker develops immersive mixed-reality project Helpless Wonder exploring daily life of autistic person

Belfast-based, award-winning filmmaker Joe McStravick recently completed a Future Screens NI R&D project developing an immersive mixed reality project which allows its user to explore the daily life of an autistic person and/or to explore the daily life of an ASD parent (the neurotypical parent of a child who is autistic). The project was created by Joe McStravick, co-written by Maura Campbell and produced by Purple Finch Productions (Ltd).

Helpless Wonder portrays a particular scenario in a day in the life of an ASD parent and/or of an autistic person from the morning, through to the evening of a typical school day.  

Joe’s son Eoin was diagnosed with autism on May 5th 2017. The project is inspired by his experiences of being a parent to Eoin. Joe and his wife have often felt like they are “learning on the job” as the parents of an autistic child. They have also often wondered what it must be like for Eoin to navigate out neuro-typical world.  

Joe plans to use the final project as a VR training for ASD parents and young autistic people with the intention to generate interest from the education sector and health care trusts.

For more information on the project and others follow the link here.

Joe McStravick is an award-winning film & TV director. Past projects have been commissioned and/or broadcast by BBC NI, BFI Network, Northern Ireland Screen, TG4 and RTE 2. His short films have screened at various international film festivals, including BAFTA and Academy Award accredited film festivals. As a producer and screenwriter he has produced, written and co-written a number of the film, TV and promo projects that he has directed. He has also directed/produced a range of commercial films and promos for Random, Cable & Wireless, PwC, HM Treasury, BBC and TCL Mobile. 

Future Screens NI & StoryFutures Academy Present 'VP Futures: Behind The Scenes Of A Virtual Production Accelerator Programme'

StoryFutures Academy presents, in association with Future Screens NI, 'VP Futures: Behind The Scenes Of A Virtual Production Accelerator Programme'. This five-episode series recounts the roller coaster journey of VP Futures, an intensive skills development journey into the world of VP and real time technologies.

StoryFutures Academy (the UK’s National Centre for Immersive Storytelling run by the National Film & Television School and Royal Holloway, University of London) and Future Screens NI present ‘VP Futures: Behind The Scenes Of A Virtual Production Accelerator Programme'. 

This five-episode series showcases the extraordinary work of VP Futures, an exciting co-production training & development programme where eight companies tested new ideas, upskilled their teams and received extensive in-depth mentorship from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Epic Games. The programme was created to build VP skills in the workforce and capacity in UK businesses to take up the new opportunities coming on stream in VP and real time technologies. 

EPISODE 1 - Meet the Teams & Partners

In this episode we learn more about the ambitions and hopes of the eight VP Futures teams and the potential for VP as a storytelling tool.  Meet the companies and partners ready to take on the challenge and explore new creative ideas.

Full episodes below and here.

EPISODE 2 - The Development Zone Part 1

In this episode the companies assess themselves, their projects & ideas to see if they are transposable into a virtual world, and learn about the complexities of Virtual Production. With Virtual Production masterclasses and a remote session about mocap and performance capture by Industrial Light & Magic and Epic Games, the contestants gain a significant amount of expertise.

EPISODE 3 - The Development Zone Part 2

In this episode the companies dig deep into their needs within Virtual Production and put their newly learned knowledge and skills into practice with the expert industry mentorship and on set production support.  With help from mentors from Industrial Light & Magic and Epic Games, the companies jump over hurdles and obstacles and watch their projects come to life. 

EPISODE 4 - Aura Digital: Making “Stone Hearts & Careless People”

This episode demonstrates the process of making “Stone Hearts & Careless People” a short film made by Aura Digital about a supernatural romance that explores love, loneliness and the beautiful tragedy of living. Aura Digital is an immersive content studio based in Belfast who work with a range of technologies from XR, Motion Capture, Realtime Rendering and Virtual Production to make content.

EPISODE 5 - Sunnyside Productions Behind the Scenes of “The Surreal Life”

Sunnyside are one of the two companies selected for the VP Futures Production Zone and given production support and budget to create their VP project. In this episode watch how Sunnyside Productions take the true story of an historic meeting and transform it into the world of the surreal and subconscious with “The Surreal Life”. Although the action has a comic twist, visually the film is striking and uncanny, and explores the iconography of both the Surrealist movement and the power of dreams. Sunnyside Productions is a well-established production company that creates and produces factual, specialist factual and factual entertainment television programmes and formats.

'Stepping into Virtual Production' a five-day deep dive course for Film and Broadcast professionals in NI

'Stepping into Virtual Production' a five-day deep dive course for Film and Broadcast professionals in Northern Ireland.  

Aimed at established and experienced film and broadcast professionals this ground-breaking training and development programme in Virtual Production entitled ‘Stepping into Virtual Production’ will open up the world of Virtual Production for your company. It will provide unique insight into the world-class Belfast Region City Deal, Pillar Innovation Project known as Studio Ulster opening early 2024. A £70m+, 75000 ft sq commercial virtual production studio complex led by Ulster University in partnership with Belfast Harbour and supported by Northern Ireland Screen. This facility brings incredible new opportunities for film and TV production in Northern Ireland . Studio Ulster will be located at the North Foreshore Studios in Belfast and offers world class virtual production facilities to productions of any scale and complexity across film and broadcast. 

Working with their partners ScreenSkills and Northern Ireland Screen, this course will help you understand how to get started and how to connect with the opportunities of virtual production and the significance of the facilities at Studio Ulster. This course will be delivered by the Ulster Screen Academy with workshops from world leading companies and industry professionals working in Virtual Production today. You will have access to an In-Camera Visual Effects studio using the latest LED volume technology and camera tracking driven by Epic Games's Unreal Engine. 

This course is free for those taking part. Please note this course would normally cost participants £800, but thanks to funding from ScreenSkills as part of the BFI Future Film Skills Programmes using funds from the National Lottery, and a partnership with The Ulster Screen Academy, Northern Ireland Screen and Studio Ulster 

Virtual Production (VP) offers incredible new business opportunities for companies in Northern Ireland but what is VP? This 5-day deep dive into virtual production will build your understanding of what it is and what the possibilities are for you and your company. 

Please register your interest through this Eventbrite page. You will send you details on how to apply through your email address of choice. This is not a guarantee of a place on the course but your chance to register your interest. You will be contacted separately to apply. Welcome to the world of Virtual Production... 

—Register your interest here: https://bit.ly/3eWhCNZ 

Dates: 

Days 1-3: 14th-16th November, York Street, Belfast 0930-1700 with VFX Expert master classes by Monica Chowdhary Kuczynski & Professor Declan Keeney with special guests. 

Day 4: 25th November, York Street, Belfast, Virtual Production Studio 1000-15.30. Workshop and case study with VP company/vendor 

Day 5: 2nd December, York Street Belfast Virtual Production Studio/Labs 1000-16.30 UE 5.1 Ulster Screen Academy staff experts. 

The Ulster Screen Academy is an Unreal Engine Academic Partner. A prestigious endorsement of our work in the area of real-time game engine driven screen technologies and VFX skills development. 

This course covers the critical factors businesses need to know when making the leap into VP and explores the essential knowledge, understanding and skills development needed to develop a virtual production workflow and pipeline in your company and your productions. 

‘Stepping into Virtual Production’ is designed to upskill and build a solid understanding of what Virtual Production is, what the endless possibilities might be and is a new model of upskilling and capability building by targeting individuals in companies working in film and broadcast in Northern Ireland. 

Who is this aimed at: 

This five-day face-to-face course split over a few weeks will be of particular interest to those working in film, high-end TV, and broadcast. This programme is targeted at heads of departments in production, who need an introduction to VP workflows, costs, skills need, hardware and their connected processes. They are decision-makers on how to utilise VP in different forms, but who need a grounding in how various components and tools that fall under the broad banner of virtual production connect and interrelate with existing tradition pipelines. You do not need to be technical to attend, this is aimed at production, producing and its impact on the art of the possible in your projects. 

They are targeting film or TV producers and Directors (or executive, creative director or similar departmental lead) or HoD in a television or broadcast company with more than 3 years' experience. If this sounds like you then please register your interest by signing up. 

For more information on Studio Ulster please go here: www.studioulster.com 

Belfast XR Festival presents How Is XR Changing Storytelling? 9th Nov 22

How Is XR Changing Storytelling?

Unlock the secrets to creating compelling narrative in immersive worlds.

Wed, 9 November 2022, 13:00 – 14:00 GMT

The Black Box Green Room, 18-22 Hill Street, Belfast BT1 2LA

What is the process for creating an immersive experience? Learn the unique considerations when storytelling with immersive and interactive worlds. Gain practical tips and insights into pre-production and workflow pipelines in this panel with leading industry experts Dee Harvey, Vincent Kinnaird, Lucy Baxter and Chaired by Professor Paul Moore.

A Belfast XR Festival event.

For more information and to register visit here.

Lucy Baxter is an XR filmmaker and Film Practice Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast. Before joining QUB in 2018, Lucy ran a London based production company and created fiction and non-fiction content for platforms and broadcasters which included Channel 4, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Open University and The Cabinet Office. Her work as producer has won BAFTA and RTS awards, and been runner up for the Japan Prize and Learning Onscreen Awards. Lucy recently created the Mental Abuse Matters project and wrote, produced and directed an animated piece in collaboration with Enter Yes, and a VR short drama in collaboration with Retinize and Hanna Slattne. She is currently distributing the VR piece into then Health, Social Care and Justice sectors through start up Sensalience with digital health entrepreneur Elaine Bousfield.

Dee Harvey is a filmmaker specialising in VR and 360 filmmaking. She’s a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she studied Interactive Telecommunications. Her creative focus is on using emerging technologies and storytelling techniques to find and tell the stories that would otherwise be missed. She is a Future Fellow of Future Screens NI. She has just completed LOSS, a short verbatim documentary about late-term pregnancy loss, a co-production with Uppercut Creative in Vancouver. She co-wrote and directed IF, a VR 180 film about infertility, that was commissioned by YouTube in 2018. It was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society NI awards in 2019. She has recently joined Quotidian - Word on the Street as a Creative Technologies Researcher.

Vincent Kinnaird has been making film, broadcast TV, commercials and documentaries for distribution, primarily throughout Europe, for many years. Salient credits include the critically acclaimed 'Burning of Bombay Street' and 'Summer on Rathlin' He has won prizes such as the BAFTA Kodak short film award, with 'Lladia', and screened at Cannes and LA festivals with drama 'The Linnet'. In 2022 he launched his feature documentary, 'Fr. Des - The Way he saw it' at Galway Film Fleadh, following its preview at Docs Ireland the previous year. With the support of Future Screens NI and Ulster University, Vincent made Total Immersion and has just completed his first commercial VR film for European renewable energy giant ABO Wind. He also loves using vintage film cameras and projectors.

Professor Paul Moore joined the University of Ulster in 1999 and has since been active in the development of the creative arts and industries policy and strategy in the University. He was head of the School of Creative Arts and Technologies from 2008 to 2017 before serving a short period as Head of the School of Communication and Media. He is now Director of Future Screens NI, the AHRC funded creative industries cluster for NI and is a Co-Director of Ulster’s Creative Industries Institute (CII). He was awarded a personal Chair in 2009 becoming Professor of Creative Technologies and was awarded a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship in 2014.

Future Tuesdays: Understanding Virtual Production & its Opportunities Venue Change! Sold Out! Waiting list available. 8 Nov 22 12 Noon

The in-person Future Tuesdays event on 8th November at 12 noon, Understanding Virtual Production & its Opportunities has Sold Out and has a venue change!

Due to the significant interest, we have had to move this event to Ormeau Baths Innovation Hub Event Space. All other details remain the same.

There is a waiting list available.

As we have a waiting list for the event on Eventbrite, we ask that if you are not able to attend you cancel your registration via Eventbrite so that the site will notify the first on the list.

There are ongoing discussions regarding another event for Virtual Production. To register interest in further related events contact info-futurescreensni@ulster.ac.uk directly.