BPI Centre Pompidou: production of a collective film in Virtual Reality
In four hours, form a group, experiment with RV, appropriate a place and the technique, imagine a scenario, and shoot a 360° film, thanks to collective creativity and cooperation..
The Bibliothèque Publique d’Information of the Centre Pompidou offers participative cultural activities, among others in the field of new digital practices. This workshop for the production of a collective Virtual Reality (VR) film, led by Benoît Labourdette, was the first of its kind, in March 2020.
Goals
The challenge of this workshop was to be able to propose, in a single session of 4 hours (from 6 to 10 pm), to all publics, to appropriate an innovative technique and to develop creativity in a way embodied in a place, the BPI.
Methodology
- Discuss, introduce themselves, create the group, discover the technology and the issues of RV, based on the sharing of each person’s experience.
- Experience: we take action very quickly. Everyone takes the camera and shoots a shot in the IPB, to experiment, to invent through improvisation. We’ll only see the result afterwards.
- Back in the workshop room : we’re watching the shots made by each one. We discover astonishing results, exciting, which give ideas.
- Brainstorming with a mindmapping, to collect all the ideas that come from viewing the images.
- Then Collective construction of a scenario, which we see elaborated before our eyes thanks to mindmapping. At the same time as the scenario, we define each person’s role.
- Shooting : we prepare the shooting carefully, without filming, going from place to place, specifying the actions of each person. The film will be shot in sequence shot.
- Shooting : a moment of very strong concentration, because everything is done at once. It is decided, after the first take, to make a second one, which benefits from the experience of the first one.
- Shared viewing : one watches the film on the big screen, before being able to then, thanks to the video files put online, to see it individually each one in a Virtual Reality headset.
Report
It was a “challenge” to get a group of 10 people who didn’t know each other to imagine, conceive and direct a RV movie with a certain ambition, in 4 hours.
It worked, in my opinion thanks to two essential methodological elements: on the one hand the attention paid to the constitution of the group, by registering from the beginning a situation of mutual listening, and on the other hand by “taking action” very quickly, through experimentation, which allows each person to embrace a thought in practice (cf. André Leroi-Gourhan).
The discussion for the conception of the film was based on the results of the experiments, present before our eyes, so this discussion was applied. And the fact that I took notes, evolving, on the screen, mindmapping as the discussion went on, was there also a practice of thinking, which was a preparation, not intellectual, but performative, of the shooting of the film.
The extremely singular narrative potential of Virtual Reality technology was fully taken into account. The concept was that we were on the path to a book, around which the whole story unfolds, and around which we can look all around. As there is a lot going on around the book, this film can be watched several times. To see it at 360°, access the original files, download the file Who’s who in America v2, copy it into your VR headset, and enjoy the show!
The band also put a lot of attention to the work on the sound, which is one of the essential elements of the cinema, 360° or not. And finally, there was a real appropriation of the place of the library, by the projection that one makes there of one’s imagination, what one invents within it.
The BPI team, and first and foremost Nathanaël Travier, who was behind this innovative proposal, was the precious linchpin of the success of this workshop, thanks in particular to careful preparatory work.
On this page, you can see the film in binocular version and in flat 360° version. But to fully enjoy the VR experience, you need a helmet!
“Who’s who in America” - Binocular version (5’32s, 2020)
Collective film (5’32s, 2020).
Accessing original workshop files
www.benoitlabourdette.com/_docs/?dir=projets/2020/2020_bpi_atelier_vr
Workshop Announcement
I invite you to participate in a singular and original creative moment.
Free workshop : “Create your own Virtual Reality Film”
BPI (Centre Pompidou) on Thursday 5 March 2020 from 6 pm to 10 pm.Immersive 360° cinema is a new territory for creative exploration, shaping the future of cinema. With the help of Benoît Labourdette, a filmmaker specialising in new media, experiment shooting with a Virtual Reality camera, collectively write an adapted scenario and shoot an innovative film!
- This workshop is part of the Do It Yourself workshop cycle at the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information (Centre Pompidou).
- Free workshop accessible upon registration: registration form (10 places).
- Venue: Bibliothèque Publique d’Information. L’Atelier (level 2) Entrance rue Beaubourg 75004 Paris.
- Agenda of the BPI: www.bpi.fr/agenda/creez-votre-film-en-realite-virtuelle
Thinking about virtual reality...
Virtual Reality, this project of total immersion in an imaginary world, linear or interactive, which has been in the state of successive prototypes for more than 40 years, seemed to start “taking” in creative and industrial terms in 2015-2016. We have seen the appearance of many tools, experimental projects, public support for production, broadcasts in festivals, installations of VR headsets in museums, symposiums ...
For my part, I have always thought that a new technology should be thought outside the frame, that is to say questioned, beyond the objectives given to it by the industrialists, in its anthropological, sociological, philosophical, political dimensions, and not only aesthetic. Thinking of a 360° spherical narrative is in my opinion not at all sufficient to seize the potentialities, and possible risks, of these new tools.
So since 2017, I have been exploring bushwalks, exploratory and playful, to question the issues of Virtual Reality technology. I believe that the “side step” is a real tool for thinking, building critical thinking, so basically freedom, ie democracy. Virtual Reality is already often used in the field of technical engineering. Still, few audiovisual creation projects have been realized in VR. On the other hand, it is conceivable that little by little, with the “metaverse”, VR will become part of our daily lives. We are not there yet, so it is time to question this technology and its future uses, to remain conscious in the world of tomorrow. I believe that for this, putting it into practice is a very good way.
Here you will find a selection of experiments with Virtual Reality that I have conducted since 2017, which I hope will inspire cultural action, audiovisual creation, museography and education. Workshops in libraries and media libraries, notably at the Centre Pompidou, atypical films, cultural actions in cinemas, animation of professional meetings, conferences, animation of workshops at the Fémis, contribution to the colloquium of the Louis Lumière school...
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