Host of the day: Prof. Jan Adamczyk

Prof. Jan Adamczyk is a german VFX Supervisor with more than a decade of experience in the visual effects industry. Since 2006 he worked on numerous international feature film and tv productions. His credits in visual effects include The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek - Into Darkness, Hugo Cabret, Atomic Blonde and Jim Button and Lukas the engine driver. Prof. Jan Adamczyk has worked at VFX Studios based in Stuttgart, Munich, London and Berlin and received multiple national and international award nominations and wins. Prof. Jan Adamczyk is an active member of the Visual Effects Society, the Deutsche Filmakademie and the Deutsche Akademie für Fernsehen. From the winter semester 2018/19 Prof. Jan Adamczyk is part of the visual effects team at the Stuttgart Media University and will enrich the Courses with his know how, practical experience and artistic talent as well as the connections to the local and international VFX industry.

Virtual Production for Film, Commercial and Broadcasting in a Green Production context

This presentation is dedicated to take a closer look at a commercial production for Red Bull/ Alpha Tauri and the live broadcast of FIFA Weltmeisterschaft 2022, Deutsche Telekom & Magenta TV produced by PLAZAMEDIA. We will share some inside knowledge about multicam setups and focus pulling specialities in virtual production. Green Production: what does it really mean and what do you have to keep in mind!

Your lecturer: Elfi Kerscher (Plaza Media)

Elfi has been in the VFX industry for many years and has profound experience with Discreet Logic and Autodesk VFX software. She decided to move to real sets and joined ARRI in 2002, where she was responsible for product management of the ARRISCAN and later the ARRILASER. Elfi has always been dealing with the fusion of real and unreal content, and since virtual production means the final fusion of real and unreal worlds, it was no longer a question to join the early birth of a virtual production complex (XR-Studio)@PLAZAMEDIA, near Munich As a Senior Product Manager of Virtual Production, she is happy to assist customers in sorting out early questions of feasibility and will help you through a process of new art direction.

Virtual Production - from planning to final pixel

When does the use of virtual production make sense? - Three experts who worked on the TV show 1899 talk about the challenges of Virtual Production. How can it best be integrated into planning, principal photography and post production to provide creative freedom while staying on budget? And how does it differ from classic VFX work? Three virtual production experts talk about their experiences, challenges and opportunities with this form of production.

Your lecturers: Christian Kästner (Framestore), Christina Caspers-Römer (Trixter), Tobias Stärk (Woodblock)

Christian Kästner began his career as an art director at leading advertising agencies, crafting unique work for clients such as Sony and Adobe. advertising agencies, crafting unique work for clients such as Sony and Adobe. Working with high-profile clients to create beautiful, memorable imagery served him in excellent stead when he decided to pivot to VFX in the mid-2000s. He graduated from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University with a Masters of Fine Arts in 3D Animation and Visual Effects and launched his VFX career with The Orphanage, before joining Framestore in 2007. Since then, he has worked on a huge range of titles, including The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Where The Wild Things Are, Avatar and the Oscar-winning Gravity. Christian made the move to Montreal in 2013 and quickly established himself as a key member of the studio’s senior team, supervising titles such as Paddington, Alien: Covenant, Mary Poppins Returns, Captain Marvel, The Aeronauts and the BAFTAwinning His Dark Materials. His most recent project is 1899, a major episodic project for Netflix utilizing Europe’s largest LED volume facility. Here he led a team spanning concept art, visualisation, virtual production and VFX.

Christina Caspers is Head of Studio & Business Development at Trixter. Previously, she was Managing Director at Dark Bay GmbH – Europe’s largest virtual production stage. In her role, she oversaw the daily productions and supported and consults shows from the scriptwriting process to the final image in all virtual production-related topics. The volume, one of the world’s largest LED-installations, was used, among others, for the filming of the Netflix series “1899”. With a background in VFX and XR, she already worked as Head of Operations & HR for Trixter on movies like “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, “Black Widow”, “The Suicide Squad”, and “The Royal Game”, just to name a few.

After almost a decade working as a VFX Artists and XR developer, Tobias joined Framestore in November 2020 to assist the main creatives of 1899 with virtual scouting in VR and working as a technical artist in the virtual art department and later during production as part of the on-set team. Shortly after 1899 wrapped principal photography, he joined the studio operator DarkBay as Creative Tech Lead. Since September 2022 he is now part of the award-winning animation studio Woodblock heading its XR & real-time division.

Optical Marker-Based Tracking for Virtual Production – Current Developments, Challenges and Limitations

Your lecturer: John Brown (Optitrack)

Lunch Break

Description coming soon.

Recipe for good In Camera VFX - what makes Virtual Production work

Virtual Production has become a buzz word in the industry. But what is Virtual Production and what is the common misconception? We will briefly cover the stages of production that benefit form this exiting new possibilities before diving into the In Camera VFX of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Season 1 of House of the Dragon. What helps sell a virtual extension of an Environment in the LED volume and what should be avoided

Your lecturer: Mark Dauth (Pixomondo)

Mark has been working as a compositor in the VFX and advertising industry for over 20 years. Mark has been at Pixomondo's Frankfurt studio for the last 3 years, where he dove into virtual production and lead the team responsible for the real time environments of 'House of the Dragon' season 1

Hyperbowl First Virtual Production in Germany - Virtual Production for Commercials

Founded in April 2020, Hyperbowl is the first and largest virtual studio with a fully functional Unreal and cameratracking environment in Europe. With over 100 successful productions in advertising and feature film, we are not only the most experienced, but also the most creative team. We don't want to be just a technical service provider, but rather the creative partner of directors and DOPs.

Your lecturer: Ralf Drechsler, Julian Krüger (Hyperbowl)

https://www.adc.de/club/mitglieder/

Virtual Production at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

The presentation highlights the latest activities regarding Virtual Production at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD Wolf in both production and in research & development. The student production “Der Turm”, shot at Halostage LED stage in Babelsberg, will be presented as a case study. Furthermore, current research topics in immersive media and virtual production at Film University’s new research facility “Creative Exchange Studio” will be highlighted.

Your lecturers: Prof. Björn Stockleben, Prof. Lena Gieseke, Branford Meentzen, Henry F. Bock

Björn Stockleben is professor of emerging media production at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. His current research areas comprise narrative XR, multi-user XR and virtual production. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Eastern Finland with a thesis on collaborative online creative processes and has been working as technical manager and UX consultant in EC and ESA funded research projects at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.

Lena Gieseke is a professor of Visual Media Technologies / Technical Direction in the M.A. Creative Technologies program. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart and held a scholarship of the Digital Media doctoral program of the Hochschule der Medien. Before returning to academia, Lena Gieseke worked for several years as a software-developer and 3D artist in the visual effects and 3D computer animation industry.

Henry F. Bock is a Bachelor student at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in the Film and Television Production programme. Prior to his studies, he trained as a media designer for image and sound at the renowned production company Al Dente Entertainment GmbH in Munich before working as a producer's assistant for the film production company Filmallee GmbH. Henry F. Bock is a scholarship holder of the VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten mbH.

Virtual Production in research and curriculum at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

The presentation provides insights into current research, education and tool development in Virtual Production. Filmakademie is also a partner in the ambitions Horizon Europe projects MAX-R and EMIL, funding and researching new technologies in the XR domain. Latest results from the Filmakademie "Set Extension Workshop" demonstrate how the students apply these technologies in practice.

Your lecturer: Simon Spielmann (Filmakademie BW)

Simon Spielmann is part of the R&D Department at the Animationsinstitut with focus on software development, real-time graphics and XR. In 2009, he graduated from Bauhaus-University Weimar as Media Scientist and Mathematician. He started his career as a freelance software developer in 2006, three years later he joined the research team at Animationsinstitut. Today, Simon is the principal Engineer at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. He is also responsible for the scientific counselling and supervision of the Technical Director Course at the Animationsinstitut.

VES - The Visual Effects Society Reception

We would like to cordially invite you to join the VES Reception. Lets meet and discuss "The future of Virtual production" with a few drinks and a bit of food.

Your lecturer:

Location Filmstudio HdM (Conference room "Hardcut" 052)

Host of the day: Prof. Stefan Grandinetti (BVK)

Stefan Grandinetti is apppointed Professor and head of Cinematography for Film and TV at Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart within the bachelor and master program of Audiovisual Media since 2010. Together with Simon Hermentin and Michael Kirschenloher he is responsible for the course "studio production film" as supervising Professor producing short fiction or documentary films, cinema spots, commercials, image films or music clips. He teaches classes as cinematography arts, lighting courses, and technologies and techniques for film and cinematography. His fields of research are High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Higher Frame Rates (HFR) Cinematography. He is the founder of the "International Cinematography Days" and HdM-institute "Visual Media Lab". Stefan Grandinetti is a member of German Society of Cinematographers (BVK), IMAGO Technical Committee (ITC), Film und Kinotechnische Gesellschaft (FKTG) and the first scientific journal for Cinematography (CITO).
Stefan Grandinetti started his career as assistant-camera with international feature films such as „Enemy at the Gates“, „Resident Evil“, "Equilibrium" or „Luther“. In 2003, he graduated from the Potsdam-Babelsberg Film Academy HFF „Konrad Wolf“ and has since been been working as a Director of Photography for feature films , documentaries, as well as industrials and commercials. He is the Director of Photography for award-winning documentaries such as „Life Goes On“ (Emmy International, Golden Hugo and Outstanding Achievments for Digital Video) and „Testimony“ (Prix Europa: Best Documentary) and feature films like "The House is Burning" and "Rain is Falling" (Kodak-Award and many more). His work has been invited to international festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Aspen, Valladolid, and many more. He has spoken on international filmschools and conferences or festivals like Electronic Imaging (IS&T/SPIE) in San Francisco, CINEC in Munich, MPEG/ISO-meeting in Strasbourg, CAMERIMAGE in Bydgosczc, Max-Ophüls-Preis, BVEexpo London, Technology & Innovation Summit-Berlinale, Inside-Out-Potsdam, Medienbildungsgesellschaft-Potsdam, “Teaching Cinematography” (IMAGO) at HFF Munich, Cinematography in Progress (IMAGO) Brussels,…

Metamerism and Metameric Failure

In a practical live demonstration I aim to illustrate the relation between the spectrum of a light source and the corresponding visual perception, its color. Metamerism describes the phenomenon when two different spectra create the same visual perception. As a second step we will look into metameric failure when seemingly similar white light creates different color perception of certain objects. While this can be used to make vegetable appear more ripe, this can cause issues in cinematography using various, especially LED based light sources.

Your lecturer: Dirk Meier (BVK, CSI)

A colourist and postproduction consultant, Dirk Meier has worked for companies such as The Post Republic, ARRI and Zentropa, and on films such as Lars von Trier’s "Antichrist", Sebastian Lelio’s "A fantastic Woman", Alice Rohrwacher’s "Happy as Lazzaro" and Roy Andersson’s "About endlessness". He was head of Up.Grade, the world’s first long-term educational programme for colour grading and is currently a full member of the IMAGO Technical Committee.

LEDs & Numbers

In the digital age, the solid-state lighting (LEDs) has created new opportunities for filmmakers and cinematographers. But they also radically changed the responsibility of gaffers and their skills necessary for the complex use of this new luminaires. The presentation aims to provide information on LEDs, including comparisons, with an emphasis on new measurement systems. Nowadays, the entire workflow is concerned by the quality of these indispensable tools.

Your lecturer: Philippe Ros (AFC)

Philippe Ros is a french cinematographer, digital Imaging supervisor and instructor. He specialized in hand-held camera and ergonomics issues and is fully acquainted with the digital shooting systems and the related post-production workflows. Member of the AFC (French Association of Cinematographers). Co-chair of the Technical Committee of IMAGO. Honorary Member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC).

Colour Matching in Virtual Production

To create the illusion of an extended virtual set, the parameters and characteristics of the foreground and virtual background need to match. Some parameters like movement and parallax can be homogenised by tracking and synchronisation. This talk will closely examine the colour match between foreground and background in a Virtual Production Stage. At first sight, colour matching might be seen as a 'calibration problem', but we will show that it is hard to predict before shooting. Colour matching on the shooting day must be fast, robust and easy to achieve because principle photography is a pressures time. Also, the production might not afford an expert only for this task. Hence, the tools for colour matching need to be very intuitive, fast to learn, and easy to operate.

Your lecturer: Daniele Siragusano

Daniele Siragusano, Image Engineer FilmLight After his Master of Arts in Electronic Media at the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart DanieleI spent almost five years at CinePostproduction in Munich. As technical supervisor and later as head of technology,he was in charge of digital image processing, DI colour management and post-production workflows. In 2014, Daniele joined FilmLight as a workflow specialist and image engineer. He is currently a research engineer developing new image processing and colour management tools for Baselight (FilmLight's colour corrector).

Challenges of Lighting with LED Walls in Virtual Production Environments

In LED virtual production stages, scenes are surrounded with millions of LEDs which can be used to create image-based lighting. But the currently used LED screens bring a lot of difficulties with them. Besides the classic challenges like moiré patterns or sync problems, complications occur when using the LED screen as a light source: A low dynamic range when it comes to scene contrast and a poor color rendition of scene objects and skin tones are downsides, when using a LED wall as an only light source. This lecture will take a closer look on how LED panels struggle with color rendition issues, due to their low spectral density. Julia Leber will analyze those challenges when lighting with a LED wall and point the way towards potential solutions, when shooting in a LED virtual production volume.

Your lecturer: Julia Isabell Leber

Julia Isabell Leber (B.Sc., B.Eng.) is a B.Eng. graduate of Audiovisual Media at Stuttgart Media University. Throughout her studies she specialized on film and wrote her thesis researching towards "Challenges of Lighting in Virtual Production Studios" at ARRI. She is a freelancer in the field of cinematography, including lighting and color grading.

Real Time Visual Effects Using LED Volumes in Motion Picture Production

Rendering Computer Generated Images in real-time has always been the holy grail for visual effects, and game engine technology is starting to make this dream a reality. New Extended Reality (XR) Virtual Production workflows are allowing filmmakers to capture visual effects shots in-camera using real-time game engine technology and surrounding LED screens. Extended Reality is the biggest paradigm shift in VFX production since the “Digital Revolution”. This disruptive change has evolved in reaction to the VFX industry pushing too far into Post Production. Real Time XR is new trend that will move VFX compositing back into production and onto the set.

Your lecturer: David Stump (ASC)

David Stump ASC has been working in motion pictures and television production as Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Supervisor, and as Stereographer, (including both live action work and 2D to 3D conversion work), earning an Emmy Award, an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement and an International Cinematographers Guild Award. His credits include such high profile projects as American Gods, The Unwilling, Immortals, Quantum of Solace, The Resident, Flight Plan, Fantastic Four, X-Men 1 & 2, Into the Blue, Garfield, Batman Forever, Hollow Man, Men of Honor, Deep Blue Sea, Stuart Little, The Sphere, Contact, Batman & Robin, Mars Attacks, Executive Decision, Stargate, and Free Willy, among many others. He is currently chairman of the Camera Subcommittee of the ASC Technical Committee, and a member of the AMPAS Science & Technology Council, where he chairs the Next Generation Cinema Technology Work Group, and participates in the AMPAS ACES project. Under his guidance, the combined efforts of the Producer’s Guild of America and the American Society of Cinematographers produced both the ASC / PGA Camera Assessment Series, and the ASC / PGA Image Control Assessment Series, side by side comparisons of virtually all of the high end digital cinema cameras against film. He has lectured and taught classes in Cinematography and Visual Effects at the American Film Institute, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Woodbury University, Arizona State University, Global Cinematography Institute, IATSE Local 600, TV Globo Rio De Janeiro Brasil, and recently Savannah College of Art and Design. He has spoken at many conferences and trade shows including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the International Broadcast Convention (IBC), Cinegear Expo, DV Expo, the PGA Produced By Conference, the Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat, the Cinegrid Conference, the IMAGO Conference, the Lisbon Film Festival, the Todos En Alta Conference in Zaragoza Spain, and many others. David authored the book “Digital Cinematography – Fundamentals, Techniques and Workflows”, and was a contributing author to the “VES Handbook”.

Lunch Break

Description coming soon.

Virtual Cinematography „The Social Experiment“ and Car Commercial

In this presentation cinematographer Daniel Schua shares his experiences with virtual production by giving insights into his work on the feature film „The Social Experiment” and a car commercial for the “Audi Activesphere Concept” which he both shot in a virtual production studio. He takes you behind the scenes of both productions and shares his experiences regarding the important steps of preproduction, scouting, cinematography, lighting, set design, SFX, communication and organization on set. It’s a field report from what he has learned and how he has used this creative tool as a cinematographer.

Your lecturer: Daniel Schua

Daniel Schua is a Hamburg based Director of Photography. After graduating from High School in 2012 he made his first experiences with cinematography and technical development at Weisscam in Munich. In 2016, Daniel graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering at Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart. In the course of his bachelor thesis he researched and created a camera test environment. Afterwards Daniel became a student at the Hamburg Media School where he studied cinematography and worked as a Director of Photography on numerous awarded short films and commercials. Soon after graduating in 2018, Daniel shot his first feature film „The Social Experiment“ which was distributed by Tobis Film and ran in 140 cinemas across Germany. This was the first german feature film which used virtual production.

Challenges and Opportunities in Colorgrading in Virtual Production Cinematography of Netflix's Series "1899"

This case study takes a closer look at the color grading process of the Netflix Series "1899". We will look at the workflow and the postproduction process and will put that in context with the special requirements of a novel shooting approach. We will discuss strengths and limitations of the new technology and what solutions were found in the process of color grading the program. We will also screen example footage of the program.

Your lecturer: Steffen Paul

Steffen Paul, Senior Colorist, Basis Berlin
Steffen Paul has 15 years of experience in post-production. Previously, he worked for 12 years at Arri Media GmbH and is currently employed at Basis Berlin Postproduction GmbH. He studied media technology at Mittweida in Germany and wrote his thesis in affiliation with the "Color Lab" at Gjøvik University College, Norway. Steffen has extensive expertise in building look-consistent pipelines from set to final grading. As a colorist, he is experienced in digital intermediates, film mastering, and grading film trailers and teasers. With a strong background in image processing and color management, Steffen will be presenting a case study based on a project he graded last year.

IMAGO Technical Committee (ITC): "Photons Path" and "Glossary"

In 2020 the IMAGO Technical Committee started an attempt to create a glossary that should clarify important cinematography related terms in a concise and scientifically correct way, yet easy to comprehend, acknowledging that cinematographers, assistants, gaffers, DITs and colorists are not scientists or engineers. As this task became more and more complex, the members realised that even among technically minded people it is difficult to agree on every aspect of terms like pixel, photosite, sensel, scene-referred etc. So Daniele Siragusano started a simple sketch to draft the path a single photon would pass from light source through lens, camera and post-production to the viewer looking at a display. As this sketch became very extensive and complex it helped to agree on the order of signal processing and correct terminology. This "Photon Path" became a very helpful tool to communicate amongst the members of the committee and triggered ideas to create an educational tool from it.
https://imago.org/activities/technical/

Your lecturer: Aleksej Berkovic (RGC), Daniele Siragusano, Philippe Ros (AFC), David Stump (ASC), Dirk Meier (BVK, CSI), Stefan Grandinetti (BVK)

https://imago.org/about-us/committees/technical-committee-members/

HBO Camera Assessment Series SEASON 6 (2022)

The HBO Camera Assessment Series, started over 10 years ago, is a project that seeks to create a rich and expansive image library, available to producers, directors, and cinematographers across the entire Warner Bros. Discovery family. The goal of this one-of-a-kind project is to not determine what camera is “best”, but to determine what camera is appropriate for each individual scenario we face across the vast quantity of productions made by the HBO, and the wider Warner Bros. Discovery.
The HBO Camera Assessment Series 2023 shows tests and demonstrations of leading high-end camera-systems in a high level demonstration environment. DCP: 93 min. We will have an online-Q&A with the Director an DoP Suny Behar after the screening.

Your lecturer: Suny Behar

Suny Behar is a director, cinematographer, consultant and educator. His career began in the theater, where he wrote and directed several plays for the stage. In 1997, he shifted focus and enrolled in the Master's program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, earning an M.F.A. in film and television production. Behar’s work in the field of visual storytelling has embraced a wide array of forms and formats over the years. From working as a camera layout artist on Pixar’s animated feature “Cars,” to assuming the role of cinematographer on music videos, short films, feature films, television shows and commercials. Behar’s focus on technology and trends has led him to serve as a consultant to a number of Fortune 500 companies including HBO, Panasonic, Canon and Google. He is passionate about combining artistic endeavors with the science of digital imaging. This passion is exercised yearly with the HBO Camera Assessment Series that Behar has photographed for the past 10 years and which was recently honored by a "Lumiere Award" from the Advanced Imaging Society. When he is not shooting or consulting, Behar spends his time furthering the development of LiveGrain, the pre-eminent provider of film texture applications for Hollywood Motion Picture Films and Episodic Television Series.

BVK Cine-Talk: Virtual Cinematography

We would like to invite you to join our panel-discussion about the future of cinematography in Extended Realities!
What are the challenges for cinematographers in Virtual Production? What are the necessary skills? And which competences are important and what does this mean for the position of DoPs and in education?
Alex Böhle and Stefan Grandinetti invite several speakers of the day such as DoP Jost Vacano (BVK, ASC) as a special guest, David Stump (ASC), Daniel Schua, Steffen Paul, Mark Dauth.
https://kinematografie.org/verband/

Your lecturer: Alex Böhle (BVK) & Stefan Grandinetti (BVK)

Vita Alex Böhle (BVK)
• Education in video and audio engineering
Schule für Rundfunktechnik (SRT), Nuremberg • Camera Assistant
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) Munich • Studies in dramatics, literature and art history
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich • Studies and diploma in photo design
LAZI Academy for Media Design Stuttgart • Studies and diploma in journalism
Freie Journalistenschule (FJS) Berlin • Freelance work as Photographer, Cinematographer, Director and Author • Lecturer for image and light design, film history and storytelling • Member of German Society of Cinematographers (BVK) and International Federation of Cinematographers (IMAGO)

Vita Jost Vacano (BVK, ASC)
Jost Vacano was born on March 15, 1934 in Osnabrück, Germany. He is a cinematographer, known for Das Boot (1981), Starship Troopers (1997) and RoboCop - Das Gesetz in der Zukunft (1987). He is Member of the German Society of Cinematographers (BVK) and of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1991.
During his long career, he shot 7 feature films for director Paul Verhoeven, more than any other cinematographer.
In December 2017, after a 12-year-long legal battle, a Bavarian court granted cinematographer Jost Vacano over $720,000 in deferred compensation and interest for the years 2002 to 2017 and a higher share in the future profits for his contribution to the Oscar-nominated war drama. It had taken him more than a decade, but an appeals court in Munich finally ruled in favor of Oscar-nominated cinematographer Jost Vacano, saying he should be better compensated for his contribution to the success of Wolfgang Petersen's anti-war classic "Das Boot". (OLG Munich Az. 29 U 2619/16).
Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th Camerimage International Film Festival in 2021. Special Achievement Award of the British Society of Cinemaotigraphers (BSC ) „In gratitude for his life long fight to secure author's rights for Cinematographers“ in February 2023.

BVK & FVSW Reception Party

Location Filmstudio HdM (Conference room "Hardcut" 052)

Your lecturer: