32 VR Profile
I THINK FEMALES PROVE STRONGER IN A FIELD THAT REQUIRES MULTI TASKING
UNDER PRESSURE The fully immersive live Queen concert featured a flying camera and ambisonic sound, adding to the technical and artistic challenges of the production
really jealous of the DP I’d been working with - he was a 60 year old man. I was in awe of the way he could work and be creative and the way he could sculpt a theme. Back home in Norway, a DP might choose a house because he likes the colour of it, but building a house and painting it the colour you wanted was totally out of our concept. There was just no tradition of working like that.” So, having worked at the cutting edge of capture technology, and with awards and feature films under her belt, Mikkelsen went to study cinematography at London’s National Film and Television School. She did her dissertation on the history of stereoscopy. 3D images are as old as photography itself, with the first 3D stills taken in 1839. Mikkelsen’s studies took her full circle and she worked with the NASA 3D collection that had first inspired her. She also had access to NASA’s archives of VR, which the agency has been producing since the late 1980s, and delved into the collections of museums and institutions, and private collections too. Naturally, all this brought her face-to- face with the lead guitarist of Queen. Dr. Brian May CBE, guitarist of one of the world’s biggest rock bands, has been (in addition to being an astrophysicist) an avid stereographic photographer and 3D tech collector for decades; a recently released book, Queen in 3-D , features a collection of his stereoscopic photography, taken during the band’s touring days. Her collaboration with May gave Mikkelsen access to a wealth of material for finishing her degree. In the meantime, Mikkelsen had been knocking at the door of Alchemy, the VR wing of blue-chip factual producer Atlantic Productions. She wanted to use her skills to work on location, and particularly in natural history. The day after she graduated from the National Film
fully immersive live concert of the band performing some of its best-loved songs. May kept asking for the impossible, and Mikkelsen kept providing. Not only was the film to be in 360 3D, but there would be a flying camera, which would swoop over the audience and stage and have access to all parts of the arena. A flying camera introduces a pandora’s box of technical and artistic challenges. Do it wrong and the viewer becomes nauseated, or the 3D and VR experience is irritating. You’re also committed to doing everything remotely. Mikkelsen designed a rig of 20 GoPro cameras, as well as complex software that held it all together, building on her experience and the knowledge base in 3D and VR built up by her team over the years. To top it o, the film also featured ambisonic audio. The film earned Mikkelsen an Imago Award last year for Extraordinary Technical Achievement. LONG LIVE VR Certainly the common cynicism is that VR is going, or will soon go, the way of 3D,
and Television School, Atlantic’s Anthony Geen called to ask if Mikkelsen could go work on a 3D documentary in Costa Rica – and could she please send over her passport information in 20 minutes? All set to use her 3D skills in the field, she met with Alchemy and found that it wasn’t a 3D documentary she had been recruited for, but a 2D 360 documentary. Mikkelsen worked with Phil Harper, who was head of Alchemy’s digital team at the time, creating 360 rigs from scratch and helping design more of the cutting edge tech that Atlantic/Alchemy has won so many awards for. She shot multiple projects for Atlantic, Cocos: Shark Island and the award-winning David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef. But the Atlantic documentary was only 2D 360. When would she have the opportunity to user her stereographic skills in 360 production? Another phone call. It was Dr. Brian May. This time, he didn’t want to talk 3D history; he wanted to make 3D history. He asked Mikkelsen to help produce a 3D 360 concert film, featuring Queen on its 2016 tour. The result was VR The Champions , a
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