IN SHORT HESTIA
we as directors and as a company – as Red Robin Films – do. We make smaller, intimate stories based around families and personal narratives but set them inside larger-than-life worlds,” made possible in part by virtual production. “For that, we require technology that is expensive and more grandiose; harder to access. With the feature we’re starting to develop now, it fits in line perfectly with what we like to do and how we like to approach production.” In the meantime, though, Hestia is hopeful on the festival circuit, with Lowley and Drane also planning a sprinkling of private screenings. Hestia wouldn’t exist – or perhaps would be a significantly different film – without virtual production, a tool that’s “here to stay for the foreseeable,” predicts Drane. “It allows you to do things that you probably wouldn’t be able to do as easily. I like how versatile it is, how you can have multiple environments on the same day – it means that you don’t have to pack everything up and move.” Still largely in their infancy, virtual production toolkits remain relatively inaccessible, especially to independent filmmakers. “For the most part, it’s really expensive,” Drane concludes, “so being able to democratise it would be great.” Sony’s DMPCE is one available option that’s letting creatives get their hands on the tech, with films like Hestia paving the way.
THERE WERE TIMES WHEN we were shooting AND I WAS FORGETTING IT WAS against a screen ”
get in there with Amber in the moments of despair and sadness, was really important,” shares Lowley. “We couldn’t have done that without the flexibility the BURANO gave us.” Ighodaro also employed the VENICE 2, allowing him to compare both cameras side-by-side – “the contrast, shadow, detail, highlights and also the colour rendition,” he says – and he ultimately chose the VENICE 2 for wider shots of the spaceship and the Earth. Thanks to the Crystal LED’s anti-glare technology, “there were times when we were shooting and I was forgetting that it was a screen,” admits Ighodaro, which helped him light the set. “I was treating it as a window, and using the lighting from the [virtual] world as a reference for what I was going to do with my practical fixtures.” The LED backdrop also allowed Ighodaro to capture almost everything in camera, which “meant that we could start, in real time, seeing the direction of
the film,” explains Lowley. “When you’re working with other approaches, you don’t get that, and you’re left guessing. I think we had our first cut within a week.” A PERFECT FIT Hestia ’s future is still up for debate but Lowley and Drane hope to expand the story into a feature-length film, again with Doig-Thorne in the lead. “Obviously we’re going to want Amber in that as well,” shares Lowley. “It’s in line with what
CREATIVE SPACE Virtual production allowed Hestia to form a creative tone at a speed that’s not possible with traditional methods
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