EDUCATION
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ended up doing that last scene further down the line, during post-production. By this stage, the audio files for the testimonies with Manfred and Susan had been sent to us and we’d begun clean-up to optimise and insert them into the builds. Hearing Manfred’s story while we were piecing it all together, and having the team go back to meet him, was such a huge pinnacle of the entire process. It was so nice for everyone to meet him; he’s a phenomenal man.” Filming 360° is significantly smaller in footprint than traditional filming. “You don’t need to have a full crew with you for 360° filming – the crew actually can’t be in the space with the subject being filmed,” says Lockington. “We have a scene of Manfred and his wife Shari sitting down in their living room, just going about their day while you – the user – are there with them. Because no one else is in the room during filming, their actions are just so natural that when you see it in headset as a user, the connection to Manfred and Shari feels authentic. I learnt so much about history working on the project, and I’m glad that future generations will have access to Manfred and Susan’s testimonies. From what we’ve heard, the feedback has all been really good – and seeing it in the media has also been positive. The prime minister has said a couple of nice words about it as well, which was lovely to see.” For the AI testimonies created by the USC Shoah Foundation, Goldberg, alongside fellow survivors Susan Pollack OBE, Hannah Lewis MBE and John Dobai, spent five days being filmed within a green-screen rig from multiple angles at once. This was achieved using special volumetric capture cameras. They each answered over 1000 questions to ensure that their virtual selves could answer almost any question a student might ask about their experiences of the Holocaust. Pollack, Lewis and Dobai’s virtual testimonies are set to be rolled out in schools in the near future. “This technology is remarkable – it feels close to magic. Never during those dark days of the Holocaust did I ever imagine that one day I would see myself and my story immortalised in this way. I’ve spoken to thousands of pupils over the years – perhaps now I’ll make it millions. If this is my legacy, it will be a truly remarkable one,” concludes Goldberg.
elements to the pre-production that we don’t normally have, but no project is ever the same as another.” Shooting in Latvia proved particularly challenging; Infinite Form ultimately had to attempt different ways to get there. “We were trying to be as cost-efficient as possible,” adds Lockington. “The crew were travelling by van and filming over six weeks. By the time we would have reached Poland, I couldn’t have got our crew any further east because there were so many border closures due to the war in Ukraine. At that point, the safest option was to have the crew drive down into Hamburg, Germany. From there, I ended up flying them over to Latvia. It wasn’t safe to have a crew so close to the borders at that point in time.” Infinite Form filmed everything on Insta 360 Pro 2s, and the programme is delivered on Pico Neo 3 headsets. “We had an invigilator platform for syncing playback, but it could be used on any device,” details Lockington. “It was an app-built program, and the set-up used a router so that it could be moved freely between different places. It would sync to the Wi-Fi, and then could be launched via the invigilator app.” Reality Capture photogrammetry software helped capture all the artefacts. “We have a brilliant 3D modeller, Marcell Rideg, who did all our photogrammetry. I think there were over 56 artefacts in the end. Though it wasn’t all used, what he captured was incredible. Over the course of six weeks, Marcell took one photo at every angle for each of the artefacts and landmarks; it was a lot of work. “We started calling it the Marcell shuffle, as he had to take one step to the side at a time, going around the subject to capture it. It’s a brilliant piece of work, and was then cleaned up and optimised. “Something that was really special and important to the client was the fact that everything we recorded was authentic, and we took that to heart. There are no add-ins to the models or to the authentic spaces. It was an incredible job that was well worth the time taken.” SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES The last shot of filming was inside Goldberg’s house. “We only did one shoot inside his house. Manfred’s wife Shari was unwell, so the film date was pushed back to respect this and we
I’ve spoken to thousands of pupils over the years – perhaps now I’ll make it millions. If this is my legacy, it will be a truly remarkable one”
Testimony 360 has immortalised the stories of survivors like Goldberg so they can long continue to be shared
Educational VR experiences like this open up a world of possibilities for engaging students in history lessons
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