This programme is targeting professional TV/film/digital producers, script editors and digital asset managers who want to learn about new VR and pre-visualisation possibilities and learn how to develop a real-time film-like scenario or companion piece to their projects in VR or 360 video using Unity3D and the Oculus Rift/HTC Vive and Google cardboard HMD technology. They will learn about interactive storytelling, explore the real-time cinema advantages of Unity3D with hands-on demonstrations of real world production work, 360 filming with various cameras, digital asset creation and management for VR and 360 video production workflows over four full days of hands-on training (including a visit to the Netherlands Film Academy to experience their bespoke pre-visualisation setup) and one-to-one sessions.

This scheme is funded by Creative Skillset’s Skills Investment Fund.

The course is delivered both online and in workshops, and will be open to 18 participants in total. There are four intensive workshops over four days in September and October 2016. These will be delivered at Lighthouse in Brighton, in our Brighton studio and at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.

In addition to that, each participant will get to work with their tutors online (via Skype conferences) and/or in person (depending on location) over the entire duration of the course, in order to coach them individually to develop their skills and projects in a bespoke manner that suits their criteria.

Participants from all groups will take part in an all day workshop on transmedia storytelling and scripting, focusing on the psychology of immersion and multi-sensory immersion techniques in VR and 360 video. They will also learn about production and distribution opportunities and pitfalls for companion pieces in VR and 360 video.

This workshop will be held on September 20th 2016 from 09.00 – 18.00 with a short lunch break at Lighthouse in Brighton, by our longstanding transmedia artist and tutor Simon Wilkinson, who is working on various VR theatre installations and on a second version of his successful installation The Cube, an interactive Oculus Rift installation funded for the second time by the Arts Council England.

Simon Wilkinson will work with the group to look into current thinking regarding storytelling for virtual reality. This will include first person perspective narrative, transmedia storytelling, multi- sensory immersive techniques and relative distribution models and how they affect how stories can be told for VR and 360 video.

Following Day 1, the three participants will attend Days 2 and 3 in small groups of five participants during September and October 2016. The dates will be allocated to each participant during the interview process.

The focus on these days will be to explore in-depth the real-time cinema advantages of Unity3D with hands-on real world demonstrations of work in progress, and participants building their own 360 environment in Unity3D (for digital asset managers), exploring 360 filming options and showcases, digital asset creation techniques and asset management for VR and 360 video. The training days are tailored to the participants (producers, script editors and digital asset managers will all focus on the issues relevant to their fields). We will also film and stream some of the session using the Theta 360 camera.

This training will take place in our Brighton studio on the dates assigned to each group, from 10.00 – 19.30 with a short lunch break. The tutors will be art director and mixed media artist Scott McPherson, filmmaker and motion graphics designer Tim Grabham and the Netherland Film Academy’s VR and real-time cinema course leader and developer Jilt Van Moorst.

Day 4 will be a visit to the Netherlands Film Academy on 20th October 2016, where all participants will experience the academy’s bespoke pre-vis setup using Unity3D, real-time motion capture and the HTC Vive, and will learn about the opportunities this harbors for their respective fields.

This visit is essential, as the real world film and Unity3D pre-vis setup at the academy shows the innovative and cost-effective approach that Unity3D and HMDs brings to the fields of pre-visualisation, content creation and the creation of VR companion pieces.

One-on-one training sessions on person or via Skype will be scheduled according to the needs of each participant.

The topics to be covered during the workshops and the individual tutoring sessions are:

•  Storytelling and narrative with interactive audiences in mind for 360 video and VR creation.
• Production principles and workflows
• Introduction into the HTC Vive and HMD use
• Creating 360 content for YouTube
• The real-time cinema advantages of Unity3D for effects, pre-visualisation, creative green-screening and shot creation in VR.
• Hands-on demonstrations and walkthroughs of real-time techniques and their use in film and broadcast.
• 360 filming, editing workflows and software basics of VR in Unity3D versus 360 video and its various workflows.
• Real world 3D content, effects and particles in Unity3D for use in real-time cinema workflow and production.