How I Came to Work with Real Actors in Virtual Reality
A personal journey
I trained as an actor extensively in Theater around the world. At the Sorbonne, St. Petersburg Academy of the Arts in Russia, with MXAT in Cambridge, the National Theater Institute in CT, Circle in the Square in NY, and finally I did my post-grad at LAMDA in the UK. Every culture had a unique method and technique to help an actor find emotional truth. In France I discovered the sense of play, in Russia the limitlessness of the imagination, at NTI the dedication to the ensemble, in the US the focus on the individual and internalized memory, and in the UK — the supreme importance placed on text.
After graduating from LAMDA I suddenly gravitated towards filmmaking. I’d had success at our showcase in Los Angeles, but I felt compelled to make a feature film. Why would I finish at one of the greatest drama schools to then pivot and change paths? Especially why pivot without any formal filmmaking training? First, I felt deeply compelled to explore a new artistic language and an opportunity arose that gave me access to film inside a fascinating world of scientists. Second, I felt limited by the auditioning system; full of constraints which I believe is a result of a longtime hierarchical system where all artists are not respected as equals. Third, I found that Cinema, like Theater, is just a medium for storytelling.
Finding myself in a new position to guide a team based on my artistic vision felt like an exciting way to grow as an artist and to express my voice as a more dimensional storyteller.
I stepped away from Theater to direct films and to form my own production company. I believed that if I could assemble teams under my direction, and work with talented people who were supportive; I could reclaim my artistic voice.
Elements from my love of Theater have found their roots in many of my films (Matterspacetime, Hilda, Diptych) with staged dramatizations, dance sequences and entire musical numbers sweeping down concrete streets.
My explorations in film have been incredibly fulfilling. I’ve been fortunate to work with incredible talents from Broadway and the professional dance world to bring my dreams of hybrid cinema (documentary combined with fictional dream sequences) to life.
VR presented a whole new world of possibility; a new stage. VR provides a world that enables my wildest dreams to take form in three-dimensional visuals and auditory immersion. It is a medium where I can truly create a storyworld and work with performers and audiences alike in immersive, interactive ways.
Since entering this wild new frontier of Virtual Reality, I have built a handful of original 3D storyworlds. The first, “Cardboard City” put the audience inside an artist’s studio built out of cardboard. A follow-up piece, Cardboard City Interactive, expanded the story to the artists and activists fighting to maintain affordable studio spaces in Brooklyn — told through a 20 minute non-linear AR documentary and interactive Makerspace. In the past 3 years there have been many 360/VR documentary films and theatrically stylized stories featuring varieties of dance from Merce Cunningham to dance comedy to a modern dream ballet. And finally METROPOLES, my ongoing interactive experience, a VR multi-player game about gentrification, which involves live performance.
When I was contacted by designer Alex Coulombe and VR director David Gochfeld, I discovered they were also searching for an answer to the common question regarding live VR performance:
How do we overcome the Uncanny Valley?
The Uncanny Valley is difficult enough to overcome in pre-recorded, rendered, beautifully animated VR. How does one attempt to present a truthful, theatrical performance live in VR?
How do we as a team (and as an industry) get to the other side of the VR landscape where our actors can feel emotionally connected and our audiences feel emotionally satisfied? Is Volumetric Capture the only true form to present believable 3D live performance? If that is true, then what can we do in the meantime?
David, Alex and I have set out on an adventurous series of experiments to work with actors in the social VR platform, High Fidelity, with the aim of overcoming the Uncanny Valley. We may fail at this great attempt, but we will strive to learn along the way.
I’ll be writing about our journey through a variety of experiments that seek to explore, to probe, and to overcome this challenge. I’ll be writing from my point of view, as a director, as a woman, as a former actor, and foremost, as a human — leaping between the real and the virtual worlds. I won’t propose any medicated treatments — there is never a salve-all for everyone. But along with my colleagues, I shall share personal reflections and anecdotes that are leading us towards new discoveries; and within this boundless new medium of storytelling, there are bound to be discoveries.
