Barriers to XR Adoption in Virtual Production — Part 4
And how to get past them — A guide for users
This series is an extension of an article by Nils Porrmann, Thomas Kother and myself posted at dandelion + burdock
You can read the full article at the frame:work website
XR Production
It may look like a duck and sound like a duck; it’s not a duck
If you take away one thought from this article, let it be this: do not underestimate how little you know about XR Production. It cannot be understated how much of the production playbook must be completely torn out by the roots and re-written to use these tools effectively. Existing budgets and schedules no longer apply. Team hierarchy no longer applies. That engineer in the back the Executive Producer barely knew existed is now telling the Director what shots will and won’t work.
This will be hard for your client to understand. It’s the same team with the same gear running the same screens, right? All you did was plug in some camera data and what’s so hard about that? Also, the last time you told me you needed more time and money, you were fine, the show was fine so this is clearly just more of the same.
Have you bid an XR project? Does this sound familiar yet?
That’s just one side of this problem. If the client cannot see the implications of how hard this is, please assume you might be making similarly poor assumptions about the implications to the rest of the production. We are often too willing to find a way to deliver to our clients without clearly stating the risks we are taking on to do so. Sometimes we overlook the risks entirely.
As video screens have dominated event production over the years, every risk our team’s take has larger and larger impact. Faults are harder to hide and failures can be showstoppers when video screens tip over 70% of the visual real estate. In the past, a major issue might mean the lighting department steps up their look or you shoot around the problem. At the very least, rehearsal can continue.
When there is an issue with XR, the entire production stops. Everything. No more camera rehearsal and no more set until the issue is resolved. We’re used to being in the hot seat, some might even question the sanity of working under the stress of our normal production conditions. XR is another beast entirely. We cannot be cavalier about the implications of using XR without a backup plan.
I know we are fighting for budget, but it is worth considering having a parallel system to run traditional content while an XR issue is sorted out. This is especially true of shows that use a single volume for both XR and 2D content (2D content in this case refers to spatially static content). It will seem like an impossible ask, but running a parallel system is cheaper than overtime for the entire production team. At least discuss this failsafe and its implications when bidding a show.
As for explaining to your client what they don’t know about the job they have done for decades, that’s a far more delicate discussion. Having a clear and thoughtful conversation reviewing the reasons behind the large increase in your team size, the budget and schedule implications will help, but you need a willing listener. We need simple tools to explain the significance of choosing XR on a production.
Many XR production teams are producing Behind The Scenes clips to sound this message. In other cases, manufacturers are providing documentation to help outline the changes to the production workflow when working in XR. You can also forward this or Nils’ article.
Sometimes the only path to fully realizing how different XR Production is, is to go through it. This is why I encourage you to stick to your guns about building up your team, budget and time requests to ride out the challenges of taking a client, or your team, through these first XR Production experiences. You will need to be a clear communicator and thoughtful production partner to get through this XR Production development phase.
Inter-Department Communication
Preparing for your seat at the table
For an XR production, XR teams should prepare the client for a far expanded presence in production meetings and creative discussions as early as possible. Many choices and discussions that impact the XR process will occur without the production team understanding those impacts unless a central XR team member, like the XR Producer is there to capture those discussions and raise issues as they come up. The trick of course is establishing this new position and dynamic within an existing group of professionals.
I have long advocated for a greater presence of the Screens Producer role in production planning with mixed results. I have experienced great collaborations and other times, I have felt like a diner waitress of video content. What matters is I kept working to evolve the role. Every producer or director will eventually have that light bulb moment that shows the value of collaborating with someone in the Screens Producer role. Are you ready for that moment for XR? Is someone on the team ready?
Leadership is not a function of expertise, although that clearly helps with XR. Good leadership is being excellent at communicating, and good communication is a function of listening more than it is speaking. You listen for the problems, you listen for the goals, you speak solutions and improvements. If you can capture the issues facing your clients early, you can solve potential issues before they become major problems by shaping your advice to known working solutions. Solving problems and making yourself a valuable partner will encourage production leadership to listen to you.
Good leadership is also building relationships with your partner video departments. The camera department is not thrilled with their new virtual overlords mucking about with their lenses. We have to show them we are there to support their work, not take it over. We have to show the broadcast engineers and screen engineers we care about their success too. We have to be respectful of how we integrate XR into these existing roles by educating ourselves about those roles and become valued partners.
Finally, good leadership is being thoughtful about the disruption of XR Production to the rest of the production team. They don’t know what they don’t know about Virtual Production and XR Production is the most technologically complex approach to unfamiliar territory. Production teams instead focus on what appears to be familiar while adapting to the difficulties of getting back to work at all in the pandemic. We have to lead with a firm voice, clear information and some awareness not every production will adapt to XR easily. Change is hard. And budgets, they have a lot of changing to do.
We’ll look at budgeting and scheduling in Part 5 of the series.
