Virtual Production Expert from Blade Runner 2049 Brings Creative Power Back into the Hands of Directors

PICTURE THIS_18 reveals full programme and BAFTA-winner and Academy Award-nominee, Habib Zargarpour, as keynote speaker. Zargarpour has created the real-time film-making tools and systems used in ‘Blade Runner 2049’, ‘The Jungle Book’and the upcoming film ‘Ready Player One’, directed by Steven Spielberg. At PICTURE THIS_18, he will share his insights on the current paradigm shift of virtual film production and “why it’s bigger than you think”.

Habib Zargarpour is a true pioneer of real-time filmmaking and the Chief Creative Officer of Vancouver-based Digital Monarch Media. He has been developing real-time cinematography tools since 2003 and has created the Virtual Film Tools that are currently deployed on Tom Hank’s film ‘Greyhound’ and were used on Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’.

Zargarpur will join us at PICTURE THIS_18, delivering the closing keynote, focusing on the amazing creative possibilities of the real-time filmmaking tools and the current paradigm shift of virtual film production.His mission is to bring all the magic of the digital effects and animations, that have moved to the back rooms of post-production, back into the hands of the director. His wide range of software solutions are used by directors, designers and VFX houses worldwide and have played a pivotal role in multiple Oscar winning productions since the creation of Digital Monarch Media in 2014.

Democratizing the filmmaking process: Making movie magic on a budget

How do you make a movie that looks like a 100 million dollars production on a Danish film budget of 2 million dollars? The directorial team of Kirsten Skytte and Thomas Borch Nielsen share how they created the magical universe of ‘Captain Bimse’, using tools like the Unity game engine for virtual scenography, Da Vinci Resolve for clipping and Fusion 9 for Compositing. All these tools are available in free versions, making them available to everyone and thereby democratizing the film process.

Interactive Previz: disrupting the creative workflow

Mirko Lempert (assistant professor at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts) and Martin Christensen (creative director) have created an intuitive previsualization tool that is affordable, easy to apply in virtual production processes and facilitates artistic collaboration. The system itself is based on game engines and allows directors, scriptwriters, cinematographers, set designers and digital artists to create, manipulate and interact with CG-environments and objects in real-time. Lempert and Christensen will present the tool and show how it can be applied at an early stage of script development and to efficiently prepare a shoot.

The system will also be on display in the demo area during the event.

Full line-up announced for PICTURE THIS_18
The other speakers at the conference are:

Opening keynote Ted Schilowitz, Futurist at Paramount Pictures, on ‘The Augmented Human’ and the future of cinematic storytelling
Writer-director Kristine T. Berg and producer Drew Diamond from Entertainment Technology Center on the creative and technical aspects of integrating virtual reality into a live action film production pipeline in ‘Wonder Buffalo’
Simon Jon Andreasen, Head of DADIU and the Animation Directors Education at The National Film School of Denmark, and Jakob Ion Wille, Associated Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, on decision-making and methodology in the early stages of story world-development for film and television production
Christian Faber, World Builder and former art director and partner in the advertising agency Advance, on the IP building of story world ‘Rebel Nature’
Emmanuel Kuster, project manager at The Fiction Lab, and Nadira Azermai, CEO and founder of ScriptBook, demonstrating how data and AI can augment creativity in filmmaking

The full programme and detailed descriptions of all sessions and speakers are available on our website.

Date: April 5, 2018, 9.00 AM to 5:30 PM
Conference venue: KADK – The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Building 51, Entrance K.

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