While the privatization of the space has led to new interest from Hollywood, an ambitious 360-degree video project is already raising the bar.
Mankind has been looking at space as the last frontier for centuries, and the film industry is no exception. Last year it was reported that Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman coordinated with NASA and SpaceX on a $ 200 million action-adventure shot aboard the International Space Station, while Channel One TV in Russia rushed to its own cast and crew up there to get. first for the recording in October of a mysterious project called ‘Challenge’.
But a few Canadian filmmakers beat them both. Since January 2019, the VR studio, Felix & Paul, launched by virtual reality directors Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael in 2013, has been compiling 360-degree footage of 10 astronauts from a rotating team on handmade cameras.
The material has so far fueled the first two episodes of the four-part VR series “Space Explorers: The ISS Experience” so far. The result, co-produced by Time Studios, provides the most advanced way to date for audiences – at least those who own VR headsets – to experience what it’s like to live in the 21-year-old space station in zero gravity. , orbiting 250 miles above the earth’s surface.
“The audience no longer has to just watch stories about human spaceflight,” Lajeunesse said in an interview with Zoom. “We can really make them feel like participants and experience an astronaut from within.”
The first installment, which documented the astronauts’ training for their upcoming mission, performed at Sundance in 2018. Launched at SXSW last month, ‘Advance’, Felix and Paul reveal a staggering look at the daily routines of astronauts as they reflect on their experiences, from laboratory experiments to mealtimes in the immediate area. It also places a renewed focus on the history of women in space.
This summer, they expect to go one step further by working with astronauts on a spacewalk for five days in the dark, dangerous vacuum outside the station. The Felix & Paul team has developed a complex process to develop equipment for the shooting and coordinate with the astronauts from the ground. “If you work in an environment like this, you really can not improvise,” Lajeunesse said. “Ultimately, you only have a few people in space, and they’re in a dangerous environment – the most hostile environment humans know.”
A number of projects have been shot on the ISS over the years, with IMAX cameras used during the early days of the ISS for the “Space Station 3D” of 2002, while space tourist Richard Garriott made a short film for amateurs in 2012 director. use for ‘Space Explorers’ represents a major step forward for engaging media, just in time for the privatization of space to stimulate renewed interest in a rising low economy on Earth. “The culture of what is happening in space is going to develop and change,” Lajeunesse said. “It’s a very natural evolution of the idea that Hollywood studios want to create a project up there.”
NASA has been using emerging VR technology for aerospace training since the 1990s, but when representatives of the agency first met with Lajeunesse and Raphael in 2016, they had a very different proposal. “I do not think they would ever view virtual reality as a story medium, as a way to tell the story of human spaceflight and to make audiences feel a part of the journey from a narrative and outreach point of view, said Lajeunesse. “It was more like a utility.”
At that time, Felix & Paul Studios had built a record as one of the more prominent entities in the young field of engaging media. The team developed VR projects for studios, such as ‘Jurassic World: Apatosaurus’ from 2015, but it was inside the Oval Office of the Emmy-winning ‘The People’s House’ of 2016 that helped clinch the deal. “It gave NASA confidence in our ability to work with highly controlled protocols,” Raphael said. “Just by seeing content that had nothing to do with space, they could see the power and potential of placing cameras on the ISS.”
“Space explorers”
Although NASA retained control of the operation, it did not invest financially in its production. Lajeunesse and Raphael did not want to specify the exact budget for all four deliveries of ‘Space Explorers’, except to say that it cost several million dollars, most of which came from licensing with a consortium of 5G telecommunications companies which forms the Global XR Content Telco. Alliance. The footage is also licensed for domes and planetariums, including the Space Center Houston. “We approached it very early on when we realized it was going to be an expensive production,” Lajeunesse said. “From a compelling background for storytelling, we knew we would create the master of the story in VR, but then create additional products for other platforms.”
Much of the budget has been allocated to camera design. “Our cameras are instruments that are not really products, and it yields on its own months of talks with NASA,” Raphael said. “We wanted something that could be used very easily for the astronauts, very compact, small, lightweight.”
Since everything sent to space had to be certified for safety – and that recording equipment also had to pass FCC certification, additional adjustments were needed. They decide on a customized version of the stereoscopic Z CAM V1 Pro and Sony IVa camera. Adhesives blocked from the space had to be removed from the gear, as well as other technical specifications that affected the temperature fluctuations, as heat dissipated differently in the space. A few months ago, the team sent a highly customized version of the EV-8 camera that will be used for the space walks. Meanwhile, they also had to create software that enabled the 4K video to return to Earth for remote viewing.
“Space explorers”
Felix and Paul
Since NASA insisted on approving all footage before it was released to the filmmakers, they wanted to develop a relationship with the first crew working with the cameras so that they could train their replacements to capture compelling moments. “We need time from the astronaut to become the protagonists of the story – and to become our production staff during the flight,” Lajeunesse said. “We had to set up a production process that enabled us to work remotely from the ground up and answer their questions in real time.”
During that period, they accompanied the crew to keep the cameras close to the action. “We wanted to position the camera as if it were a crew member, not bodyless or observing them from a distance,” Lajeunesse said. This encouraged the astronauts to let the cameras run during some human moments.
After ISS engineer Christina Koch took part in an hour-long interview, she continued to record while opening a packet of fresh apples, then passed slices of it to a colleague who tried to catch it in his mouth. . The result is one of the more enchanting scenes of the second episode. In another deceptive order, a group of astronauts returning to Earth embrace their colleagues as their bodies gradually circle through the now quarters. “We tried to focus on the kind of content that made the audience feel like they’re just caught on at the moment,” Raphael said.
The project overlaps with a favorable time for the emerging space industry. With the recent attention to NASA’s Perseverance lander arriving at Mars – including a landing video that went viral – the potential of VR cameras in space is just beginning. Lajeunesse said the studio had previously been in talks with NASA about involvement in the upcoming ARTEMIS missions, which are designed to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 40 years.
“Space explorers”
“It is essential to document the next major milestones in space exploration through engaging media,” he said. “These projects are really about humanity. It is not about specific countries or people. It is about understanding our place in the universe within the infinite cosmos. This journey is meant to be shared with everyone on earth. ”
He added that the Tom Cruise and Russia projects need not surprise anyone who commercializes the rush for space access. With SpaceX to advance its ambitions, and companies like Axiom looking to build a private commercial module for the ISS, the next decade could offer quite a bit of technological and creative ambition in zero-G.
“It feels very organic to me. This transition of space exploration is completely owned by national space agencies to open the door to the private sector,” Lajeunesse said. “We’re seeing the results now.”
The first two episodes of “Space Explorers: The ISS Experience” are now available in the Oculus Store and can be seen on the Quest, Quest 2 and Rift.
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