Tag Archives: virtual production

FLY ANGEL SOUL Short Film — Volumetric Video and Virtual Cameras—The Future of Film?

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Angel Cam Scene 3 FLY ANGEL SOUL

“Inspired by the words of Meister Eckhart, “let us pray to God that we be empty of God, and that we rejoice in the everlasting truth in which the highest angel and the soul and the fly are equal,’ ‘FLY ANGEL SOUL’ transports viewers into a world where spirituality, love, and technology converge.

The story unfolds as a devoutly Catholic mother, drawn by this enigmatic quotation in her estranged son’s diary, envisions an alternate past. In this vision, she is present when her son, Sebastian, receives his AIDS diagnosis at the height of the epidemic. Employing cutting-edge technologies, the film invites us to explore the tension between the constraints of the physical world and the human pursuit of something greater.

‘FLY ANGEL SOUL’ introduces us to a groundbreaking narrative approach through three distinct eponymous virtual cameras: fly, angel and soul, each offering a unique perspective. This isn’t traditional cinema; it’s a journey into the uncharted territory of computer-encoded viewpoints and the unscripted depths of the human heart. The ‘soul cam,’ masterfully embodied by Clémence Debaig, a choreographer, dancer, and creative technologist, who “plays” the role of Sebastian’s mother, acts as a cinematic avatar, allowing viewers to actively participate in the narrative., as she navigates a world where past and present intertwine. 

With FLY ANGEL SOUL, we utilize virtual production methods to radically alter the process of filmmaking. Here, liveness rests as much in how Debaig responded to the mis-en-scene (spatial sound, captured performance, architecture, lighting, and objects) as it changed in real-time as in the actors’ performance (captured prior to filming with volumetric video). This sense of liveness is augmented by Jarrah Gurrie’s dynamic editing. 

Soul Cam scene 2

Soul Cam perspective Scene 1

Incorporating an immersive first-person perspective and weaving in audio monologues drawn from Sebastian’s fragmented diary entries and those who shared his life, viewers are not just spectators but integral participants in the narrative. Together, yet maintaining our individual viewpoints, we delve into the themes of human suffering, love, and faith. Meticulously designed scenes guide us through a dynamic journey, shifting from expansive computer-generated landscapes to intricately hand-painted cathedral-like interiors. These transitions parallel Sebastian’s impending diagnosis and the consequent erosion of his freedom, mirroring our own progression from discovery to intimate engagement. 

Fly cam perspective Scene 1

In a pivotal moment, The Doctor challenges Sebastian’s self-condemning logic, setting the stage for a powerful transformation. As our story culminates, an initially imposing interior yields to the embrace of nature. The sun’s harsh glare softens into a starlit night sky, symbolizing both Sebastian’s realization that he, too, is worthy of love and the realization of his mother’s provocative assertion that her son has “returned to God.” 

Angel cam perspective Scene 1

In Post-Production on FLY ANGEL SOUL

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Using cutting-edge virtual production methods, “FLY ANGEL SOUL” invites viewers on a mother’s surreal journey through an alternate past, where she confronts her son’s AIDS-related death. Guided by his diary and memories, she discovers the transformative power of love, faith, and art to transcend tragedy.

“Soul” cam still

“LET US PRAY TO GOD THAT WE BE EMPTY OF GOD…”
Drawn in by a Meister Eckhart quotation from her son’s diary, the mother envisions an alternate past where her son is alive and she is present when he receives his AIDS diagnosis. The film delves into the tension between the constraints of the physical world and the human yearning for something greater.


“FLY ANGEL SOUL” employs innovative storytelling techniques using three virtual cameras, each representing a distinct perspective: the Angel, the fly, and the soul. Unlike traditional cinema, the film doesn’t focus on “getting the shot.” Instead, it embraces the unexpected aesthetics of computer-encoded viewpoints and the intricate emotions of the human heart. The perspective from the “soul cam” is crafted through the creative path of Clémence Debaig, a choreographer, dancer, and creative technologist who embodies the role of Sebastian’s mother.


Through this first-person shooter perspective, viewers are intimately connected to the characters, immersing themselves in their emotions and experiences. As the mother navigates this alternate reality, the audience becomes an integral part of her journey, sharing in her heartache, hope, and exploring the boundaries between reality and the extraordinary.


Angel Cam view

“FLY ANGEL SOUL” explores the possibilities for virtual production methods to reshape film language. Our challenge lies in empowering viewer agency and narrative-shaping responsibility and invoking a heightened sense of presence within the constraints of 2D film. To tackle this, our film production has taken on the guise of a functional laboratory, where diverse talents including visual artists, architects, developers, cinematographers, choreographers, writers, directors, sound designers, and composers converge.Through collaborative experimentation, we strive to channel our expertise in interactive storytelling and installation art, envisioning how cinema can redefine perceptual limits and challenge established concepts of reality.

Fly Cam view (Work in Progress)

Shout out to the Incredible team! And my longtime creative partner Cyril Tsiboulski.


Michael Debartolo Sebastian
Ingrid Jean-Baptiste Bathilde
Tommie J. Moore The Doctor


Clemence Debaig Choreographer & Creative Technologist
Christoph Mateka Composer
Leo Kuraitė Supervising Sound Designer
Paolo Barlascini Lead Visual Artist
Produced by
Illya Szilak & Cyril Tsiboulski Executive Producers
Allen Yee Associate Producer
BTL
Volumetric Production
Jason Waskey Creative Director & Technical Director
Kathy Saelee Producer
Tiago Washburn Capture Tech
Tri Le Capture Coordinator
Rhonda Callahan Technical Artist
Brian Cantwell Processing Supervisor
Sean Bittinger Technical Artist (Data)
Eric Limcaoco Stage Sound Engineer
Heather Manchester Hair & Make-Up
On Set Medics On-Set Covid Compliance Officer
Slipery Fish Catering and Events Catering
2D Production TBD
Cory Allen
Peter Bell Behind the scenes reel production
Immersive Development
Elliott Mitchell Lead Unity Engineer
Emmy Yupa Lead Graphics Engineer
Post-Production Sound Services (TBD)
Post-Production Design Services (TBD)
Legal Services
John Pelosi, Esq. PELOSI WOLF EFFRON & SPATES / Fancy Rainbow Counsel
Filmed on location at NYU Tandon @ the Yard.
Special Thanks Todd Bryant
Christopher Strawley
Derek Chan

Jerome Foundation Awards Us a Grant to Shoot a 2D Experimental Film in VR!

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Fly Angel Soul is a short experimental narrative film shot within virtual reality which explores the potential for virtual production techniques to expand two dimensional cinematic language. FAS tells the story of Sebastian, a young gay physician, estranged from his rural Catholic Missouri family, who, having moved to Mali to heal the sick, is diagnosed with AIDS. Inspired by a quote from Meister Eckhart that we might “rejoice in the everlasting truth in which the highest angel and the soul and the fly are equal,” FAS will be created using Unity’s Cinemachine software with three networked cameras adopting the p.o.v of the eponymous characters. What each camera “hears and sees and how each moves depends in part upon the actions of the other cameras in real time. These positions are not characters, per se. They function as aspects of Sebastian’s interior milieu. Although all three p.o.v. will be equally represented in the final film, using a split screen, FAS unapologetically privileges the ineffable workings of the human heart as the driving and unprogrammable logic of the film. The human camera is the only one operated by an actual living being. The angel and fly exist as state machine, pre-programmed virtual entities.

Looking to “embodied” films like Max Ophul’s Le Plaisir for inspiration

We are not advocating an impossible return to a pre-technical state of “nature”, rather, we are asking what suffering means in our technologically embedded existence.If as Jean-Luc Godard famously stated, “The tracking shots are a matter of morality,” the use of virtual cameras in agile film production brings up pressing ethical questions which have yet to be confronted. In FAS, a “simple” and universal story of human suffering–a diagnosis of terminal illness–AIDS at the beginning of the epidemic, invites viewers to contemplate how suffering is mediated using digital technologies. Our intent is to construct the film in a way that reasserts an embodied, participatory perspective, one that acknowledges the primacy of a “human” perspective while, at the same time, offering the audience alternative, perhaps transcendent computer-mediated ways of seeing, hearing and moving through the same story.


In FAS, all three cameras function as the “players,” both in the video game sense and in a theatrical sense. The cameras’ real-time “performance” is the material for the 2D film. Thus, in FAS, “liveness” resides in the “embodied” cameras as much as in the actors whose performance is pre-recorded with volumetric video. Thus, the film, itself, is a poetic documentation of both human and computer machinations. Montage, as such, will not come through a post-production editing process, but occurs and becomes manifest as a result of the procedural logic of the game engine + the incommensurable logic of the human operator/performer. In keeping with Eckhart’s intent, the final film will display all the p.o.v’s on one screen, a tripartite ever changing montage of images and sounds, not created in post, but recorded “live” in real time.