theibcdaily


Executive Summary 09 Embracing change


“VR is a wake-up call. It won't steal eyeballs but it could attract very important younger ones”


Taking natural history to new frontiers


Anthony Geffen CEO & Executive Producer, Atlantic Productions


Region: UK Interviewed by: Adrian Pennington


It is testimony to Atlantic Productions' embrace of technology that the 2014 BAFTA-winning Natural History Museum Alive 3D was initially conceived as an app.


“I want our production's digital journey to begin with production not broadcast,” says executive producer Anthony Geffen. “I want to gather my audience early in the process so that we can talk about projects and build a community long before going to air.” Part of that process may mean going live earlier than linear transmission. That could include live to cinema transmissions (walk throughs of the Natural History Museum as


trialled successfully by the British Museum to cinemas is an example).


Nothing is off limits for Geffen,


who recently changed the structure of his company to reflect “a proper multi-platform scenario”.


Atlantic, and its joint-venture collaboration with BSkyB, is the only winner of a BAFTA for a 3D factual production. In fact he has won two, with 2011's Flying Monsters 3Da breakthrough for Geffen's approach to documentary filmmaking. “We set ourselves a task of making incredible stories that work in 2D and 3D, and using new technology and new storytelling techniques to find different ways of bringing the


story to life,” he says. “We'd hoped 3D by now would have major distribution but it is only selective places. We're still making 3D: Sky wants to do it but on a lesser scale.” Atlantic routinely shoots in 4K (occasionally 5K and 6K) for theatrical release and longer shelf life as well as for advantages in visual clarity. He's in post on the three-part Conquest of the skiescharting the avian evolution. “We used opticopters shooting in 3D in Borneo and in mid-air to fly along with bats and birds. We've advanced macro shooting, much of which is familiar to natural history viewers but shot in a studio with blue or black backgrounds,” Geffen explains.


Using a technique devised by Colossus, Vision 3 and ONSIGHT the focal lengths can be changed to enable foreground and background perspectives from smaller creatures “in ways that one couldn't imagine. We were stuck on how to push the story


forward but technology can often achieve that.” It’s sports and movies that are said to drive technology innovation in TV but nature documentaries have to be up there too. “Natural history programming is a big ticket item which has a massive impact all over the world,” he says. “It means we can get the budget to push boundaries. This used to be just the BBC in the UK but that's changed with Sky. “People want to see a very


fresh perspective and fresh technology can help achieve that. It's not just the wow factor of a new shot but the whole way of interpreting a world that is important.”


Ultra HD would seem tailor- made for armchair explorers to visit the wilds of the jungle, the deep ocean, even a planet. But wouldn't virtual reality be even better? “Everything is about to change with VR,” he declares. “Suddenly that very high quality 4K could be in your hand for the fraction of the cost of a TV. You could download content. It is


incredibly immersive. “We've been working for years knowing it was coming. There are massive breakthroughs in camera technology and headsets almost daily. I've seen mindblowing demonstrations of R&D under NDA.”


The former BBC producer – whose credits include Hirohito: Behind The Mythand The Wildest Dreamin which he followed the footsteps of George Mallory's fatal Everest expedition – is applying his narrative acumen to VR in three short films for Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and other headset developers.


“My worry is that it can't be like 3D,” he warns. “You've got to have really good content or VR will make people feel dizzy.” It's why he set up a VR subsidiary called Alchemy, which merges Atlantic's production nous with the VFX skills of its subsidiary Zoo. “There is such a rush to get content out. We need to be careful.”


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