VR: Experimental Approach to Documentary Filmmaking
In this roundtable discussion, we will scrutinize why and how creators, particularly filmmakers, may choose VR as a medium for documentaries. We will examine this from the perspectives of filmmakers, animators, university educators, photographers, and technical producers. This multiperspectivity is crucial, as adapting to VR often requires a reevaluation of traditional documentary techniques to fully harness VR's capabilities. We will compare personal experiences by looking at the unique characteristics of VR as a medium, including interactive storytelling, 360-degree visuals, and the viewer's sense of agency, to the traditional film format and we will also offer a consideration how this format can be more supported in higher education.
Michal Kabat, PhD, is a teacher at the video game faculty of UCM University in Nagyszombat (SK). He researches the memory of video games in post-socialist countries and virtual worlds.
András Szabó, IT engineer, is the managing director of Code and Soda Kft. in Budapest, co-founder of Random Error Studio. He is the co-curator of Vektor VR, organized in cooperation with Verzió International Human Rights Film Festival. Since 2016, he has contributed to the implementation of several immersive projects as a producer, creator and technology expert.
Volodymyr Kolbasa is a filmmaker and media artist with a background in classical cinema and immersive XR and media art. He also graduated as a cinematographer from the master's course in digital narratives at the international film school in Cologne and from the Viewfinder Erasmus Mundus master's course, within the latter program he also studied at the National Film School @ IADT, Ireland, SZFE, Hungary and the Baltic Film School, Tallinn. In addition to his film work, he also contributes to the development of AR projects for museum spaces and VR interactive films.
Szymon Rogiński (b. 1975 in Gdańsk). Visual artist, photographer, and author of photobooks. Lives and works in Warsaw. With photography as a base for his work and practice, for more than twenty years he has been working in series, focusing on nocturnes and the material qualities of light. His work, present in a number of collections (i.e. MuFo in Krakow, the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, and the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning in Warsaw), has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Outside of working solo, he enjoys collaborations, both in artistic and commercial contexts in the role of photographer/director. Inspirations for his works range from David Lynch and road movies, pop culture and Poland (as cliché, phantasm, and place), to the Anthropocene, postapocalyptic scenarios and visions, and the man-altered landscape. Right now, he is in the process of exploring the creative uses of drone photography, photogrammetry, as well as VR.
Pedro Harres is a director, animator, screenwriter, and multimedia artist born in Porto Alegre and based in Berlin. He holds a BA in Cinema from UNISINOS (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos) and a BA in Philosophy from UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), both in Brazil; and an MA in Animation Direction from Babelsberg Film Universität, Germany. Among his previous works are the short film “A Smaller Animal (Um Animal Menor)”, which received several awards in Brazil; The video installation “Ego Machine (EgoMáquina)”, and the short film “Castillo y el Armado”, Oscar-qualified in 2015 and premiered in the Orizzonti competition at Venice Film Festival. “From The Main Square” is his Master’s thesis in Directing Animation at Babelsberg Film University, his debut in interactive VR, and won the Immersive Grand Jury Prize at the 79th Venice International Film Festival 2022.
