How Project Reverie Combines Filmmaking and XR to Create New Worlds and Opportunities

Published on: June 5, 2024

A beautiful and sunny island in Greece. A snow covered village, aside a frozen and icy pond. A fortress, hidden inside a magma filled volcano. Locations like these, far flung and fantastical, are not the typical settings for student films. But with Project Reverie — a new collaboration between leaders of Husson University's Video/Film Production Program and its Extended Reality (XR) Program — gives students a chance to create works in spaces they could only dream of before, while also providing the hands-on, collaborative experience that will serve them throughout their professional career. 

We spoke with Tony Gerow, XR Technical Director, and Brave Williams, Director, iEX Center and Associate Professor, to find out more about Project Reverie, and how it's creating unprecedented opportunities for film students and XR development students to work on the cutting edge of technology and creativity.

Bridging the Virtual and The Real

Project Reverie is actually the third iteration of a longer running project that started out as "Project Dreamscape." Though the name has changed, the core idea remains the same: the project aims teach film students how to shoot in and edit footage of a digital environment, while an XR program student helps bring that virtual world to life and ensures the real actor fits into the digital environment seamlessly. 

"At the start, this was just an introduction really, a way to get film students into the XR space," explains Gerow. "Now, we're evolving to get to the space of real short films that are multi-scene and take full advantage of our virtual production system."

In practice, Project Reverie begins with an assignment: a video/film production student in the film editing class must write and shoot a short in which a character falls asleep, and then wakes up in a dream in a completely different environment — a dream world is created in collaboration with an XR student doing their required practicum. To create the dream environment, the film student and the XR student shoot video at Husson's iEX Center, using the center's virtual production system (VPS). That VPS is essentially a digital LED wall,  sometimes called "the volume." The LED wall, an increasingly common tool in professional Hollywood movies and television, is to used to project photo-realistic virtual worlds, rendered in the Unreal Engine. 

The project requirements dictate that the short includes a physical camera movement and a digital camera movement to show the different aspects of the VPS system, and a prop must be incorporated. Beyond that, the films are open to the creativity and ambitions of the film production and XR students. And given the variety of virtual worlds available in the system — 22 currently, with more being developed by the Unreal team and optimized to work in Husson's VPS by XR students and faculty — creators have plenty of leeway to go where their imaginations take them. 

Learning from an Immersive Experience 

While Project Reverie is plenty exciting for how it allows students to create new and exciting possibilities in their films, it also offers a plenty of hands-on learning opportunities for both the film and XR students. 

Given that XR-enhanced film production using VPS systems are becoming increasingly common, what students learn in Project Reverie is invaluable for their future careers. That's because the project gives them the opportunity for hands-on experience and problem solving that goes beyond what can be taught easily in the classroom. For example, during filming, the LED wall doesn't only display the virtual backdrop — it also acts as a significant light source on the actors and props. So the film student must light their set and actors so that their lights seamlessly interact with the light given off by the LED screens. Meanwhile, the XR student can adjust the brightness of the LED wall to fit better with both the external lights and the mood of the story being told.

Student also must be pay attention to detail to ensure their shorts are fully immersive. Because the VPS allows students to set their films in virtually any environment, they need to be careful incorporate details that sell the illusion that the actor and props are truly in that environment. So for scenes set in wintery and cold environments, students must be careful to not have their characters dressed in short sleeves. 

Take on Project Reverie Yourself

Want a chance to unlock your imagination and create your own films in Project Reverie? It begins by enrolling at Husson.  Request more info or apply today!