April 5, 2018

The joint production of UFA and Fraunhofer HHI receives Laval Virtual Award 2018

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the UFA, the walk-in film “An Entire Lifetime” premiered in the context of the exhibition “The Ufa – History of a Brand”. Yesterday, the joint production of UFA and Fraunhofer HHI was awarded the Laval Virtual Award in the category “Arts and Cultural Heritage”.

Laval Virtual is a leading global conference and exhibition of virtual technologies and applications in France. With the Laval Virtual Award, the international jury of experts honors projects characterized by high technical quality and innovative strength.

Volumetric Video is considered the next major evolution in media production worldwide. Particularly in the context of the rapid market developments of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), Volumetric Video is currently the key technology. At the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI, a particularly innovative technology was developed with “3D Human Body Reconstruction (3D HBR)”. This team used the UFA LAB together with UFA Technology as part of a test production for the walk-in short film “Gateway to Infinity” as a novel VR experience. While the holograms at Gateway to Infinity have been limited in their early stage of development, In a Whole Life, for the first time ever, actors have been captured from all camera perspectives and placed in a virtual space, allowing the actors to perform during the Action from all sides can be considered.

In the VR Experience a full life follows the spectacle of the actress Maria (played by Franziska Brandmeier) through the history of the film. In a walk-in world, the filming of the early film is experienced in the 1920s. In the course of the VR experience, the viewer experiences how technical tricks and illusions were used to seduce the audience even then. Surprisingly, however, this set world turns out to be only an illusion – because Maria takes the viewer on a journey through German film history. Besides Franziska Brandmeier, Herbert Knaup can also be experienced “up close”. By filling the roles with well-known actors, the untrained eye understands that the holograms are real actors and not computer-generated figures.