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    How can virtual production be used to create flexible and modular pipelines for short film and music video creation? : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Enterprise at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Williams, Thomas
    Virtual Production encompasses a selection of emerging techniques and technologies for audio visual content creation. Virtual Production requires a large depth of knowledge in order to be implemented into production pipelines. This thesis explores various virtual production tools and techniques through the generation of multiple creative projects, including short films and music videos. The goal of this research is to explore the research question: How can Virtual Production be used to create Flexible and Modular Pipelines for Short Film and Music Video Creation. This question will be explored through the development of various pipelines for a wide variety of creative projects. The effectiveness of these pipelines is evaluated through three key metrics: flexibility, modularity and cost-effectiveness. Using a practice-led research methodology, flexibility, modularity and cost-effectiveness are evaluated through the completion of multiple subsequent creative projects. Each subsequent project builds on the knowledge gained from the previous project, allowing the knowledge gained to accumulate. This research project contributes to the Virtual Production landscape by providing an insight into how Virtual Production can be implemented into multiple different projects to enhance the creative process, with a particular emphasis on small-scale and small-budget projects, of which there is currently limited literature.
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    Burning the earthen beasts : the purpose of this project was to investigate the process of creating a pitch bible and its supporting character artwork through the creation of production material for an adult animated TV series, which explores themes of ecological impact caused by the wildlife trade : Master of Design, Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Sutton, Christopher
    Over the last decade, animated series have become increasingly popular as a form of entertainment for young adults. Many modern animated shows such as Arcane (Linke, C. et al. 2021) and Rick & Morty (Crofford, K. et al. 2013) have achieved success and a wide range of viewership, thanks to the advent of streaming services, adult animation is seeing an industry boom. To many aspiring young animators and creators, this is a great time to get into the industry. With many companies seeking to embrace the opportunities of these new animated intellectual properties, it begs a question how companies or individuals go about creating these works of media. To this end, this research project pursued a goal of investigating the process of creating a pitch bible which is a proposal document presented to a board of executive producers that visually and textually describes an animation license. The final output for the project was a pitch bible, which is supported by a series of character designs. The concept design load for this project focuses on the character design pipeline as a means to cover the widest range of previsualization design work needed for a pitch. This has allowed the research to focus on the centerpiece of narrative development and the area for the greatest range of design. The narrative for this proposed pitch has developed is centered around a fictional animated TV series. As a way to imitate the requirements of an actual animated television series, the narrative of the series sought to explore themes surrounding the illegal wildlife trade and the role humans play in species extinction both on a personal and societal level.
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    Video activism in the shadow of Wellywood : an exegesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Heynes, Mike
    This creative practice-based research was conducted in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, the home of ground-breaking movie companies Wingnut Films, Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, and Park Road Post. Following the success of director Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, with pioneering special effects led By Richard Taylor, Wellington city has colloquially become known as Wellywood, in honour of our film industry’s connections to Hollywood. Parts of Aotearoa have since been renamed by government tourism agencies and businesses to reflect their use as locations in the films set in the fictional world of Middle Earth. Throughout the course of this research, the “Wellywood” movie industry has faced a range of issues including workers’ rights and workplace harassment and has attracted criticism for its influence on government policy. In the Shadow of Wellywood is an experimentally animated video work satirizing the dominant studio system and its ability to shape our national identity and consumerist desires. This tale of celebrity dreams of stardom turning into nightmares draws upon tropes of action, melodrama, musical, film noir, and road movie genres to locate the narrative within the artificial world of the production studio. In using movie-themed action figures as stand-ins for Hollywood actors, and animating them using rudimentary techniques, the work considers the celebrity cycle and the technological advances of the industry. The artificial setting satirically suggests that we no longer have a national cinema, but one of transplanted culture. In combining analogue and digital video technologies the creative process reflected upon obsolescence, and the place of handmade animation techniques within an increasingly digital environment. In continuing to work with obsolete video technology rather than upgrading to the latest format the research has been conducted with the intention of developing an environmentally sustainable method of studio-based production. This research has identified a gap in the field of video art practice through continuing to use equipment that others no longer want and rejecting the latest movie industry technologies as a mode of critical engagement. This research makes an original contribution to the creative field of video activism through using equipment until it literally wears out and accepting the resulting inconsistencies in production. The creative processes used in the development of the final work explored a methodology of experimentation, collaboration, and iterative testing designed to critique mainstream movie production and distribution systems, and to explore alternatives. Through adapting the situationist principles of détournement, psycho-geography and the dérive, this research demonstrates the continued relevance of Guy Debord’s key text Society of the Spectacle (1967) for re-contextualizing the movie industry as an instance of the spectacle, an artificial capitalist system designed to manipulate the consumer, and for identifying ways to resist and critique it. A series of expanded cinema collaborations with musicians during the developmental stages of the research allowed for testing the concept of a studio backlot and exploring the notion of special effects. The animation studio built for this research drew upon traditions of repurposing established by pre-digital experimental film and expanded cinema artists. The portable micro cinema designed for screening In the Shadow of Wellywood locates the work outside of mainstream networks and within an alternative system of distribution underscoring the project’s positioning as a form of video activism.