The ground-breaking use of technology in the film takes the creative, technical, and story-telling potential of Virtual Production into another realm.
Director Paul Franklin’s and Wilder Films FIREWORKS’ is a tense thriller exposing the life-changing decisions those at the top can deliver. The film stars Charlotte Riley (Press, Wuthering Heights), Denise Gough (Andor, Too Close) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Humans, Black Mirror).
This live-action short film is one of the first films to push Virtual Production to another level – the LED screen creates a convincing three-dimensional image on set that changes as the camera moves. It feels as if you are actually on location, in the space itself. The image on the screen becomes a seamless extension of the physical set, with a level of realism and scale that would have previously been impossible.
With an MI6 operation underway on an active target on the other side of the world, London-based Ops Leader GILLIAN LYE and her team are forced to make tough decisions. State of the art virtual production technology brings to life the blurred images on the MI6 screens, and we see the real, innocent people who may become collateral damage.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT, PAUL FRANKLIN
Creative digital toolsets have been extending the range of filmmakers for many years but the process usually happens in post-production, divorced from the energy of life on set. Now a groundbreaking new technique “Virtual Production” holds the promise of telling extraordinary stories in a dynamic and immediate way. The LED screens and realistic graphics bring sets and locations to life on a studio stage.
This creates an engaging and dynamic space for the cast to work in, far removed from the blank expanse of a green screen. The actors are placed right at the heart of the world that the film is building, allowing them true and meaningful dramatic interaction with their dynamic, complex characters and this timely and compelling story.
This new approach to filmmaking opens up the story of FIREWORKS, giving it a compellingly realistic treatment that fully embraces the expressive possibilities of the technique. FIREWORKS will take us from the cool, glowing obsessions of the special operations room out into the vibrant energy of a marketplace in Tripoli. Gillian Lye, a military intelligence officer whose fierce ambition recognizes no obstacles on the path to achieving her goals, will set these two worlds on a deadly collision course as she closes in on the terrorist militant that she has been tracking for years.
FIREWORKS gives the cast new and exciting ways to immerse themselves and an audience in this brilliantly complex, and at times darkly humorous script. The immediacy of the story and the Virtual Production will give the audience an experience that is uniquely engaging and heart stoppingly tense.
FIREWORKS will screen at Tribeca on Sunday, June 12th at 5:45 pm and Monday 13th at 5:45 pm.
