Director Charlotte Mikkelborg’s medium is immersive filmmaking, where she creates narratives and audio-visual experiences that transport the viewer into a 180° visual experience. Her latest project for Apple TV+, Adventure, takes the viewer along to some of the world’s most extreme sports challenges where both the competitors and Charlotte push the boundaries of their craft.
We caught up with Charlotte to experience Adventure, made for the Apple Vision Pro headset, and chat about how she got involved in immersive filming, the potential for this developing medium, and how she approached filming this new factual series.
Read our conversation below.
How did you get involved in the immersive space?
I met Julian Cautherley, who was producing for filmmaker Lucy Walker in 2015 when they were working on a dance film in Cuba being shot in 360°. I asked him what a 360° film was, but I couldn’t quite get my head around it, so I told him “you’re going to have to show me!”. When he did, I just thought, yes, of course, why wouldn’t we take storytelling to this next level? I was pretty much sold there and then.
Following that, I started looking for opportunities to see how I could break into this very, very new sector – because really there wasn’t even a sector to speak of. Interestingly enough, the United Nations was an early supporter of this work and they produced a 360° film called Clouds Over Sidra about a girl living in a Syrian refugee camp. There was donor fatigue with how these stories had historically been presented in 2D, but when people watched this film on a headset, it took them into the environments, like sitting next to the girl in a tent, and they saw donations significantly increase. I started keeping an eye on tenders coming out from the UN and there was one to make a film about women who were pregnant in war zones. I put together a small team and pitched the idea and that became my first immersive film, Born into Exile. I then did another similarly structured film for UNICEF called The Journey that went to SXSW in 2018. Both films won CINE Golden Eagle Awards.
The episode Ice Dive features freediver Ant Williams as he attempts to break the world record for the furthest under-ice swim in one breath. It’s an incredible setting for an immersive film, tell us about the location.
It was my first time in Iceland when we went to scout and tech check, and I just thought, what a gift for the immersive medium. We’re telling these stories in this medium because you just want to be in these incredible vistas. It’s very monochromatic – the volcanic black rock juxtaposed against the snow. It was a major stroke of luck because when we landed at the airport for the shoot, the lead fixer called to say one of the volcanoes that was threatening to erupt, was now erupting. We were able to quickly arrange for a helicopter to take us to capture footage. We couldn’t send the camera up on a drone in those conditions, so we were chasing daylight in the helicopter to shoot this setting. Ant is obviously (as anybody would be) going through an inner turmoil in the the run up to his freedive attempt, and we use those amazing shots of the volcano to speak to that. He’s an incredible individual who believes in his power of will and its strength to triumph over his fears.
Filming immersive content is very different from traditional filmmaking, from the camera you’re using to the movements you need to take into consideration. Tell us about filming some of the episodes in this series.
This is the highest resolution for immersive live action footage ever captured. The viewer notices everything because it has such a wide field of view and everything is so crisp and in focus, which is an opportunity, but also a challenge for the filmmaker. In this resolution, camera movement must be silky smooth to ensure the viewer never feels motion sick.
In the series we were looking to capture these high energy extreme sports in remote conditions in a way that felt cinematic. There’s incredible possibility with the immersive medium, but there were also limitations in terms of what’s possible to cover. For example, base jumping with cameras attached to people’s helmets was not really possible as the camera package is too large and smaller packages wouldn’t have delivered sufficient resultion for the Vision Pro. Shooting base jumping would also create a lot of lateral motion and the viewer would become incredibly motion sick. These episodes don’t present on a rectangular screen in front of you, like on a TV, iPad, computer, etc. You are immersed in each of these scenes through the height and width of the visual field. While your visual field would tell you you’re base jumping, your inner ear would say you weren’t, and as a result that disconnect leads to motion sickness. So, we explored extreme sports that would lend themselves to being captured in this way.
The final episode, Hill Climb, is very high speed and was, technically speaking, the ultimate challenge of the series. Through the series we’d been working ourselves towards increasing cinematic motion. Hill Climb follows a category of motor sports where cars race to the top of high mountains. One of the most famous ones is Pike’s Peak in Colorado, US. We filmed female race driver Laura Hayes become the first woman to make it to the top in under 10 minutes. Her goal was to claim the title that’s always been “King of the Mountain” and change it to “Queen of the Mountain”.
For the piece to work, we needed to figure out ways in which we could introduce motion with her that didn’t disrupt the viewer’s experience. I’m actually a great guinea pig because I get quite motion sick. We developed various rigs to make that possible – attaching them to the inside of the car and external shots on a camera car, which was essentially a robitic arm mounted to the car. We shot in a helicopter as well because we could keep pace that way. Though this can get tricky because at 14,000 feet the air pressure is unstable and the winds can vary. It was a tactical and technical challenge to work on and creatively so much fun. I think we’ve made a brilliant series and I’m super proud of it.
What is it about immersive that keeps you excited about exploring this space?
I’ve been working in immersive for about 10 years now and I’m completely biased, but I have believed since I watched my first 360° film and I still believe that this medium is 100% the future of entertainment. Because of course it’s going in this direction – why do we watch on rectangular screens? Why would you not want to be further immersed in storytelling?
It’s so common to be sitting on the sofa in the evening watching TV or a movie, but you’re also working on your laptop or scrolling on your phone. So, there was there was also a very selfish drive when I first experienced 360° film in the headset and I thought, yes! I can get my audience’s entire attention, that’s fantastic! What more do I want as a director? Then also, on the converse I was thinking, well, once they’re here, let’s treat them right. If they’ve given you their entire focus, why are we limiting this to just an audio/visual experience? Because actually the peripheral vision is also engaged, in VR at least, and we can explore multisensory immersive experiences.
I’m excited for the future of immersive because the more talent that comes to the space the better, right? People new to the medium will do something we might not expect. I’m excited about more high-quality narratives coming to the space as well, because more great content will draw people in. Think about immersive Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, or brilliant new IPs where you don’t just watch the story, you feel like you live it. There are so many possibilities to explore.
What do you have coming up next?
Well, I can’t give too much away, but my next project is in the music space, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Additionally, there’s a narrative I’ve been promising myself I’d sit down and write. It’s a historical drama/thriller, so I just need to do it! I want to continue to explore and experiment in this brave new immersive world.
Adventure can be experienced through Apple Vision Pro on Apple TV+
Have Your Say
Join the discussion on Facebook