(SI Editors: Gregory Bennett, Chen Chen and Dafydd Sills-Jones, Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand, supported by the AUT Centre for Virtual Creative Design - VCD)

This special edition aims to demonstrate the spectrum of production and research activity enabled by and conducted within Virtual Production (VP) production facilities IN PRACTICE, through IJCMR’s unique blend of practice-led research, research-led practice, and practice-oriented research.

In response to the growing adoption and use of virtual production technologies across the media industries and higher education, this special edition seeks to build upon and deepen the foundational work seen in Barnett et Al’s Beyond Virtual Production (SAGE, 2025) and Mitchell et al’s The Screens of Virtual Production: What is Real? (Routledge, 2025). As both these foundational texts make clear the notion of virtual production has its roots in the beginnings of cinema, but the recent collocation of game engine use, high computer processing power, newly refined camera tracking systems and the pioneering use of high fidelity LED screens, has enabled and encouraged a new generation of virtual production studios and facilities to spring up, and with them a host of creative and aesthetic possibilities.

Formats
The IJCMR offers a range of publication formats, and is particularly keen to encourage practice-based or non-tradition outputs (NTROs) in these forms:

• Single-Piece Explorations (artefact and statement up to 1500 words)
• Multi-piece portfolios (multi-piece portfolios accompanied by a statement up to 3000 words)
• Practice Discoveries (full-scale articles between 6000-8000 words)
• Issues in Creative Practice Research (e.g. a podcast, a blog, an interview, a video essay) but should be approximately 5 minutes in length or 1000 words)

Topics
Whilst we are happy to receive any proposals regarding any aspect of VP production, but work along these lines is particularly welcome:

• Virtual production’s relationship with creative practice(s)
• The implications of virtual production aesthetics
• AI and virtual production
• Slow media and virtual production
• Digital and real-world hybridity in virtual production
• Unusual or counter-intuitive use of virtual production volumes
• Virtual production and community engagement
• Virtual production, industry and higher education
• Virtual production and sustainable production practices

Timeline

• CFP: May 1st, 2025
• Abstracts Due: August 1st, 2025
• Decision on Abstracts: September 1st, 2025
• Delivery of work: June 1st, 2026
• PUBLICATION: October 2026 Issue

Please send an abstract (300 words max) with a bio to greg.bennett@aut.ac.nz, chen.chen@aut.ac.nz and dafydd.sills-jones@aut.ac.nz.