VIP Treatment: Curiosity-Led Virtual Production Methodologies from an Innovation and Research- Driven Production Studio

Abstract

This article synthesises and presents methodological lessons learned from the Virtual and Immersive Production (VIP) Studio, a research and innovation hub founded by our interdisciplinary team at the University of Nottingham in 2023. The studio supports a range of researchers, artists, SMEs, creatives, and community groups to develop unique immersive experiences in film, TV, games, performance arts production, and audience engagement. Projects include immersive theatre experiences, interactive AR applications, mixed media gaming experiences, digital twin performances, VR training applications, volumetric video dance and circus experiences, audio augmented photography, projection mapping, holograms, and many more collaborations.

The practice-led methodologies emerging at the VIP Studio are inflected by the particularities of the facility, its technical capabilities, our research priorities, and funding models. The VIP Studio returns part of an existing facility to its original usage as a purpose-built television studio, a sustainable production practice. At the VIP Studio we explore critical and creative applications of immersive and AI technologies, particularly in grassroots and lower-budget projects, where this can be done responsibly, becoming part of the industry toolset available to creative practitioners. We are constantly advocating for the incredible innovation capacity in our region, enhancing access to Virtual Production technologies through an agile, resource-light model grounded in feminist principles of inclusion, shared play, and the deliberate removal of barriers to participation. We term this curiosity-led practice: a methodology built on the conviction that familiarity, creativity, and confidence with technology are produced through play, through open-ended encounter, and through the consistent refusal to make prior expertise a condition of entry. A programme of four practice-as-research residencies from 2023-24 provides the primary evidence for what curiosity-led practice looks like and what it produces. We know there are other Virtual Production studios working in this way all over the world, and the aim of this article is to draw out insights, conditions, and commitments that can be examined, applied, and adapted within this growing network.