Interview with Brett Danton

interview

with Brett Danton

Catch up with Brett Danton, the DoP who worked with Bastille to bring their VR concert as part of their latest concept album Give Me The Future, to life.

Q: Did you ever think you would work on something like this?

A: No. It took me a while to get my head around what we were actually going to do. And this was my first dive into using Unreal Engine. It was a real learning experience and there were challenges – the processing power needed to pull this off was massive.

Q: Are virtual concerts the future of the music industry?

A: Yes, but I think it will always be mixed with the traditional. People still want to see artists in the real world. But it will increase accessibility. With this technology, a concert that could only house 100,00 people could open up to a million people. What an experience that would be! But we need the technology to capture that community feeling first.

Q: How did you manage to recreate the human element of live events?

A: The avatars moved as they would in real life. If a fan was at home dancing, they were dancing on the screen too.

Q: What is the next step for virtual technology?

A: The number of people with 360 headsets is still fairly limited. They’ve come on leaps and bounds but we’re still fighting the hardware. We’re waiting for someone to bring out a killer headset. With more processing power, we’re going to get more interactivity.

Q: What technology was used and the process behind it?

A: We had the Azure connect that scanned the fans in and turned them into avatars. Behind the band, we built a raised platform with a 1.5-pixel pitch LED volume stage (for the first time ever). We built a fake 3D city inside the Metaverse for Bastille to perform in. The avatars could then interact with the band.

Q: What was the vision Bastille wanted to create?

A: Bastille were keen to explore the new tech and it tied in perfectly with their album which was about their vision of the future.