Exploring Mawson

Exploring Mawson is an innovative hybrid documentary that uniquely ‘recasts history’ to retrospectively bring diversity to the pervading white, male narratives through which we currently understand the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-1914 and broader Australian history. It is a prototype for a television series which recasts several key Australian histories and presents an exciting opportunity for actors of all races, ethnicities, abilities and genders, to play a role in revisiting iconic Australian stories with modern sensibility and representation.

The Data Arena was used for a prototype shoot in late November 2021 to explore the theatre’s unique virtual production possibilities. Using Unreal Engine 4, interior and exterior scenes of Mawson’s Hut were created with real-time lighting and atmospheric effects. Amongst the many objects inside Mawson’s Hut was a virtual gas lamp, with a UE Point Light actor tracked via our Optitrack Motion Capture system, allowing Mawson to walk around the virtual environment with live updates to light and shadows beyond the screen.

Virtual Production in the Data Arena

Virtual Production replaces the traditional on-set green-screen background with a dynamic computer graphics image (CG). It eliminates the post-production step which would replace the green pixels with a matte (image). The final background is there on-set, captured in-camera. The Data Arena screen creates a virtual set extension, which everyone can see on the day of recording.

Notice there are actual lights on-set which light the actors & props. The CG background (Mawson's Hut) has virtual lights, which can be adjusted in realtime. The actual & virtual lights are adjusted match - in position, brightness, and colour temperature, to achieve a particular look. Controls for the virtual lights are described below.

Full shoot credits