Making of 'Common Ground'
The excellent Creative XR team at Digital Catapult have produced this short doc on the making of Common Ground. The film features interviews with the film’s creator, director and producer Darren Emerson, its head of post production Conan Roberts, its executive producer Ashley Cowan and Charlotte Benstead, the Chief Executive of The Creation Trust. It also features exclusive behind the scenes footage of the shoot on location last summer and some clips of the experience itself.
Common Ground explores the notorious Aylesbury Estate, home to thousands of South Londoners, and a concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK. The Aylesbury Estate is undergoing a massive regeneration scheme that will see big changes to the community of thousands that live there and call it home. Common Ground mixes 360 video and real time environments to allow people access to areas of the estate itself and personal spaces of residents, in order to examine how design, planning, dreams of utopian living and the political will of the day has affected the ordinary people caught in its midst. Utilising stereoscopic 360 video, photogrammetry, 3D modelling, and archive the viewer enters the world of the estate from its birth in 1960’s, through its decline and up to its controversial regeneration today. This multifaceted documentary questions notions of community, examines the dis-enfranchisement and demonisation of the working class, and ask whether current housing policy today is destined to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The crew with the remote controlled buggy used along the walkways to create smooth moving shots. Photo by Priscilla Reysa.
Common Ground, East City Films and VR City’s most recent VR documentary premieres at Tribeca Film Festival in April and May. Tickets can be bought from here. Be sure to check in to www.eastcityfilms.com/commonground for future updates and screenings.