Project Headset

Our primary focus is Prop Automation, however, there are times when clients need our engineering skills to make component parts. 

Recently, a brief was to automate a clock prop, which would be used to convey the passage of time during a short film about the often negative relationship individuals have with their phones. 

Through client discussion it was suggested we make a headset that could realise the vision of Director George Green: depicting the energy transfer from phone to human and later human to human. 

We knew a convincing approach was to use addressable LED strips that would stream data and bridge the headset to a phone through some magnetic couplings.

For those new to us, the core of what we do is based on several principles: 

1. The category of prop automation we are dealing with - we have several categories which include: Props with LED/light elements, props with motorised elements, text display props (props with screens that display text) and props which can display SVG content (animations and layers). 

2. Then, depending on the category of the prop, we have ‘classes’ - which denote the actions that will occur within that prop or across many props. For example, if we are working with a prop that has a ‘light’ integrated, whether its an LED or NeoPixel, we can control classes such as ‘pulse’ causing the lights to pulse, or ‘flicker’ to mimic a flame. For the headset, we were specifically working with the ‘pulse’ class. 

3. Finally, our architecture uses a publish and subscribe model for ‘objects’. These are elements of the props. Each prop is able to both generate and consume events that are directed to the objects, thus creating the interactivity that makes up our ‘Set Wide Network’

So in terms of the headset, the addressable LEDs we chose to use were NeoPixels. We decided on 4 cascading strands, which were grouped into pairs, so two strands would be controlled as one ‘Pulse’ class in this case.

In pre-production is was decided that the stream of NeoPixels would be blue, and one pair of the strands would travel downstream, whilst the other pair would travel upstream.

We implemented events and shaders which allow us to change the frequency of the pulsing, the colour, spacing between the pulses and the direction of the stream. The stream shader uses multiple datasets and randomly selects which to inject into the LED strands. This allows for a more organic look like real data, rather than a simple repeating pattern.

Delivering ‘on the fly’ changes was of huge benefit on set, as we could change the colour of the pixels instantly to match on set lighting.

For different scenes, the direction of the ‘data’ streams could be changed.  George was able to see all this directly through the on-set monitors - the Director to Prop change feedback loop could be measured in minutes and seconds.

For the Clock, George wanted the speed of the hands to slowly increase throughout a scene and then slowly decrease as the needle was approaching a specific time. We were able to set the rate in which the hands moved by sending rate events to the stepper motor objects that drove the hour and minute hands. Between takes we were able to instantly reset the clock ready for the next take.

On working with us, George said "Automated film props listened to what I was looking for and brought my vision to life, regularly communicating with me throughout the development of the headset and suggesting additional capabilities where possible to create a truly unique set piece that took the production level to above my expectations. The actors also benefitted from working with a prop that felt so realistic; they could fully immerse themselves in the narrative." 

Finally, of ethical value to us as a company, the headsets were 3D printed with a mixture of recyclable PET and bio-degradable PLA.  PET for the headbands, where a degree of flexibility was needed, and PLA everywhere else.

If you are keen to find out more about what we do at Automated Film Props, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here or through our website https://automatedfilmprops.com. 

You can also watch some of our demonstrations on our Youtube channel @automatedfilm props.