Elysian is a dystopian psychological thriller made on the XR stage at BUas, as part of the Innovation & Immersive Project. The story centres around two women facing each other: Utopia, addicted to a drug that creates a false utopian world, and Dystopia, who tries to save her while carrying her own guilt for what went wrong. The LED volume was used to literally shift between two worlds, from a cold dystopian alley to an oversaturated hallucinating dreamscape.

As DOP/Gaffer, I was responsible for the lighting on set. The biggest challenge was matching the physical light sources with the LED wall, so that the transition between the dystopian and utopian world felt believable. For the dystopian scenes I worked with harsh overhead lights and heavy shadows. In the utopian scenes I used colourful gels and backlight to create that dreamy, too-good-to-be-true feeling. The glitch moments, where the two worlds collide, required quick shifts in light intensity and colour.

This project taught me how different it is to light for an LED volume compared to a regular location. You’re not just thinking in physical light, but also in how the image feels as a whole, including the background on the wall. Finding that balance between physical and digital light was new to me, and something I’m now much more conscious of.