Overview
The March on Washington Film Festival XR Lab, sponsored by Meta, invited a cohort of emerging filmmakers to explore how immersive technologies can reimagine stories from the Civil Rights Movement. Through XR virtual production, participants experimented with bringing to life the narratives of icons, activists, and everyday foot soldiers whose contributions shaped history.
I had the pleasure of collaborating with Labs to support the XR workshops, guide filmmakers through the creative and technical process, and help translate their cinematic concepts into animated previsualizations.

Tools and Techniques

• Unreal Engine 5.0
  Optitrack Motion Capture

Process
Working closely with each filmmaker, I helped ideate, develop, and prototype narrative moments using real-time and performance-driven tools:

• Filmmaker Interviews & Story Interpretation
  • Conducted interviews to understand each filmmaker’s vision, visual language, and emotional intent
  • Helped refine story beats and identify moments well suited for XR visualization

• Motion Capture Performance Capture
  • Captured live body and facial performance using OptiTrack
  • Cleaned and retargeted animation data to match character movement.

• Cinematic Development in Unreal Engine
  • Built short animated sequences using MetaHumans, stylized environments, and real-time lighting
  • Designed blocking, camera paths, and scene composition to align with each filmmaker’s narrative goals
   

Result
The project produced a series of short XR visualizations that brought participant stories to life in a new medium. These pieces served as proof-of-concept cinematic moments—demonstrating how virtual production can elevate historical storytelling, expand creative possibility, and preserve cultural memory through immersive technology.

March on Washington
Film Festival