'Fathead': An Adventure in On-Set Virtual Production

Dive into all things virtual production with Executive Producer Erik Weaver and Director c. Craig Patterson, as they discuss Fathead, a recipient of the Innovation and Technology grant from the University of Southern California (USC). This NAACP Image Award nominated live-action short film was shot on an LED stage and made use of real-time technology like Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to tell the story of the Dums and the Ragamuffins, two groups clashing in a dystopian future. Erik and c. Craig will talk about the opportunities and challenges of rapidly evolving virtual production workflows.

About the Film
When one of the last free children of Junkyard Paradise has her brother stolen away from her, no Ragamuffin army or vicious beasts will stop her from getting him back.

Erik Weaver, Executive Producer, Fathead

Erik Weaver is a specialist focused on the intersection of cloud and the music and entertainment (M&E) industry. He is currently running Virtual & Adaptive production for the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC). Erik founded the ETC R&D grant for individuals of diversity, which has funded five short films, and graduated from the 3rd Unreal Fellowship and 3rd ICVFX Fellowship.  

Mr. Weaver served as executive producer of the short film, The Suitcase, which utilized HDR, cloud-based workflows, and live 360, which debuted at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and earned the CAA People's Choice Award. He was also the executive producer of the Emmy-nominated Wonder Buffalo, which employed volumetric capture, photogrammetry, ambonisic sound and interactivity, which screened in the competition at SXSW Interactive Film Festival. Executive Producer (EP) on the short film Ripple Effect and White paper focused on ICVFX, highlighted by the VFX society and most recently EP on Fathead. Mr. Weaver drives ICVFX programming for Infinity Festival, co-chairing SMPTE RIS on in-camera VFX, serves on the ASC Technology Council and is co-chair of the ETC Virtual Production Working Group.

c. Craig Patterson, Director, Fathead

c. Craig is a filmmaker whose work has received distinctions from The Blacklist, Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Sundance Episodic Lab, Hillman Grad’s Rising Voices, the Nicholl Fellowship, and an award in screenwriting from Columbia University. 

c. Craig has also produced projects for Carnegie Hall, directed Paramount+’s critically acclaimed one-hour comedy special for Roy Wood Jr., Imperfect Messenger, and is a past recipient of the George Lucas Family Scholarship as well as the Edward Small Award for writing and directing at USC.