The 5 P's of making a VR animated short start to finish

Watch it on your VR QUEST. 

First-person POV and 360 YouTube

Upstander Development process using Real-time rendering and Animation to enhance VR.

Howdy 

I am sharing with you my production blog for Upstander, an award-winning VR experience that premiered at Tribeca.  I hope you gain insights into creating a VR film with Unreal, including how to develop workflows that enable faster work, utilize real-time rendering, and maximize the emerging technology.  Although Upstander is a VR experience, the processes and workflow can be adapted to a 2D render movie. 

Please check out the links below for more information:

• Proposal
• Preproduction 
• Production 
• Post Production 
• Promotion 

www.upstanderve.com

Creator's Statement

Filmmaker/Developer: Van Phan 

Upstander is an animated virtual reality experience that explores the trauma caused by social, verbal, physical, and cyberbullying—and asks a critical question: How can we be part of the solution, not the problem?

The narrative unfolds across a child’s school day—recess, class time, and after school—where backpacks represent the children in a school environment. What begins in the gym with subtle acts of social isolation escalates into repeated taunts in the classroom, a phone theft in the hallway, and the devastating experience of being locked inside a school locker. Inside the locker, the point of view shifts, immersing the participant in the overwhelming reality of cyberbullying. The story circles back to the gym, where the bystander must make a choice: stand by, or stand up.

While Upstander begins as a linear story, it quickly surprises the participant through creative use of timing, scale, space, and perspective—defying reality to heighten the emotional impact. Changes in POV, dynamic camera movement, and embodied perspective support the narrative arc while pushing toward a new visual language for immersive storytelling.

This is the first fully animated VR experience developed in partnership with the Oculus VR for Good program and the Diana Award. Its themes are especially urgent in a post-COVID world, where bullying and racial tensions—particularly targeting Asian and Black communities—have intensified. To further its social mission, the filmmaker has pledged to donate future proceeds from distribution of Upstander to anti-bullying charities.

Van is currently developing new VR projects and welcomes collaborations with those who share his passion for using immersive storytelling as a force for empathy, awareness, and change.