U.S. director Lynn Hershman Leeson’s latest film is notable tech-wise not only for its digerati cameos (Timothy Leary’s last film turn, and Well-master John Perry Barlow as an encryption expert), but for its use – which producer Henry S. Rosenthal believes is a first for features – of virtual sets (not to be confused with virtual sex, of which there are also a few cameos).

‘It heralds a new age in low-budget independent filmmaking,’ says Rosenthal, of San Francisco-based Complex Corporation, ‘in that we have proven that this kind of technology is feasible at a price that independents can afford.’

The film melds two stories and two time periods. Conceiving Ada stars Tilda Swinton as Lord Byron’s daughter, a Victorian-era mathematician who creates the first computer language and inherits her poet dad’s healthy sexual appetite. The present-day tale is premised on a young American cyberwhiz whose genetic memory project enables a computer link with Ada and a window to her past..

Footage set in the present is shot in 35mm while the period half of the film is shot on Digital Betacam and employs the virtual sets. Shooting took 18 days, with seven days going to virtual set shots. Post took a year.

To create the montage, background images were captured on 35mm still film, scanned on the computer, and then altered in Photoshop to create the desired set design. Actors were then placed in the environment which existed only in the computer, which was then animated to suit the interaction. This makes matching perspective with camera movements tricky, and somewhat limiting, however, Rosenthal says it’s technology that is still in its infancy and that ‘with increases in speed and memory, sophisticated camera movement will be possible.’ In the online session, zooms, tilts and pans were added.

The film dop is Hiro Narita and the virtual set dop is Bill Zarchy, who has previously worked with the Ultimatte compositing process. The tape-to-film transfer process was developed by Sony’s High Definition Center.

Rosenthal describes it as ‘not a cheap process,’ but then we’re talking in the low-budget indie film range here, specifically, under $2 million. If done conventionally, it would have cost about double that. Which is significant. ‘It saved us money in the sense that the movie would not have been possible to make conventionally.’

Citing the otherwise prohibitive cost of recreating the Victorian interiors, Rosenthal says with the virtual sets route, indies can afford to create footage that would not have been doable, either because of cost or access restrictions. In the case of Ada, Rosenthal says they would not have been able to foot the bill for the extent of art direction, and set construction that was possible via Photoshopping the backgrounds.

Rosenthal says it was relatively smooth sailing, given that ‘there were no experts.’ The now-world-leading-expert producer sums up the tricky experience which integrated the services of four different tech providers as: ‘No disasters, only discoveries.’

Rosenthal credits California-based digital phenomena as integral in digital animation and background manipulation, and says Jim Rolin, the Ultimatte guy, was also ‘the linchpin of the whole matter.’

The Complex Corporation and Hotwire Productions film was greenlit by zdf/arte. At tiff they’re looking for worldwide distribution, and have had interest categorized as ‘strong’ and a fall ’98 release is deemed realistic.

Meanwhile, Rosenthal is pitching a feature on the life of famous surrealist consort Leonora Carrington, based on her autobiography Down Below.

The European artist consorted with the likes of Man Ray and Max Ernst, and now lives in Mexico.

Tilda Swinton is attached to the project.