Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Celia
Hi Matthew, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
It’s been five years since I last shared my story with you folks and it’s been a pretty incredible ride. Back in 2019, my company Light Sail VR was almost five years old and we had just landed our first few big productions with Refinery29 and Conde Nast Entertainment creating 180 VR series for their YouTube audiences. Well, five years later and now Light Sail VR is coming up on 10 years creating immersive entertainment. We’ve continued to work with some of the best brands in the world (Canon, Meta, Amazon, Ford, adidas, to name a few) and the projects have gotten bigger, more interesting, and a whole lot more fun.
Not to mention, we all survived a pandemic!
Of course, with all the growth at Light Sail VR, I’ve had to really evolve. When I started the company with my business partner Robert Watts, we collaborated with folks (filmmaking is a TEAM sport after all) but I led a majority of the projects from a technical point of view. We’ve grown bigger and I’ve really had to become a better manager and learn that I can’t do everything by myself if the work we’re going to create is going to be as good as we want it to be. I still invent workflows, but I’ve had to do a much better job of learning how to train and lead people.
Growing the team meant that I could focus on solving some really hard problems. I saw a huge opportunity to create a few tools to help us make better content. VR.NDI is an app that allows us to have real time headset preview on set and real time headset preview when editing. My first large scale test was on Trick-VR-Treat with Eli Roth, which was a ton of pressure as I was squashing bugs while we were filming. However, Eli was so thankful for the tool and he utilized it to make the experience absolutely incredible. I had never had the opportunity to watch someone of his caliber work and I found it really inspiring. I also coded an app called Screening Room, which is basically Frame.io inside a VR headset. I needed something to help streamline the review process with our partners because the workflow was so difficult, cumbersome, and time consuming. I’m not a programmer by trade, but dove deep into Unity tutorials and failed enough times until I came out with something useful.
Each day is filled with solving new problems and trying to push the medium forward. With Apple Vision Pro now on the market I’ve seen a large uptick in folks wanting to create immersive experiences and now I feel like I am better positioned to take advantage of those opportunities because I am a little wiser, more experienced, and am lucky to have an amazing team of folks around me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Working on some of the biggest immersive projects in the world is exciting, but also can be really really stressful. The way I look at it is that I’m not just making a single project, I’m defining a medium. People who watch the work we do won’t say “oh that was a bad film”, they’ll say “oh, immersive filmmaking just doesn’t work.” So I feel that I have this huge responsibility to the medium and my fellow creators to put out the absolute best content I can. It’s stressful, especially when the projects become so big that it’s hard to keep them in my brain all at once.
I feel like I’ve read a lot about entrepreneurs who struggled with giving up some of the control and building a team as their companies grow. I certainly have. I have a specific taste and way I like things done and it’s been a struggle for me to give up some of that control in order for the projects to survive. The reality is that there isn’t any way I could do everything and even if I could, there are a lot of talented folks out there who have a lot to contribute to this medium.
It’s still hard for me. I want to touch everything and my happiest place is when I can put on a pair of headphones and dive deep into creative technology problems. But I’m really lucky to have a great business partner and support network who’ve suggested great books and been patient with me as I remember to take a deep breath and lead rather than command. I like to think I’ve been improving as a manager and leader and I think the quality of our work as a team is only getting better.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m known for being a highly technical immersive storyteller. I love nerding out about the medium, but I also speak the creative language of writers and directors. Playing on both sides of that line is where I feel like I do my best work. Recently I am most proud of the contributions I made on Meta’s first live action immersive TV series “The Faceless Lady.” As a co-producer I was involved from the beginning. We scouted locations in Ireland. I read the first drafts of the scripts. My role was to help advise on making it successful in VR, which is a challenge. I felt like there was this stigma about narrative content and Darren Brandl (the Executive Producer at CryptTV) wanted to crack the format. I did too. I wanted to make a premium TV show in VR.
I’m happy to say that most of the folks I’ve talked to have really loved the series and they feel like narrative storytelling works so well in this medium. The writer, director, and DP were so incredible to work with and the whole team all the way through post production had this shared vision of making something really fresh. I think we succeeded and it was easily the highlight of the past year for me. We finished six incredible episodes of immersive TV in under six months.
I’m also really proud of getting our first Emmy nomination for our series “Live at Red Rocks VR”. We set out to create a benchmark in quality and I love that we’re able to combine my passion for live music with my passion for immersive videos.
It’s my blend of storytelling and technical in the immersive video space that I think I am most known for. I love giving back and am always an open book when it comes down to how I try and push the medium forward.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
This changes all the time, but right now my favorite childhood memory is from high school. I did a lot of theater back then and I loved being on stage because it was so focused and in the moment (I had some pretty bad anxiety back then too). We did this one play called 4H Club by Sam Shepard for a 1-act play competition. It’s a really wild out there kind of play. My dad directed it and it was a really small production. Just three actors, a garbage can, and a few pieces of cardboard. We were competeing against schools with huge 80 person crews and giant two story sets that were so impressive. While rehearsing, we talked a lot about “creating a reality under the imaginary circumstances of the play” and did all sorts of sense memory recall exercises. Real “actor” stuff and I was really committed to it. The day of the competition, we went out a did our thing. It was the first time on stage that I recall feeling 100% connected to the character and not just going through the blocking and the lines. I WAS this guy. It was a bit of an out of body feeling, but I carry that with me to this day as the benchmark for when I know I’m connected and present in the moment. I won my first acting award with that show. I didn’t end up pursuing acting, but the validation after working so hard felt really good and the fact I got to share it with my dad was very special to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lightsailvr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/immersive_matt/
