MWCraig Lew with Mark Woolley
ABOUT
Vacuum Protocol Sci-Fi Horror | Official Selection — 2026 Torino Underground Cinefest, Off After Dark Program "Vacuum Protocol" is a sci-fi horror short about isolation, survival, and the terror of discovering that in the vacuum of space, the greatest threat may already be inside with you. As an increasingly desperate situation unfolds aboard a spacecraft, survival depends on confronting a danger where technology, human instinct, and the unforgiving environment of deep space collide. What begins as a mission becomes a claustrophobic fight against something no one was prepared to face. The film also explores a new filmmaking technique we call **Tele-MoCap**: an actor performs remotely from the United Kingdom, their performance is captured on video, and that footage is used to drive the character's on-screen performance—allowing actor and filmmaker to collaborate across thousands of miles.
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PROCESS
Tele-MoCap is a remote performance-capture workflow perfected by Craig Lew. It was designed to preserve the actor’s performance while allowing filmmakers and performers to collaborate from anywhere in the world. For "Vacuum Protocol", the actor performed remotely from the United Kingdom, directed live over Zoom. Each performance was recorded on video, capturing the actor’s facial expressions, eye movement, timing, emotion, and physical gestures. Those recorded performances were then used with **Runway Act-Two** to drive the performances of generated characters, transferring the actor’s expressive choices into the final cinematic imagery. ElevenLabs was used to transform the recorded vocal performances into the distinct voices of different characters while retaining the underlying delivery and dramatic intent. Character designs, environments, and visual elements were developed using **GPT Image 2** and **Adobe Firefly**, then combined with the captured performances to create the finished sequences. Rather than replacing performance, Tele-MoCap uses generative technology as an extension of it, putting the actor back at the center of AI filmmaking.
Credits
- Craig LewCreatorVIEW PROFILE →
- Mark WoolleyActor
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