Exclusive: Watch Steven Spielberg getting his head around advanced CGI for Ready Player One

'I've never really had to make four movies at the same time before'

Steven Spielberg blew the old-dog-new-tricks saying out of the water with Ready Player One, creating a sprawling and dizzying virtual reality world that required a complex shooting schedule with many moving parts.

Today we bring you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at filming on the movie, with Spielberg admitting the shoot was a challenging experience.

"One of the things about Steven that's kind of shocking is how open he is to learning and how much of a student he still is," said co-screenwriter Zak Penn.

"That's why he's Steven Spielberg because he has that commitment and that desire to challenge himself," actor Simon Pegg added."He spoke to me about it and said 'this is a really challenging movie' and I thought 'brilliant because this will bring the absolute best in him.'"

Spielberg was "involved in every detail" of production and is seen serving as camera operator himself for many of the scenes set inside the Oasis, controlling how the VFX world is viewed.

He said of the experience:

"As a production, Ready Player One was kind of a maze. It was very orderly and professional but there was a level of chaos to the amount of layers we had to achieve to really be able to put the Oasis on the screen.

"It's motion capture and it's camera capture, meaning I would choreograph the actors in a motion capture volume, then have to transfer all that information to the computers in the V Camp tent. I was given a little video device with thumb controls where I could dolly and crane [the shots] and when I moved my body or the device it would slave to what was on the screen. I had four screens, one on each side of me, one in front of me and one behind me, so I could sort of dance with the camera and choreograph my shots.

"I had to go back and forth from the actors to the V Camp tent maybe seven or eight times a day, then to the editing room to see how this was all cutting in, and then outside to shoot the live-action portions of the film. I've never really had to make four movies at the same time before."

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Ready Player One arrives on Digital Download July 23rd and to 4K, Blu-Ray™ 3D, Blu-Ray™ and DVD August 6th. Pre-order here.