SARA COPPOLA-NICHOLSON
NEWS

Latest News

Creative Industries Property Summit

18th June 2024

A one-day conference that brings together key leaders in the creative and real estate sector.

Sara joined Prof. James Bennett, Director CoSTAR National Lab, Mark Ball, Artistic Director Southbank Centre and Sarah Ellis, Director of Digital Development, Royal Shakespeare Company, for the session ‘CreaTech: The New Frontier – A Massive National Opportunity’,

The panel was chaired by Prof. Christopher Smith, Executive Chair, Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI Creative Industries Sector Champion and UKRI International Champion.

A Personal Note

13th June 2024

After almost 4 years at Disguise, the time has come for me to say goodbye and move on to my next ambition. 

It has been an incredible journey alongside incredible Research & Innovation Partners, Collaborators and Funders. Thank you for empowering me to be a disrupter and consistently trusting my vision. 

Now setting sails, I look forward to the exciting times ahead!

 FMX - Film & Media Exchange is Europe's most influential conference for digital entertainment where Art, Technology and Business meet.
Sessions: 
CONFERENCE EXPANDING REALITIES EU XR
Tuesday, April 23, Bertha-Benz-Saal, 10:45 - 11:15
MAX-R - Mixed Augmented and Extended Reality Media Pipeline
Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Johannes Steurer
CONFERENCE EXPANDING REALITIES EU XR
Tuesday, April 23, Bertha-Benz-Saal, 12:15 - 13:30
Panel Discussion EU XR
Dr Anne Bajart, Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Chris Ebeling, Marcus Korhonen, Niall Murray, Nicolas Patz, Volker Helzle

CoSTAR is a transformative £75.6m programme to drive innovation in emerging technologies across screen and performance, utilising technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual production.

The CoSTAR launch event features speakers including 
Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair
Peter Bazalgette, Pro-Chancellor & Chair, Royal College of Art
Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Head of Research Programme, disguise
Sarah Ellis, Director of Digital Development, Royal Shakespeare Company
Sue Lyster, Executive in Charge, London Studio, Industrial Light & Magic

Bath Digital Festival

returns to the historic city to bring  a stellar selection of engaging workshops, keynotes and panels.

Keynote speaker Sara Coppola-Nicholson presents Art & Technology,  innovations for the future of creativity

From 10 – 14 July 2023, a week full of exploration, innovation and inspiration. The festival showcases groundbreaking technologies and digital innovations that are fostered in the city, hosted across iconic locations in Bath.


Capitalise on Research to stay at the forefront of Innovation

“Research-based collaborations like AdMiRe are invaluable opportunities for disguise to develop new prototypes and to experiment in new and wider scenarios. These programmes allow us to peek around corners that don’t exist yet and test wh at the  future of technology might look like while capitalising on this knowledge to ensure that our products are always at the forefront of innovation,” says Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Head of the Research Programme at disguise.
FULL PRESS RELEASE

Innovation excellence recognised by the EU, under Sara's Research Programme

May 2022, disguise Research featured by the European Commission’s Innovation Radar as a ‘key innovator’ amongst the most impressive technological and scientific advances being delivered by researchers and innovators around Europe. 
or go to

Across two 
EU Horizon Grants: 
disguise exceptional Research Team

Upon conclusion of the EU funded AdMiRe project, disguise Research has been awarded a new grant as part of the Horizon 2020 Programme: the new MAX-R project will create new pathways to advance innovation in xR with the aim to launch an entirely new era in the production, distribution and enjoyment of creative media.  MAX-R start date is September 2022. 

Shaping and Heading
a new
Research Department
Sara's  commitment with disguise to define a new path for experimentation grows to a formalised programme in October 2021. 
A company in fast and exponential growth, disguise is currently expanding the Department to international operations, new Research collaborations and partnerships. 

Innovating Film with Sara Coppola-Nicholson
Kelly King

Sara Coppola-Nicholson often has a hard time explaining exactly what she does in terms that most people can understand. In contrast, the results of her work require no explanation and often leave audiences dumbfounded. At the intersection of the Venn Diagram for film and tech is where Sara and her work exist. 
READ FULL ARTICLE

Sara Coppola-Nicholson:
A Unique Kind of Film Visionary

While inheriting established knowledge is a gift to those working in the film industry, every art form will evolve by the very nature of the ones creating it. With fast advancement of technology, CGI, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the level of immersion that can be generated today is incredible. Surely, Sara Coppola-Nicholson has been both a facilitator and a witness to this evolution. 
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How Creating a Vampire Helped the Film Industry
Winston Scott

Sara produced and delivered this movie in less than one week. Notable figures like cast member Dan Starkey (known for this role in Dr Who) and many of London’s elite contribute their talents primarily because they trusted Sara’s ability to deliver even the most challenging projects and shared her commitment to constantly push the boundaries to move the medium of film forward.
READ FULL ARTICLE 

here

SIGGRAPH takes a snapshot of computer graphics in Europe
Schellefire

Sara informs us that, of the 20 highest grossing films of all time, 17 are VFX-heavy blockbusters and 3 are CG-animated movies. Sara goes on to say that, "over this same time-period, the UK has transformed into a global centre for VFX, with four main companies dominating the marketplace. Interestingly, although the majority of these companies are UK-based, they are not all UK-owned." 
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Computer Graphics in Europe
Jessica Sommerville

Advances in virtual production techniques, powerful software tools and rendering systems, motion-capture and facial-capture breakthroughs, cloud computing, the rise of sophisticated previs techniques, deep learning/AI tools, 8K and of course the emergence of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and the upcoming mixed reality (MR) are all current technological trends that are having an impact not only in London but in all the other VFX centres too.
As we found with our other Regional Snapshot interviews AR, VR and MR are at the top of everyone’s current industry trends list. This is no different for Sara Coppola-Nicholson. 
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Roto++: Accelerating Professional Rotoscoping 
using Shape Manifolds

This study was coordinated by
Juan Salazar, Dan Ring and 
Sara Coppola-Nicholson.
In this work, we study the particular task of professional rotoscoping for high-end, live action movies and propose a new framework that works with roto artists to accelerate the workflow and improve their productivity.
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8.F05 Dreamspace at IBC Future Zone

“The ability to assemble, play with and even improvise virtual productions will have profound creative consequences for the media industry, performance groups and creative artists,” says Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Senior Project Manager at Foundry for Dreamspace. 
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IBC Future Zone: Enhanced UHD, Virtual Reality and Interactive Media Unveiled

Project Dreamspace’s ambition “is to make it possible for directors, designers and artists to build experiences directly from visual components, working together on set or in the performance space, and see the results immediately,” explains Sara Coppola-Nicholson, senior project manager, Foundry. 
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