The Cannes Film Festival is traditionally a place where the unique and experimental projects in the world of filmmaking get a fair viewing. Virtual reality (VR) production studio Immerex has teamed up with director Gianluigi Perrone to showcase a unique short film titled ‘The 7th Night of Thelema: A Virtual Ritual’ at the festival.
The short film aims to draw upon the practices of a relatively obscure set of spiritual and religious practices codified by famed occultist Aleister Crowley, which from the basis of a religion called Thelema. Using VR technology to recreate the ambience and atmosphere of the origin of Thelema to create what the director hopes to be an immersive, spiritual and artistic experience.
“The main idea was to make a real ritual — something that could be an act, through virtual reality media, to heal the soul of the viewer,” said Director Gianluigi Perrone. “I actively looked for a top-notch VR studio that can produce VR content to the highest industrial standard and ultimately chose Immers Studio after exploring several options.” This is one of Perrone’s first two films shot in virtual reality and screened at Cannes.
The Cannes Festival has embraced showing VR films lately, with the Marche Du Film NEXT VR program forming part of the overall festival since 2016. This year, the portion of the festival that involved VR was expanded into a five-day program which included short films like the satire story Extravaganza: “The rarity of quality VR content inspires filmmakers to adapt this emerging technology, and Immers Studio has dedicated the last three years to creating original VR content, which can be viewed exclusively via our head-mounted display,” commented Kirin Lee, CEO of Immerex.
VRFocus will bring you further information on VR film projects as it becomes available.