After premiering at Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes this year, immersive production company Within and partner Lytro have now released 360-degree music experience Hallelujah to the public.
A reimagining Leonard Cohen’s iconic ballad, the companies created Hallelujah using Lytro’s light-field technology, a 95-camera lens array which is rotated five times on set to create a full 360-degree experience. Performed by composer/vocalist Bobby Halvorson and directed by Zach Richter, the 6DoF in-venue film is centered around a 5-part a cappella arrangement sung mostly by Halvorson before a choir is introduced.
“In honor of Leonard Cohen’s birthday, we are sharing this immersive acapella rendition of ‘Hallelujah’ on the WITHIN app. Combining the transportive qualities of music with virtual reality results in an incredibly emotional and gripping experience. We hope the launch of ‘Halleujah’ will provide a chance for people to connect with the iconic ballad in an entirely new way,” said Chris Milk, WITHIN Co-Founder and CEO in a statement.
“In Hallelujah, viewers are placed inside a virtual world that feels and looks like our reality, and are able to physically move around within it. While most live action VR systems keep the viewer fixed in a single point in space, Lytro’s technology breaks that boundary by giving the user freedom to move, allowing for a lifelike sense of presence that hasn’t been possible in virtual reality until now,” Richter explains. “We were also able to create a mobile version that immerses the viewer in incredible 3D sound, allowing anyone with a smartphone to explore the five parts of the a cappella and engage with this powerful music experience.”
The Within app can be downloaded for iOS and Android for Google Cardboard, or HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, and PlayStation VR head-mounted displays (HMDs). Or you can watch Hallelujah on the Within website.
For the latest Within announcements, keep reading VRFocus.