More and more film makers are turning to virtual reality (VR) technology to bring their audience closer to powerful and personal subjects. Empathy is just one of the benefits of experiencing film and video in VR, and documentaries such as The Choice are taking advantage of that. Now, Awake is heading to South by Southwest (SXSW) to premiere.
We’ve reported on Awake previously. The VR film is being directed by Start VR’s Chief Content Officer Martin Taylor, who has been working on the project for several years. The project has support from several large companies, including Screen Australia, HTC Vive, Animal Logic and Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture.
The film is set to premiere at SXSW 2018. It’s the first time a VR film from Australia has had the chance to premiere at the event. Hopefully it will lead to further recognition of the Australian VR scene in the future.
Awake star Jake McDorman and Analeigh Tipton, and it takes audiences into an immersive and vivd dreamscape and that bends the concepts of space, time, and reality. It explores the human psyche at its most vulnerable through the character-driven narrative.
McDorman plays Harry, an isolated man still suffering after being widowed. Throughout the Awake series, audiences will follow Harry as he goes from a prisoner in his own home, haunted by the memories of his wife Rose, played by Tipton, and obsessed with a cryptic message.
Mike Jones of VR Noir, The Kettering Incident and Deadlock also helped in the production, along with Christian Cantamessa, who worked on Red Dead Redemption, Shadows of Mordor and AIR. The experts of the digital VR worlds and character driven narratives come together in Awake to bring players closer to the characters than ever before.
Attendees at SXSW 2018 will be able to view Awake at the Virtual Cinema area, a space dedicated to VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) storytelling.
It’s good to see SXSW’s continued dedicated to VR media, and Awake’s inclusion at the event will no doubt invigorate the Australian VR scene. Once we see Awake for ourselves, and should we hear anything more about it, you’ll be sure to read it all here first on VRFocus.