In February VRFocus reported on Sheffield Doc/Fest announcing a new commission as part of its Alternate Realities Exhibition. Today, festival organisers have revealed the winner of the £12,000 GBP competition as well as unveiling two virtual reality (AR) project set to premiere at the June event.
The 2018 Doc/Fest commission has been awarded to Face to Face by Michaela Holland, Michelle Gabel and Ivana Jiron. Both immersive and interactive, the experience tells the story of an American mother with two daughters – whose life was forever changed by a gun accident. Chosen from a record number of highest quality international entries, Face to Face was selected by a committee that included Sarah Ellis (Head of Digital Development for the Royal Shakespeare Company), Katy Yudin (Executive Producer of the Future of Storytelling Festival in Canada) and Dun Tucker (Curator of Alternate Realities).
For the 2018 Alternate Realties Exhibition, two international VR projects will make their debut: The Day The World Changed – by VR veterans Gabo Arora (ZIKR: A Sufi Revival) and Saschka Unseld (Henry, Dear Angelica) and Hold The World – a one-off VR encounter with natural historian Sir David Attenborough.
The Day The World Changed is an immersive documentary that combines archive, animation, photogrammetry, 3D scanned objects and native VR tools together to send a clear message about nuclear disarmament. Made by Factory 42 for Sky VR, Hold the World is a one-on-one guided journey through a series of natural history specimens that the audience can interact with, learn more about, and reflect on how the past informs the present.
“These Alternate Realities works challenge the documentary form with multi-sensory stories using the latest digital innovations,” said Dan Tucker, Curator of Alternate Realities, Sheffield Doc/Fest, in a statement. “Today we reveal our incredible commission, Face To Face, the story of a mother with limitless courage; a first time collaboration between renowned VR creators Gabo Arora and Saschka Unseld with The Day The World Changed; and Hold The World, an innovative one-on-one encounter with Sir David Attenborough. We are looking forward to seeing audiences come to Sheffield with curiosity in abundance and leave with a desire to collaborate, create and share their own immersive and interactive stories”.
The Alternate Realities Exhibition and Summit showcases the world’s latest non-fiction interactive, augmented reality (AR) and (VR) projects. The Exhibition runs throughout the duration of the Festival (7-12 June), and the Summit takes place on Sunday 10th June 2018. For further information and to get tickets head to the official festival website. As further details are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.