Vive Studios’ Feature Length Immersive Film ‘7 Miracles’ Now Available on Viveport

Vive Studios has released its ‘feature-length’ immersive film titled 7 Miracles. On the surface, the immersive film is a reenactment of the Gospel of John in the Bible that specifically centers around the seven miracles of Jesus Christ. Under the surface, however, it uses advanced filmmaking techniques such as photogrammetry and volumetric video capture to achieve 8K imagery.

Directed by Rodrigo Cerqueira and Marco Spagnoli, 7 Miracles was shot across Matera and Rome, both classic locales for returning viewers of The Passion of the Christ and Ben Hur. According to the official blog post, “The seven-part episodic feature runs over 70 minutes, making it the first feature-length cinematic experience from Vive Studios,” and one of the longest immersive films we’ve ever seen.

7 Miracles is also notable for winning the ‘Spirit of Raindance: VR Film of The Festival’ award at Raindance Film Festival 2018, as stated by Vive Studios in their blog post at that time.

While the award-winning biblical reenactment is predominantly meant for consumption via Viveport, where it is sold at $20 as a complete PCVR experience, Android owners can also join in on the gospel for $10 via the Google Play store.

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In the future, Vive Studios hopes to bring 7 Miracles to additional platforms such as iOS and the Vive Wave. The studio also promises to introduce post-release content over time, citing ‘new 3D room-scale scenes’ for release with upcoming updates to Viveport users.

Currently, 7 Miracles is only available in English. You can find more information about the immersive experience at its official website.

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Vive Studios’ 7 Miracles Delivers A Sunday School Lesson In VR

Vive Studios’ 7 Miracles Delivers A Sunday School Lesson In VR

If you’re reading this, JesuSavesSouls, this one’s for you.

I have to admit that, when I was first invited to watch a feature-length 360 degree movie about recounting the seven miracles of Jesus Christ, I hesitated. I confess it’s not a subject I have much interest in, nor has there been any 360 degree content yet published that’s so convincing I could spend over an hour watching it. Pairing the two didn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm, then.

In truth, though, the end product isn’t quite the biblical endurance test I thought it would be, though it’s far from a miraculous achievement (sorry, I’ll stop those now).

Though billed as VR’s first feature-length piece, 7 Miracles actually arrives in an episodic format similar to other ‘movies’ like Nicolas Cage’s The Humanity Bureau. It consists of seven chapters, each lasting around 10 minutes and focusing on a different miracle. Odd as it may seem, I can see publisher Vive Studio’s thinking behind its support; there’s thought to be over two billion Christians in the world, why not push VR to them in the ongoing effort to popularize the tech? The result is what very much looks like a Sunday School lesson in VR, and that’s likely where this makes the most sense. It’s certainly in line with the specificity of Studio’s target audiences (which also include ocean conservationists and interior designers), if nothing else.

I was initially a little wary of 7 Miracles, though. The first episode, which recounts Jesus turning water into wine, doesn’t do much to validify its existence. It sees us join Jesus at a party, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re simply watching a school production rather than really immersing yourself in an authentic recreation of the time and setting. Perhaps that’s just the experimental nature of the format itself shining through but the piece struggles to find much you’d call cinematic in its first ten minutes.

Subsequent episodes I was shown, however, fared far better than the introduction. The first, in which Jesus helps a man to walk again, is shot with a stunning backdrop of mountains in a city nestled between them. It lends the production a lot more weight, as does one particularly convincing scene in which a series of fast cuts have us trying to keep pace with Jesus as he angrily lectures those around him. It was here that I really got a sense of why this project should be in VR; there was unparalleled intimacy and communion to being part of the group huddled around him.

Jesus certainly looks like Jesus, I’ll give him that.

You continue to catch glimpses of that purpose throughout, including one scene in which Jesus resurrects Lazarus, though I couldn’t help feel like the piece ultimately wasn’t doing enough to elevate itself beyond traditional 2D footage.  Tellingly, I watched the experience in a cinema seat, but never felt the need to uncomfortably crane my neck around to get the full scope of a shot. It is, at the very least, comprehensively put together, only occasionally revealing its stitching and exposing some directional audio mishaps.

Perhaps the most interesting side of the experience, though was a full VR rendition of the resurrection scene, captured using photogrammetry. The laser-scanned tomb was freely explorable in the standalone Vive Focus headset and both Jesus and Lazarus had been brought to life via performances captured with hundreds of cameras. Running on mobile hardware, the quality of the scans wasn’t on par with those I’d seen out of Dimension in London but I was told it could be scaled up for the PC version. It’s more of a taste of what’s possible rather than anything meaty, but it was proof enough to me that 360 content may be laying a foundation for a deeper, more immersive form of VR storytelling to come.

In this sense, 7 Miracles feels a bit like an unfinished puzzle, as if new and more exciting pieces were discovered mid-way through production that got the crew wanting to make a different picture entirely. It’s not likely to be something that has legs for home-based VR use B#but it could be genuine tool to raise awareness of the platform, even if it might not fully convert anyone.

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Vive Studios Announces First Feature-Length VR Film, 7 Miracles

Vive Studios have announced their first virtual reality (VR) feature film, in partnership with Panogramma and Film Production Consultants, entitled 7 Miracles. The title will be one of the first feature-length cinematic VR experiences and is set to premiere at the 26th Raindance Film Festival, Europe’s leading independent Film Festival on October 3rd, 2018.

Vive Studios

7 Miracles recreate the seven miracles performed by Jesus Christ based on the Gospel of John in VR. The seven-part 360-degree experience will immerse and connected the audience like never before to the stories that are known to many. The film is being created by leveraging the latest in capture technology such a photogrammetry and volumetric video capture to produce images in stunning 8K with additional scenes created in 3D.

“We are thrilled to push the boundaries of story-telling in VR with 7 Miracles,” Said Joel Breton, GM of Vive Studios. “Our amazing film production team has worked tirelessly to pioneer the technology for cinematic virtual reality and to bring the viewers back in time to experience the miracles of Jesus for themselves.”

Shot in Rome and in Matera, the film has been directed by Rodrigo Cerqueira (Jesus VR: The Story of Christ) and co-directed by Marco Spagnoli (Hollywood Invasion, Hollywood on Tiber, Walt Disney and Italy – A Love Story). The VR film was produced by Enzo Sisti (Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Passion of the Christ) and Vive Studios’ Joel Breton (Pirates of the Caribbean, Unreal, Anno 1602, Terrarria) and Rodrigo Cerqueira.

7 Miracles

“Working on this project has been a wonderful experience for me and my team. This new cinematic VR technology has given my team and me a chance to create and tell more personal and intimate stories,” Said Enzo Sisti, Executive Producer. “I’m very proud of our work.”

Vive Studios’ 7 Miracles will premiere at the 2018 Raindance Film Festival, which is the largest independent film festival in the UK. The 26th Raindance will take place between September 26th, 2018 and October 7th, 2018 in central London.

For all the latest on Vive Studios’ work and 7 Miracles in the future, keep reading VRFocus to stay up to date with all updates.