Open City Documentary Festival – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

October 11, 2017

Ex-Sony Dev Russell Harding Details Elements That are key to AR and VR Creation

Several videogame experts from Sony were present at Open City Documentary Festival this year in London, and were brought in to discuss how gaming knowledge on interactivity has become essential when creating stories for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) storytelling. VRFocus spoke to Russell Harding, the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Conspexit Games Studio about his past experiences in VR as well as AR and what he’s working on now.

Harding has worked at Sony for ten years and has been delving into AR and VR ever since EyeToy, EyePet, Wonderbook: Book of Spells as well as the videogames. Harding has essentially asked players to roleplay in his videogames to immerse them. He believes both AR and VR can be social depending on how you approach the experience.

Conspexit is an application for the visually impaired but Harding is now implementing his knowledge of AR and VR into an AR app for the visually impaired using Conspexit. The mobile AR app will allow people to collect data in the real world and share it with the visually impaired.

To find out more about Harding and hear his tips for integrating interactivity or developing for both mediums, watch the video below.

October 10, 2017

Dave Ranyard: What Makes a Great Immersive Experience?

VRFocus sat down with Dave Ranyard, CEO of Reality Dream Interactive at Open City Documentary Festival to talk about what he’s working on now, how artificial intelligence (A.I.) will change storytelling and the pitfalls of interactivity in immersive technologies.

After twenty years of working at Sony on augmented and virtual videogames, Ranyard decided to set up Reality Dream Interactive. At the moment he’s working on a project called Hold the World with sir David Attenborough and the Natural History Museum as well as a couple of unannounced projects.

Ranyard explains in the video interview below how he’s incredibly excited to finally use his knowledge on A.I. as computers are now finally able to scale and compute in order to do something real. He also discusses how non-fiction VR films that are short and with good intent or approach to storytelling have had a great impact on charities using them to showcase and educate the world on various topics. Ranyard also warns creators that if interactivity or volumetric VR does not necessarily make the experience better and can ultimately distract from a strong narrative.

To find out more about what makes a great immersive experience watch the video below.

October 9, 2017

Brynley Gibson From Kuju Discusses ‘The Chainsmokers Paris.VR’ and the Importance of Interactivity

Nina Salomons from VRFocus sat down with Brynley Gibson, Head of Studios at Curve Digital and Kuju to discuss virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) at the Open City Documentary Festival in London. Ex-Sony, Gibson was executive producer for Sony’s PlayStation VR Worlds, which were made up of five different VR experiences. This led Gibson down a road to immersive storytelling in VR and AR.

Brynley_Gibson Gibson’s past experiences working in unconventional games and new technology led him to pursue his own work and since Sony, he has been working on the Chainsmokers Paris. VR, an interactive VR music video wherein which the player can interact with their surroundings and remix bits of sound from the band The Chainsmokers. Gibson says, “I played loads of VR and I kept playing VR, and I was like you know what? There is something different here. It’s a different experience it, it was sort of an emotional experience that you couldn’t get from other mediums.”

Gibson is currently working on an AR mobile app with other various VR projects in the background. When it comes to AR Gibson says, “there’s a steep learning curve, there’s some stuff we can bring over from VR, but really it’s quite its own beast.” At the Open City Documentary Festival, Gibson was brought on a panel to discuss how gaming’s interactivity is a key component necessary for building immersion and how people coming from film have to learn this.

Find Chainsmokers Paris.VR for the PlayStation VR on the PlayStation Store here, it’s free. To find out more tips from Gibson, watch the video below.

July 31, 2017

Open City Documentary Festival Confirms September 6th As VR Day

When it comes to works of fiction and non-fiction, specifically those that use virtual reality (VR) as a tool for filmmaking we’re used to several festivals throughout the year. VR is a growing part of both the Sundance Film Festival and the Raindance Film Festival, the latter of which having launched the VRX awards earlier this year. Whilst in the UK there’s also the annual occurrence of Sheffield Doc/Fest which has grown in visibility over the last couple of years and is now getting more recognition on the international stage.

Now it seems we have another event to add to this list in the form of the Open City Documentary Festival. Who for their 2017 event will be specifically featuring talks and masterclasses about how VR works with regard to storytelling and filmmaking. The six sessions will be hosted by Digital Catapult and take place on Wednesday 6th September at their location on Euston Road in Kings Cross, London.

Details of the free sessions can be found below:

11:00 – Masterclass with Arnaud Colinart

Lindsey Dryden talks to Arnaud Colinart about the innovative and award-winning project, Notes on Blindness. She will also be introducing us to her latest collaboration with Arnaud on the VR project, Unrest, which accompanies the documentary of the same name directed by Jennifer Brea.

12:30 – Storytellers and Scientists in Conversation: The Art & Science of VR

We’re often told virtual reality is the future of entertainment. But what if, alongside entertaining you, VR can also make you a more self-fulfilled person? In this panel, storytellers and scientists, explore the intersection between story and science in VR. How does our brain react to VR? Can neurobiology help us tell more effective stories? And what can scientists learn from VR storytelling? How can filmmakers fully exploit these ideas and how are scientists and storytellers working together to further push the limits of immersive experiences?

14:15 – You Are Not Alone: The Future of the Collective VR Experience

Virtual Reality content is growing exponentially even though VR is only currently available to a tiny minority of interested consumers. How do we address the issues of accessibility and democratization of immersive production, creation and consumption? From web VR to social VR caves to Mega Pods to AR, this session will explore ways of shifting VR from a branded, private experience into something more accessible, public and even collaborative.

15:30 – How VR Could Change Our Culture, Our Relationships and Everything In-Between

Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities have the potential to deeply affect our culture and change our relationships with both the digitized world and ourselves. In this panel, VR Creators explore the role of empathy in immersive storytelling, the editorial and ethical challenges of the medium, gaming, and the next generation of technology. What will the next iteration of our new reality look and feel like?

16:45 – Gaming and Storytelling in Immersive Environments

Game developers were working with VR long before the rest of us had even seen a headset. VR’s first life was in video games. While filmmakers are still trying to get to grips with VR and its grammar, gamers have years of experience in creating immersive narratives. What are the secrets of making a great game story? And how can VR creators use these approaches in documentary immersive storytelling? Panellists, including expert games designers and high-profile content creators share their top tips.

18:00 – Closing Keynote: William Urrichio of MIT Open Documentary Lab

No one yet knows what VR is ‘for’, what stories and experiences can best be conveyed in a headset or other immersive environment. To launch this day of exploration, the principal investigator in the MIT Open Documentary Lab and an expert in comparative media studies, William Uricchio, will explore how film-makers can fully exploit the huge potential of VR, where to look for creative inspiration and what VR can contribute to the documentary tradition. Uricchio’s unique perspectives comes from his research of “old” media when they were new.

VRFocus will bring you more news regarding the event as it becomes available. For more information about the sessions mentioned above and for details of other non-VR sessions at the event head to http://opencitylondon.com.