Last week the popular Sundance Film Festival took place, showcasing some of the best films from around the world. One of those in attendance was ZIKR: A Sufi Revival which VRFocus reported on just as the event took place. Now it has been revealed that documentary producer, sales agent and theatrical distributor, Dogwoof has purchased the immersive documentary.
![ZIKR: A Sufi Revival]()
Directed by Gabo Arora (Ground Beneath Her), produced by Jennifer Tiexiera, and created by Sensorium, Superbright, and Tomorrow Never Knows, ZIKR: A Sufi Revival premiered 19th January in the New Frontier section of the festival. The film takes four participants on an interactive, virtual reality (VR) journey into a world of ecstatic ritual and music in order to explore the nature of faith alongside followers of this mystical Islamic tradition. By opening up an experience to Sufism, dancing and singing alongside members of the Tunisian group Association de la Renaissance du Maalouf et du Chant Soufi de Sidi Bou Saïd, it aims to shed light on the religion, revealing an Islamic practice of inclusion, acceptance, art, joy and understanding.
The deal was brokered on the last day of the Festival by Dogwoof’s Andy Whittaker and Tomorrow Never Knows’ Nathan Brown. The agreement secures funding to support additional development, including an online version of the VR experience to bring multiple players into the experience from around the world.
Dogwoof will also look to global distribution with location based installations at high profile international cultural centers, cinemas and museums. This is the first public project for Tomorrow Never Knows, a newly formed VR/AR/AI startup founded by industry veterans Arora, Brown, Saschka Unseld and Tom Lofthouse.
![ZIKR: A Sufi Revival]()
“There is real demand and a growing market for distinctive storytelling in VR/AR,” said Brown, CEO of Tomorrow Never Knows. “To partner with Andy and Dogwoof, one of the world’s most acclaimed producers and distributors of non-fiction stories, is more than a signal, it’s a lightning bolt for the entire industry.”
“Andy and his team at Dogwoof, have proven themselves over and over with their work in traditional documentary. And, with their first VR acquisition with ZIKR, they will bring their same tenacious spirit to making sure more and more people can experience a story very pertinent to what’s happening in the world now,” said Arora. “I couldn’t dream of a better home for ZIKR or a better team than Dogwoof for global distribution. I am honoured to be joining their award winning catalog.”
For the latest news on VR and 360-degree filmmaking, keep reading VRFocus.
Each year CES kicks off January with an enormous conference in Las Vegas where the tech industry shows its upcoming wares. This year was no different, with a good look offered at upcoming VR headsets. In recent years in the weeks after CES, the Sundance Film Festival in Utah highlights what people will get to see in these future VR headsets.
Much like CES, many of the creators who come to Sundance are looking to build buzz for their projects that can bring on additional partners or investment. Unlike CES, though, which is largely a hardware showcase, Sundance is more focused on software and stories. New companies like Fable emerge to display their cutting edge work in this regard, and others, like Haptx, show how stories might be enhanced with new abilities, like stimulating a person’s sense of touch. Much of the VR and AR at Sundance is brought to the event by Shari Frilot, who has organized the New Frontier section of the event for more than a decade.
This year, Sundance and New Frontier sit at an interesting crossroads. The event is held just two months before the release of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, based on the book by Ernest Cline. When the book released in 2011 it was a work of complete science fiction, imagining a time decades in the future when everyone owned reality-replacing goggles. With the release of the Ready Player One movie, the world’s most famous filmmaker is taking a long look at the allure and risk of such a technology and he’ll present his view on it to a global audience. And as people leave the theater, they’ll realize some of the technology in the film is actually available for purchase.
“It could make you reach for the future,” Frilot said. “What do we do with our dreams, our desires, our interests, our fantasies of the future when they are actually available right now?”
2018 Sundance Institute, Photos by Tiffany Roohani
With Sundance, though, the creators drawn there who are building VR and AR experiences face a major challenge. Even though the promise of VR headsets is about to be crystallized for so many people heading out to the theater, the number of headsets on the market is still quite small. Frilot, for instance, said she’s “sensed a stepping back” on the part of some investors as they try to figure out how they’re going to get a return on their investment. Nonetheless, there are “more creators coming to this medium than ever before,” Frilot said.
2018 is shaping up to be a critical year for the emergence of immersive computing. VR arcades around the world are installing what are effectively Holodecks, putting VR within reach for so many more people. Not to mention, compelling headsets are poised to become wireless self-contained systems for the first time. So the world’s biggest companies and its farthest reaching artists are poised to compete for the attention of a world that’s learning just how soon we’ll encounter this seismic shift toward spatial computing. Will the masses find themsleves surprised, or disappointed, when they see the current state of the technology?
“Its a very exciting technology — it’s almost magical,” Frilot said. “But it’s still in development. It’s a brand new medium.”
Here’s a list of the VR and AR projects at New Frontier 2018.
- HaptX brings realistic touch to virtual reality for the first time. The innovative technology lets VR users feel the shape, movement, texture and temperature of digital objects. By providing advanced haptic feedback and natural interaction, HaptX enables unprecedented levels of realism in virtual experiences.
- Awavena The Yawanawa, an indigenous Amazonian people, see immersive technologies as tools they can co-opt to share their connected worldview. Inviting artist Lynette Wallworth to their community, the Yawanawa share the visions of Hushahu, their first woman Shaman, and our technology renders visible the luminous world they have always known.
- TendAR A humorous and provocative installation that combines interactive storytelling, AR and emotion/face recognition technology to promote discussion about current topics in biometric data and artificial intelligence. Your guide: a fish-like creature who amusingly analyzes the partners collaborating in the experience, their emotions and the world around them.
- Zikr: A Sufi Revival This interactive social VR experience uses song and dance to transport four participants into ecstatic Sufi rituals, while also exploring the motivations behind followers of this mystical Islamic tradition, still observed by millions around the world.
- Elastic Time A mixed reality interactive documentary about space-time, narrated by astronomer Tony Stark (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). A real-time hologram of your body is integrated into the observatory room; using the controllers, you bend space and time to your will, creating black holes, wormholes and time portals. Cast: Tony Stark.
- Hero An immersive, large-scale installation that explores humanity in our modern era of civilian warfare. In this vérité VR experience with multi-sensory engagement, participants embark upon their own primal journey. When everyday life is disrupted by profound crisis only human connection can inspire hope.
- VR_I Blending art with technology, VR_I resulted from the encounter between Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin and the founders of Artanim, Caecilia Charbonnier and Sylvain Chagué. In this contemplative virtual dance piece, five spectators, immersed together and in real time, use avatars to investigate a performance among surprising effects of scale.
- BattleScar When Lupe, a Puerto Rican-American teen, meets fellow runaway Debbie, the Bowery’s punk scene and the Lower East Side are their playground. This coming-of-age narrative explores identity through animation and immersive environments as Lupe’s handwritten journals guide users through her year.
- DICKGIRL 3D(X) is the non-binary version of EVA v3.0, an avatar purchased online and appropriated by the artist. Through DICKGIRL 3D(X), the viewer becomes a post-human pleasure-seeker in an encounter with a submissive clay-like sculpture.
- SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime Dive into the heart of a black hole and uncover the hidden songs of the cosmos. In this interactive VR experience, the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves transforms how we see the Universe. Fall into the darkness, and you will find the light.
- Wolves in the Walls (Chapter 1 ) All is not as it seems when 8-year-old Lucy’s imagination proves to be reality. Help her discover what’s hiding inside the walls of her house in this immersive fable, based on the work by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, and choreographed by acclaimed immersive-theater company, Third Rail.
- Chorus Crystals, lasers, monsters, heroines. Transform into fantastical female warriors in this social virtual reality experience. Six people can band together to battle evil in this epic journey of empowerment, all orchestrated to the song “Chorus” by Justice.
- Dinner Party A short virtual reality thriller that dramatizes the incredible story of Betty and Barney Hill, who in the 1960’s reported the first nationally known UFO abduction case in America.
- Dispatch A small-town police dispatcher faces the greatest challenge of his career during an all-night crime spree.
- Eyes in the Red Wind Friends and family members gather to throw a ‘soul scooping’ ritual, to pacify the soul of a drowned man. When a possessed shaman reveals the murderous truth behind the death on the table, lust and secrets come to the fore.
- Masters of the Sun In 1983, Los Angeles was spared from utter destruction driven by an ancient evil. The ghetto became ground zero for drug epidemic that transformed citizens into soul-sucking zombies through Z-Drops, until a ragtag crew used one weapon to take their city back: hip-hop.
- Micro Giants A computer-generated VR experience that gives an unprecedented and highly engaging perspective of insect life. When participants enter into the micro world, tiny flowers and insects in normal life now become mighty trees and beasts.
- On My Way In a Tesla, multiple Yung Jakes rap about money, cars, drugs and things of that nature, among interactive elements.
- Space Explorers: A New Dawn Experience the journey of NASA astronauts as they navigate the trials and sacrifices of their training and missions. An immersive VR experience that shines a light on mankind’s most ambitious endeavor to understand our planet, our universe and our origins.
- The Sun Ladies VR An in-depth look at the personal journey of Xate Singali: from her roots as a famous singer in Kurdistan, through ISIS sex slavery, and to her new life as a soldier on the front lines as she starts a female-only Iraqi fighting unit called the Sun Ladies.
- The Summation of Force In a moonlit suburban yard, two brothers battle one another in a mythic game of cricket. A study of the motion, physics and psychology of elite sport; a cosmic, dreamlike and darkly beautiful metaphor for life.
- Your Spiritual Temple Sucks Mr. Chang arrives to his “Spiritual Temple,” a place that represents one’s destiny. To solve his marital crisis and financial problems, he summons his guardian – The Thunder God. They attempt to tidy his life, which turns out to be a big mistake…with hilarious consequences.
Tagged with: New Frontier, sundance film festival
From deep introspective explorations, to far-out journeys into the unknowns of the universe, explorers are the heroes that guide us forward. They are the ones whose relentless curiosity uncovers possibilities.
When it comes to storytelling in VR, Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël are among the most celebrated explorers, uncovering artistic and technical tricks that help immersive content creators progress further. And there is no more extreme example of exploration, than those that choose to venture beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
Felix & Paul’s newest experience, Space Explorers: A New Dawn, premieres at the Sundance Film Festival New Frontier Exhibition this week. After the premiere, it will be available for free alongside its second chapter, Space Explorers: Taking Flight, with the launch of Oculus Go this year.
A space exploration vehicle takes a break on a test run in the desert.
I had the opportunity to preview Space Explorers: A New Dawn, and then uncover what Felix & Paul have learned from creating the experience. Plus, NASA’s Principal Virtual Reality Engineer and several astronauts shared with me how they are using VR to prepare for future explorations throughout our solar system.
Space Explorers: A New Dawn introduces visitors to NASA’s new generation of astronauts, Jessica Meir, Jeanette Epps and Victor Glover, the depths of what space exploration entails for them now, and the ambitious plans for the near future. I enjoyed being educated directly by NASA astronauts, while joining them in inspirational and breathtaking scenes. We covered a lot of ground, from training underwater, through to speeding through the air in a T-38 jet.
Félix Lajeunesse of VR studio Felix & Paul working on Space Explorers.
Lajeunesse shares that the second chapter, Space Explorers: Taking Flight, takes visitors on an exploration of “…the collaboration between NASA and private space companies such as Space X and Boeing, as well as the spirit of collaboration between the world’s national space programs.” Viewers visit Cape Canaveral, Russia and Kazakhstan, and also experience two up-close rocket launches.
Michael Gerndhart takes the wheel in a space exploration vehicle.
How Felix & Paul Create Entertaining, Educational Content in 360
Storytelling in VR not only takes you to new places, or allows you to be someone or something else, but it has the ability to give you experiences that enhance your life in a way that other mediums cannot do. The drivers of Astronauts partake in underwater spacewalk training.
Exploring New Territories with Space Explorers
Felix & Paul have innovate their proprietary technology as they capture new experiences for VR.
“We had quite a few firsts on this production, and solutions to find for many extreme situations,” explains Raphaël.
They went from the depths of shooting underwater at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA during actual astronaut training, to shooting from the co-pilot seat of an airborne T-38 jet which, Raphaël said, “subjected our camera to monumental vibrations that not only put our hardware at risk but made getting a clean and comfortable shot a challenge requiring the collaboration of NASA’s own engineers.”
“In all these cases we had to devise new ways of shooting, securing and processing our images, but the challenges were far from only being technical,” Raphaël said. “Our goal was never simply to get a 3D 360-degree shot, but to really immerse the viewer in a way that they felt they were truly there. Navigating the technical and logistical challenges and unpredictability of these extreme scenarios while getting that right shot pushed us to our limits.”
In October, I ran into Raphaël at an industry dinner the evening of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. He excitedly shared that he was able to watch the live stream of the footage being captured for the second chapter of Space Explorers, with their camera just a few meters away from the rocket. So close in fact, that they subjected their camera to the flames of the rocket engine. It may have cost them a camera, “…but in every case, it was more than worth it.”
The moon is our Earth’s only natural, permanent satellite.
How NASA Is Educating Astronauts with Custom VR Experiences
This is not NASA’s first adventure with VR.
Evelyn Miralles, Principal Virtual Reality Engineer of the NASA Virtual Reality Laboratory/Astronaut Training Facility, explains that “NASA has been involved with VR research and development for space and military purposes since the 60’s.” But, since 1992, they “have been using VR officially for astronaut training at the Virtual Reality Laboratory.”
Their lab uses a VR system that was designed in-house for astronaut training. It’s used to “train astronauts for Spacewalks and Robotics operations as well as for [zero gravity] mass handling techniques,” simulating handling objects with large masses in case a repair or replacement is required outside of the International Space Station.
Astronaut Victor Glover says this VR simulation includes the use of gloves and a headset that allows them to see the simulation, and there are also physical “handling aids and equipment that we can hold and manipulate to simulate how heavy equipment behaves in microgravity. The hardware is connected to a series of cables, pulleys, and motors that really create a convincing simulation.”
Astronaut Jessica Meir told me that they also learn “how to use and operate the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER), a backpack-like system that we wear on our spacesuits in the remote chance that we became untethered from the space station and had to maneuver our way back.” The VR lab is essentially their “only means of training with this system to learn how it might feel and react if we were ever to have to use it on our mission.”
Miralles explains that NASA has also used VR to develop experiences that simulate life on Mars, and for collaborations. Reflecting on other opportunities for VR that are being investigated, beyond its ability to support activities like design and development, she highlights that it could also “aid in communication between astronauts and ground team work.”
Pilots in the Air Force conducting high-speed flight research.
An Elevated VR Experience for Out-of-Home Viewing
Felix & Paul chose to do a special cut of Space Explorers: A New Dawn for its premiere this week, with synchronized Voyager chairs by Positron. Raphaël explains that they were engaged by its ability to “elevate a VR experience in more than just a visceral way…Having your body react to the rumble of riding shotgun in the Mars Rover, the thrust of a T-38 jet or the feeling zero-G outside the ISS is incredibly satisfying, but being able to orient the viewer opened up new ways to frame a shot and tell the story.”
The full-motion experience may pop up next at a NASA visitor center.
Laura Mingail is a Marketing & Business Development executive in the entertainment industry, focused primarily on driving engagement with film and VR properties, as well as developing monetization strategies for VR content creators, publishers and out-of-home entertainment centers. She is also a contributor to UploadVR.
Tagged with: felix & paul, sundance film festival
Dispatch
Masters of the Sun
Space Explorers
SPHERES
Wolves in the Walls
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