Category: Through You

Posted on

Jaunt VR Releases Experimental Experience Through You

Award-winning filmmaker and dancer Lily Baldwin and Emmy award-winning director Saschka Unseld (Henry , Dear Angelica) have created an experimental virtual reality (VR) experience Through You which Jaunt has announced is now available through its app.

Filled with saturated colors, a bold score and dance, Through You tells the story of love born, lived, lost, burned, and seemingly gone forever.

“The story begins in the 1970’s when a couple named James and Julia first meet, and stretches through 2046 when they have grown old and questioning, “Can love be found again?”, the official description explains. “James is played by Juilliard-trained actor Amari Cheatom. Julia is played in her youth and old age by two different actors: contemporary dancer and choreographer Joanna Kotze, and Marni Thomas Wood, the last dancing member of the original Martha Graham Company, and professor emerita/ co-founder of UC Berkeley’s dance program.”

Jaunt Through You image 2
Lily Baldwin and Saschka Unseld, co-directors of Through You. Photo by Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba.

“We treat the viewer like a fellow dancer, speaking with movement and bypassing words. We put them at the center of the story, first as a lover and then as a memory,” said Baldwin. “With the potential inherent in 360 degrees of immersion, we ask: What does the passage of time feel like? What does love and loss feel like?”

“We both have a very clear opinion on what we like and what we don’t. But the process of how we achieve these things is quite opposite,” adds Unseld. “In a way this yin-yang approach made our collaboration perfect. Both of us were able to judge each other’s work from a distance and help each other focus on our strengths.”

Featuring an original score by Mark degli Antoni, with sound design and binaural mix from Q Department, Through You is the first live action immersive experience directed by Unseld who’s better known for animations like Henry and Dear Angelica which were created at the now defunct Oculus Story Studios.

Through You is available through the free Jaunt VR app store, which supports iOS, Android, Cardboard, Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR today at 10 am ET.

For the latest Jaunt news, keep reading VRFocus.

Posted on

‘Through You’ – Dance as Embodied Communication in VR & Pushing the Boundaries of Editing in VR

Through You - Director Lily BaldwinDance is all about bodies moving through space, and it’s something that shows the strength of the VR medium since there’s something that’s lost when it’s translated onto a 2D screen. Lily Baldwin observed how audience members heard the music differently through her expressions as a dancer touring with David Byrne, and she wanted to experiment with using dance a form of embodied communication within virtual reality. 

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

Lily teamed up with VR filmmaker Saschka Unseld to create Through You, an emotional and poetic experimental film that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with camera movements and over 200 camera edits.

I had a chance to catch up with Baldwin at the Sundance Film Festival where we talk about her refined perception of body language, how she used bodies moving through space to communicate visceral emotion, and how they’re pushing the limits of editing and camera movement within VR. Through You was released on Gear VR on August 1st, and is now available (via Oculus Video).

SEE ALSO
'Firebird: La Peri' Adds LoTR Actor in a Re-launch of One of VR's Finest Experiences

Support Voices of VR

Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

The post ‘Through You’ – Dance as Embodied Communication in VR & Pushing the Boundaries of Editing in VR appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

VR Dance Performance Through You Released On Gear VR

The intimacy of a dance performance is something that virtual reality (VR) is quite good at capturing, as has been shown by previous performances captured in VR and 360-degree video. Samsung Gear VR owners will have the opportunity to find this out for themselves with the launch of Through You, a VR dance performance created by filmmaker and dancer Lily Baldwin and director Saschka Unseld.

Known as pioneers and mavericks in their own fields of dance, the partnership between Unseld and Baldwin is aimed at creating an intimate narrative of a woman journeying into old age, trying to impart the weight of years on to the audience and tell the story of a love affair that wanders through passion, betrayal, joy and many other emotions.

“Our differences were the perfect marriage in this collaboration,” said Baldwin. “We wanted to push the scope of VR by breaking the rules in order to start more conversation around possibility, and I believe that’s something we’ve achieved.”

“We both have a very clear opinion on what we like and what we don’t. But the process of how we achieve these things is quite opposite,” adds Unseld. “In a way this yin-yang approach made our collaboration perfect. Both of us were able to judge each other’s work from a distance and help each other focus on our strengths.”

Samsung Gear VR owners can download Through You from the Oculus Store. The total experience lasts fourteen minutes, stars dancers Joanna Kotze, Amari Cheatom and Marni Thomas Wood and features an original binaural score composed by Mark Degli.

“We both adore dance and believe in its power to tell story as a direct line of intimacy to the viewer’s body, without the need for words,” said Baldwin.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on new and innovative VR experiences for the Samsung Gear VR and other platforms.