Category: Tribeca Film Festival

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Tribeca Film Festival’s Cinema360 to Release Select Online Programming for Oculus TV and Oculus Quest This Month

Just like most other large scale events around the world, the annual Tribeca Film Festival has had to shutter its physical operations which usually take place in New York City during April. The event will still be providing select programming online including Tribeca Immersive’s Cinema360, with a range of virtual reality (VR) content being shown in partnership with Oculus.

Tribeca - Attack on Daddy
Attack on Daddy – Tribeca Film Festival

For what would have been the festivals 19th event, its Cinema360 programme will present 15 films via Oculus TV, Oculus Go and Oculus Quest from 17th to 25th April. These will be curated into four 30-40 minute programs for you to watch at home, one of the first festivals to provide such a service, continuing to support filmmakers and creators worldwide.

Selections range from science fiction and horror to romance and comedy, with 10 of the 15 creators making their global premiere during the festival run. Additionally, Oculus will be releasing 2019 Tribeca Storyscapes Award winner The Key as an app for Oculus Rift/Rift S and Oculus Quest. Created by Celine Tricart, was The Key was made in conjunction with Friends of Refugees and Oculus VR For Good.

The 15 Tribeca Immersive Cinema360 films are:

  • Tale of the Tibetan Nomad
  • Upstander
  • Attack on Daddy
  • Lutaw
  • Home
  • The Inhabited House
  • Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir in VR
  • Black Bag
  • The Pantheon of Queer Mythology
  • Saturnism
  • A Safe Guide to Dying
  • Rain Fruits
  • Forgotten Kiss
  • Dear Lizzy
  • 1st Step

“Now, more than ever, we are feeling incredibly isolated from one another,” said Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer of Film & Immersive, in a statement. “The XR community is very much a global community, as evidenced by this program which features work from China, South Korea, Spain and Ethiopia, just to name a few. It’s my hope that by providing these remarkable 360 films to a global audience during this trying time, we can do our part to bring people back together in the name of great art and shared perspectives.”

Tribeca - Lutaw

“As human beings, we are navigating uncharted waters,” adds Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “While we cannot gather in-person to lock arms, laugh, and cry, it’s important for us to stay socially and spiritually connected. Tribeca is about resiliency, and we fiercely believe in the power of artists to bring us together. We were founded after the devastation of 9/11 and it’s in our DNA to bring communities together through the arts.”

Also, today is the launch of the Tribeca X Awards. All the finalists from Adidas, Adorama, Dior, Dove, Hewlett Packard, Kelly Services, Lime, Procter & Gamble, Red Bull, Square, Synchrony Bank, and Volvo Car UK are available to view via Tribeca’s website.

For further coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival, keep reading VRFocus.

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Fable to Debut Chapter 2 of Wolves in the Walls at Tribeca

This week it’s the annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York, with over 30 immersive experiences to make their debuts like Felix & Paul’s Gymnasia and Doctor Who: The Runaway by the BBC and Passion Animation Studios. Also set to make an appearance is the next instalment of the Wolves in the Walls series by Fable.

Wolves in the WallsWolves in the Walls: It’s All Over is the latest in The Lucy Stories, a series based on the Wolves in the Walls book by Neil Gaiman (American Gods) and Dave Mckean. The original Wolves in the Walls made its debut in 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival, with Whispers in the Night – confusingly the first in the series – set to premiere later this year at the Virtual Beings Conference.

“What makes the noises we can’t explain? 8 year old Lucy is convinced it’s the wolves,” explains the story summary for chapter 2. “Her family is not so sure. But something’s been stealing Mom’s jam, glitching Brother’s games and howling over Dad’s music. Lucy desperately wants to warn them all, and she needs your help to do it. Will you believe her? Because when the wolves do, in fact, come out of the walls, it’s all over.”

Guests at Tribeca will be able to help Lucy discover what is precisely hiding inside the walls of her home as well as enjoying live actors choreographed by New York’s critically acclaimed immersive theatre company, Third Rail Projects.

lucy poster

The star of the show is Fable’s AI-powered virtual being Lucy with which viewers can build a two-way friendship. Fable sees virtual beings as the next step in storytelling, able to interact with viewers in more natural ways. There are several unique aspects being introduced in Wolves in the Walls: It’s All Over. Apart from Third Rail, chapter two shows that Lucy has memory and that the audience’s actions do have consequences. They’re also able to see her evolve as the story progresses. Finally, Fable has revealed that Oculus’ Quill was used in the previsualization, asset creation and final animation of Wolves in the Walls.

Co-Created by Pete Billington and Jessica Shamash, there’s no official release date just yet for Wolves in the Walls: It’s All Over. When that happens VRFocus will let you know.

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Felix & Paul Studios’ Gymnasia to Premiere at Tribeca

The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival begins next week in New York and prolific virtual reality (VR) content creators Felix & Paul Studios will be premiering their latest short film, Gymnasia to guests.

Gymnasia Felix & Paul Studios

Created in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, Gymnasia is a six-minute cinematic VR experience which blends 3D 360-degree video, stop motion animation, miniatures and computer-generated graphics (CGI).

Produced by Felix & Paul Studios‘ Stéphane Rituit and Dana Dansereau (NFB) and directed by the award-winning duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Clyde Henry Productions), the experience is billed as a weird dark dream, where viewers step into the stillness of an abandoned school and enter a place where the ghostly ephemera of a lost childhood await them.

“We are honoured to once again premiere our work and be part of the official selection at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival,” said Paul Raphaël, co-founder and creative director of Felix & Paul Studios in a statement. “We collaborated with Chris, Maciek and Patrick on our very first VR experience, Strangers with Patrick Watson, so it was both fascinating and rewarding to see how much the medium has evolved in the short five years since our studio produced that inaugural VR piece.”

Gymnasia Felix & Paul Studios

Gymnasia isn’t just about donning a VR headset and watching a film for a few minutes. Being shown in Tribeca’s Virtual Arcade Gymnasia is a theatrical event, designed to distort visitors perception of scale right from the start by integrating life-size puppets into the environment. This was produced and installed by Montreal’s Phi Centre, supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Niepodległa programme.

“For us, creating VR has always been as much about the neuroscience of this fresh medium as it is about art theory. Indeed, in no other art form are aesthetics and science so aligned,” said Chris Lavis, co-director of Gymnasia. “The Gymnasia installation at Tribeca will be an engaging and surreal experience for festival-goers and our hope is that this unique installation will completely upend their sense of scale and reality.”

Gymnasia might be premiering at Tribeca but VR fans will also be able to watch the film soon, with a release scheduled to take place via the Oculus Store on 26th April. For further Felix & Paul updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Check out the First Trailer for Doctor Who: The Runaway

The BBC announced in February that work was underway on a new virtual reality (VR) project involving one of the broadcaster’s most popular series, Doctor Who. Today, the first trailer has now arrived for Doctor Who: The Runaway.

BBC Doctor Who: The Runaway

The incredibly popular long-running series – it began in 1963! – is getting an animated, interactive story from the Doctor Who team, allowing fans to step inside the TARDIS with the Doctor.

And not only do you get to see the first video footage, the BBC has released the first story synopsis for the upcoming animated short: “You’ve been in a collision. You wake inside the TARDIS. The Doctor introduces you to the person, or thing, you collided with. He’s a strange and magnificent ball of living energy called Volta. Part surly teenager, part bomb, Volta is very unstable. In fact, he’s primed to explode. Big time. Unless he can be returned to his home planet, sharpish. The problem is, a squad of galactic busybodies has other plans for Volta. Bad ones. Drawn into a frantic chase, you become the Doctor’s unlikely assistant as she races against time to get Volta home to his parents. Armed with a sonic screwdriver, it is down to you to help the Doctor as she faces the forces of evil, and teenage angst, in this animated 13-minute VR adventure from the team behind Doctor Who Series 11.”

Developed by the BBC’s digital drama team, BBC VR Hub and Passion Animation Studios, Doctor Who: The Runaway features 13th Doctor Jodie Whittaker. While the BBC has stated the experience will be interactive it hasn’t specified how it’ll work or to what level.

BBC Doctor Who: The Runaway

Doctor Who: The Runaway has been written by Victoria Asare-Archer and directed by Mathias Chelebourg (Alice, the Virtual Reality Play and The Real Thing VR) and features new original music from series composer Segun Akinola. The film will premiere during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The festival runs between 24th April – 5th May, with Tribeca Immersive taking place from 26th April to 4th May 2019. It’ll also come to UK audiences in the near future. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Doctor Who, Bonfire And More VR Movies Debut At Tribeca 2019

doctor who tardis vr

Tribeca Film Festival 2019 is coming up and the show is packing a host of VR premieres.

The Immersive lineup for this year’s show was revealed this week. It contains more than 30 experiences, many of which will be shown for the first time at the festival.

Highlights include the recently-announced Doctor Who: The Runaway. It’s a short VR adventure that will allow viewers to step inside the TARDIS for the first time. Current Doctor Jodie Whittaker lends her voice to the piece too.

We’ll also see the debut of Bonfire, the latest from Baobab Studios. Announced earlier this week, the experience sees viewers crash land on an alien planet and start to build relationships with its inhabitants. War Remains, meanwhile, will immerse viewers in the Western Front of World War 1. Podcasting legend Dan Carlin narrates an experience that promises to be both visceral and educational.

We’ve also seen a few of these pieces first-hand. We got an early look at VR City’s Common Grounds a few weeks ago, for example. It’s a striking piece following the demise of a housing estate in central London. There’s also another look at the Wolves in the Walls series we first saw last year.

But there’s plenty more to see that’s entirely new. Into the Light, the latest piece from Jessica Brillhart, promises more immersive musical heights. 2nd Civil War, meanwhile, puts you on the front lines of a fictitious conflict. It’s a voice-activated piece that has you interrogating an insurgency.

There’s a little AR in there too; Stealing Ur Feelings uses facial recognition AI to gauge your reactions to its content.

Quite an eclectic line-up, then. We’ll be looking forward to seeing how Tribeca pushes VR storytelling forward this year.

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Over 30 Immersive Experiences to Debut at the Tribeca Film Festival

Next month will see the start of the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. In preparation, Tribeca Immersive has announced its schedule of more than 30 cinematic and cutting-edge virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) experiences.

Doctor Who

Tribeca Immersive encompasses two events during the Festival, Virtual Arcade, presented by AT&T, and Tribeca Cinema360. Virtual Arcade will feature a lineup of 21 immersive experiences from new and established artists, while Tribeca Cinema360 will see 12 curated screenings take place in a custom theatre.

“Tribeca Immersive remains committed to the power of new technology as a dynamic vehicle for storytelling,” said Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer, Film & Immersive for Tribeca Film Festival. “This year’s programming spans a myriad of genres, including many world premiere VR, MR and AR experiences.”

The Virtual Arcade will feature the following lineup:

  • 2nd Civil War (World Premiere) – USA – 2nd Civil War has broken out in America. In this voice-activated VR experience, you will drop into an Insurgent Hot Zone, interrogate the inner circle of the insurgency and decide: which side are you on?
  • 7 Lives (World Premiere) – Luxembourg, France, Belgium – An afternoon in June. Tokyo. 5 p.m. A girl jumps in front of the subway. Her soul rises from the rails. On the platform, the six people who witnessed the scene are in shock. It revived a trauma in them, painful memories they never overcame…
  • Ayahuasca (World Premiere) – France, Luxembourg, Belgium – Participants are immersed in visions triggered by a dose of ayahuasca. The spectator lives this through director Jan Kounen’s eyes as he travels on a spiritual voyage.
  • Bonfire (World Premiere) – USA – Nice job. You’ve crashed your spaceship into an alien jungle. Your instincts, nourishment cylinders, and a wary robot sidekick are all you have for survival… or so you think. With Ali Wong.
  • Cave (US Premiere) – USA – Cave is a coming-of-age story told through cutting edge Parallux technology, featuring a fully immersive holographic VR experience that can be shared by many audience members at once.
  • Children Do Not Play War (World Premiere) – Uganda, Brazil, USA – Children Do Not Play War is a cinematic VR tale of the war in Uganda told through the eyes of a young girl.
  • Common Ground (World Premiere) – UK – Explore the notorious Aylesbury Estate, concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK, and home to a community affected by forces beyond their control.
  • Doctor Who: The Runaway (World Premiere) – UK – Step inside the TARDIS with the Doctor in this beautiful, animated, interactive story from the Doctor Who team. With Jodie Whittaker, Richard Elfyn.
  • A Drop in the Ocean (World Premiere) – UK, France, USA – Discover a miniature universe at the heart of our survival. Become part of a Social VR adventure through the ocean food chain, to reveal a crisis of our making.
  • Ello (World Premiere) – China – Ello is a sweet story about loneliness and friendship. When people expect friendship or love, proactively pursuing rather than passively waiting might lead to a surprising end.
  • Gymnasia (World Premiere) – Canada – Step into a dream, where the ghostly ephemera of a lost childhood await you.
  • Into the Light (New York Premiere) – USA – Ascend Spring Studios and move through the movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor,” performed by the legendary Yo-Yo Ma.
  • Stealing Ur Feelings (World Premiere) – USA – Stealing Ur Feelings is an AR experience about the power of facial emotion recognition AI that exploits your reaction to its own content in horrifying ways.
  • Unceded Territories (World Premiere) – Canada/USA – Through infectious interaction, build a natural world made up of the colorful, surrealist art of acclaimed First Nations painter Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, until you are confronted by Colonialist Snake who forces you to see the truth behind your actions.
  • War Remains (World Premiere) – USA – Podcast legend Dan Carlin employs the unique power of virtual reality to transport audiences into the most extreme battlefield in history—the Western Front of The First World War.
  • Where There’s Smoke (World Premiere) – USA – Where There’s Smoke mixes documentary, immersive theater, and an escape room to explore memory and loss. Set within the aftermath of a blaze, participants race to determine the cause of a tragic fire by sifting through the charred remains.
  • Wolves in the Walls: It’s All Over (World Premiere) – USA – Transport into the magic of VR cinema, where only you can help Lucy discover what’s truly hiding inside the walls of her house. With Jeffrey Wright, Noah Schnapp, Elizabeth Carena, Cadence Goblirsch

STORYSCAPES

The Storyscapes Award, recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology.

  • Another Dream (حلم آخر) (World Premiere) – Netherlands, USA, Egypt – Another Dream brings to life the gripping, true story of an Egyptian lesbian couple. Faced with a post-Revolution backlash against their community, they must choose between love and home.
  • The Collider (North American Premiere) – UK – Enter The Collider, a machine built to decipher the mysteries of human relationships. The Collider is an immersive virtual and theatrical experience exploring power, dependency, and the space between people.
  • Future Dreaming (World Premiere) – Australia – Step into a time-warping dream bubble as four young Aboriginal Australians approach their futures. Be ready for an intergalactic adventure. Look out for the space emus!
  • The Key (World Premiere) – USA, Iraq – An interactive VR experience taking the viewer on a journey through memories. Will they be able to unlock the mystery behind the mysterious Key without sacrificing too much?
  • Traitor (World Premiere) – UK – Eight hours ago, teenager Emma McCoy vanished. All she left behind was a game. Now it’s the viewer’s job to find her.
Another Dream
Image: Another Dream

The Tribeca Cinema360 will feature the following lineup:

Change is Gonna Come

  • 12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting (World Premiere) – USA – After a gunman shoots her best friend on the playground, a first-grade girl confronts a journey of trauma and loss after the Townville, South Carolina, school shooting.
  • Ashe ’68 (New York Premiere) – USA – Arthur Ashe emerged as an elite athlete who parlayed his fame as the first black man to win the US Open tennis championship into a lifetime devoted to fighting injustice.
  • Accused No. 2: Walter Sisalu (North American Premiere) – France – A trove of 256 hours of sound archives of the Rivonia trial bring back to life the political battle waged by Nelson Mandela and his seven co-defendants against apartheid. This film looks at one of them in particular: Accused No. 2, Walter Sisulu.

Go Team!

  • 11.11.18 (World Premiere) – Belgium, France – A few minutes before the suspension of fighting in World War on November 11, 1918, soldiers have to face a series of decisions.
  • Space Buddies (World Premiere) – USA – It takes a special team of astronauts to survive the voyage to Mars without going insane. This crew will be lucky to make it past launch.
  • Mr. Buddha (董仔的人) (International Premiere) – Taiwan R.O.C. – The short crime story takes place in a car, following Dong-Tzu, Ching-Tsai, and Ni-Sang, who get their hands on a valuable antique only to have the fruits of their labor shared with the newcomer, A-Che.

Her Truth, Her Power

  • Mercy (New York Premiere) – USA, Cameroon – Edith, a 14-year-old from Cameroon, journeys through the jungle seeking life-transforming surgery to remove a tumor on her jaw.
  • Girl Icon (New York Premiere) – USA, India – Globally, over 130 million girls do not go to school. Step into the life of one girl from India who is inspired by Malala Yousafzai to change her course.
  • Children Do Not Play War (World Premiere) – Uganda, Brazil, USA – Children Do Not Play War is a cinematic VR tale of the war in Uganda told through the eyes of a young girl. Also playing in the Virtual Arcade.

Such Sweet Sorrow

  • Armonia (World Premiere) – USA – Armonia takes the ride of the dynamic original piano concerto “Armonia Degli Uccelli,” and marries it to a universally accessible animation, to produce a uniquely layered spectacle of spatial storytelling.
  • Dreams of The Jaguar’s Daughter (World Premiere) – USA, Mexico – Dreams Of The Jaguar‘s Daughter is a surreal VR documentary where Achik’, the spirit of a young Maya immigrant, guides the viewer through her memories of an arduous journey north.
  • Water Melts (World Premiere) – USA – A blue-hearted rom-com about people who are going to lose someone they love. Nobody knows what to say, so they bicker, laugh/cry, get married. It’s a romantic comedy, after all.

The Tribeca Film Festival runs between 24th April – 5th May, with Tribeca Immersive taking place from 26th April to 4th May 2019. For further info regarding what’s going on and how to buy tickets, head to the official festival website. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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These four virtual reality experiences will make you feel real emotions

During a TED Talk in 2015, Chris Milk, founder of VR production company Milk Studios, deemed virtual reality "the ultimate empathy machine," because you can insert yourself into the scenes and feel as if you are actually there. Since Milk's proclamation, everyone from the United Nations to the NBA has tried to inspire real emotions from virtual worlds. […]

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iNK Stories VR Experience “Hero” Awarded At Tribeca Film Festival

Starbreeze publishing, more commonly known for their work on the popular PAYDAY series of videogames, have announced their “Hero” virtual reality (VR) experience developed in partnership with iNK Stories was awarded the prestigious Storyscapes award at the ongoing Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Hero

Hero puts the audience in the center of an air raid in a Syrian city, stepping into the shoes of a civilian where choices shape one’s own experience. The title is a combination of interactive virtual story telling with a documentary style film approach, complete with numerous sensor’s that help create a more immersive experience for the user. By utilizing 56 tracking cameras and a 32 audio DTS channel solution featuring DTSX tools, the team were able to achieve groundbreaking, haptic sound design.

The whole experience is power by the HP Z VR Backpack PC allowing for full body movement and freedom within the moment, giving users an astonishingly immersive experience that takes experiential storytelling and documentary film to a whole new level.

Mikael Nermark, Head of Starbreeze Publishing commented on the award saying: ““We’re pleased that the jury chose to recognize Hero as we feel it’s not only an important story that was deserved to be told, but it also represents a huge advancement in the way VR will enable content creators to amaze and tell immersive stories in the future”

The award winning iNK Stories, a visionary studio known for bringing authentic and impactful stories to immersive entertainment, worked on Hero to ensure that high level of immersion could be achieved. They have also worked on the BAFTA nominated and Facebook’s Game of the Year Winner, ​1979 Revolution. At Tribeca Film Festival 2018, iNK Stories were proud to present the premiere of Hero, which is the latest in their Vérité VR Series. Its exhibit at Tribeca Film Festival 2018 was one of five immersive experience that were in competition for the prestigious Tribeca Storyscapes Award which recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology.

The jurors, Myriam Achard, Marcie Jastrow, and Nicholas Thompson, commented on the award being given to Hero by saying: “Texture. Beauty. Heat. Life. Hero is an extraordinary story of life in a country under siege. It uses ambitious technology, and pushes viewers right up to, but not past, what one’s senses can bear. It will help you understand where VR is going, but also, viscerally, in some ways where this world is going.”

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest from Starbreeze Publishing and iNK Stories in the future so stay tuned for more.

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This Week In VR Sport: Baseball, More Baseball And The Future Of Sports Coverage

VRFocus is back once again to bring you another edition of This Week in VR Sport. With a number of sports related virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) stories, this week has three stories that are sure to peak your interest. Baseball fans get not one but two experiences this week and a discussion around the future of AR and VR live sports coverage was held at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Virtex Arena Baseball Released, Bringing AR Baseball Mini-Game To Fans

Virtex Arena Baseball

Virtex Apps have released released their mobile AR app Virtex Arena Baseball this week bringing the field of live baseball games to life with mini-games. Tailored for fans who are in the seats of a stadium and designed to be played between innings and other breaks, players will find plenty to do within the Virtex Arena Baseball app.

The app puts players against other fans in the stadium or those at home, allowing them to compete for the highest score in AR mini-games. When the time is right users can open the app, pick a team to support and then which game to join. From there it is all about playing the experience as best you can to ensure you bring home those points.

Some of the upcoming games that the Virtex Arena Baseball app with be able to be used at including the A’s vs. Orioles at the Oakland Coliseum on 4th May. The Yankees vs. the Red Sox at the Yankee Stadium on the 8th May and the Cubs vs. the White Sox at Wrigley Field on the 11th May. More dates and supported games will be announced as the season progresses.

The Virtex Arena Baseball app is available now for both iOS and Android devices that support AR. You can see the title in action in the below trailer.

MLB Home Run Derby VR Released With New Trailer

MLB HomeRunDerbyVR 02

In case you missed it, earlier this week the VR baseball title MLB Home Run Derby VR released for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The title lets players jump onto the field and take up a bat to try and score the most home runs and claim a place on the worldwide leaderboards.

The title includes three ballparks which have been carefully recreated in high-fidelity 3D so fans are able to feel like they are really on the field. This includes famous parks such as Marlins Park in Miami, Nationals Park in Washington DC and Progressive Field in Cleveland. Do you have what it takes to step up to the challenge and face off against the world? Can you be the home run champion?

MLB Home Run Derby VR is available now on PlayStation VR and HTC Vive and you can see the trailer for the title in the below Tweet.

Michael Ludden And Mitzi Reaugh Discuss The Future Of AR/VR Sports Coverage

Tribeca Film Festival - Header

At this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, sports fan and director of product for Watson Developer Labs & AR/VR Labs at IBM Michael Ludden talked about the obstacles facing VR and AR in sports. In a panel which also featured Mitzi Reaugh, VP of development and strategy at VR company Jaunt, the two discussed how immersive technology is playing a big role in sports media.

“You guys do some of this, so I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus,” Ludden said, referring to Jaunt’s technology. “But I would say that it’s not quite there yet in terms of usability.” Ludden explained that the capabilities of VR for sports events is extremely limited. Users cannot watch live games, camera positions are limited, there are no options to zoom the camera, and production quality is not to the same standard as traditional broadcasters. “I’m a sports fan and I’ve tried a number of these things, both using Jaunt and other platforms, and frankly for the most part, it’s pre-digested 30-second clips,” said Ludden.

According to Ludden the biggest obstacle is “incentivization mismatch,” since sports arenas and stadiums actually want people in the paying for tickets and to sit at the event, spending additional money on snacks, merchandise, etc. AR was noted for offering another immersive way to enjoy sporting events and that it is well on its way to be a more suitable media. During the panel they note how there is an opportunity to provide headsets that overlay statistics or commentary to those sat in the seats. It would allow events a chance to leverage the technology to provide on-site fans with much more information as those sat watching a home.

AR projections were also mentioned as being an effective way to engage viewers in live sports event, projecting the event onto a tabletop for example which would offer a complete view of the events. Ludden estimated that AR headsets in stadiums could be available as early this coming football season with consumer AR projections still sometime off. As for VR, Ludden is still hesitant about the execution, but expressed some optimism saying: “I think we’ll get there eventually because there’s a demand and there’s a use case.”

That is all for This Week In VR Sport. For more on immersive sport news keep reading VRFocus and remember to check back next week for another This Week In VR Sport.

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Filmmakers Launch New VR Company At Tribeca Film Festival

Among film festivals, the Tribeca Film Festival has one of the strongest relationships with virtual reality (VR), with several VR and 360-degree movies getting premieres at the event Now a new VR content company has been announced at the event.

Filmmakers Jacob Wasserman, Adam Donald and Ant Gentile have announced the creation of a new VR content company named Hidden Content, which was revealed at the premiere of the company’s first project, horror anthology The Caretaker.

The Caretaker is a narrative horror anthology in 360-degrees, which stars Adelaide Clemens, Tom Lipinski, Clara Wong and Diana Agostini. The pilot was a co-production with RealMotion Inc, with Max Born and Schuyler Weiss serving as producers, and Gentile and Kimberly Parker as exectutive producers.

Hidden Content will be working with film producer and financier Max Born again to produce a slate of VR films and develop a distribution platform for VR and augmented reality (AR) content. The aim is to have Hidden Content act as a full-service VR company. The three filmmakers behind the company have worked extensively in VR and 360-dgree cinema producing VR adverts and other branded content.

Hidden Content are working on three additional new VR genre series, though details on what these are have not yet been unveiled. The company is also working with other VR creators to add to the slate of projects for 2018.

The team previously produced Broken Night, a live-action interactive narrative which tells the story of a woman and her husband returning home from a night out to discover someone has broken into their home. The viewer can make decisions that influence the direction of the narrative as it progresses.

Tribeca Film Festival - Header

Additional information on Hidden Content’s projects can be found its website. Further news on Hidden Content and other VR experiences will be reported on here on VRFocus.