Category: Tribeca Film Festival

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Tribeca Film Festival Launches ‘Storytelling With Watson’ Contest.

IBM’s Watson cognitive computing system is one of the best-known examples of cognitive system in the world. It has already been used to create new recipes and create new clothing designs and now the organisers behind the Tribeca Film Festival are challenging the creative industry to come up with ideas about how Watson can be used to create new stories.

The Storytellers with Watson competition is open to the public as well as the many directors, writers and artists who form part of Tribeca’s network or industry professionals. Participants can submit their ideas on how IBM Watson can be used to create stories in any storytelling medium, film and video, videogames, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

The organisers have worked together with IBM to produce use-case guidelines and examples to help inform contributors on how Watson can help with realising their creation. Guiding categories include development, pre-production, production and post-production, marketing and distribution.

“The Tribeca Film Festival has always been a celebration of innovation and cutting-edge ideas,” said Andrew Essex, CEO at Tribeca Film Festival. “Since IBM Watson has been a big influence across many industries, we’re eager to see how our creative community will apply this technology to inspiring their own creative potential. Our collaboration with IBM is important to our mission because it spurs our community to push the limits of what they think is possible and find new inspiration that can redefine their approaches to art and storytelling.”

“Cognitive computing is driving incredible advancements in what humans and machines can do together, and one of the areas where we’re seeing this accelerate is within media and entertainment,” said David Kenny, Senior Vice President of IBM Watson and Cloud Platform. “Some of the best ideas come from our developer partners, and the Tribeca Film Festival community represents a wellspring of creativity and imagination. Through this competition, we’re eager to engage this dynamic group to see how they apply Watson to solve challenges and enhance the stories they tell.”

Tribeca Film Festival 2017 VR instagram

Submissions to the contest are open now and will be accepted up until 18th May 2017. Ideas can be submitted through the submission form on the IBM website. The creator who submits the winning entry will receive a trip for two to the Tribeca Film Festival 2018, including airfare, hotel and two festival passes.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on competitions and projects involving VR and AR.

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National Geographic Funds VR Film to Save the Elephants

The elephant population of Garamba National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo is under constant threat from heavily armed and well-organised groups of poachers. The film department of National Geographic are hoping to raise awareness and funding to end their plight with the launch of a new virtual reality (VR) short film.

The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers Shoes will be premièring at the Tribeca Film Festival on 21st April. The short film was shot exclusively in VR and was directed by Academy Awards winner Kathryn Bigelow. The film follows the lives of the Garamba park rangers as they try and protect the elephants from ivory poachers.

“National Geographic has been protecting the planet for 129 years and inspiring others to do the same through text, photos, videos and, increasingly, VR,” said Rachel Webber, executive vice president of digital product for National Geographic. “The Protectors transports audiences to the heart of the ivory conflict, witnessing the battle between destruction and preservation firsthand.”

“The world’s park rangers are truly unsung heroes, serving as the last line of defense between endangered wildlife and extinction — for lions, rhinos, pangolins, etc., and, of course, elephants,” said director Kathryn Bigelow. “With the help of National Geographic and African Parks, The Protectors offers an opportunity to get to know the brave Rangers of Garamba National Park in the DRC, where poaching elephants for their ivory tusks is rampant. Their job is a deadly race against time, fraught with danger, and without them the elephants’ extinction is all but certain. Every day they put their lives at risk to protect our planet’s wildlife — but they cannot do it alone. Both the elephants and rangers need your help.”

Following the première of the film at Tribeca, The Protectors will then be made available on the Within VR content platform from 1st May and then on Facebook and YouTube from 8th May.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news of upcoming VR film projects.

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Baobab Studios To Create VR Animated Series Rainbow Crow

Virtual reality (VR) content creator Baobab Studios have previously been responsible for VR experiences Asteroids! And Invasion! And are now working with musician and producer John Legend to create a complete VR animated series called Rainbow Crow.

The story of Rainbow Crow comes from a legend of the Native American Lenape Tribe, where a bird with brightly coloured plumage and a beautiful voice must travel far from home to restore light to a world gone dark and cold. The series is set to be narrated by Kiowa-Caddo tribal elder Randy Edmonds, who has been a crusader for Native American rights his entire life and who founded the National Urban Indian Council.

“All Native American tales have a tradition of deep meaning and that’s why we tell the stories, sharing down the generations,” explains Tribal Elder, Randy Edmonds, who left Oklahoma in 1954 for Southern California as part of the Indian Relocation Act. “When I look at the impact these legends have, the insights they represent, taking that storytelling to a modern medium is extremely exciting. The beautiful VR work being created -inspired by our folklore- is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my many years.”

“Rainbow Crow brings storytelling and music together in a way no one else has yet in virtual reality. It’s an incredible medium for inspiring a journey of self-discovery and finding your way in times to darkness,” explains John Legend. “In light of what’s going on in today’s world, it’s a message of deep meaning that people from all walks of life can embrace.”

The first episode of the series will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on the 19th-29th April. A launch date for the series has not yet been confirmed, not is it yet known what VR platforms will be supported.

A trailer for the first episode is available below.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Rainbow Crow and other VR projects when it comes in.

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Tribeca Awards Nominates its First VR Campaign

The Tribeca X Award is presented to advertising campaigns that combine the best in advertising and storytelling. The award was first presented last year. The award winner is selected from a nominations list of ten finalists, narrowed down from almost 600 entries. For the first time, a virtual reality (VR) advertising project has got a nomination.

The nominated VR project is BeefeaterXO, which presents the viewer with an immersive trip through the mind of a chef named Dabiz Muñoz as he imagines cities around the world, Mumbai, Venice, Bangkok and London, all with the theme of the Odyssey of Ulysses. As such, fantastic creatures from mythology like sirens and cyclops appear.

Raquel Alonso Movilla, senior brand manager of Beefeater said: “We are honoured that BeefeaterXO was nominated as the first and only VR Branded Experience at Tribeca this year and how this campaign is helping brand and marketing professionals understand the power for VR in brand building.”

The BeefeaterXO experience took five days to shoot and featured over 50 actors and required 60 technical and creative staff to make. The campaign was launched in January 2017 and has received more than 20 million views to date.

“Over the past year, branded content has grown leaps and bounds with an explosion of projects and collaborations. These finalists represent the best artist-brand pairings of the past year and demonstrate how authentic, original and creative storytelling truly rises above the rest,” said Andrew Essex, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises.

The winner of the Tribeca X award will be announced during the Tribeca Film Festival on 24th April.

VRFocus will keep you updated on Tribeca X and other Awards recognising VR projects.

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You Want It Darker: What the Tribeca Immersive Lineup Tells Us About the State of VR

You Want It Darker: What the Tribeca Immersive Lineup Tells Us About the State of VR

In recent months, a handful of speakers and leaders in the VR community have started positing that the medium can serve as a time capsule for future generations to interact with the current moment in a more interactive way, certainly besting those rotting boxes we buried in schoolyards in the eighties. If this does come to pass, and civilizations 50 years from now come across this year’s Tribeca Immersive pieces, they’ll think that 2017 was a very dark time, indeed. This year’s lineup, with 29 pieces in total, offers almost no respite from the worries of the world — but should it?

The first point, of course, is that context matters — Tribeca is a serious film festival overall, so keeping VR selections in the same vein makes sense. With that in mind, it’s always worth pointing out that the art form is still new, and for at least a chunk of the attendees will be their first experience with the technology. If someone comes to learn about VR, spends an hour jumping between headsets and witnessing devastation, and then leaves wanting to go home and cry, will they be excited to come and try VR again?

That being said, the lineup we have is what we have — and it breaks down into roughly three buckets. The first bucket is social and political content, firing up the old Chris Milk empathy machine. Interestingly, Milk’s pieces are some of the less intense ones in the lineup — The Possible: Hoverboard is a look at the creator of the Omni Hoverboard; Life of Us is a story of the Earth’s evolution; and Hallelujah is a VR experience of the Leonard Cohen track.

Aliens have destroyed everything and brainwashed your lover…and that’s one of the lighter pieces at this year’s Tribeca Immersive Virtual Arcade.

Also on display though will be the Last Goodbye, an interactive story of a Holocaust survivor touring a concentration camp; Becoming Homeless, where the viewer experiences the challenges of life without a home; and Step to the Line, about life inside a maximum security prison. All are worthwhile artistic endeavors, but it does beg the question of where viewers are supposed to go once the headset is off. This has been one of the biggest problems with socially conscious VR — if all the user does is experience something for a few minutes and then walk away relieved they aren’t in a refugee camp, it amounts to nothing more than tragedy porn. If the pieces can direct people to concrete actions and solutions (not an easy task) then they can accomplish something real and worthwhile.

The second bucket is narrative experiences, and these aren’t any more cheerful than the social and political content. Moth+Flame’s Remember Remember (full disclosure: I have consulted on projects for Moth+Flame but was not involved in the production of this piece) explores false memories and virtual gaslighting against a world-destroying alien invasion; Alteration tells to story of an AI experiment that turns out to be vampiric; Sword of Baahubali asks users to find a warrior’s sword and is based on a popular Indian film. With the exception of the last piece, most of the narratives explore loss and tragedy, again reflecting the dark mood of the creative community.

The third bucket is what I’ve dubbed experiential fantasy; it’s a bit of a catch-all term for experiences that fall outside the documentary or narrative realm but are still participatory. And again, even these have a menacing air — Boabab’s Rainbow Crow starts with carefree forest animals who realize their lives are in danger; Sergeant James explores whether the monsters under a child’s bed are real; and Bebylon Battle Royale imagines immortal babies attacking one another. It’s basically a chance to participate, at least virtually, in any number of dystopian fantasies that seem only less real than what’s happening on the streets outside.

Again, Tribeca is not representative of all VR pieces, and should be seen for what it is. But it’s also one of the most prestigious film festivals around, and what it tells us about the state of VR is that many creators are mirroring the current political and social mood — one of fear and mistrust.

Cortney Harding is a contributing columnist covering the intersection of VR and media. This column is an editorial product of TVREV, produced in partnership with Vertebrae, the native VR/AR ad platform.

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Oculus Story Studio Project Talking With Ghosts To Premiere At Tribeca Film Festival

Today the team at Oculus announced that their virtual reality (VR) story project Talking With Ghosts will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Talking With Ghosts is an interactive story experience which consists of four ghost stories which were illustrated using Quill, a VR painting program, by four artists who were not previously familiar with VR painting. The result is something like a VR comic book.

talking with ghosts

The Oculus Story Studio team said on their blog; “With Dear Angelica, we pioneered a new form of storytelling, shared everything we learned with the VR filmmaking community, and sparked excitement for a growing industry. Now, we want to make it easier for artists to tell their stories in VR without massive teams. To do that, we need to revolutionize not only what we create, but how we create it.”

Talking With Ghosts will premier at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21st 2017 in New York.

VRFocus will keep you informed on further updates from Oculus and on future VR story projects.

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The 2017 Virtual Reality Conference and Expo Schedule

The 2017 Virtual Reality Conference and Expo Schedule

2016 could be considered the official introduction of virtual reality to the world and many industries have either embraced the technology at varying levels or simply started paying attention to movements within the industry. 2017 is going to be a pivotal year for the technology’s growth and there will be many events welcoming VR as an auxiliary experience or fully focusing on the potential of the immersive tech.

We’ve put together an extensive list of events around the world that will involve virtual reality but, if we’ve missed any major ones, email tips@uploadvr.com and let us know. We plan to update this list periodically.

VR Now // February 13th

Berlin, Germany

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

ENGAGE: The LA Digital Storytelling Conference // February 15th

Culver City, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality Evolution // February 16

London, England

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Northeast Virtual Reality Conference // February 16th – February 17th

Stamford, Connecticut

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit // February 21st – February 23rd

Mandalay Bay; Las Vegas, Nevada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference // February 23rd

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School; Manchester, United Kingdom

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtuality // February 24th – February 26th

Paris, France

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

VRDC – Virtual Reality Developers Conference // February 27th – 28th

San Francisco, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Game Developers Conference (GDC) // February 27th – March 3rd

Moscone Center; San Francisco, California

Registration: (Exhibitor | Attendee)

Mobile World Congress // February 27th – March 2nd

Barcelona, Spain

Registration: (Exhibitor | Attendee)

Asia Amusements and Attractions Expo // March 8th – March 11th

China Import and Export Fair Complex; Guangzhou, China

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

South by Southwest (SXSW) // March 10th – March 19th

Austin, Texas

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Experiential Technology Conference & Expo (XTechExpo) // March 14th – March 15th

San Francisco, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers VR (IEEEVR) // March 18th – March 22nd

Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Laval Virtual // March 22nd – March 26th

Laval, France

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Silicon Valley VR Expo (SVVR) // March 29th – March 31st

San Jose Convention Center; San Jose, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Eurogamer Expo REZZED (EGX REZZED) // March 30th – April 1st

London, England

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

VR Arcade Conference // April 3rd – April 4th

Sunnyvale, Calfifornia

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality World Congress (VRWC) // April 11th – April 13th

Bristol, England

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality LA (VRLA) // April 14th – 15th

LA Convention Center; Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

TECHSPO at Sea // April 16th – April 23rd

Orlando, Florida (Cruise)

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Tribeca Film Festival // April 19th – April 30th

New York, New York

Registration: (Exhibitor | Attendee)

Virtual Reality Show // April 20th – April 22nd

Business Design Centre; London, England

Registration: Exhibit | Attendee

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) // April 22nd – April 27th

Las Vegas Convention Center; Las Vegas, Nevada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Vision VR/AR Summit  // May 1st – May 2nd

Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

FMX // May 2nd – May 5th

Stuttgart, Germany

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Consumer VR (CVR) // May 5th – May 7th

Vancouver Convention Center; Vancouver, Canada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Unite Tokyo // May 8th – 9th

Tokyo, Japan

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

TECHSPO New York / /May 8th – May 9th

New York, New York

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Unite Beijing // May 11th – 13th

Beijing, China

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

4th ARVR Innovate Conference  // May 11th

Dublin, Ireland

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

World VR Forum // May 11th – May 14th

Crans-Montana, Switzerland

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Unite Seoul // May 15th – 17th

Seoul, South Korea

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

VRWorld // May 16th – May 17th

Olympia, London

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

TECHSPO Toronto // May 18th – May 19th

Toronto, Canada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

International Conference on Virtual Reality (IVCR) // May 19th – May 22nd

Hong Kong, China

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

VR Cluster via Broadcast Asia // May 23rd – May 25th

Singapore

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

LDV Vision Summit // May 24th – May 25th

New York, New York

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Augmented World Expo (AWE) // May 31st – June 2nd

Santa Clara, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Augmented World Expo USA // June 1st-2nd

Santa Clara, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee [Available January 31st]

Consumer Electronics Show Asia (CES Asia) // June 7th – June 9th

Shanghai, China

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

InfoComm // June 10th – June 16th

Orlando, Florida

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) // June 13th – 14th

Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

VR & AR World // June 13th – June 15th

London, England

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

TECHSPO LA // June 14th – June 15th

Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation // June 19th – 22nd

Montreal, Canada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

VRToronto (VRTOC2017) // June 24th – June 26th

Toronto, Canada

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Sensors // June 27th – June 29th

San Jose, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Unite Amsterdam // June 27th – June 29th

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

Virtual Reality Summit – Seoul // June 28th – June 30th

Seoul, South Korea

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

SIGGRAPH // July 20th – August 3rd

Los Angeles, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Sidewalk Film Festival // August 24th – August 28th

Birmingham, Alabama

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

 

Driving Simulation Conference (DSC) // September 6th – September 8th

Paris, France

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories (FIVARS) // September 15th – September 17th

Toronto, Canada

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

TECHSPO Singapore // September 20th – September 21st

Singapore

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Eurogamer Expo (EGX) // September 21st – September 24th

Birmingham, England

Registration: Exhibitor | Ticket Not Yet Available

 

International Conference and Expo on Computer Graphics & Animation (CGA) // September 25th – September 26th

Berlin, Germany

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Unite Singapore // September

Singapore

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

Unite Austin // October 3rd – 5th

Austin, Texas

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

Virtual Reality Summit – Tokyo // October 3rd – October 6th

Tokyo, Japan

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

 

Unite Melbourne // October 22th – 23rd

Melbourne, Australia

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

VR Days // October 26th – October 28th

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality Strategy Conference (VRS) // October 2017

San Francisco, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality Software & Technology (VRST) // November 8th – November 10th

Gothenburg, Sweden

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

 

Architecture Boston Expo (ABX) // November 8th – November 10th

Boston, Massachusetts

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

SIGGRAPH Asia // November 27th – 30th

Bangkok, Thailand

Registration: Exhibitor | Tickets Not Yet Available

Virtual Reality Expo (VRX) // December 7th – December 8th

San Francisco, California

Registration: Exhibitor | Attendee

Virtual Reality Summit – San Diego // December 2017

San Diego, California

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

 

VREvolution // TBD Fall

New York, New York

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

PlayStation Experience // TBD Fall

Location TBD

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

Unite India // TBD

Location TBD

Registration: Information Not Yet Available

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