Venice VR Expanded 2021 Opens: How to Enjoy the Film Festival

Venice VR Expanded 2021

The Venice International Film Festival has returned once again and with it the successful virtual reality (VR) offshoot Venice VR Expanded. Held virtually for the first time in 2020, for 2021 Venice VR Expanded is bigger and more diverse than ever, with a range of immersive works to be enjoyed. Due to the expansive nature of the festival, it can be both daunting and a little confusing as to what’s publically available and what’s behind closed doors. So VRFocus is here to help you get the most out of this exciting event.

Venice VR Expanded - VRChat
Venice VR Expanded – VRChat

As you might expect Venice VR Expanded has plenty going on over the course of its 19-day run, with most of the events being held online but there’s also a physical element to it. Depending on how deep you want to dive into the VR content there’s exclusive access you can pay for, free stuff to peruse as well as content specific to certain platforms like Viveport, Oculus Store and VRChat, told you it wasn’t simple.

Worlds to explore in VRChat

So let’s start with the easy (and free) content that’s readily available. For that, you’ll need the VRChat app which is available for most VR headsets, allowing you to visit a shedload of user-created worlds. Once you’re inside VRChat open up the menu and inside the “Worlds” tab search for “Venice VR Expanded 2021”. Here you’ll find a highly detailed world created by VRrOOm and based on Venice, including the in-real-life VR Island Lazzaretto Vecchio.

Here you’ll be able to freely preview the official selection, seeing behind the curtain. As the hub for Venice VR Expanded, the VRChat portal will also serve as a place to socialise and meet some of the artists. That’s not all as a brand new feature called Venice VRChat Worlds Gallery will provide the core of the free content. Made up of 34 carefully chosen worlds, these showcase the creativity of VRChat artists.

Accreditation

As the Venice International Film Festival is a highly prestigious event, the majority of the VR content is locked behind an accreditation process that’ll set you back €100 EUR if you’re that keen on seeing everything. You’ll gain access to the Venice VR Expanded live performances, daily panels and events like the “Meet the Creator sessions” and, of course, the official selection of 37 works split across the Oculus and Viveport stores.

Each has its own selection in “In Competition” and “Out of Competition” titles. Viveport has the most with 24 works available, 17 of which are full 6DoF projects while the rest are 360-degree films. Some of these you might already know as the “Out of Competition” selection features Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife, Sam & Max: This Time it’s Virtual! and Maskmaker. So you’re definitely getting a fair bit of content for that outlay.

Slightly bucking this trend is Anagram’s Goliath which is part of the Oculus selection. A 25 minute animated VR experience about schizophrenia, gaming and connection, Goliath already appears on the “coming soon” section of the Oculus Store, dated 9th September.

Goliath

In Person

The pandemic has forced most events to either cancel or look towards ways of going online, hence why Venice VR Expanded emerged in the first place. But in previous years the Venice festival has not only held an event in the famous city but also at satellite locations around the world, usually at cultural centres.

It’s at these venues where the Venice VR Expanded programme can be accessed by the general public who don’t have a VR headset or aren’t interested in the whole accreditation thing. Most of these locations are based in Europe although a couple does appear in North America, China and Russia. You’ll find the full list here.

Venice VR Expanded might not exactly be readily accessible to everyone but it’s getting a lot better, and the current programme highlights that fact. As VRFocus works through the array of content we’ll let you know our thoughts.

New VR Game The Last Worker Selected For Venice International Film Festival

The Last Worker, an upcoming game with VR support to be released in 2022, has been selected for the 78th Venice International Film Festival, which runs next month.

Developed by Wired Productions and Wolf & Wood (the studio behind The Exorcist VR and Hotel R’n’R),  The Last Worker is the only video game nominated in the VR Expanded category and will be available to the jury and accredited festival guests via the Quest platform. It is set to feature an “all-star cast,” to be announced early next month.

Here’s a description of the game to go alongside the announce trailer (embedded above):

Releasing on all platforms in 2022, The Last Worker is a narrative adventure centered around our struggle in an increasingly automated and dehumanizing world. Set in a lonely, oppressive but strangely beautiful environment, The Last Worker is a unique blend of first-person narrative, work simulation and stealth strategy game play. Combining a hand-crafted art style with uniquely immersive gameplay mechanics in an epic setting, the game delivers an emotional, thought provoking and comedic story with rich characters performed by an all-star cast.

Unlike many other VR entries in film festivals, The Last Worker sounds like it leans far more into the active video game elements as opposed to a more passive immersive media style of experience. Not only will it release for the Oculus Quest platform and on SteamVR, but it will also be available for PC and console, including PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

“To be part of such a prestigious festival is very cool for our small team,” said Ryan Bousfield, Creative Director of Wold & Wood. “The hand-crafted style of The Last Worker really reflects the level of thinking and artistry each individual has poured in to create this multifaceted world. The invitation to compete in Venice is obviously a little nerve-wracking but also incredibly exciting for us and I’m really proud of all the work the team has created to get here.”

The Last Worker will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September, before releasing on Oculus Quest and SteamVR in 2022.

VR Films ‘The Line’ & ‘The Key’ win big at Venice Film Festival 2019

The prestigious Venice International Film Festival concluded this weekend having showcased some of the best immersive experiences from around the world as part of the virtual reality (VR) programme. Featuring 26 projects, there were three competition categories with The Key, The Line and Daughters of Chibok taking away awards.

The Key
The Key

Awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR immersive Work was The Key, directed Celine Tricart and produced by Gloria Bradbury and Celine Tricart of Lucid Dreams Productions. Narrated by actress and activist Alia Shawkat, it is a room-scale interactive experience where the audience is invited to pursue their own journey into darkness making their way to light. The twists and turns selected by the viewer then uncover a hidden past.

“We are so honoured to receive this award for Best VR Film, and to have had the opportunity to show The Key to the Festival and the Biennale audiences,” said Tricart in a statement. “Over the course of 10 days, more than 500 people went through the experience, cried, laughed and reflected with us. This project is derived from the hard work of a diverse team whose mission is to raise awareness about issues around the world. We are grateful for the opportunity to use immersive theatre and VR as a means to tell stories and help communities understand each other.”

A Linha (The Line), created by Brazil’s ARVORE Immersive Experiences won the Best VR Immersive Experience for Interactive Content. Narrated by Rodrigo Santoro (Westworld) and directed by Ricardo Laganaro, The Line follows the story of Pedro and Rosa, two miniature dolls who are perfect for each other, but reluctant to break boundaries to overcome limitations and live out their love story.

The Line
The Line

“It is a true honour to receive the award for Best VR Experience. We strived to break the mould in VR and deliver something to the Venice audience that would touch their hearts,” said Laganaro. “I’m thankful to my team at ARVORE, for their hard work and dedication to the project. A Linha reminds you to take chances and embody the moment.”

While Daughters of Chibok by Joel Kachi Benson won Best VR Immersive Story for Linear Content, documenting the Nigerian community of Chibok where terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 276 teenage schoolgirls. The piece deals with the aftermath of the kidnappings.

For the latest VR experiences from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.

HTC Vive has Five Original VR Titles Chosen for the 76th Venice International Film Festival

The 76th Venice International Festival will take place at the end of August and HTC Vive has announced that five of its original virtual reality (VR) works will be on display.

HTC Vive - 5x1

The five original VR pieces are films 5×1 — O5×1 — Only the mountain remains and 5×1 — The Making of, interactive art INORI and VR animation Gloomy Eyes. 5×1 — O5×1 — Only the mountain remains, INORI and Gloomy Eyes have all been entered into the Venice VR Competition, going for awards including Best VR Immersive Work, Best VR Immersive Story for linear content and Best VR Immersive Experience for interactive content.

While 5×1 — The Making of has been selected for the Venice VR-Best of (Out of Competition), joining other titles including Fable’s Wolves in the Walls: It’s all Over, Baobab’s Bonfire and A Fisherman’s Tale by Innerspace VR.

  • 5×1 — O: Directed by Qiu Yang
  • 5×1 — Only the mountain remains: Directed Wei-Liang Chiang the film discusses foreign labour issues.
  • 5×1 — The Making of: Directed by Midi Z, the film “was shot on the first day we made Nina Wu, which means we made a VR film during movie shooting. This VR work mirrors Nina Wu,” he said.
  • Gloomy Eyes: Previously show at the Sundance Film Festival, the animation chronicles a remote town where being a zombie is against the law.
  • INORI: Created by Japanese contemporary artist, Miwa Komatsu, and music creative master, Kay Huang, the art piece will make its world premiere at the festival.

“This is a record-breaking time for HTC Vive Originals, with four originals VR work entering the Venice International Film Festival VR Competition and one film invited to be screened in Venice VR-Best of as an out of competition film, said HTC Vive Originals president, Szu-Ming Liu in a statement. “We have reached a milestone where we can truly build our reputation in a first-grade film festival. This is not just the pride within the Chinese cultural and creative industry. HTC is making an oath to develop a complete VR ecosystem. We will be the pioneer of VR content and witness the great leap of creativity, communication, and experience happening from 2D to 3D immersive spaces of human history.”

The Venice International Film Festival runs from 28th August to 7th September and is one of the most prestigious in the world alongside Cannes International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. For further updates on VR content at the festival, keep reading VRFocus.

New Trailer Released For The Google Spotlight Stories Age of Sail

The virtual reality (VR) short animated film titled Age of Sail is making its debut at the Venice International Film Festival this week and to mark the event a new trailer has been released. The ambitious short film project is a part of the Google Spotlight Stories, who are bringing it to the event, and is directed by Academy Award winner John Kahrs.

Age of Sail tells the story of William Avery (voiced by Ian McShane), an old sailor adrift and alone in the North Atlantic in the 1900’s. When Avery reluctantly rescues a teenage girl (Cathy Ang) who has mysteriously fallen overboard, Avery finds redemption and hope in his darkest hours. The film will offer a completely immersive experience with full 360-degree filed of view along with having a running time of around 10-12 minutes in length.

The most recently project to come out of the Google Spotlight Stories unit, the film is the most ambitious to date with a great level of detail to be found throughout the film. Speaking at a panel at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Kahrs explained: “I wanted this piece to operate in a less stylized universe, because the audience should believe the world is real – to feel the peril and the exhilaration of being in a storm, to be vulnerable.”

Google Spotlight Stories

With a unique art style and the immersive power of VR, Age of Sail is set to give viewers a front-row sit on an emotional and interesting tale that will see a lost sailor make a return all thanks to a teenage girl. Those are the Venice International Film Festival will be able to catch the film during the event with there be no word on a release outside of the event just yet.

The Venice International Film Festival is currently running until September 8th and is one of the three largest international film festivals around, next to the Cannes International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.

You can see the trailer for Age of Sail for yourself below and for all the latest on the film and Google Spotlight Stories in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

Philip K. Dick Story The Great C Comes to VR

Renowned sci-fi author Philip K. Dick became known for his odd, and often twisted narratives which covered near-future and themes that became popular in cyberpunk. One of his short stories, The Great C, has been adapted into virtual reality (VR) and will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The Great C short VR film is described as a cinematic VR narrative, which takes the viewer to a post-apocalyptic future where the remnants of humanity are ruled over by an all-powerful computer known a The Great C.

The story of The Great C concerns a young woman called Clare, who lives in a village under the control of the almighty computer. Each year, the village is forced to send a young person on a pilgrimage to appease the machine. Clare finds herself faced with a bitter choice when her fiancé is chosen for the pilgrimage and she must choose whether to accept the brutal rules of her society, or try and fight back.

The story has been adapted into VR by Entertainment One’s studio Secret Location, who are trying to use The Great C as a test bed for pushing the boundaries in VR editing, composition and structure.

“Philip K. Dick’s wonderfully forward-thinking stories have always felt primed for telling in equally forward-thinking mediums. Secret Location is highly focused on ushering in the future of storytelling, so pairing The Great C‘s provocative themes with our VR development prowess is helping us redefine how we consume sci-fi stories,” said Ryan Andal, President and Co-Founder of Secret Location. “Authors have long adhered to the ‘show, don’t tell’ technique. We’re hard-pressed to find a better way to ‘show’ a story than in VR – adapting Philip K. Dick’s The Great C only makes our ability to ‘show’ even stronger.”

For further information on the Venice Film Festival, check out the official website. Future coverage on new and upcoming VR projects will continue to be covered here on VRFocus.

The First and Final Installment of SPHERES to debut at the Venice International Film Festival

The 75th Venice International Film Festival is soon to take place featuring plenty of glitz and glamour as the worlds film stars descend on the city for just over a week of cinematic screenings. As seems to be common place nowadays no film festival would be complete without a 360-degree or virtual reality (VR) film somewhere in the mix and Venice is no exception. Debuting at the event will be Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab project Home After War: Returning to Fear in Fallujah and the first and final installment of space exploration series SPHERES. 

Home After War

SPHERES made its original debut earlier this year showcasing episode 2 “Songs of Spacetime” at the Sundance Film Festival followed by Episode 3: “Pale Blue Dot” at the Tribeca Film Festival. During the Sundance Film Festival  Kaleidoscope revealed the series had secured a seven-figure deal, although the exact amount was never divulged.

Not only will Venice Film Festival attendees be able to see SPHERES Episode 1 “Chorus of the Cosmos” for the first time but also the other episodes as well. Executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, and René Pinnell, produced by Jess Engel, Arnaud Colinart, and Dylan Golden, and directed by Eliza McNitt, SPHERES stars Jessica Chastain as the narrator.

“SPHERES is inspired by the idea that space is not silent—in fact, it’s actually full of sound,” said McNitt. “We’ve spent thousands of years studying the cosmos and trying to understand our place in the universe, but for the first time we’re listening to its music.”

SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime screenshot

Home After War: Returning to Fear in Fallujah follows the real-life story of an Iraqi family’s return to Fallujah after being displaced from their home by war. Directed by Gayatri Parameswaran from NowHere Media in partnership with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), viewers hear the story of Ahmaied as they are transported through his home learning about the ever-present threat posed by IEDs that litter the area.

The Venice International Film Festival has plenty more VR films on display if you happen to be heading to the city. If any more are added, VRFocus will keep you updated.

Venice Film Fest to Launch Virtual Reality Feature About Jesus Christ

Virtual Reality has spread its essence in almost every sector of life right from playing video games to watching videos and now it has taken one more step ahead and has left us spellbound. Virtual Reality has taken a step forward in the sector of film making and it is coming up with its first ever VR film in the religious genre.

Venice-International-Film-FestivalVenice International Film Festival is going to screen a 40-minute promo of Jesus VR- The Story of Christ which will be the first ever feature-length movie that will be made entirely for virtual reality. This movie will feature the whole life of Jesus, right from his birth to his resurrection.  Jesus VR will reflect the story of 2000 years back, and will follow Jesus of Nazareth through his entire life, as it is told by Bible. It will also display the events of the life Jesus like “the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection”.

The entire film will be shot in Matera, Italy, entirely in virtual reality 4k 360-degree; this location is also the location for “Passion of the Christ”. This movie will be released majorly on all the VR platforms including Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and the HTC VIVE.

This will be a huge step that Venice Film Festival will take towards showcasing the virtual reality in a religious genre featuring the first ever film Jesus VR- The Story of Christ.

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