Reelhouse Goes to Sundance!
This past week the Reelhouse team had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival in the beautiful snowy ski resort of Park City, Utah.There were so many exciting new films to see and filmmakers to meet. However, this year, films were not the only thing people were inspired to check out.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Sundance was experiencing the world of Virtual Reality (VR) at Sundance’s VR event - the New Frontier Show - which has grown significantly since last year in both the number of attractions as well as the size of the audience.
The New Frontier Show is a platform for experimental VR installations such as documentary and narrative mobile VR experiences and immersive cinematic works. Virtual Reality has been a new and impressive platform for some of the wildest experiences, transporting their viewers into a completely different world.
VR has also exploded as new devices have entered the market such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard - making VR accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
The Reelhouse team was lucky enough to try out a handful of the new VR experiences at the New Frontier Show and even had a peek inside the innovations that were being created at some of the world’s leading media research labs.
A selection of VR favourites were:
Artists: Phlipp Maas, Dominik Stockhausen, Alexander Mass
Description: Created by a group of German film students, this dark and creepy short film explores alien worlds when a drone receives a distress call from an unknown asteroid. As it journeys to find the source of this signal, it finds itself in the middle of space in an ancient labyrinth that contains disturbing secrets. The fact that the film is nearly silent makes it an even more eerie experience for the viewer.
Condition One - Factory Farm
Artists: Danfung Dennis, Casey Brown, Phil McNally; Key Collaborators: Jay Brown, Andrew Delpit, Chris McClanahan
Description: This team of creators have built a 360-degee, 3D immersive experience about factory farming and slaughterhouses to promote animal equality through the use of VR. In this 12 minute video, audiences are left with intense emotions and empathy when they learn about the truth of the animal food industry and how these creatures are really being treated.
The Martian VR Experience (Oculus Rift)
Artists: Robert Stromberg, Ridley Scott; Key Collaborators: Fox Innovation Lab, RSA Films, VRC
Description: In the Martian VR Experience, the audience gets to see what it’s like to live like astronaut Mark Watney on Mars and learn to survive, just like Ridley Scott’s film, The Martian. Viewers are also able to fly across Mars’s beautiful landscape, experience zero gravity through space, and drive a rover.
Irrational Exuberance (HTC VIVE)
Artists: Ben Vance; Key Collaborators: Sam Bird, Joel Corelitz
Description: In the Irrational Exuberance experience, viewers are able to interact directly with their environment as they are placed inside a giant egg in outer space. With a couple Vive controllers, you are able to break anything you’d like by peeling layers of clay from around a gem. However, the experience is a beautiful one, as audiences are left with an enchanting piece of art in front of them.
Artists: Robyn Gray, Andrew Goldstein, Michael Murdock; Key Collaborator: Philip Eberhart
Description: In Sisters, the viewer experiences what it’s like to walk through a haunted house and participate in a VR ghost story that is sure to scare anyone who tries it out.
We are thankful to all the creators at Sundance for allowing us to partake in these amazing VR experiences. Stay tuned for more exciting news in VR and Reelhouse!
