Here’s how Sundance’s first VR residency film got made
Like so many artists eager to get their hands on the medium, Wallworth had never worked in VR film, but she knew exactly what she wanted to do with it. Years prior, while working with indigenous Martu artists in Australia's Pilbara desert, she'd mentioned visiting the Maralinga region near the country’s southern border — site of UK nuclear weapons tests in 1950s and 1960s. The wife of one of the Martu elders, a man named Nyarri Nyarri Morgan, turned to her. "You have to talk to Nyarri," she said. Seeing one of those tests — an explosion of ash and a lingering, otherworldly cloud — had been his first encounter with the non-indigenous world.
For years after, Wallworth had pondered a way to work with Nyarri to tell the story. "Then, when I saw VR, I thought: 'This is really perfect,'" she says. Seeing in all directions would help bring audiences into the vast Australian desert, where they would meet Nyarri and his family (virtually) firsthand. Collisions could follow him through his daily life as he told the story, building toward a single, unreal moment: the bombing itself, now decades in the past.
"I took this camera out on this shoot having not shot one scene," says Wallworth. Armed with a week of training from Jaunt, she soon started figuring out the quirks of VR film. Instead of closely controlling scenes, a 360-degree filmmaker has to plan each one and let it play out from a distance. "It’s closer to directing theater than directing film," she says. "We’re kind of hiding behind a door talking to someone through an earpiece — or for us, hiding behind trees and trying to avoid spiders and fire." Afterwards, she and an editor would work with a low-resolution version of the video and send it off, not seeing exactly what they'd made until a perfectly stitched copy came back.
She wanted Collisions to have the same theatrical premiere as a traditional film, even if it was on dozens of tiny screens instead of one large one. With help from the artistic engineering collective Two-Bit Circus, every audience member would don a Gear VR and Wallworth would trigger them simultaneously, making sure each one started and finished at the same time. People might not be able to see each other in the headsets, but they'd take them off knowing they'd had a shared experience.
See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/9/10940236/sundance-virtual-reality-residency-lynette-wallworth-collisions
Expert Predicts Madden NFL and Reality Shows Coming to VR
Videogame designer, Carnegie Mellon University professor and former Disney Imagineer, Jesse N. Schell, soared through a list of 10 virtual reality prognostications at Unity’s recent Vision AR/VR Summit in Hollywood. One of five speakers asked to soothsay about VR’s future, the creative director behind the “Toontown Online” massive multiplayer online game (MMO) predicted that by 2018, “Madden NFL” will be released in VR, and by 2020, there will be at least 10 VR reality television shows and a $10 billion VR adult video industry.
Reality and VR are a natural fit, proclaimed Schell, because both are about “putting you in a situation and making you feel like you are there.” Being there, or presence, the perception of really existing in a non-physical world, is a goal that VR also shares with porn, along with existing in three-dimensions when executed as their best.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/expert-predicts-madden-nfl-and-reality-shows-coming-to-vr/
Many Of Your Favorite Actors Are About To Own A Gear VR
Each winner and nominee will receive a gift bag from DELOVERY that will include a myriad of the year’s hottest products including a Gear VR complete with a Samsung Smartphone. The phone will come preloaded with content from Wevr that includes the VR films like Waves and Hard World for Small Things.
For those curious, the full gift bag will contain:
A flipbook of career highlights by Hiccup Media
Guided meditation classes and goodies from Unplug
A preloaded Gear VR headset from WEVR
Signature dress shirts from Mizzen + Main
A box of skincare essentials from Fresh
Danish eyewear from Kilsgaard
SoCal-inspired jewelry by ALOR
The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss
A fingerprint jewelry kit by Touchstone
Artisan cider by Clementine Carter
A t-shirt and cap from Sol Angeles
A candle from Voluspa
The Gear VR’s presence alongside these other trending items is further evidence that what was once the niche concern of computer-aficionados is quickly barreling towards a mass market appeal. Hopefully, the headsets in these bags will inspire more celebrities to join the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and champion the cause of VR in the movie business.
See the full story here: http://l.goodbits.io/l/40xtda69
Raw Data by virtual reality startup Survios
[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is a full motion walk-around VR game where you and one other player hold weapons in both hands.]
See the video at http://techcrunch.com/video/survios-virtual-reality-game-demo/519496219/
Meet the Virtual Reality Talk Show Host Living Out of an RV
Among the early adopters of virtual reality is Gunter S. Thompson, a part-time web developer in Florida. After getting an Oculus Rift development kit 1 headset by backing the Oculus Rift Kickstarter, Thompson began hosting a virtual reality talk-show originally called Virtually Incorrect, which was later renamed Gunter’s Universe.
Each episode of the show involves people logging into an online program called VR Chat to watch Thompson interview his guests. The majority of users wear virtual reality headsets and have custom avatars, but it's not a requirement.
Over the last year or so, Gunter has hosted several notable guests including Chief Visionary Officer of The Void James Jensen, co-founder and star of the first 3D live cam Ela Darling, and Futurist at 20th Century Fox Ted Schilowitz.
The difference between Thompson and the developers riding the booming virtual reality business is that Thompson is probably the only one of them who lives in an RV.
See the full story here: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_uk/read/vr-in-an-rv
Surgeon Dr Shafi Ahmed brings augmented reality to medics in Gaza
Last month, laproscopic and colorectal surgeon Dr Shafi Ahmed visited Gaza with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) team, on a mission to assess training needs for medics working in the territory’s overburdened hospitals.
Famous for being the first surgeon in the UK to live-stream a surgical procedure via Google Glass, Dr Ahmed is a pioneer of technical innovation in medical training. ...
Can you tell us about the seminars you ran on the use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in medical training?
I did two lectures – one to the Palestinian Medical Society, and one to a medical school. I focused on augmented reality as a tool to support surgical training, which hasn’t been used in Gaza before. I used it as an opportunity to show them what was available around the world and to use those products for the first time.
There was such enthusiasm and openness to new ideas among the students. We want to look to how we can use these technology for training medics. At the new medical school at the Turkish Hospital in Gaza, they want to integrate new ideas from outside Gaza, such as simulation training and using remote training via online platforms.
...
Any final reflections from your trip?
I’m quite encouraged by the standard of care, the knowledgebase, the clinical expertise, and the commitment of medical staff to healthcare in Gaza. They have good motives and aims.
What is disappointing is that doctors of all descriptions have aspiration – everyone wants to improve their standards – but in Gaza the only way they can do that is by trying to visit other countries or bringing other people in to help them. That’s where the frustrations arise from. It is impossible for doctors to easily access continuous professional development – a basic requirement for all doctors – with the blockade in place.
See the full story here: http://english.pnn.ps/2016/02/13/surgeon-dr-shafi-ahmed-brings-augmented-reality-to-medics-in-gaza/