South Africa Making Strides in Virtual Reality Sphere
“The big problem right now will be to make sure Africa puts its flag in the ground creatively speaking, as almost 100% of the content currently available on [major] platforms…is not from Africa,” says Neil Brandt, a producer with Fireworx Media, which this year launched Cyclops (Pvt.) Ltd., a subsidiary company focused exclusively on VR and 360 productions.
“While much of the technological and story-telling innovation is coming out of the ‘global north,’ we believe that our perspectives…will have a unique place to fill in the VR content landscape,” he says.
...Already, though, he’s seen hundreds of clients request Samsung’s Gear VR along with content commissioned from his studio. “The speed has been amazing,” he says.
“The major challenge is probably investment into start-ups,” says Brandt, “as South African VCs are traditionally risk averse, ... Very little is available in Africa for out-of-the-box thinkers.”
It’s a challenge that sparked the creation of Electric South, a Cape Town-based non-profit focused on developing the tools to effectively produce and distribute new-media content coming out of Africa.
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