Virtual Reality Makes Real Gains Across Africa
South Africa has already gotten a taste of what VR can offer in sectors like healthcare, real estate and tourism. Developers are optimistic that the technology will have a transformative effect in classrooms across the continent, too. “It’s such a natural way to bring things alive,” says Gillis.
“As proofs of concepts and well-funded VR campaigns have come out globally, we’re seeing a sustained interest from corporations,” he adds. “As a company we have quadrupled our staff base in the last year.”
That hasn’t necessarily trickled down to widespread adoption at the consumer level, where hardware is still out of the reach of most South Africans.
One of the goals in Johannesburg this week is “demystifying VR for filmmakers,” according to producer Steven Markovitz, CEO of Big World Cinema, which last year helped to launch “New Dimensions,” a pan-African narrative VR collaboration featuring artists from five countries.
“With VR, we’re right at the beginning of [creating] a film language,” he says. “The more people who are participating and experimenting, the more we can move that along.”
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2017/tv/festivals/virtual-reality-makes-real-gains-across-africa-1202596308/