Allumette
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At Tribeca, this little VR match girl put Penrose on the map
Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, Allumette, the latest virtual reality short to come from Penrose Studios, isn't some Disney-fied experience for children. Though set in a whimsical, cloud-borne city and populated by charming and mute marionette-like denizens, the short -- named after the French word for "match" -- is actually a surprisingly mature allegory about love, loss and the sacrifices parents make for their children. It's but one piece of a greater interactive virtual world Penrose is creating.
Tribeca Film Festival wants to normalize VR for the masses
Genna Terranova wants virtual reality to feel "commonplace." That is, she wants to make it normal. Terranova, who serves as the director of the Tribeca Film Festival, thinks now is the time to break VR out of its headline-stealing sideshow and make it accessible to the general public. And with a mix of 23 VR exhibits and installations planned for the fest's upcoming slate this April in New York, she's on track to do just that. "Yes, the Gear [VR] is out there and Oculus [Rift] is coming, but it's still a bit rarefied as far as the general public goes," says Terranova. "So we want to create a place where people can really explore this and not feel intimidated by it. But also create a space where you can experience these individual pieces and then have conversations about them."
