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Oculus-exclusive film Zero Point hits Steam today
Condition One launched its first 3D, 360-degree film, Zero Point, on Steam today. The movie requires an Oculus Rift to view, and is compatible with both the first and second development kits for the headset. It also needs a minimum of 4 GB of memory, 2 GB of hard drive space and a processor at least as good as the Intel Core i7-2600. Viewers can download a free demo of the film through Steam as well. Zero Point was directed by Danfung Dennis, whose 2011 film Hell and Back Again was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Our brief time with a few scenes of Zero Point in February found it to be a "clip collection" of sorts that provided viewers the illusion of being in different environments. Those scenes included moments with soldiers during a training exercise as well as a trip across E3's show floor. Zero Point is 20 percent off ($11.99) until Monday, November 3. [Image: Condition One]
What Oculus Rift and games could do for movies in VR
I recently watched a few scenes from 'Zero Point,' a 360-degree film for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Here's what I thought: Above: Mirror's Edge Movies and video games complement one another, except when they bust out the classic insults: one's 'videogamey' and the other is so 'cinematic.' 'Just like a video game' has long been the pejorative comparison from the movie critic, shifting in his seat when nothing in the computer-generated scene is real, not even the point. Video games are shorthand for too big, too loud and too stupid. Before you savage this critic and HOW DARE HE and so forth, we game critics are just as guilty of citing films among a game's successes and failures. Oh, this game is exquisitely cinematic – a groveling platitude that seems to put games one rung down as the medium that wishes it were a movie. And this game over here? Too movie-like, and a bad flick that doesn't even have the decency to let you jump around in it like an idiot. The conversation becomes more interesting when you introduce an exciting technology like Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset that's rocketed into visibility with every new user-turned-believer. Though a consumer model is on the way, most of the buzz has come from the increasingly-refined developer kits and the software created by talented individuals and companies who envision the Oculus Rift as the next step in 3D exploration, combat, disembodiment and unforeseen vomiting. Some people get sick from it, unfortunately.
Condition ONE releases new player with Ultra HD playback and live streaming
Way back in 2011, I told you about Condition ONE, a video recording system and video player app that "promised to allow viewers to become completely immersed in the event they are watching, thanks to the proprietary camera technology used to record the event and the iPad itself. No longer would our view of events be limited to the journalist's point of view, the app promised. Through it, viewers could tilt, pivot and swipe around the footage, giving themselves complete control to manipulate the footage and change their field of view at will." Yesterday Condition ONE announced an update that allows its video player to display premium 2.7K or live streaming immersive video content. The live streaming and enhanced resolution enables content creators to immerse their viewers in live events in ultra-realistic detail. The Condition ONE capture system was also updated with support for Ultra HD Red and GoPro cameras so content creators can actually shoot that ultra high-res footage. If you haven't used the app yet, go ahead a grab it. It's a free download and I think you'll be blown away choosing your own POV of the footage you're watching.
Condition One immerses iPads and iPhones in 180-degree video, shakes up dreary apps (video)
Video in tablet magazines and similar apps sometimes -- okay, often -- comes across as a grafted-on extra. Condition One, a startup by war photographer Danfung Dennis, wants to make video an intrinsic part of the experience by taking advantage of the motion sensors in smartphones and tablets. Video shot from a DSLR or similar camera is converted into a 180-degree format that you can swipe or tilt through on an iOS device to get a more involving look. It's a lot more lively than plain movies, and Dennis sees the technique being used for documentaries and tours where it would help to put viewers directly in the action. Producers only need off-the-shelf hardware and software, too. There's a show-off app at the source link to get an overall sense of what the footage is like, but if you're looking for the first official projects, a pilot project has just started that's bringing apps from Discovery, Mercedes-Benz, Popular Science (below), The Guardian and XL Recordings.
The future of photojournalism: Condition ONE puts you in the middle of world events
Back in April I gave you a preview of Condition ONE, a disruptive technology about to wash over traditional journalism. The app promised to allow viewers to become completely immersed in the event they are watching thanks to the proprietary camera technology used to record the event and the iPad itself. No longer would our view of events be limited to the journalist's point of view, the app promised. Through it, viewers could tilt, pivot, and swipe around the footage, giving themselves complete control to manipulate the footage and change their field of view at will. Condition ONE is now live in the App Store, and I'm happy to say it's lived up to its promise. The app is the brainchild of war documentarian Danfung Dennis, whose film Hell and Back Again won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. In April I said that Condition ONE could be likened to the moving photographs in the world of Harry Potter, but after Dennis gave me an exclusive preview of the app that I've played with for the last few days, I realize that Condition ONE is more like the moving images of Harry Potter on steroids. Utilizing custom camera rigs, the technology allows photojournalists to capture an all-encompassing view of what's going on around them. This means journalists are now able to bring in the viewer -- who traditionally had a very passive role in an event -- as an active participant. Using the app, viewers can rotate the iPad in any direction to get a different perspective on the action. It works so well it actually does make you feel like you're there. While watching footage of Libyan soldiers running across a field, I actually jumped in my seat as I heard a bang go off "behind" me. When I rotated around, I saw that I was standing next to a massive gatling gun. The app has a nice layout that gives you several options of how you can explore the footage it offers. When you launch Condition ONE, you're able to search by filmmakers or stories. Selecting "Stories" will take you to a screen that shows you all the available stories. Tap any story to view its individual episodes. No video footage is actually embedded in the app when you download it from the App Store; instead, you can choose to download an event's footage on the "Episodes" page. A short preview of the event is usually available to download, or you can choose to download the full version for the "full immersive experience." Because you're downloading a file that offers a full immersive 360 degree experience and not just a traditional video file, the sizes can be quite large. For example, a 1 minute 49 second preview is 194 MB, and a 9 minute 40 second movie is 1.6 GB. A different 11 minute episode is 2.5 GB. However, the large file sizes are well worth the download. What's almost as good as the immersive footage itself are the video biographies of the filmmakers. As you view a bio of a filmmaker, his image moves just like those in Harry Potter photographs. Tap on the filmmaker's body to see him come to life and explain why he does what he does. Hearing from the photojournalists who are out on the front lines, many times literally putting their lives at risk to report on the atrocities committed against the world's least fortunate, is nothing short of moving. Particularly poignant was French journalist Patrick Chauvel talking about how wars move like tides around the world, and why he chose to live the life of a war documentarian: "You meet people who need your story. I feel responsible for the people who are far away suffering...so I tell their story to people who don't have the time and who can't go to their places. No one will ever forget what happened in the death camps in Germany because of [photojournalism]." He goes on to say that photojournalists are witnesses to crimes and without a witness there is no crime. That's what makes Condition ONE such a powerful and disruptive tool in photojournalism. It makes everyone a witness to an event as if they were actually there living it. After using the app I think it's fair to put Danfung Dennis with the likes of entertainment filmmakers James Cameron or George Lucas. Both filmmakers were visionaries who had to create their own custom camera rigs in order to advance filmmaking. And that's what Dennis had to do to advance his vision for the future of photojournalism. It's the proprietary camera rigs and software that Dennis and his team have created that allows them to record events like no one before. But unlike Cameron's and Lucas's movies these events aren't fantasy, and they have a very real and costly effect on human lives. You can check out the gallery below and also this video to see how Condition ONE works, but you've really got to try it out for yourself to get the full experience. Condition ONE is now available as a free download in the App Store. %Gallery-139119%
Condition ONE app combines iPad and photo journalism
Traditional photo journalism has always had a limited point of view. You could only see what was in front of the camera. Video photo journalism added a new dimension to reporting as the camera could pan around an area giving the user views from multiple vantage points. However, with both photo and video journalism, viewers have no control over what they see in the shot. War documentarian Danfung Dennis is on the brink of changing this thanks to a custom camera system and the iPad. The former is a new tool for the photo journalist to record events, and the latter is a tool for the viewer to immerse themselves in that event and control what they see. Dennis created an app called Condition ONE, which allows viewers to use their iPads as fully interactive windows into photo journalist images. As you can see in the video below (warning, NSFW language), Condition ONE allows you to interact with a current scene in what is probably most easily comparable to a moving photograph from the world of Harry Potter. Users can pan up, down and rotate around to get a complete look at an event in a set moment in time as if they were actually there. Dennis told Time that the point of Condition ONE is to create a new form of storytelling that will "shake viewers out of their numbness to traditional media and provide them a powerful emotional experience." While there is no hard launch date or price, the Condition ONE app is set to debut in mid-2011 and is sure to change the way many see an event that has occurred halfway around the world. "Once viewers enter a video experience, they can move the tablet in any direction and see the corresponding field of view," says Dennis. "The traditional two-dimensional, rectangular frame is shattered as viewers step inside the frame and experience the stories as the protagonists."
