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Daily Roundup: The Pixar of VR, Apple Watch ship date and more!
In today's Daily Roundup, we look at Oculus Story Studio, the new film-innovation lab creating cinematic content to take advantage of VR devices. Meanwhile, Apple continues to crush it and announces when the Apple Watch will ship, and we learn more about how a drone landed on the White House grounds at 3 AM. Head past the break to get your fill of today's technology news.
What movies do you want to see in virtual reality?
It's no secret that virtual reality seems to be all the rage at this year's Sundance Film Festival. With a number of consumer oriented VR headsets on the horizon, filmmakers are clearly excited about this technology and experimenting with ways to take advantage of it. If there's one thing we know about Hollywood, it's its obsession with rebooting some of our most cherished movies. Given the opportunity, what classic and beloved movies would you love to see in VR?
Catch up on all the virtual reality news from Sundance
Right now is an exciting time for VR, and this year's Sundance Film Festival is full proof of that. Over the past few days, we've experienced new virtual reality horizons and got to know some of the visionaries who have jump-started the technology. VR, arguably in its second life, has opened up a novel medium for storytelling and a way to create deeply immersive experiences for most any audience -- be it with films, video games or, why not, a full-body flight simulator. Here's the best part: This is only the beginning.
Here are the first films from Oculus Story Studio
Look out, Hollywood, because Oculus VR is coming for you. Earlier today, the Facebook-owned company introduced its new film division Story Studio, as it looks to broaden its horizons and experiment with narrative through virtual reality. The first short film to come out of Oculus VR's in-house movie lab is Lost, which is making its debut at Sundance. In addition to that, Story Studio has revealed that it's already working on more shorts with a VR twist to them, all expected to appeal to different audiences. Along with Lost, there's also going to be Dear Angelica, Bullfighter and Henry, plus two other films that haven't been announced yet.
Daily Roundup: the first VR live broadcast, 'Rock Band' makes a resurgence and more!
How would you like to travel the world without worrying about the tedious tasks of packing a bag or buying a plane ticket? When Next VR's live broadcast goes mainstream, doing so could be easier than you thought. We're also taking a look at the tech taking over Sundance film festival, and testing out Sling TV's beta service. Read on for details in today's roundup!
'Kaiju Fury!' sets the stage for 'snackable' virtual reality
The 2015 Sundance Film Festival has been taken over by virtual reality, but not every project being showcased here tells a story in a different way. Some filmmakers choose to make experiences based on computer-generated imagery; others prefer a live-action feel for their work. Kaiju Fury!, a 360-degree, 3D cinematic virtual reality film, goes with the latter approach. The project is a collaboration among New Deal Studios, Jaunt VR and the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, which combined forces last year to take more of a traditional narrative approach to VR. The result is a 5-minute short that instantly reminds you of classic franchises such as Godzilla, Jurassic Park and even Gremlins. What I saw at Sundance was a 3-minute version of Kaiju Fury!, which was being screened on a Google Cardboard headset paired with a Samsung Galaxy S5. According to Ian Hunter, who wrote and directed the short, the final cut is expected to be released in roughly two months.
VRSE readies a production farm for experimental VR works
Virtual reality is in the midst of an ongoing renaissance, sparking incredible interest from all along the spectrum, including tech giants like Facebook, young startups, big movie studios and independent filmmakers. With that in mind, VRSE, a new production company in the VR space, has taken to Sundance 2015 to reveal its big ambitions for this immersive technology. And it all starts with Evolution of Verse, a 3.5-minute short film featuring a computer-generated landscape setting and other visual effects that are designed to push the envelope of virtual reality. Over the past couple of days in Utah, I've been asked several times: "What does virtual reality have to do with Sundance?" Granted, that was brought up by people who don't necessarily keep up with the technology and film industries. Still, the question isn't without merit. To a certain degree though, this year's New Frontier event, an exhibit for creators to feature unordinary storytelling during the festival, is where you'll find the answer to that inquiry. It was there that platforms like the Oculus Rift were born, while more recently, works like Birdly, a virtual reality flight simulator, look to reach new audiences and showcase how science can interact with technology. With its VR experiments, VRSE hopes to make a big impact in the burgeoning space.
The Godmother of Virtual Reality: Nonny de la Peña
"Print stuff didn't scratch the itch. Documentary didn't scratch the itch. TV drama didn't scratch the itch. It wasn't until I started building this stuff. There was no way I could do anything else. I just couldn't do anything else. I don't know even how to explain that. And I think sometimes I wanna shoot myself in the head that I can't do anything else because it just motivates me. [VR] drives me. This is such a visceral empathy generator. It can make people feel in a way that nothing, no other platform I've ever worked in can successfully do in this way." Let that stand as your introduction to Nonny de la Peña, the woman pioneering a new form of journalism that aims to place viewers within news stories via virtual reality. That vision has culminated in Emblematic Group, her content- and VR hardware-focused company that she runs along with her brother in Los Angeles.
Oculus gives Sundance attendees a literal bird's-eye view
"People dream about flying." That's what Max Rheiner, creator of Birdly, a virtual reality experience that lets you feel what it's like to fly as a bird from a first-person perspective, said about the inspiration for his project. Rheiner, who's head of the masters program in interaction at the Zurich University of the Arts, is showcasing Birdly at Sundance 2015, as part of the festival's New Frontier exhibit, which brings creators utilizing unusual mediums to express their narratives under one roof, each with a different story to tell. In Birdly's case, that medium would be an Oculus Rift headset paired alongside a plastic surface (think of it as an inverted dentist chair) and a fan for the wind effect, creating an embodiment that's meant to spawn a full-body VR experience.
Daily Roundup: The future of HoloLens, VR at Sundance and more!
Can Microsoft deliver on its ambitious HoloLens project? Meanwhile, filmmaker Shari Frilot brings virtual reality to Sundance and Google starts disclosing unpatched security issues in OS X. Get caught up on today's technology news in the Daily Roundup.
How a queer black filmmaker made virtual reality a reality at Sundance
When Shari Frilot first kicked off New Frontier, an exhibit that pushes the boundaries of traditional storytelling through art and technology, at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2007, the attending press didn't quite know what to make of it or the works on display. "People came and they had no idea what we were doing, but they thought it was really cool," says Frilot of that inaugural exhibit. "And people were calling it 'art at Sundance.' So we had to fight that in the press. We're decidedly not doing an art show."
Virtual reality movies arrive in force at the Sundance Film Festival
Virtual reality is already making its presence felt in the movie business, but it's about to take root in a big way. The Sundance Film Festival has revealed that nine of the 13 New Frontier art installations at its 2015 event will use virtual reality, most of which are movies taking advantage of a wearable display to tell stories in new ways. Perspective; Chapter I: The Party (above) lets you see trauma of a social encounter from both perspectives, while Kaiju Fury puts you on the ground as giant monsters try to destroy a city. Other projects are more about interactive storytelling than pure immersion. Birdly reproduces the sensations of natural flight, while Project Syria recreates scenes from the war-ravaged country so that you can explore them on your own terms.
Gaming addiction documentary 'Love Child' premieres at Sundance
The ongoing Sundance Film Festival recently saw the debut of Love Child, a film that explores South Korea's prominent, widespread online culture and the aftereffects of what can happen when gaming addiction causes irreparable harm. In 2010 South Korean gamers Kim Yoo-chul and Choi Mi-sun were partially absolved of blame in the starving death of their infant daughter due to a court's ruling that both were intractably addicted to an online roleplaying game called "Prius." Documentarian Valerie Veatch traveled to South Korea to examine the couple's story following the incident, and discovered that while the two parents have seemingly recovered - they no longer play games and are now raising two additional children - South Korea maintains a deep, cultural fascination with online gaming. "Korean culture is all about collective organization in groups, and online gaming is the best example of such group activities," the film's producer, Dong Hyun Kim, told IndieWire. "Most people prefer playing online games with their existing real-world friends in PC bangs." "The gaming industry has such a complex economy and is based on this immersion," stated Veatch. "We're not trying to induce fear, but we're trying to open up a conversation. The Korean government itself isn't hoping to be a killjoy. They, amongst others, realize that we do need to think about these issues."
Here's the first official photo of Ashton Kutcher in 'jOBS'
The organizers of the Sundance Film Festival announced today that director Joshua Michael Stern's independent Steve Jobs biopic, the oddly capitalized jOBS, will premiere on January 27, the final night of this year's festival in Park City, Utah. In making the announcement, Sundance issued the first official publicity photo of actor Ashton Kutcher as the late Apple CEO and co-founder, which you can see above. The shot, modeled after an actual photo, depicts Jobs with long hair and a beard, wearing a long-sleeve button-down and jeans. He's leaning against his work desk in a cubicle that features a rainbow-colored IBM "THINK" poster and an Apple II. Unsurprisingly, Kutcher looks eerily like a young Jobs. You can see a larger version of the photo here. [Via MacRumors]
Indie Game: The Movie: The Worldwide Release: June 12th
What, you didn't think those games appeared on Xbox Live through some act of magic, did you? No, they're the product of insanely small teams working insanely long hours, at the risk of their well-being, social lives and, in some cases, personal hygiene, in order to bring you a downloadable break from Call of Duty. Indie Game: The Movie is a beautifully shot, occasionally heartwarming and perpetually fascinating look at the intersection of art and technology currently being explored by indie game developers, focusing on the creators of Fez, Braid and Super Meat Boy. We managed to get a sneak peak of the Sundance documentary, courtesy of filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, who appeared on the most recent episode of the Engadget Show -- and now you can join in on the fun: the film is getting a worldwide web release on June 12th, by way of iTunes, Steam and the official movie site. If you can't wait until then, however, you can pre-order the movie now for $10 in the source link below.
Indie Game: The Movie wins big at Sundance
Indie Game: The Movie is really good, apparently -- writers, directors, producers, editors and camera crew James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot won Best Editing in the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition last night. We offer a sincere, hearty congratulations to Swirsky and Pajot, and anything else that gets Indie Game: The Movie closer to a widespread release (and we mean anything).Swirsky and Pajot reflected on the overwhelming sensations in winning the award on the Indie Game: The Movie blog: "We can not tell you how much this means to us and how completely and utterly our minds are blown. We shot over 300 hours of footage in making this film, and the edit was, by far, the most difficult aspect of the process. We couldn't be more proud to receive this award."More screenings are sure to come -- keep an eye here for updates.
Indie Game: The Movie: The HBO series, produced by Scott Rudin [Update]
Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky's Indie Game: The Movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend, and already it's gaining mainstream attention. High-profile producer Scott Rudin (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and HBO have optioned for the rights to Indie Game: The Movie, with plans to develop it as a half-hour fictional series, with Rudin as executive producer, Deadline New York reports. We picture Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen and FEZ's Phil Fish as a hilariously unfit buddy-cop duo patrolling the mean streets of Hoboken, New Jersey with an 8-bit-animated talking-dog sidekick. We picture that, but we really hope it's not the case -- the trailers for Indie Game: The Movie suggest a classier vibe, although if Trent Reznor signs on to compose the HBO series' soundtrack, we may expect to see a very different side indie development, indeed. Update: Pajot and Swirsky have clarified the original report, which stated the possible HBO show would be a comedy series, and apparently the joke's on us. "HBO has optioned IGTM for the basis of a (fictional) series," Pajot and Swirsky write on the Indie Game: The Movie Facebook page. "It is NOT a comedy. It is NOT a sitcom." We're all sleeping better tonight.
Indie Game: The Movie premieres tomorrow at Sundance, here's a Fish
Indie Game: The Movie is preparing for its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, which begins tomorrow in Park City, Utah, and runs through the 29th. Indie Game: The Movie has five screenings at Sundance, and it's offering a glimpse at developer Phil Fish's own premiere of Fez right here.
Indie Game: The Movie making its debut at the Sundance Film Festival
Good news, everyone! Indie Game: The Movie -- which you may have helped fund at some point or another during the last year and a half -- will finally make its debut in late January 2012. We know, we know; you're worried about how that's going to conflict with your scheduled attendance of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. There's no need to worry, silly goose: That's exactly where it's making its debut. Crazy, right? The crowdsource-funded film's official blog announced that the movie had earned an official selection in the World Documentary Category of the festival. If you can't make the trip to Utah, don't worry: You can also request a screening of the film in your hometown, or wait until the movie hits DVDs following its initial screening tour. Us? We don't have to see it, Dottie. We lived it.
Google Catalogs iPad app digitizes catalogs, no more coasters
We all know what catalogs are good for: starting fires in the fireplace, light reading in waiting rooms and makeshift placemats. Oddly, Google has decided to take these perfectly useful glossy dead trees away from us with the introduction of Google Catalogs, a free iPad app. Like most shopping apps, users can zoom in, learn more and purchase products through a company's website, but this one adds a slick little twist: collages. Put together a particularly sweet L.L. Bean ensemble and want to share it with Mom? No glue stick or scissors required. Check out the video after the break.
