VR Day

Immerse yourself in contemporary cinema and cutting-edge production technology at VR Day, a pilot program at this year’s Festival designed to showcase emergent storytellers in virtual reality filmmaking. Held at Gray Area—one of the nation’s leading electronic arts and performance venues—this day-long program will bring together leading artists creating VR work that propels the medium forward while addressing social and cultural issues.

Ticket holders can sign up for one hour slots to experience the newest VR stories on Samsung Gear headsets. Attendees are also welcome to come and go throughout the day to stop in for both Artist Panels and to engage with other VR experiences from Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, Nokia and Samsung.

Doors will open at 11:00 am and close at 8:00 pm. Below find details about the day’s Artist Panels:
 
4:00 pm Artist Panel
Speakers include James Kaelan and Eve Cohen of Seed&Spark, Peter Lord of Aardman Animations, Eric Darnell of Baobob Studios and moderator Saschka Unseld, founder of Oculus Story Studio
 
7:00 pm Artist Panel
Speakers include Graham Roberts of New York Times VR, filmmaker Lynette Wallworth, Oculus Story Studio founder Saschka Unseld and moderator Ramzi Haidamus, President of Nokia Technologies

Featured VR films and stories will include:

Collisions
A work of stunning visuals and powerful narrative, Collisions tells the story of Aboriginal elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan who lived as 1000 generations before him in the remote Pilbara desert of Western Australia—until his life was dramatically impacted by a collision with the extreme edge of Western science and technology.
(Lynette Wallworth; Samsung Gear)

Henry
Narrated by Elijah Wood, and developed with former creative talent on the Brave and Toy Story 3 teams, Henry is the story of a little hedgehog with a big problem… He loves to hug! After ending up alone on his birthday, he’ll make a wish that changes everything.
(Saschka Unseld; Oculus Rift)

Invasion!
From the director of Madagascar comes interactive animated film Invasion!, the story of menacing aliens that come to take over the earth and destroy anyone that tries to stop them.
(Eric Darnell; Samsung Gear)

Lost
From the director of Pixar’s The Blue Umbrella, experience the wonder of an unexpected encounter in a magical forest.
(Saschka Unseld; Oculus Rift)

Nomad: Sea Gypsies
An encounter with the Sama-Bajau people who have lived on the sea along the coasts of Borneo for centuries.
(Felix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphael; Samsung Gear)

Notes On Blindness: Into Darkness
Notes On Blindness: Into Darkness uses new forms of storytelling, gameplay mechanics and VR to explore one man’s cognitive and emotional experience of blindness. Each scene addresses a memory, a moment and a specific location from the man’s audio diary, using binaural audio and real time 3D animations to create a fully immersive experience in a world beyond sight.
(Peter Middleton, James Spinney; Samsung Gear)

Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart
Using historic data collected billions of miles away by NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute, we’ve created a stereoscopic virtual reality experience that will bring viewers to Pluto.
(Graham Roberts; Samsung Gear)

Special Delivery
A short film directed by the co-founder of Aardman Animations (Wallace And Gromit, Shaun the Sheep). Find yourself following the adventures of a humble caretaker, who is disturbed by a mysterious stranger on the roof. Who’s there? And the chase begins—room to room, up and down—somehow, mysteriously, just out of sight. But the elusive stranger is always one step ahead, leaving behind only a trail of gifts.
(Peter Lord; Google Cardboard)

The Visitor
In this work of philosophical horror, at an austere compound in the desert a woman waits for her greatest fear to materialize.
(James Kaelan, Eve Cohen, Blessing Yen; Google Cardboard)