David Farnor | On 19, Sep 2017

Raindance and Facebook at teaming up this September for a VR masterclass.

Co-curated with Facebook and Blend Media, the Raindance VR Experiences Summit will take place in the middle of this year’s film festival, bringing together special guests from Facebook 360 product team in California with creators from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Paris, London and more.

Taking place at the iconic May Fair Hotel, the day will be packed with talks and panel discussions about the new, innovative field of 360 film-making.

Caitlin Ramrakha and Chetan Gupta from the Facebook 360 team who will give a keynote about the Facebook 360 platform and its benefits for 360 filmmakers and creators.

Wesley Allsbrook – lead artist, art director and screenwriter of hand-illustrated VR experience Dear Angelica (Nominated for Raindance VRX Awards Best Animation Experience) – will deliver a talk about the world’s first hand-illustrated 360 short created entirely inside VR with Oculus Quill.

A panel chaired by Damian Collier, Founder and CEO of Blend Media, will examine how to push the boundaries of 360 film, while Rafael Pavon, Director of Ray and Snatch VR, will explore the role of voice in interactive narratives.

Nicole Jackson from the Guardian VR team will be present to discuss non-fiction VR storytelling and indie game developer Duncan Walker will talk about blending cinematic storytelling with augmented reality.

The day will culminate in the world premiere of the world’s first AR experimental short film, shot on iPhone, created with ARKit and Unity. There’ll even be a panel on erotic VR experiences with nominees in the Best Sensual VR Experience category.

The event forms part of Raindance’s new VR strand, which will take place throughout the 25th Raindance Film Festival from 20th September to 1st October 2017. Included in the VR line-up are a VR arcade showcasing an array of new films, plus its first ever Raindance VRX Awards, which will celebrate pioneering VR experiences by independent creators from around the world in 10 categories, including Social Impact, Sound Design, Animation and Documentary.

Mária Rakušanová, Director of VR and New Media at Raindance, says: “Raindance aims to champion and award pioneering VR experiences, and nurture a new
generation of talent. As the possibilities of VR technologies continue to grow, more and more exciting opportunities for creators will arise. We are dedicated to finding new virtual reality experiences and helping fresh voices to be discovered.”

The Raindance VR Summit takes place on Friday 29th September from 10am to 5pm. For more information or to reserve a ticket, head this way, or for more on the festival, see the official site here.

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