PRESS INFORMATION. Project Contact: Mei-Ling Wong Head of Production

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "PRESS INFORMATION. Project Contact: Mei-Ling Wong Head of Production"

Joel Boone
6 years ago
Views:

2 PRESS INFORMATION Project Contact: Mei-Ling Wong Head of Production Additional Project Contacts: Screenings and Distribution DepthKit Volumetric Video Inquiries James George Website: Web: scatter.nyc Facebook: facebook.com/scatterco

3 ABOUT THE PROJECT Blackout is a virtual reality documentary inviting New Yorkers to share stories in their own voice. Blackout illuminates the moments when our lives intersect in a space where differences are most visible the subway. It is an ongoing, participatory project gathering real experiences from this political instant. Production starts during the Tribeca Film Festival, where new participants are invited to be interviewed and 3D scanned daily to become passengers in the virtual experience.

ESPIOSDE 1: CREATED LIVE AT TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2017 Live 3D Capture Stage & Storyscapes Installation Immersive, participatory virtual reality documentary Blackout is kicking off at Tribeca Film

4 ESPIOSDE 1: CREATED LIVE AT TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2017 Live 3D Capture Stage & Storyscapes Installation Immersive, participatory virtual reality documentary Blackout is kicking off at Tribeca Film Festival with an innovative new approach to creating and experiencing virtual reality documentaries. Scatter will be interviewing and capturing New Yorkers daily using a live DepthKit 3D scanning stage at the Tribeca Film Festival. This visible production process aims to create a diverse crowd-sourced cast representing the extraordinary breadth of human experiences in New York City. All the participants and their stories will appear the Blackout virtual reality experience as passengers on the virtual train car for festival audiences to experience. During the run of the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to preview a live-edited version of the first episode of the Blackout series, featuring an evolving cast that changes daily at the Storyscapes Installation. New episode & cast everyday Every day there will be an updated episode with a new cast. We ve designed a system for expanding the cast where every time a person views Blackout they will see a different group of people in a new configuration. We will be interviewing a larger group of people than can appear in a single scene. The result is a generative conversation, one that hints at the beautiful chaos, diversity and serendipity inherent to living in urban spaces.

5 CREATORS STATEMENT The New York Subway, where Blackout takes place, is a setting where the city s social stratifications are most visible. An L-Train ride from Broadway Junction to 8th Avenue in Chelsea exposes you to citizens from all walks of life. Contained within the minds of the passengers surrounding you are untold stories, and behind the eyes of fellow riders lay invisible biases and assumptions about us. Blackout attempts to break through the silence, using Virtual Reality to place anyone in the world on a genuine New York Subway car, gifted with mind reading abilities. Blackout engages tough issues facing city dwellers today. How do we coexist when we often disagree? How will the shifting politics of the country affect our daily lives? Who should have the power to decide who belongs here and who doesn t? Virtual Reality technology aspires to take you somewhere else to show you extraordinary and foreign places that you may never physically go. Blackout has the opposite intention. We want to take you radically close to home and to show you the familiar through a new lens. Blackout immerses you in an imaginary discussion on a broken down New York Subway car. In this virtual environment, delicate topics are discussed in dynamic, interactive social configurations by contributors who are equally complex. Scatter s creative practice is pioneering a technique called volumetric filmmaking of which Blackout is the next example. We ve created DepthKit, a software system that enables an entirely new kind of storytelling, empowering viewers to physically walk through a virtual story. DepthKit is designed to be an approachable technology, inspired by an opportunity to empower underrepresented voices within this new medium. In the spirit of this openness and accessibility, we have made Blackout a participatory and crowd-sourced production. Viewers are subjects alike, representing themselves by contributing their own stories in their own voice. Throughout the process of creating Blackout we are challenging ourselves to step out of our comfort zone. We re building new tools. We re meeting new people. We re taking on sensitive subjects to create the quality of discussion that we believe is necessary in the world today. If we re successful, viewers and contributors alike will come away from the experience of Blackout and see their own city with renewed openness to those around them. We hope that you ll join us during the festival, heeding the call to open your ears to the nuances, surprising differences, and life-affirming serendipity of urban existence.

6 SYNOPSIS Blackout is a virtual reality documentary where New Yorkers share their own stories in their own voice. Blackout is a living document, an ongoing participatory project gathering stories of real people living in this city under today s heightened political climate. Blackout aims to bridge social differences by illuminating the moments when our lives intersect in a space where those stratifications are most visible - on the New York subway.

7 An Interactive, Room-Scale Experience Blackout takes place in a broken down subway car where you find yourself stuck on a train car during a mysterious power outage. Granted a telepathic ability, you re given the privilege to glimpse into the inner worlds of your fellow passengers by simply looking from person to person. The interactive experience immerses viewers in a diverse world of stories and real experiences. Blackout is designed for room-scale VR in the HTC Vive. In order to create wider access to the project, it will also be distributed on mobile VR platforms. A Participatory, Living Document Blackout takes an innovative approach to a virtual reality documentary where real people share real stories. Blackout is a living document, an ongoing participatory project gathering stories of real people living in this city under today s heightened political climate. This allows us to expand our group of virtual passengers, integrating more voices into the conversation and making it an experience to which people will want to return. An Episodic Series Blackout is a three-episode series dealing with contemporary political issues through the lens of lived-experiences in the city of New York. As a documentary series, each Blackout episode will address the issues of the moment. The first episode will be captured at the Tribeca Film Festival this April and will include both an on-site 3D capture stage and an immersive experience exhibited as part of Tribeca Film Festival s Storyscapes. Those New Yorkers who contribute their voice and presence to the project will be able to come back the following day and see themselves inside the train car among their fellow city dwellers, engaged in an ongoing virtual conversation.

8 Scatter is an immersive media studio pioneering an exciting new genre of immersive media called volumetric filmmaking. We combine the interactivity of game engine virtual reality with the craft and sensibility of filmmaking. Our virtual reality projects feature real people and their stories, three-dimensionally captured inside of interactive virtual reality experiences. VRScout called Scatter s latest VR documentary Zero Days VR a revolutionary immersive documentary and one of the most aesthetically powerful pieces of VR to date. DEPTHKIT: A NEW DIMENSION IN FILMMAKING Volumetric 3D Capture At Scatter, we ve pioneered the use of a VR capture technique called volumetric filmmaking. Made possible with DepthKit, volumetric filmmaking allows us to capture real people and real stories and place them inside interactive virtual reality experiences. Enabling Room Scale Virtual Reality Using volumetric captures allows us to create immersive, room-scale experiences that permit audiences to freely walk through the environment where our stories take place. Showcasing DepthKit s latest 360º volumetric capture capability Blackout is the first time that DepthKit will be used for true-to-life scale portraits presented in virtual reality. Using the latest technology capturing subjects from multiple perspectives, Blackout s participants will be visible from every angle on the subway.. The use of this novel format allows viewers to stand face-to-face with their fellow New Yorkers inside the virtual world of Blackout.

9 PROJECT CREATORS Alexander Porter - Director/Co-Creator Alexander Porter is a director of photography. His career as an artist, photographer and documentarian enable him to combine photographic traditions and narratives with new imaging techniques; exploring the documentary & aesthetic potential of reality capture techniques. Yasmin Elayat - Co-Director Yasmin Elayat is a new media artist, experience designer and creative technologist. Her work pushes the boundaries of immersive and collaborative storytelling experiences ranging from new media documentary to immersive environments and site-specific installations. Yasmin is the Co-Creator of 18DaysInEgypt: A Participatory Interactive Documentary Project about the Egyptian Revolution. Most recently, Yasmin directed Zero Days VR Scatter s VR documentary about cyber warfare and the Stuxnet virus that made its World Premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. James George - Technical Director/Co-Creator James George addresses the emotional response to science fiction technologies as they become reality. Co-Creator of the DepthKit, a volumetric filmmaking system, James has helped to equip the next generation of filmmakers with a new cinematic vernacular. He has applied this format towards feature films, interactive installations, and software products advancing the art of the moving image. Most notably, James Co-Directed CLOUDS, an interactive documentary about code and creativity that won Tribeca Storyscapes Award for Transmedia in Mei-Ling Wong - Producer/Co-Creator Mei-Ling Wong is a multi-disciplinary producer. Her career in producing commercials and immersive installations enables her to combine traditional production disciplines across a wide range of mediums including film, visual effects, motion graphics, live performance, experiential installations and documentary narratives told through the lens of virtual reality.

10 KEY COLLABORATORS Hannah Jayanti - Co-Producer/ Editor Hannah Jayanti is a documentary filmmaker. In her current work she lives in a place or a community for months at a time, shooting by herself and hoping to give voice to the smaller stories that surround us every day but which we rarely celebrate. Most recently she is the recipient of grants from NYSCA and the Jerome Foundation and is a proud member of the Women Make Movies Production Assistance Program. She is passionate about making filmmaking accessible to those who are underrepresented in media and teaches free and low cost media classes in Brooklyn. ANTFOOD - Sound Design Antfood is a creative audio studio. They compose music, sound design and immersive, aural experiences. They focus on creativity and professionalism, combining classic, analog sonics with a contemporary workflow. Antfood s talented team of creators and producers realize audio solutions that tell stories, evoke emotion and drive campaigns. Antfood also designs, hacks and builds their own hardware and software to capture human gestures, create novel performance interfaces, and develop innovative audio systems for immersive installations. Jeremiah Joseph - Executive Producer Jeremiah Joseph, born and raised in New York City, is a lifelong patron of the arts. In 2016, having previously worked across art, music, fashion and film, he founded future archives combining a background in the arts with his entrepreneurial spirit. future archives is dedicated to redefining the systems that support all creativity through funding, producing and supporting projects where a multidisciplinary approach fosters creative independence and integrity. SUPPORTED BY

11 CREDITS Director Alexander Porter Co-Director Yasmin Elayat Technical Director James George Executive Producers Jeremiah Joseph James George Producers Mei-Ling Wong Co-Producer Hannah Jayanti Story Producer Cyndee Readdean Lead Branding Michael Cina Lead VR Artist Pat Goodwin Junior VR Artist Jillian Morrow Lead Developer Mark Fingerhut Graphics Developer Kevin Watters Music & Sound Design Antfood Editor Hannah Jayanti Production Counsel Fridman Law Group Installation Design Alexander Porter Fabrication Malcolm Pepin Production Coordinator Zara Hayden THANK YOU TO Our Kickstarter Backers, Chris Johnson, Matt Wilson, Charlotte Kaufman, Julia Kaganskiy, NEW INC, Elie Zananiri, Julia Irwin, BJ Allan, Ansh Patel, Marisa Adele, Liam Finn, Mo Black, Andrew Saunders, Johno and ANTFOOD

Lessons Learned From Experiments in Creating VR Content

Lessons Learned From Experiments in Creating VR Content Published May 2017 Topics Video, Advertising, Mobile Virtual Reality (VR) creates infinite storytelling possibilities. But VR for advertising has