Those who attend the Sundance Film Festival this year are in for a little something extra. Samsung will be showing off its Gear VR virtual reality headset at the festival's New Frontier exhibition from January 23 to February 1.
Over the course of the exhibition, Samsung will be showcasing three virtual reality experiences created Felix & Paul Studios:
The World Première of Herders – Mongolian pastoral herders are one of the world's last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the grasslands. Through a series of virtual reality experiences, the viewer is invited into the reality of a nomadic family of yak herders. (7 minutes)
Wild - The Experience – Fox Searchlight and the Fox Innovation Lab present this virtual reality experience drawing from the film Wild. Viewers enter a fully immersive media environment to join an intimate moment on the Pacific Crest Trail between a woman, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon), and her mother, Bobbi (Laura Dern), a vision from the afterlife. (3 minutes)
Strangers with Patrick Watson – Viewers are invited to spend an intimate moment with the musician in his Montréal studio on a winter's day. (5 minutes)
While a film festival may seem an odd choice of location to show off the Gear VR at first, it will be interesting to see what new experiences film makers can create with the technology. If anything, it gives festival goers a chance to virtually hang out with Reese Witherspoon and her ghostly (fictional) mother.
Press Release:
Samsung is heading to Park City to showcase content from Felix & Paul Studios on the Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition powered by the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Recognizing the crossroads of film, art, and media technology as a hotbed for cinematic innovation, New Frontier is a venue showcasing innovative media installations and panel discussions that explore the expansion of cinema culture in today's rapidly changing media landscape.
As part of this year's exhibition, taking place from January 23 – February 1, attendees will find themselves immersed in the three cinematic virtual reality experiences created by Felix & Paul Studios, using Samsung's Gear VR technology:
· The World Première of Herders – Mongolian pastoral herders are one of the world's last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the grasslands. Through a series of virtual reality experiences, the viewer is invited into the reality of a nomadic family of yak herders. (7 minutes)
· Wild - The Experience – Fox Searchlight and the Fox Innovation Lab present this virtual reality experience drawing from the film Wild. Viewers enter a fully immersive media environment to join an intimate moment on the Pacific Crest Trail between a woman, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon), and her mother, Bobbi (Laura Dern), a vision from the afterlife. (3 minutes)
· Strangers with Patrick Watson – Viewers are invited to spend an intimate moment with the musician in his Montréal studio on a winter's day. (5 minutes)
Felix & Paul Studios is currently focused on the development of original narrative and non-narrative virtual reality experiences in collaboration with a range of leaders in the entertainment and virtual reality industries. The program will be available to experience at New Frontier, located on the top two floors of the historic Claim Jumper, at 573 Main Street in Park City. Admission to all New Frontier installations is free.
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