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Michael Hicks
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Article History:
At Tribeca 2018, technology is helping VR films leave traditional Hollywood behind
In 2016, Tribeca Film Festival's Immersive Hub was full of wonky, experimental, five-minute demos of what VR films could be capable of. By 2017, the Manhattan-based festival was teeming with Hollywood directors and actors, all injecting their talent into exciting, but truncated, VR demos. You could see the beginnings of exciting new VR cinematography and…
Tips and tricks for running in winter
'Tis the season where the temperature gets colder, the nights draw in earlier and getting out and staying fit becomes all the more challenging. You step outside, sniff the cold air, shake your head sadly and go back inside for six weeks. In your case, six weeks of Netflix and copious snacking. Essential reading: Top…
Roland Emmerich's next project mixes social and VR – and you're the director
Roland Emmerich movies like Independence Day, 2012 and Stargate wowed audiences with immersive set pieces and explosive action. But while stepping through a wormhole sounds like a perfect concept for VR, Emmerich's new startup company VRenetic – pronounced "frenetic", and co-founded by fellow Hollywood producer Marco Weber – doesn't focus on producing cinematic VR films…
Inside LA’s exploding VR and AR scene
This past April, San Francisco-based VR team Upload VR followed the lead of so many other VR tech firms - they moved their headquarters to Los Angeles. Los Angeles has emerged as a major hub for virtual and augmented reality innovation. Startups founded there can quickly form partnerships with Hollywood's filmmakers, poach tech talent from…
What it's like to spend a day at VR World, the virtual reality theme park
Across the street from the Empire State Building, the virtual reality experience at VR World is as boisterous and social as you'd expect any New York tourist trap to be. A young woman playing Elven Assassin screams and falls over when a giant troll ambushes her siege tower – scrambling back up while her boyfriend…
Crowdsourced worlds, 3D Marilyn Monroe and Spidey sense at Sotheby’s Art of VR
On a typical day at Sotheby's, you'll find New York City's bourgeoisie bidding on Impressionist paintings and diamond collections. Not the kind of place you'd expect to find a bunch of tech geeks. But last week, Sotheby's hosted its first Art of VR festival. On site were over fifty VR demos, including branded tie-ins for…
Here Be Dragons is defining VR docs - with help from Kathryn Bigelow & Tribeca
Festivalgoers came to the Tribeca Film Festival's panel on The Protectors - a VR documentary on park rangers engaged in warfare against poachers and extremists in the Democratic Republic of Congo - expecting Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Imraan Ismail (The Displaced) to discuss the film. No one, myself included,…
Tribeca Film Festival 2017: Our picks of the best VR films and games
When I entered the elevator to the Tribeca Film Festival's Immersive VR exhibit, I didn't expect Tribeca co-founder Robert de Niro and his media entourage to stroll in after me. I decided not to breathe on the ride up to avoid disrupting his conversation, and then I slowly stalked after him into the exhibit to…
From Hamlet to smackdowns: the weird and wonderful ideas from VR Jubilee
The atmosphere of last week's NYU Jubilee, a showcase of virtual reality projects employing everything from simple mobile VR to cordless Vive rigs to Oculus Touch controllers, could only be described as, well, jubilant. One student developer proudly confessed to spending 90 hours over two weeks to finish his build in time for the event.…
Behind the scenes: Bourne director discusses new short VR series Invisible
Picture any Doug Liman film - Bourne Identity, Live Die Repeat, Mr. and Mrs. Smith - and you'll likely think of exciting chase scenes, set pieces filled with overwhelming, stylized action, or rapid jump cuts between scenes. Films characterized by immersive worlds, to be sure, but also by cinematic traits that might not fit the…
Loomia's Madison Maxey shows us the building blocks of future smart clothing
We've been intrigued about Madison Maxey's New York smart fabrics startup Loomia since we chatted to her after its Topshop Top Pitch win earlier this year. With a new developer kit up for pre-order and due in February 2017, we decided to check in with Maxey's studio to find out more about the team's ambitions…
NYC Maker Faire 2016: The best wearable, VR and smart home tech
The New York Hall of Science played host to another year of Maker Faire, a science and technology showcase that allows amateur inventors to bring their projects into the public eye. This past weekend, tech giants like Google and GE shared the spotlight with high schoolers' science fair display boards and amateurs with DIY creations.…
America's first VR cinema is a promising work in progress
Virtual reality is a solitary, immersive experience best viewed with no distractions. Movie theaters have you laughing or screaming with friends and trying to ignore loud candy wrappers and annoying neighbors kicking your seat. When I initially heard about Jump into the Light - the first virtual reality cinema in the US founded by VR…
We tried the Ghostbusters VR experience and it was awesome
Hollywood studios have tried using VR to put people in movies for years. As I strapped on a proton pack, marched into a New York apartment building and faced off against demons, Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, I felt like they may finally be onto something – for those 12 minutes, I felt…
Tribeca Film Festival 2016: Our picks for best VR films and games
The Tribeca Film Festival is famous for its indie films, risk-taking artists and unconventional narratives. Those same subversive directors and artists brought their skills to Tribeca's Virtual Reality Hub this year. The past week has seen releases of dozens of new VR films, games and interactive demos, all available to Tribeca pass holders. Based on…
How Hollywood is starting to invade the VR film scene
Sometime between exploring Allumette's city in the clouds in Penrose Studios's swanky Airbnb studio and interviewing the director of the Madagascar movies at Tribeca's red carpet, I realized that VR filmmaking has already achieved an aura of legitimacy and profitability rivaling many traditional films. I was observing studios at the forefront of a budding VR…
Moving BB-8 using the Force (of wearables)
It's practically everyone's childhood dream to push objects forward with your mind and during Tribeca Film Festival, my dream was fulfilled. All it took was a Kickstarted Emotiv Insight EEG headset, a Raspberry Pi and one Disney Store BB-8 Sphero (no Midichlorians required). IBM engineer Joshua Carr used the Watson Internet of Things platform and…
Virtual reality TV still needs work, but it's closer than you think
Back in 2014, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey boldly declared to PAX East attendees that VR devices would and should replace television sets. VR headsets, he claimed, would be cheaper for consumers, less destructive to the environment, and overall a more dynamic viewing experience. His claims received a healthy dose of skepticism at the time. But…