Immersive Film Catatonic Available Now on iOS
David Gelmini
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Sounding a bit like a cross between a movie and a video game, the immersive film Catatonic is now available for FREE from the Vrse App Store for iPhone and iOS. It’s been available on other platforms, but now the Apple crowd can join in.
From the Press Release:
Creator Guy Shelmerdine’s virtual reality experience Catatonic is now available to download on the Vrse app for iPhone iOS. Catatonic is an immersive journey through an insane asylum in which the audience, bound to a wheelchair, undergoes a sensory-shocking horror experience. In addition to being available to download/stream on the Vrse app on Android, Samsung Gear, and 360 Desktop, Catatonic will be accessible for the first time on Vrse’s iPhone app where users can watch through the 360 Magic Window feature or full immersion through headsets like Google Cardboard. The release on iOS comes just in time for horror enthusiasts looking for a good scare on Halloween.
Catatonic was directed by Guy Shelmerdine, who for 20 years has been a force in advertising, music videos, commercials, and short films. The experience was captured on location at a derelict mental hospital in Pasadena, CA, with Vrse.works’ proprietary VR camera systems. Catatonic’s production value and cinematography bridge the stark terror of a horror film with the inescapable immersion of virtual reality. In the virtual world of Catatonic, audience members become mental patients.
“I wanted people to feel like they were climbing aboard a roller coaster headed straight into hell —a ride that they cannot escape from,” says Vrse.works creator Guy Shelmerdine. “Catatonic offers a glimpse of the overwhelming power of experiencing movies in VR. You are not a spectator. You are IN the film. I built the tension slowly, letting a deep sense of foreboding fill the viewer with dread before anything even happens. The film is a journey towards our darkest fears.”
The experience premiered at SXSW earlier this year as a full immersion sensory experience where the audience was ushered into a custom-built wheelchair by nurses in 1940s uniforms. The design of the chair resembles a padded cell: a unique blend of comfort and paralysis. In the virtual environment, the patient/audience is wheeled through a psychiatric wing, experiencing the full brunt of madness within. Along with the 360º 3D immersion of VR, the patient also experience vibrations emanating from a Buttkicker, built into the base of the wheelchair. The many moving parts of Catatonic build to a cacophony of terror and depravity one has to experience to believe.
Catatonic was written by Guy Shelmerdine and Edward Robles. It was produced by Patrick Milling Smith and Chris Milk of Vrse.works with cinematography by Sebastian Pfaffenbichler, editing by Cass Vanini of Work Editorial, and music by Drazen Bosnjak of Q Department. Stitching and post effects were achieved by MPC VR, and Animatronics were provided by Legacy FX.
For best experience, please be seated.
Catatonic is available to watch on the Vrse app (Apple iTunes, Google Play store, and Oculus Gear VR store). Catatonic can be viewed on iOS and Android Mobile Platforms with or without Google cardboard by downloading the Vrse app, or on Samsung phones with the Samsung Gear VR. It can also be viewed through the Vrse 360-degree desktop player.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kygnmk899bE&w=560&h=315]
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