Tribeca 2016: Experiential and VR Programming for the Horror Crowd
Debi Moore
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The Tribeca Film Festival is known for spotlighting cutting edge films and technologies, and this year’s event is no exception. They’ve announced their interactive and VR lineup for 2016, and there’s quite a bit for the horror fan to check out, including the chance to test your survival skills during an actual, machete-whizzing-past-your-face slasher movie sequence directed by Anthony C. Ferrante of Sharknado fame plus a Christmas-gone-wrong tale from Scott Stewart (Legion, Priest). Or perhaps you’re one of the millions of people who watch “Game of Thrones” and wish that you, too, could fly on a dragon’s back, like the almighty Khaleesi.
If you’ll be in NYC this April, take note…
Horror Highlights from the Press Release:
Virtual reality (VR) and interactive storytelling take center stage at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by AT&T. Twenty-three VR exhibits and interactive installations from leading creators and emerging artists will be presented, with 16 of them making their world debut, at the Tribeca Festival Hub, located at 50 Varick Street. These elements are part of a celebrated legacy of innovative storytelling showcased at TFF since 2002.
The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 13-24, 2016. For more info visit TribecaFilm.com, and “like” Tribeca on Facebook.
The Virtual Arcade invites audiences to explore the world of VR, taking them to vastly different worlds crafted by some of the leading creators working in the medium. The Virtual Arcade, open April 18-20, demonstrates the breadth of work created by VR storytellers, including projects that are rooted in documentary, narrative, gaming, music, and journalism. The lineup also incorporates established programs including Storyscapes, the fourth annual juried showcase with 10 VR and interactive installations available April 14-17, and TFI Interactive, the fifth annual forum convening the brightest thinkers from media, gaming and technology on April 16.
Additional programs at the Tribeca Festival Hub include HACKED by DEF CON and MR. ROBOT, which brings DEF CON, the world’s biggest and longest-running underground hacking conference in the US, to the Festival for the second year on April 15-17 with hands-on activities and panel discussions about surveillance, technology and society. The Games for Change Games and Media Summit will take place on April 18 and feature gaming innovators and industry voices leading the charge in shaping the way we feel, play, work and interact with games.
“Tribeca has always celebrated the most exciting new forms of storytelling, from video games to virtual reality,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder Tribeca Film Festival and Executive Chair of Tribeca Enterprises. “This year’s program, which you can touch and feel at our amazing Festival Hub at Spring Studios, features the most dynamic work to date at the intersection of story and technology. We’re committed to giving the independent artists we support the best stage to share their mind-blowing work with audiences.”
“Our experiential program is what happens when artists create wildly different adventures that go outside traditional methods. Here stories are not passively watched; they are actually ‘experienced’ – you are a participant,” said Genna Terranova, Festival Director. “Today virtual reality offers a new landscape for creating worlds and stories. At its best it can be a powerful vehicle for magically transportive explorations that test the limits of our imaginations and psyches.”
Festival Hub Passes are available now to the general public and provide a hands-on opportunity to experience the best in entertainment and what happens when it collides with the latest technology. Festivalgoers converge on the hub to be inspired, to incite a sense of wonder and to catch a glimpse into the future of this rapidly changing and exciting world. Passes are currently on sale for $399.00 at tribecafilm.com. Single tickets for each program will go on sale March 29, 2016.
STORYSCAPES
Storyscapes projects at the 2016 Festival, open April 14-17, feature both installations and VR. The program includes projects that grapple with issues of racism, violence, and harm inflicted on our planet, combining the excitement of these new immersive mediums tempered with the urgency of a world on fire. It is in turns thrilling, upsetting, shocking, and wonderful, much like the world we live in.
“This year’s Storyscapes offerings are a reflection of today’s world. We live in a very charged period—from the political landscape to unprecedented violence—and the Storyscapes installations are compelling and engaging experiences that balance some of the sobering issues facing society, as well as inspiring and wonderful ones,” said Ingrid Kopp, Storyscapes curator.
One project will be selected by a jury to receive the Storyscapes Award, which recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology. The 2016 Storyscapes selections include:
· SENS (World Premiere)
Project Creators: Charles Ayats, Armand Lemarchand, Marc-Antoine Mathieu
Key Collaborators: Calculmentor, Franck Weber
SENS is the first project to adapt a graphic novel into a virtual reality. It is also a beautifully universal experience that works without words. The game invites you to a trip through a graphic maze: All around you are arrows in ever changing shapes, showing you the way. Where will you lead you?
· THE TURNING FOREST (World Premiere)
Project Creator: Oscar Raby
Key Collaborators: Chris Pike, Zillah Watson, Katy Morrison
In a land that never was and a time that could never be, a child stared into the eyes of a fantastical creature. Around them, a magical forest; in front of them, a magical journey. The Turning Forest is a sound-based real-time CGI VR experience for people young and old–inviting audiences into a magical space of imagination, where rustling leaves are also the footsteps of something familiar, yet strange. In this place, things are not quite what they seem.
VIRTUAL ARCADE
Virtual Arcade debuts at the 2016 Festival, helping to expand the immersive entertainment slate with thirteen additional VR experiences from some of the leading creators and emerging voices in this new medium. The selections, available April 18-20, include:
· DRAGONFLIGHT (World Premiere)
Project Creators: Michael Conelly, Will Telford, Keith Goldfarb, Lyndon Barrois/Blackthorn Media
A spectacular dragon embarks on a hero’s journey to do battle against a duplicitous sorcerer and protect the world from the second coming of his ancient and powerful progenitor. DRAGONFLIGHT is the debut project of VR studio Blackthorn Media, an Academy and Emmy Award-winning team of storytellers, visual effects veterans, programmers, and artists.
· INVASION! (World Premiere)
Project Creators: Eric Darnell, Maureen Fan/Baobab Studios
Directed by Eric Darnell (Antz and Madagascar), this interactive and animated film follows menacing aliens with vastly superior technology who come to claim the Earth and destroy anyone in their way. Despite incredible odds, Earth’s citizens rise up and defeat the evil aliens. Surprisingly, these Earthly citizens are not humans but a pair of the cutest, meekest and cuddliest creatures of our planet — two fluffy white bunnies.
· KILLER DEAL (World Premiere)
Project Creators: Irad Eyal, Aaron Rothman, Anthony C. Ferrante, iMan Productions, Better VR Studios
Key Collaborator: Ian Ziering
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante (Sharknado 1, 2 & 3), Killer Deal follows a struggling machete salesman who runs into trouble when his discount hotel room comes with an unwelcome guest. A very unwelcome guest. The experience takes all the things we love about over-the-top horror and puts the viewer right in the middle of the “splash zone.
· HOLIDAYS: CHRISTMAS VR (World Premiere)
Project Creators: Distant Corners/John Hegerman, Scott Stewart, Amanda Mortimer, Gabriela Revilla Lugo, Wevr
When a man stoops to dangerous new lows to get his son the ultimate VR headset for Christmas, he finds out more about himself and his family than he ever wanted to know. From writer/director Scott Stewart (LEGION, PRIEST) and starring Emmy Award-winning actor Seth Green and Clare Grant, CHRISTMAS is part of Distant Corners’ HOLIDAYS anthology feature created by John Hegeman and produced in association with XYZ Films.
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