Everything Immersive This Week (6/29/2019)
Immersive is on fire
It’s officially summer and immersive is sizzling hot right now. So what happened in immersive news this week?
The former lead VR filmmaker for Google, Jessica Brillhart, was named Director of USC ICT’s Mixed Reality Lab. Valve Index, the high end VR headset, also launched this week. Wired called the upcoming Lion King film, which is being shot entirely in VR, the “future of cinema.” Plus Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge finally lifted the reservation requirement to visit the planet of Batuu. And the first revenue reports started rolling in for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, with the AR-based game falling far short of what Pokémon Go had previously achieved during its launch.
We for us, we interviewed the creators of an escape game at a historic village, a steampunk-inspired LARP meets puzzles pub crawl, a VR chef, the immersive art juggernaut 29Rooms, as well as LA-based immersive theatre troupe The Speakeasy Society.
We’ve also got some great reviews coming out this week, including an outdoor scavenger hunt with escape room and ARG elements, a multimedia play for two from the 1960s, an interactive art exhibit at the Rubin Museum, an immersive dining experience for two, and a Harry Potter-themed murder mystery. Plus some of the NYC writing staff on a roundtable for the podcast!
Whew!
By the way, we’re taking next week off for American Independence Day! So we’ll see you again, very soon, after the holiday.
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ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK
Managing Editor Kathryn Yu is joined by members of the NYC team — Allie Marotta, Asya Gorovits, Blake Weil, and Cheyenne Ligon — to talk about what they’ve been seeing and what’s on their minds: including the Great Gotham Challenge, which had some issues.
OUR GUIDE TO HOLLYWOOD FRINGE IMMERSIVE
FROM THE WIRE: SHOWS, EVENTS, & EXPERIENCES
Chicago: The Recommendation
Cleveland: Shadow of the Run Chapter 1: Wanderlust
LA: Somebody to Love; One Exit; Nothing Cheezy; Knowing Not Knowing
New Orleans: Saintsbone
Paso Robles: Field of Light at Sensorio
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REVIEWS
From No Proscenium:
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
“This week reviewed two incredible escape rooms in The Netherlands. Each one is a technological marvel that takes the players on a journey.
“We love the way that Dark Park blends atmosphere, narrative, and puzzles to create haunting experiences.The End was a thrilling, weird, and thought-provoking experience from start to finish.”
“The Dome at Escape Room Nederland was something special. It was an escape room designed to feel like a hallucination… and through the magic of design and technology, it achieved it.”
STORIES
From NoProscenium.com and our Twitter feed:
From Michael Andersen of ARGN:
“Escape the Night, YouTube’s murder mystery reality show, is entering its fourth season in two weeks by bringing back stars from the prior seasons. To celebrate, the first three seasons are available free on YouTube, breaking the reality show that is equal parts escape-room-and-LARP free from its YouTube Premium paywall through the end of July.”
From Kent Bye of the Voices of VR podcast:
“The Valve Index launches this week & I captured some of UploadVR’s + my own deep impressions. It’s pricey at $999, but it’s the best PC VR on the market. The new Index (aka Knuckles) Controllers enable new open hand interactions that make grabbing objects in VR so much more visceral and real for incredible hand presence.”
From Lance Weiler of the Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab:
“Recorded live at Film at Lincoln Center. Lance Weiler sits down with Loren Hammonds (Senior Programmer Film & Immersive, Tribeca Film Festival) for a fireside chat. The candid conversation explores the challenges and opportunities of staging site-specific installations that attempt to balance story and interactivity — work where those formerly known as the audience become storytellers and part of the experience.
Topics covered: curating immersive works, the history of immersive at Tribeca, logistical challenges to staging projects that mix story and code within a festival environment…”
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