AN OPEN 740+ PAGE NEW IMMERSIVE CINEMATIC STORYTELLING / VR TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE

INITIAL BEGINNINGS:

NEW CINEMA: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING EVENT AT EYEBEAM, NEW YORK CITY, DECEMBER 13-16, 2012

Eyebeam held a large-scale, team-based digital storytelling event at its Chelsea, NY exhibition space from December 13th-16th, 2012. The project was organized in collaboration between Eyebeam, The Creators Project, a global arts and technology from Intel and Vice, and award-winning visual effects company Framestore. The Hackathon was conceptualized and initiated between Eyebeam’s Director of Technology & Research, Marko Tandefelt and Framestore’s Creative Director Nick Hooker.

The event, dubbed “NEW CINEMA” was the first event concentrating on team-based brainstorming, design, and systematic development of new hybrid digital storytelling methods which can shape the ways in which we think about possible futures of cinema. All projects were realized by unorthodox methods and takes on fresh creative coding approaches, commercial and open source software and hardware hacks, and “creative misuse” of the latest camera, sensor and computer technologies.

Eyebeam and The Creators Project curated five cross-disciplinary teams consisting of creative coders, conceptual artists, 3D/CGI/Special FX and cinema technology professionals as well as directors, cinematographers, editors, scriptwriters, and musicians/sound designers. The teams spent three days in Eyebeam’s Chelsea exhibition and fabrication space developing their initial prototypes, working with cutting edge tools, and exchanging ideas with other teams. A public exhibition of the completed projects was exhibited at Eyebeam from January 29th-February 3rd, 2013.

NEW CINEMA PROJECTS:

Project “In Opsis” Combined concepts which influenced the development of Director’s Mike Cahill’s (“Another Earth”) new feature length movie “iOrigins”. Both of his films received the Alfred P. Sloan Feature film prize in Sundance film festival, awarded for movies focusing on science or technology. Team: Mike Cahill,  Rylan Scherer, Anton Vade Marini, Brian Chasalow and Golan Levin.

Project “Before the Flood” is an interactive cinematic experience exploring a subterranean world. Team: Ramsey Nasser, Nick Fox-Gieg, Nick Hooker, Mike Woods and Mike Mellor (Framestore).

Project “Dance like Michael Jackson” is an interactive face controlled simulation of Michael Jackson’s dance routines. Team: Supermarche (Ariel Shulman, Henry Joost), Aaron Mayers, Lauren McCarthy and James George.

Project “We Make the Weather / Before the Flood” by Bridge Group is a breath-controlled installation inspired by Hurricane Sandy. Use your breath to control a ghostly figure trying to cross a never-ending bridge. Team: Karolina Sobecka, Greg Borenstein and Sofy Yuditskaya.

Project “Flatland” Team: Ryan Staake and Zack Lieberman.

New Cinema Hackathon press and media coverage:
TheVerge.com
Ontheunspeakable.tumblr.com
Dazeddigital.com
Etcentric.org
Participatoryvideo.com
Turnstylenews.com
Framestoredigital.com