The Sundance Festival is well under way and VR is front and centre at the events New Frontier initiative. To mark the event they’re launching a new Google Cardboard application built by immersive media company IM360.
The Sundance Festival, underway since the 21st January, is a big event, really big. Running for 10 days, the event incorporates all facets of the arts and, for 10 years, has sought to celebrate “Creators who explore the opportunities within the newest technologies to push the edges of story conception and craft, and to invite the audience to experience stories as never before,” in its New Frontiers program.
Right now, virtual reality represents that “newest technology” and this year Sundance is all about immersive ways to create and consume film. So, appropriately, the organisers have teamed up with IM360 to produce a digital guide created as a Google Cardboard VR application. The app lets you browse the festival’s program and view some of its exhibitors work, all in immersive 360 degrees.
“Sundance Institute is a renowned organization in entertainment, and we’re honored to bring the spirit and innovation of its New Frontier initiative to a global audience and showcase storytelling through a new medium,” said Richard Ngo-Tran, Vice President of Marketing for IM360. “As VR takes its place alongside film and television, virtual technologies like the New Frontier app will create immersive experiences in entertainment that have never been seen before.”
You can grab the new application, called simply ‘Sundance VR’ from the Google Store right now. You’ll need a Google Cardboard compatible Android device and of course a viewer. An IOS version of the application will be available later in the year.