Happy Friday! Welcome to Issue 40 of Rerun, your weekly digest of digital storytelling, interactive media and the future of TV curated by Axonista.
This week's Top Pick is Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull's thoughts on VR storytelling. One of the creative minds behind Toy Story and an usher of the era of 3D animation, when this man talks about a new medium it's well worth paying attention!
We also look at how Vine are driving remixing and collaboration, how to gift media in the streaming age, video gaming's Oscars skipping TV for streaming, Nokia's $50,000 VR camera, exclusive Star Wars VR content for Google Cardboard, and much more! If you're a VR fan then this is a great issue for you!
Let's get straight to it!
Top Pick
Pixar co-founder warns virtual-reality moviemakers: 'It's not storytelling'
Pixar Animation co-founder Ed Catmull has warned that virtual reality technology may not be the revolution in storytelling that some of its evangelists have claimed.
There's no doubt of the potential of VR for creating interactive experiences; its ability to create such raw immersion is unmatched by any other medium. But is it actually a good medium for traditional linear storytelling? What will emerge as the standard for a great VR experience? Ed makes some good points in this interview with The Guardian, and Oculus' own learnings and VR storytelling experiments are well documented on their Story Studio blog.
Just like books arenât the same things as movies. They donât have to be
Hat-tip to Steve Power for bringing this one to our attention :)
Features
Remix, collaborate and listen
Director of Broadcast Partnerships at Twitter UK Dan Biddle presented a fascinating look at the art of Vine and Periscope at the C21 FutureMedia event in London yesterday. Vine users are embracing the platform's 6 second constraint to create shareable comedy, animation and now musical moments, and brands are taking notice.
At Rerun, we're particularly taken with Vine's new audio remix and collaboration feature, a type of audio hashtag, which encourages the spread of memes and adds to the music discovery capability of the platform.
You now have the power to reinterpret, collaborate or remix with audio from any Vine on the network, as well as discover these creations that reveal the bigger picture behind the incredible trends that evolve on Vine.
Future of TV
How to gift TV, movies, music, and more in the streaming age
You canât really gift-wrap a Netflix stream. Itâs hard to put MP3s under a Christmas tree.
There's no doubt that streaming on-demand is great for consumers, it gives them freedom of choice, super fast access to content and less stuff taking up space in their living room.
That said, it makes buying Christmas gifts just that little bit harder. Imagine gifting someone a DVD boxset of a show they hadn't seen but you thought they'd love; nowadays odds are it's already all on Netflix, and you can't really gift a recommendation.
Giving someone a single $30 audiobook may feel chintzy and limiting when the same $30 could buy two monthsâ worth of access to 180,000 audiobook titles via Audible.
So what can you do? The Verge have this great guide to gift-giving in the streaming age. The tl;dr, make it personal and one-of-a-kind.
Video gaming's Oscars skips TV for streaming
Last night (Thursday Dec 3rd) was all about The Game Awards, an annual awards show aiming to be the Oscars of video games, now in its second year.
There's an undeniable demand for video game broadcasting right now, and it's all digital. The Game Awards was broadcast live on Xbox, Playstation, YouTube, Twitch, Steam and Go90, Verizon's mobile streaming service.
Last year the awards racked up more than 6.5 million views, a fraction compared to the Oscars' 36.6 million views, but for a digital-only event in its first year that's a big success. There's no viewership info available for this year's event at the time of writing, but a big increase on last year is anticipated.
Interactive Media
Burberry booth allows shoppers to star in festive Billy Elliot campaign
Burberry's store on Regent Street in London is offering shoppers the chance to take part in a personalised commercial starring Naomi Campbell, James Corden, Julie Walters and themselves!
After filming on a trampoline in store, they can watch and share their 15 second ad on YouTube.
In a behind-the-scenes campaign video, veteran actress Julie Walters offers the following tip to those taking part: âMake sure you have a wee before you startâ.
Virtual Reality
Nokia's Ozo VR camera marks a rebirth for the phone giant
The Ozo is Nokia's $50,000 VR camera, capable of outputting broadcast-quality 360 video as well as a low-res version for monitoring. However aside from being incredible for filmmakers and broadcasters, it could also point to a path in Nokia's future... (It also looks so cool, just look at it)
Itâs not the first time Iâve tried a VR a headset, but itâs the first time Iâve ever experienced something like this. Instead of diving into 3D computer-generated simulation of a pre-prepared world, Nokiaâs next-gen spherical camera is actually teleporting me across the room in real time. But that distance of just a few feet could easily be hundreds of miles. That possibility in particular speaks to Nokiaâs plan.
Uncanny Valley is a super stylish short film about how VR will destroy us
Uncanny Valley is a short film "that seems destined for a feature film adaption", set in a time where social misfits live out their violent impulses in a fantasy world. Virtual reality is depicted as a means of escaping the harsh reality of our own world and is done so in a very stylish way.
The 'Star Wars' VR experience for Google Cardboard is here
The Star Wars hype train continues at warp speed, and the latest release is 'Jakku Spy', a VR experience for Google Cardboard on iOS and Android. It puts you into the role of a Resistance secret agent on the planet Jakku, and ties directly into the upcoming film. It also introduces an AR character that comes to life when you scan a movie poster for The Force Awakens!
Amazon and Apple's takes on augmented reality are totally headset free
Amazon have had several patents approved that will potentially augment reality without users needing a headset. The 'object tracking' patent details a system of projectors and cameras that would beam images onto real objects, tracking your body as you interact with them.
Apple have also been granted a patent this week for a projector that uses augmented reality.
We're loving the application drawings that illustrate these patents!
Briefs
- Facebook begins testing live video streaming for all users
- Amazon Instant Video app to launch on tvOS âwithin a few weeksâ
- A walkthrough of the VR theme park The Void [video]
- AOLâs Kanvas partners with Guess
- YouTube seeks streaming rights to TV shows & movies
- Discovery unveils Discovery GO, its TV everywhere service for the US
#GearBoggles: The horrifying new face of wearing a VR headset
No, this person is not at an optometrist, this is what happens when you take the faceplate off the new Samsung Gear VR. Just when we thought VR headsets were starting to look cool...
Enjoy your weekend!