About
SEEk makes a return at TIFF 2019 with a deep dive into the immersive world of new media experiences. This time around, SEEk focuses on the chain of developing innovative storytelling techniques to the distribution of VR and 360 content around the world - giving festival audiences a broader perspective on the exciting developments in the medium.
The program begins with a seminar featuring some of the very best creators, curators and filmmakers who will be presenting their insights, breakthroughs and challenges. After the seminar, the space will be transformed into an exhibition featuring exciting VR/360 content from Europe, Russia and China - from suspenseful interactive horror, thought-provoking artistic experiences to journeys in far-flung exotic places around the world.
SEEk is developed in collaboration with the Creative Technology department at Tvibit, North Norwegian Film Center (NNFS), Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) and Nordic Youth Film Festival (NUFF)
SEEk Seminar - The VR Eco-System
SEEk seminar features insights from speakers the likes of Marta Ordeig, whose Garage Stories workshops are challenging the way we develop film ideas, to Camille Lopato and Georgy Molodtsov, founders of Diversion Cinema and Russian VR Seasons, talking about their work with VR festivals in Europe and Russia. Rounding it off is Fabrice Schnöller, who brings audiences as close as they could ever be to experiencing free-diving with whales in 360, and is instrumental to the Emmy-nominated documentary The Click Effect.
THE SPEAKERS
MARTA ORDEIG
Filmmaker and entrepreneur residing between Silicon Valley and Barcelona. Graduated in Business from the University of Barcelona she worked in Berlin and LA as a producer and Creative Director of film and TV before setting up her first film festival (Landscape Film Festival).
In 2016, she moved to Silicon Valley, where combining her passion for film and innovation she founded a content lab for new mediums, Garage Stories, which has already taken place in cities such as Barcelona, San Francisco and Mexico; and has given workshops in institutions such as the MIT Media Lab in Boston, the Sonar + D and the USC University in Los Angeles. Some of the resulting projects have been presented at TEDx.
GEORGY MOLODTSOV
Georgy Molodtsov is specialising in both production of 360/VR content as well as organising Cinematic VR events as a part of film festivals with simultaneous showcase of 360 content. He has organised non-commercial initiative "Russian VR Seasons" in order to promote the best of Russian 360/VR works domestically and internationally and has organised/programmed over a dozen VR film screenings and and events in 2016-18, including VR Sci Fest in Sweden, Open Frame Award within GoEast Film Festival in Germany, VR program of the 39th Moscow International Film Festival, first Russian VR festival – EMC VR Film Festival and VR Lab and many other events.
CAMILLE LOPATO
Camille Lopato is the founder of Diversion Cinema which has developed a VR cinema in Paris and creates VR rooms all around the world: for Festivals - Cannes, Venice, Amsterdam, Dubai - and for corporate and marketing events. Diversion cinema opened a international distribution department in May 2018. The department’s goal is support production by bringing additional funds and potential presales. We look for monetization solutions through LBVRE and on-line distribution strategy. We also manage the festival career of the pieces.
FABRICE SCHNÖLLER
Fabrice Schnöller is a filmmaker, engineer and biologist who founded the Darewin Project: a research program dedicated to whales and dolphins communication. This has resulted in the production of the Emmy -nominated The Click Effect in collaboration with Annapurna Pictures, and one of the first VR films to be shot directly underwater capturing the freediving experiences in the oceans with whales and dolphins. Fabrice is presently actively working and filming in Norway.
SCHEDULE
TUESDAY 15TH AT KULTURHUSET/VERKSTEDET
0900 - 1000: Technical rehearsal
1000 - 1010: Opening speech, welcome keynote
1010 - 1030: Speaker 1 : Marta Ordeig
1030 - 1050: Speaker 2 : Camille Lopato
1050 - 1100: Break
1110 - 1130: Speaker 3 Georgy Molodtsov
1130 - 1150: Speaker 4: Fabrice Schnoller
1155 - 1220: Panel debate - all speakers and moderator
1230 : Program ends
SEEK SCREENINGS
SEEk screenings transforms Kulturhuset Verkstedet into an exhibition space filled with an assortment of VR devices for participants to peruse and featuring the following experiences to check out! From the innovative blend of film and interactive horror experiences (Kobold), to clever political satire (The Nominal Empire) and multiple forays into exotic locations through astonishing 360 film content in the form of animations and documentaries.
Participants are free to try out as many experiences as they can for the duration of the screening but waiting time may be expected (particularly for room-scale VR interactive experiences - Kobold and The Nominal Empire).
Tickets for the SEEk Screenings are available at TIFF retail locations or online - https://tiff.no/en/program/2019/seek-2019
VR Equipment:
3 x room-scale stations (2 Oculus Rifts, 1 HTC Vive)
5 x Oculus Go + 5 x Samsung Gear VR,
6 x Samsung Gear VR (Russian VR Seasons)
ROOM SCALE INTERACTIVE VR EXPERIENCES
KOBOLD
Germany – 2018 –20 to 30’ - Interactive VR experience
Directed by Max Sacker
Produced by AnotherWorld VR
KOBOLD is a new kind of horror experience that blurs the line between cinema and VR gaming. Step into the shoes of an urban explorer investigating the mysterious case of a missing boy. Pick up your flashlight and discover the secrets of an abandoned villa in the middle of a dark forest in Germany.
THE NOMINAL EMPIRE
7 min. 28 sec, interactive animation, Russia, 2018
Directors: Denis Semionov, Natalia Severina
In "The Nominal Empire", you find yourself as a citizen in the totalitarian theatrical country, where a stage director becomes a dictator. To survive in this world and conquer evil, you should conform to the rules of "biomechanics" – the "know-how" actor training method of the leader. To run the story, you need to take correct "physical theatre" poses.
360 FILM EXPERIENCES
THE REAL THING
France – 2018 – 16’ - VR 360°
Directed by Benoit Felici and Mathias Chelebourg
Produced by Artline Films, DVgroup, and ARTE France
The Real Thing is a VR journey into a copy of our world, exploring real-life stories inside China’s replicas of Paris, Venice and London.
CHUANG: IN THE PICTURES
China – 2017 – 7’ - VR 360°
Directed by Qing Shao
Produced by VR Times
Travel through the many abstract realities, and through the windows of the mind. You might find yourself in a magnificent library, or a secluded bedroom of a disabled little girl. It’s about self discovery, inner exploration.
700 SHARKS
France – 2018 – 2x6’ - VR 360°
Directed by Manuel Lefèvre
Produced by Le Cinquième Rêve, Neotopy & ARTE France
Follow Laurent Ballesta, famous underwater specialist and marine biologist in the tiny Fakarava atoll, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Laurent is about to give a final answer to his quest: understanding the hunting behavior of the biggest shark pack in the world.
UNCAPITALS: POMORS IN 360
6 min, documentary, 2018
dir. Georgy Molodtsov, Taisa Sevenard
In September 2017 Northern artists and curators visited Arkhangelsk region to research Pomor history and culture. In one of the oldest and unique Pomor places untouched by time - Vorzogory, locals are trying to save the heritage.
BETWEEN PETROV AND VODKIN
3 min. 40 sec, animation, Russia, 2017
Directors: Denis Semionov, Natalia Severina
The first part of the immersive trilogy "Cultural revolution" focuses on the year of 1912. Through the history of one painting, the VR-movie tells about the highlights of that year, which have taken place on the cultural scene of the Russian Empire. Thanks to new technologies in cinema production, a viewer gets an opportunity to find himself in retro footage of the pre-revolutionary Russia and then to immerse into the most prominent picture of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin "Bathing of a red horse".
THE SPACEWALKER VR
4 min. 22 sec., animation, Russia, 2017
Director: Alexander Gorokhov
VR short film lets you experience the first human walking in space. The film immerses audiences in the experience of Leonov and his fellow cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev during their flight on the Voshod-2 on March 18-19, 1965.
LAKE BAIKAL: EPISODE 1. WINTER SPIRIT
7 min. 22 sec., documentary (360 3D), USA, Russia, 2016
Directors: Michael Owen, Georgy Molodtsov
Production: MEDIACOMBO (USA), VRability (Russia), PROSENSE (Russia)
Cinematic virtual reality will transport viewers to Lake Baikal in Siberia during winter 2016 and introduce them to the dramatic landscapes and the local customs and spiritual traditions of people who live around the oldest, deepest and most voluminous body of fresh water on Earth – 20% of all the liquid fresh water on our planet.
TRES TERCIOS (THREE THIRDS)
5 min. 57 sec., Fiction, Argentina 2018
Directors: Sebastián Aguirre, Ana Cecilia Basualdo, Maria José Delgado, Diego Kompel, Santiago Racca, Lucas Salomon
Fleeing the routine, a burdened woman finds herself at different stages of her life and reflects on the decisions that led her to the place where she is. The piece, which will not leave anyone indifferent, invites us to face our own decisions, and understand that there are decisions that have no way back.
HVALENS REISE
11´ , VR 360° Documentary
Directors: Fabrice Schnoller (France), 2018
Hvalens Reise follows the first migration of a humpback whale calf from the Caribbean islands till the coast of Norway. This migration of 8000 km across the Atlantic Ocean is full of surprising encounters, from the mythic sperm whales of Acores till the Orcas of Lofoten... An emotional and educational story for all the family.
THE OLD WHALE AND THE SEA
8'44, VR 360° Documentary
Directors: Fabrice Schnoller (France), 2018
For 70 years he has been exploring the oceans, and he wonders who these strange creatures are who invade his world? Accompany a sperm whale on a journey to meet the peoples of the oceans: dolphins, sharks, killer whales and whales, "The Old Whale and the Sea" offers exclusive and spectacular images through a poetic story about our relationship to the ocean.
SEEK Workshop
WARS DON´T END/ DE UØNSKEDE (DOCUMENTARY) + MY CHILD LEBENSBORN (GAME) – FILM SCREENING AND SEMINAR WITH CO-PRODUCER ELIN FESTØY (TEKNOPILOT)
Wars Don´t End, and its associated game, My Child Lebensborn is a culturally impactful retelling of the hidden history of the Lebensborn – children fathered by Nazi soldiers when Norway was under occupation in World War 2. The project has received both critical praise and generated social awareness, successfully bringing to light difficult and complex themes in the often overlooked aftermath of war or conflict.
Elin Festøy, co-producer of this transmedia project will take students on a journey through the development of the project. This includes a walkthrough of the mobile game My Child Lebensborn – developed by Sarepta Studio in Norway, which has since received critical praise from international sources such as The Guardian and Polygon. All participants will be able to redeem the code to the game on their smartphone devices and then familiarise themselves through the challenges that their "child” faces in the first chapter of the game. After which they will then witness the real-life accounts of the Lebensborn survivors in the 64-minute documentary – experiencing the transmedia aspect of the project in its fullest form.
This special workshop is part of SEEk@TIFF 2019 programme focusing on new media developments in AR/VR and interactivity, jointly produced by the department of Creative Technology at Tvibit, Nordic Youth Film Festival and the North Norwegian Film Center.
Link to the film - https://www.warsdontend.com/
Link to the game - http://www.mychildlebensborn.com/