Welcome to the first edition of the Guardian’s Virtual Reality Studio newslettter. Thanks to everyone who got in touch to let us know you’d like to hear from the team – we’ll be bringing you news of our latest VR pieces, events and what we’ve been up to in the studio.
We have a busy few weeks ahead with two new VR experiences, the launch of our new app and a cardboard viewer giveaway with the paper all coming soon.
App launch and Google Cardboard giveaway
We’ve been working hard to get our new app ready for launch on 7 October. The upgrade means our Guardian VR app will now be available both on Android and iOS. Soon all you iPhone users will be able to watch our immersive pieces with your own cardboard headset. Along with the launch, 97,000 Google Cardboard headsets will be going out with the Guardian newspaper.
Crime Scene: a virtual experience of a forensic investigation
It’s 2am and there has been a murder. You are the trainee forensic scientist on duty. Can you gather the right evidence to solve the crime? A forensic crime scene manager will guide you through the process – from examining the body to avoiding DNA contamination. She will explain the techniques most often used on crime scenes, from old-fashioned fingerprint dusting to the latest in digital forensics. This interactive experience brings to life the fascinating world of forensic science, allowing you to experience and understand the crucial role it plays during an investigation.
ScanLABS created our grisly crime scene – find out more about them in our industry shout-out below.
The Party: a virtual experience of autism
You are an autistic teenager, Layla, at a surprise party for your mum. The piece gives a powerful first person perspective on the challenges this kind of situation poses for an autistic person’s cognitive abilities, and explores the coping mechanisms that autistic people might use to deal with these situations.
Festival, award and more festivals
First Impressions has been having a good festival run – it is showing at the Raindance film festival this week, where it is also shortlisted in the best documentary experience category for Raindance VRX. Fingers crossed.
The piece is also a finalist in the prestigious Lovie awards, so if you liked the piece we’d love your vote. Please vote here.
First Impressions will be shown at the Brighton Digital VR Lab, the Geneva international film festival and the Byron Bay film festival, among others, in the next few months. Or you can find it here or on the app.
Industry shout-out: ScanLABs
ScanLABS did amazing work on our Limbo piece, where they mobile-mapped streets in Manchester and incorporated terrestrial scans of various locations as well as live-action 3D scans of people. The scans gave a disorientating, dream-like quality to the stories of asylum seekers.
They also did the scanning and modelling for our upcoming piece Crime Scene. Thanks to Will, Matt, Reuben and the ScanLabs team for all your hard work.
That’s it for our first newsletter. Thank you to everyone who has watched and supported our work this year. With the app soon to be available on iPhones we’re hoping to share our stories with an even wider audience.
All the best from the GVR team
