Festival Feature: Immersive Virtual Reality at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival

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NEW YORK CITY – Every year, the evolution of story experience is on display at the Tribeca Film Festival, and its popularity continues to escalate. The “Virtual Arcade,” which was at the festival hub in the Tribeca neighborhood, featured Virtual Reality (VR), interactive storytelling and immersive experiences.

These experiences turns the audience member into a participant within a story they once only watched. And new for 2018 was the addition of “Tribeca Cinema360” – a VR theater that featured screening programs in a 360 degree mobile content – was also part of the arcade at the festival hub.

Programmer Loren Hammonds of the Tribeca Film Festival Oversees the ‘Virtual Arcade’
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com describes a few of those experiences below, but first there is a rerun of a 2017 talk between HC and Loren Hammonds, the programmer for Immersive presentations at the Tribeca Film Festival. He has worked for the festival for ten years, programming films and eventually becoming programmer for the Virtual Arcade.

In the following Podtalk, Loren Hammonds provides a perspective on the current state of the immersive/VR experience, and the future for the application of this technology for audiences.

On PAGE TWO, Patrick McDonald reviews the Immersive/VR presentations he experienced at the 17th Tribeca Film Festival…