The Immersive Wire - 5 September 2021 (Sunday edition)

SUNDAY READ EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday

// 5 September 2021

Updating the website!

can beat this fight scene.

A

nimation, video production, and interactive services

Let's talk about the immersive industry - but first, coffee

. I have a love/hate relationship with coffee. If you go to the right places, you can get some of the best brews that the brown beans can offer; aromatic Peruvian blends whose bitter taste dances on your tastebuds. Good coffee isn’t a necessity to power through the day, as greasy oil swilling in a rusted tank – it is a delight, and one to savour with friends.

On the other side, you can easily get bad coffee. The kind where the beans are all collected from different areas, and roasted together to get a confusing complexion of flavours, lacking identity and character. It is crude fuel, the kind to choke down with crusted bread as you run out of the front door, in too much of a rush to notice the aggressively bland flavour. So when you find good coffee, you remember and cling to it, as a reliable friend you can return to consistently. Meanwhile, you leave the terrible grounds in the cupboard, advising friends to leave it untouched.

The parallels between the immersive community and finding coffee are surprisingly similar.

You have some good professionals out there – the kind of trusted voices that read beyond the article headlines, talk to the doers of the world rather than the talkers, and help to push the industry forward. They are the hard-workers who stalk the web and actively collaborate and contribute to the expansion of everyone. Then you get the junk of the froth, the sticky residue that clings to professional circles and pours rancid views into the pool of viewpoints on the internet. The views of the charlatans are all fat but no substance, the hydrogenated fat of thought leadership.

Twitter is unmatched for finding experts in all the niches you can want

, but the trouble is that they are bundled among many who have no idea what they are talking about. Global politicians vie for attention alongside angry eggs who are still talking about Brexit; world-class scientists stand alongside anti-vaxxers sharing cat pictures; and people building the future of VR/AR are dwarfed by hollow mouthpieces who parrot their views. No curation, only an algorithm that prioritises hate over nuance, black and white over grey, and justice over discussion.

With the hefty headwinds, it is important to keep a critical eye on everything on social media

while holding tight the actual experts you trust. Not the self-assigned thought leaders who cram keywords into SEO articles and rearrange the words like kids with letter bricks. Actual experts who work in the industry and use their calloused hands to guide people to a better understanding of the world.

An extended chapter on this will appear in The Immersive Reality Revelation (book title pending), coming later this year. Keep an eye on this newsletter for further updates.

Mark Zuckerberg when he hears he will be mentioned in my book, or someone offered him a steak. One is more likely than the other. Photo credit: Giphy.

Xpanse is a virtual 3D online streamed product, providing global usage with game-like freedom of movement. Features include:

• View, engage and interact with 3D products;

• Accessed via the web, globally;

• Fully customisable;

• Access from any device;

• Virtual and hybrid event features;

Find out more:

xpanse.co.uk

Marinda Botha, Actress, voice over artist, puppeteer and lecturer. One of five actors performing in The MetaMovie Project: Alien Rescue.

Jason Moore, Creator of The MetaMovie Project. Cross-platform writer, producer and director.

What is your background?

Marinda: 12+ years Lecturer at a film school in South Africa. Theatre-trained actress, marionette artist, and clown (seriously). 20+ years voice-over artist. VR performer for 2 years. MA degree in English Studies: Storytelling in VR.

Jason: BFA in Theater Arts and MFA in Film Directing, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. 20+ years as a freelance director of theatre, film, television, and commercials. I have been working in VR for five years and on the MetaMovie project for four years. Alien Rescue is my third MetaMovie, and it was invited to perform at last year’s Venice International Film Festival where it won a Special Mention from the FanHeart3 Awards. I’m also an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. What are you working on, and what’s a key learning that you’ve had from it? Marinda: As a performer in VR I’ve had to learn how to adapt acting techniques applied in traditional forms of entertainment, ie. For film and TV, to fit with this emerging medium of live, immersive VR entertainment. The technical learning curve wasn’t too steep, though it certainly holds its own challenges. We are really still working at the bleeding edge of this new medium of storytelling, so it’s a constant challenge to pivot, learn and navigate these changes and improvements. Jason: I have been working on fulfilling a lifelong dream of not just watching a movie, but experiencing it, from inside the world of the story, for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a kid and saw Star Wars for the first time, I’ve wanted to be right there with Luke, in the cockpit of the Falcon, blasting away at Tie Fighters and high-fiving Han Solo. When I discovered the power of immersive VR I was certain this technology would allow me to realize that dream. By combining areas of my own expertise: live theatre, cinema, role-playing, and video games, I’ve created The MetaMovie Project. This multi-year research and performance project has allowed me to test and refine best practices for telling live, immersive stories in VR. It has been a highly rewarding creative and intellectual journey, and what I have learned could fill a book. One key learning is that audiences absolutely love being ‘inside’ movies, but since the state of VR in 2021 is still in a development mode, there are still many challenges that creators and audiences alike must face in order to make things like a MetaMovie a reality. If you had to give one piece of advice, what would you give?

Marinda: Get your hands on a VR headset and start exploring VR worlds, attend events and meet people. It is the only way to learn about the medium, by engaging with it, to become immersed in it. As far as acting skills go, receiving some actor training at your local theatre or college, whatever is available in your area, will be worth its weight in gold. Even though we work in a new digital, medium much of the basic tools of performance transfer directly to VR. It is storytelling!

Jason: It depends on whom I am advising. For audiences, I advise them to try out VR for themselves so they can discover the magic and wonder of this tech technology. It is profound and life-changing for many of us. For creators who want to tell stories and want those stories to be immersive, I would say explore VR because these tools allow us to tell our stories in very powerful ways.

For more information on The MetaMovie Project, check it out here.

Jobs boardVR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER (Unity3D, C#), London. Valkyrie Industries, an early stage haptics start-up, is looking for a talented and experienced Unity3D developer with a passion for VR to join the R&D team. You'll be involved throughout the development cycle and must be able to evaluate new technologies, develop new experiences from scratch and optimise existing projects. Click here for more. FULL STACK DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Software Engineer with 4+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (Node.js), remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR DEVELOPER (VUE.JS), remote Position. Looking for an experienced JavaScript developer who is highly skilled with Vue.js. You will be joining our Web development team to develop and enhance customer facing Web Applications, where you will be responsible for following best practices to produce modular and maintainable code. Click here for more. QA LEAD, remote positions available. Looking for a competent QA Lead with 2+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated QA Team in Waterford. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY GAME DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Unity Developer to join our team with 5+ years industry experience. The talented individual must have vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more.  SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER, remote position. Looking for a competent Product Owner. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UI DESIGNER, remote position. Looking for a competent UI Designer. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UX DESIGNER, remote position. Are you looking for a unique challenge working in virtual & augmented reality with a bleeding-edge technology company? Then read on. Click here for more.ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA, UK. We are looking to appoint a dynamic and adaptable course director for our BA (Hons) in Digital Media to lead and deliver teaching, learning and assessment on the BA Digital Media and steer its next phase of growth. As well as a track record of academic leadership you will have extensive practical experience in digital media such as immersive storytelling (AR/VR/XR), modelling and animation, creative media design / production, or web / mobile app design and development. Click here for more.SENIOR IMMERSIVE LEARNING DESIGNER, UK. Make Real is looking to expand our digital learning team with a Senior Immersive Learning Designer. Your role will be to consult with clients in order to create exciting and imaginative design solutions. Your designs will affect behaviour change in order to deliver on specific learning outcomes, while being achievable within a set budget and timeline. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY DEVELOPER, UK. As a growing and exciting business, we are looking for full-time talented multi-disciplinary Unity developers to join our expert team in central Brighton. Our ideal candidates will have a broad range of technical experience with a proven track record of delivering interactive Virtual & Augmented Reality projects across a range of HMD & mobile hardware. Working as part of our existing team of designers and artists, the roles will primarily involve the delivery of VR/AR projects for our global clients. Click here for more. EU ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE. Avatour is the remote collaboration platform for site meetings. Our cloud service enables full-motion 360° real-time communication, experienced via a web browser or optional VR headset. We are looking for an Account Executive to expand the Avatour business in the European Union. You’ll be initially our only salesperson in the EU, and directly responsible for the expansion and preservation of our customer base in the region. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success selling an Enterprise SaaS product, and experience in customer success as well. Click here for more.BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for three full-time B2B Sales Managers who are excited about technology advancements, and able to sell to CxO/Director level within enterprise accounts. Click here for more. HEAD OF MARKETING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Head of Marketing capable of taking VRtuoso to the next level. We’re looking to make the leap to working with enterprise level companies at scale and we hope you’re the one to help us accomplish this. Click here for more. CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Channel Sales Manager to lead the channel and reseller programmes. The role is primarily responsible for onboarding new partners, serving as the primary liaison for new partners, growing the sales of existing partners, and assisting with sales/marketing initiatives for our reseller channel as a whole. Click here for more. DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering department and help us build, deliver, and maintain the leading VRtuoso Virtual Reality products for the enterprise market. Click here for more. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

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That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!