Real World VR in partnership with MIFF Talks.

Virtual Reality returns to MIFF in 2018 to continue rewriting the frontiers of storytelling! Featuring a program of local and international narrative, documentary and animated experiential works, it’s time again to strap on a headset and prepare to experience the jaw-dropping potential of total immersive cinema.

Real World VR will host a series of panel talks with some of the most talented virtual reality filmmakers in Australia, featured at The Melbourne International Film Festival.

Panelists:

• Grant Scicluna – Writer-Director – 30 MINUTES OF DANGER
• Anton Andreacchio, Managing Director at Jumpgate VR – SUMMATION OF FORCE
• Nathan Anderson – COO & Executive Producer at Start VR – AWAKE
• Charles Henden – Technical Director – MIND AT WAR
• Virgina Kay – Producer PLOT Media – CARRIBERRIE
• Justin McCardle, co-founder at Frame VR – THALU-DREAMTIME IS NOW
• Gareth Lockett, Technical Director at Frame VR- THALU-DREAMTIME IS NOW

Moderated by Leah Bunny & Emily Harridge

Speaker: Kate Fitzpatrick from MIFF will provide an overview of the program at MIFF VR.

The night includes speakers, two panels of VR filmmakers, Q&A, networking and nibbles, Kaiju Beer specials, virtual reality film trailers from MIFF VR and curated VR works on Oculus Go headsets.

SPEAKER BIOS

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Anton Andreacchio,
Managing Director at Jumpgate VR – SUMMATION OF FORCE

Anton Andreacchio is the founder and managing director of Jumpgate VR.
Since 2014, Anton has produced VR works that have featured in film festivals around the world, including Sundance Film Festival and SxSW, and has led the growth of Jumpgate across a range of industries, from live-streaming AFL Matches in VR to using the technology for community engagement on mine sites in the Top End. Jumpgate has strategic business units dedicated to navigating the future value potential of experiential technologies across construction, mining, high performance training and entertainment, and sponsors the Adelaide Film Festival, Australian International Documentary Conference, Melbourne Internationall Film Festival, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and The Australian String Quartet.

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Grant Scicluna
Writer/Director – 30 MINUTES OF DANGER

Grant is the award-winning writer director of the VR Film 30 MINUTES OF DANGER, having its world premiere at MIFF 2018. He is also the director of Australian feature film DOWNRIVER. After its sell out Premiere season at MIFF, DOWNRIVER was selected for the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its release in Australian cinemas in early 2016.

Grant’s short films include HURT’S RESCUE, THE WILDING, NEON SKIN and GOLDEN GIRL. THE WILDING premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, won the world’s largest LGBT film award, the Iris Prize. NEON SKIN won the National Film and Sound Archive’s Orlando Award for Best Queer Australian Short in 2011. Grant is an active member of the Australian Writers’ Guild and the Australian Director’s Guild as he continues to develop a slate pf feature films and new media projects.

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Nathan Anderson
COO & Executive Producer, Start VR – AWAKE

Nathan Anderson’s duel expertise in film production and technology allow him a forward-looking approach to the evolving new media landscape. He brings a futurist mentality to the VR industry, embracing immersive technology as a tool for emotionally resonant narrative storytelling.

After beginning his career in the film industry, Nathan followed the dotcom explosion in the late 90s, making a transition into digital. He leveraged this tech startup background to dive into multiplatform digital development and transmedia content creation. Nathan has produced digital media content for all platforms, working with such top international brands and companies as Foxtel, Disney, Viacom, ABC, BBC and NBCUniversal.

Nathan is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America, and is also a participant and advisor to Screen Producers Australia. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has graduated with a Masters by Research exploring interactive narrative from the Australian Film TV and Radio School (AFTRS).

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Virgina Kay
Producer PLOT Media CARRIBERRIE 

Virginia is producer and managing director of YELLOW BRICK FILMS and Melbourne-based company PLOT MEDIA. 

Virginia Kay is a feature film producer. Virginia has produced four feature films across the US and Australia, including SUGAR MOUNTAIN (2015), THE LOOKALIKE (2014), BLINDER (2013), and MINE GAMES (2012). Virginia also line produced Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s, HAIL (2011). In addition, Virginia production managed all of the above mentioned films, as well as the horror/thriller feature CRAWLSPACE (2012), and romantic drama SUMMER CODA (2010).

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Charles Henden
Technical Director – MIND AT WAR

Charles Henden has been a software engineer and lead programmer in the entertainment industry for over ten years. His obsession in VR, AR and Mixed Reality platforms is the latest manifestation of his great passion in life: worlds within worlds. From a young age, Charles has been captivated with the hidden realm trapped inside his imagination and the many facets of the technology around him. Raised on a diet of equal parts entrepreneurship and film appreciation, he began to collect and probe the insides of cameras, guitars, televisions and eventually computers to find out where the magic was made.

His discovery of the video game landscapes hidden inside silicon ignited a spark that turned his fascination into creativity. Producing simple games to show school friends quickly turned into academic pursuits, with a masters degree in computer science connecting him to the field of immersive virtual environments. Entering the commercial world during the Nintendo Wii generation, Charles has shipped a diverse range of titles from movie licensed party games, through AAA franchise shooters to next gen sports simulations.

Charles has recently founded VISITOR, a studio that invites you to explore creative offerings in performance art, storytelling, organisational intelligence and automated cinematography. Since founding, he has has received a Sundance fellowship for work in the VR storytelling space, explored human robotic relationships performing 1:1 at Ars Electronica and released the award-winning VR documentary “Inside Manus”.

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Justin McCardle
Co-founder at Frame VR, Perth THALU – DREAMTIME IS NOW

Justin is a co-founder of Perth based Frame MR (www.framevr.co): a digital studio with a focus on Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality platforms. An ambitious and dynamic mid-career Producer and digital creative. Having first worked across a diverse slate of drama and factual production for the UK and international clients in TV, Film and Interactive. Work has included BAFTA®-nominated, GIFFONI award winning productions, including film and interactive productions and Thalu (MIFF VR).

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Gareth Lockett
Technical Director at Frame VR, Perth THALU – DREAMTIME IS NOW

Gareth is Technical Director at Frame VR, a Perth based virtual reality company developing exciting projects for entertainment and training. From 2005 until 2014, Gareth was the Technical Director at Raging Pixel Productions working on a wide variety of diverse and fascinating projects including TV commercials, planetarium and stereoscopic IMAX films, mobile phone content, mining visualisations, short animated films, documentaries, real time 3d projects, and feature film visual effects. Before joining Raging Pixel, Gareth headed up the 3D department at the Film and Television Institute (www.fti.asn.au). As department head, I not only delivered 3d training as part of the accredited Diploma of Screen (Animation) courses but also coordinated the Centre for Advanced Digital Screen Animation (CADSA)

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