China's first immersive media festival offers a vision of a future where mixed reality will be an integral part of our lives, reports Li Yingxue.

"The future of immersive media lies in the world of mixed reality, where devices become more logical, nimble and ubiquitous," said Paramount Pictures' Ted Schilowitz. "The next wave will be ... with you all the time, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed."

As the movie giant's first futurist in residence, Schilowitz was setting out his vision for the future of the virtual reality industry at the opening of the Sandbox Immersive Festival on June 25.

Audiences watch VR films at the recent Sandbox Immersive Festival, China's first immersive media festival, in Qingdao, Shandong province in June. Photos Provided to China Daily

He was addressing more than 500 creators and professionals, technology experts, artists and distributors from every sector of the global immersive media industry, who had gathered for the event in Shandong province's capital Qingdao, China's first UNESCO Creative City of Film.

As China's first immersive media festival, Sandbox was set up to promote the immersive and interactive media arts - virtual and mixed reality, immersive theater and the arts, and location-based immersive entertainment - by screening over 40 VR works from all around the world.

Workshops on immersive storytelling, experience, design and art, and illustration were held at the event, followed by forums about immersive storytelling, technology and entertainment.

Event director Lou Yanxin says the aim is to build Sandbox into an international platform to allow various fields of the VR industry to come together and move this emerging medium forward.

"The VR industry has a long chain, where we not only need to focus on developing the latest technologies, but also to explore creating new content," says Lou. "We also need to build effective distribution channels."

The Sandbox awards ceremony was held on the night of June 26. As head of the jury, Schilowitz announced that The Day the World Changed, a VR work from the United States directed by Gabo Arora and Saschka Unseld had won the grand jury prize.

Produced by startup studio Tomorrow Never Knows in partnership with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, The Day the World Changed brings to life the harrowing experiences of the victims and survivors of the atomic bombings and nuclear arms tests through firsthand testimonies, data visualizations and the innovative use of 3D scanning and photogrammetry.

A work by Pinta Studios, Shennong: Taste of Illusion, picked up the award for best Chinese VR. The 12-minute film tells the story of the Chinese legendary figure Shennong, or "divine farmer", who explores a forest deep in a valley to collect unknown plants and sample their tastes and effects.

A glamorous flower seduces Shennong and poisons him as he tastes its petals. The visual effects allow the audience to become immersed in the illusion along with Shennong as the flower turns into a mythical beast that ends up torching Shennong to death.

The story is based on Shennong, also known as the "father of Chinese herbal medicine", who made it his life's work to sample hundreds of different kinds of herbs and record their characteristics, including their toxicity and medicinal properties.

Lei Zhengmeng, CEO of Pinta Studios, says his team wanted to bring the legend of Shennong to life, since most people had heard stories about him but had no idea what he looked like.

"We envisioned Shennong as a middle-aged man who is familiar with the forest," says Lei. "And we follow him into different layers of illusions through the seven-part story."

"Writing a VR script is different from writing a film script, as we have to abandon the use of the lens, and think of it more as a play in several acts," Lei says.

Shennong: Taste of Illusion is Pinta's second work. Last year, their first 11-minute VR film, The Dream Collector, was screened at the Venice Film Festival.

Lei says his team is focusing on reproducing classical legends as seen from the perspective of the younger generation, because "most of our team of 28 were born after the mid-1990s."

Lou is also the founder of Sandman Studios which screened its VR film Free Whale in Venice last year. He realized then that the best works of VR are only shown at film festivals, which was the reason why he decided to set up a similar event in China.

According to Lou, after SIF, some of the VR works will be presented during a nationwide roadshow using international curators. The second SIF event will be held from June 22 to June 30 in Qingdao next year, when more time will be devoted to forums and the showcasing of VR films.

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(China Daily 07/05/2018 page19)