A Glimpse Into Tribeca Immersive

Tribeca is one of my favorite VR festivals. I’ve been there several times and have written about their amazing installations in the past. I was a bit sad knowing we wouldn’t be gathering in New York for the festival this year. However, by some lucky stroke of the coronavirus pandemic, I think I may have actually preferred watching the selection at my leisure in my living room.

If you haven’t checked out the Cinema360 curation yet on Oculus TV — you are in for a treat! Time to blast to the moon, shrink into a dollhouse, and inhabit other bodies!

Here are some of my favorites…

1st Step

If you’re looking for technical achievements, 1st Step is the one to watch. Incredibly high fidelity recreation of the Apollo mission to the moon, with beautiful CG renders mixed seamlessly with spot-on live action of the astronauts. Perfectly paced with excellent sound design, 1st Step is top of my list.

Home

Home is a truly experiential piece. It’s not really a story, more of a bittersweet feeling. Told all in one shot from a wheelchair, you are the matriarchal grandmother, tended to by her nurse, as the family comes to visit and lights up her senses. Nothing much happens, but it is point of view at its most effective — feeling something you can’t even put your finger on.

Attack on Daddy

Freakin. Hilarious. Donnie-Darko fun for the whole family. A father falls into a dollhouse full of killer bunnies, we as the audience shrink with him to see the comic-book style action unfold up close. Lots of different styles of shots, but sometimes interspersed a bit too liberally for my taste.

Rain Fruits

Rain Fruits stands out as the best scripted of the pieces. A tight story, with layers of story and metaphor represented in the voiceover and reflected within the visuals. Excellent use of different technologies, with the reflections of home in Myanmar beautifully done in Tiltbrush and the rough reality of Korea in loose point clouds.

A Safe Guide to Dying

**WARNING This starts out super graphic*** I love Meta VR experiences that reflect upon the nature of VR. A Safe Guide to Dying plays with the relationship between the corporeal and the spirit, casting the metaverse as a kind of purgatory. The video quality is excellent, shot on the YiHalo, and the cinematography and visual effects are simple, yet effective. The scenes with the computer UI didn’t work for me emotionally however. Somewhat reminiscent of Enter the Void — which shouldn’t surprise as both were created with IFC.

Tale of the Tibetan Nomad

A quirky take on the mystical nature of existence, this adaptation of Stan Lai’s play A Dream like A Dream is very well suited for VR, putting you in a dream like state. Creator Carol Liu shared with Berkely Art & Design: “The shepherd’s journey represents the essence of the idea of going through dreams within dreams in order to awaken. We can especially relate to this right now, given the state of the world we find ourselves in. When we reawaken and collectively reenter the world, how will we live our lives differently?”

Black Bag

Brilliantly choreographed mise-en-scene and camera movement elevates this stylistic 3D animation piece. We’re always at the right place — and pace — at the right time to see the action. Fast-paced and fun without nausea — that being said, I don’t get sick very easily. Generally, the problem with rendered 3D content is that it all looks somewhat similar, but using some smart rendering techniques, Black Bag takes on a different style, albeit somewhat inconsistently across the different scenes.

Lutaw

Lutaw is the plush, pretty Disney piece of the bunch — basically a scaled-down version of Moana. A beautiful, fresh take on VR for Good, tugging at the heartstrings without being tragic or showing victimhood. However, I couldn’t help but wonder- if kids in the Philippines have to swim to school now… where will they be with rising sea levels due to climate change?

Upstander

Upstander gets real about bullying. Starting out with a rather lighthearted tone — animated backpacks tend to set that mood — things turn dark when cyberbullying comes into this picture. A good reminder that it only takes one person — you- to save someone’s life and make it worth living.