My journey into the Oculus Launch Pad — Week #5 and exciting news!
We are on week 5 already! I’d like to start this week’s update with an important personal announcement...
Drum roll
If you’ve been following me for a while, you may know that my web show, a VR journey, is my passion project, but that I have also been looking for a more stable job in parallel. Well, the search is over. I have finally landed not just one job, but two. One was a product management role in a very promising, fast-growing VR startup with a super friendly and skilled team. Very tempting. But the other job was actually my dream job! So I’m delighted to share that I have accepted an offer to join Facebook as a product manager! I am very excited!
Unfortunately, as a new Facebook employee, I am no longer eligible for funding through the Oculus Launch Pad (since Oculus is part of Facebook). Thankfully, I remain part of the Oculus Launch Pad community and still benefit from the support of the amazing Oculus team. Therefore I have decided to continue working on my project, Capoeira World VR, and finalize my prototype. I am also going to try and stick to the weekly developer blog posts (and vlog!), as I really enjoy writing those. I am going on vacation in a month and will start my new job in about two months. That should leave me time to wrap things up.
You may wonder what I will be doing at Facebook and I can’t blame you — I do too! Facebook typically hire product managers for their PM skill set and not necessary with a specific role in mind. Then there is a match making process to find a relevant team for each new PM. In that context, I am having conversations with various teams to find a good fit, both for myself and for the team. My passions being AR, VR and 360 content, I have high hopes to land a role in one of the teams focusing on immersive technologies. I was on the Facebook campus twice this week for conversations with potential teams.
What’s new this week
As a result, I have been busier than anticipated and haven’t spent as much time as I thought on the Launch Pad project this week. Here is the progress I can report.
I played with my new Samsung Gear VR and controller. I finally took the time to set it up with my new Samsung Galaxy S7 and explore some of the content available for Gear VR on the Oculus mobile platform. This helps me find inspiration for my own content. Of course, I filmed the unboxing and will share it as soon as I am done editing the video.
I also received the gear I had ordered last week: a Zoom H2n microphone and a light stand, to use as a tripod.
This week, all Launch Pad participants had the opportunity to attend a video conference with Eric Cheng, Head of Immersive Media at Facebook. It was a very informative session. One of the things Eric touched on was accessories for 360 films. He recommended the Zoom H2n as a good, affordable, microphone for spatial audio, so it sounds like I made a good choice! He also recommended using a light stand to shoot 360 video, but his favorite one was a bit too pricey for me ($80 vs $20 for mine).
What’s the plan for next week
I still need to start on post-production for all the 360 footage I have already captured: organize my files, stitch the 360 videos and start editing. I am a little scared of this step as I suspect my current laptop may not be up for the job. I haven’t budgeted for a new machine but it may be time for me to upgrade. Let’s see.
I am planning to attend an online conference called Virtual Reality Games & Entertainment Extravaganza. I have doubts about my ability to focus on online talks for more than 30 minutes, but it’s completely free and there are some really interesting sessions. Here are a few I have bookmarked:
- “360 Video Today and Tomorrow”. A Panel Discussion with: Adam Dubov, CCO, Zeality and Richard Ollier, CEO, Giroptic
- “The Mobile AR Platform War”. A Presentation by Tim Merel, Managing Director, Digi-Capital
- “The Future of Social VR”. A Special Panel Discussion Hosted in AltspaceVR with: Bruce Wooden, Co-Founder & Head of Experience, AltspaceVR
I also expect to go to Facebook HQ again for more team exploration.
Exciting times! And equally busy!
