One platform at a time
SONAR has been around for a while. Some people might remember it from Oculus Share or our website in 2014. Some of you saw it at Sundance or other festivals / conferences / VR cinemas and even more people installed the GearVR app in 2016 or bought it on Daydream and Steam the year after.
In total, more than 250.000 people watched our sci-fi short film, a student experiment created at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg and inspired by our favorite movies, ESA’s Rosetta mission and the mesmerizing sculptures of Auguste Rodin. It wasn’t even our intention to create a VR experience in the beginning. But when we got our hands on the Oculus DK1, the lack of cinematic content for it convinced us otherwise.
On April 5th, SONAR will be released on the Oculus Store. Four years after starting out on this journey into the unknown.
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1642935482491477/
It’s super exciting! Not because of high expectations regarding sales and user numbers, but because it feels a bit like coming home. After having experienced the evolution of Oculus headsets and how the industry evolved over the years, ever chasing after the next buzzword, it’s incredibly satisfying that something like SONAR, a ‘360 video’ still has a place among AAA titles and social VR apps.
The longevity and consistency of what I believe is a solid story structure and comfortable pacing is something I never expected. A lot of work went into the different versions, technical upgrades and apps of the movie. But the creative decisions during core production are what make it stand out. We had to find new cinematic ways to guide the audience and create a sense of immersion without stereoscopic depth cues, without spatial audio, without 6DOF or hand-presence. It was pure 360 storytelling through cinematography, editing and the environments. Everything else came after.
The release on Rift this week certainly marks another big milestone for this project. But I’ve been wrong in the past assuming it’s the end of the road. If I’ve learned anything, it’s worth improving, promoting and pushing a project as long as you can, especially in an emerging market with rapidly changing technologies.
Of course I’m looking forward to see some sales numbers on Rift.
As low as they might be without proper marketing and the current state of the VR industry, it will help to adjust expectations and the scope of future projects.
So, what’s next?
I’m happy to announce that I’m working on a new project, called MIRAGE.
It’s is going to be a cinematic horror-adventure set in a mysterious desert and targeted for release on mobile, standalone and desktop devices in 2019.
If I don’t keep ‘wasting’ time by bringing SONAR somehow to PSVR, Windows Store, Viveport, Oculus Go… I will resume work on the prototype after I graduate from film school next week.
The project is seeking funding and collaborators, mainly VR artists and Unity devs. I might do a Kickstarter later this year, so please get in touch or stay tuned.
If you are interested, feel free to add me on twitter @phili_maas or subscribe here to receive the occasional update and get access to a very early teaser and the pitch deck for MIRAGE.
Thanks for reading!
Big thanks goes to Dominik Stockhausen co-director of SONAR and Alexander Maas from Audiocabin, composer of the epic score and initial sound designer.
I got lots of help over the years: Ana Monte & Daniel Deboy from DELTA Soundworks revamped the sound design and created a spatial audio mix. Support from our film school Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Regina Welker, Verena Fels, Volker Helzle, Sigrid Gairing and lots of others! Also Nils Zweiling helped with the first version of our GearVR App and Janina Putzker created our awesome movie poster!
And last but not least a quick shout out to my friends and colleagues at Oculus Story Studio, with whom I was fortunate enough to spent the most exciting time in my life so far. Thank you!
