Daily Archives: February 11, 2017

Opening night red carpet gala

When: 8 p.m. March 2

Where: Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St.

Cost: $50, free for passholders

Pre-party: 5:30-7:30 p.m.at Hotel Boulderado and Rembrandt Yard

Screening: "Their Finest" (2016, United Kingdom, 116 minutes), a rousing romantic comedy following a female screenwriter during World War II, starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Clatlin and Bill Nighy.

Closing night

When: 7:30 p.m. March 5

Where: Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St.

Cost: $30, free for passholders

Screening: "Chasing Coral" (2017, Boulder 93 minutes), fresh from winning an audience award at Sundance, BIFF's closing night film follows a team of divers, photographers and scientists on an ocean adventure to discover why coral reefs are vanishing around the world. Directed by Boulder's Jeff Orlowski; produced by Longmont's Larissa Rhodes

More information at biff1.com

A truck delivering the Boulder International Film Festival's programs may have severed the power to the festival's office on Friday, but co-founder and director Kathy Beeck's excitement in sharing the 2017 lineup and details for the March festival far outweighed her tinge of concern.

New this year, BIFF will expand its boundaries beyond the real world with its Virtual Reality Pavilion.

"It is going to be pretty cool," Beeck said. "We'll have eight virtual reality films screening at Galvanize, and we'll have a whole variety of different headsets from very high tech to cardboard ones."

Boulder technical school and co-working space Galvanize, 1023 Walnut St., will be one venue the festival will utilize for its programming. Over the long weekend, films will be screened at various spots in Boulder and Longmont.

The Virtual Reality Pavilion will be free and open to the public March 3 and 4, and will have Google's Nicholas Whitaker on hand to moderate a few of the talks, Beeck said.

"Swing by, put on a headset and learn about the future of storytelling," Beeck said.

BIFF will screen 58 films, three of which are Sundance Film Festival award-winning films and four are nominated for Academy Awards. And 23 of these films were directed by females, Beeck said. The popular shorts programs, which Beeck said are always the first to sell out, expanded to include four different programs this year.

"We are so excited about this year's program," said BIFF executive director Robin Beeck, Kathy's sister, in a news release. "This is a stellar lineup with award-winning films from the world's greatest directors and from fresh, new filmmakers just hitting the scene. We're thrilled to be able to present a feast of the best films today."

Robin and Kathy Beeck, the two sisters who run and founded the Boulder International Film Festival. (Courtesy photo)

Kathy Beeck said there will be eight Colorado films screened and she realized during the interview that all eight of those local filmmakers are from Boulder.

"That just tells us something about how much is happening in film in Boulder," Kathy Beeck said. "We are so proud of the major filmmakers in this town."

Among Boulder highlights is the closing night film "Chasing Coral," a documentary produced by a local company that just won the Audience Award for best U.S. documentary at Sundance.

Boulder filmmaker Jeff Orlowski and Longmont producer Larissa Rhodes, the team behind "Chasing Coral," also produced "Chasing Ice," the 2012 Emmy award-winning documentary on climate change.

"Chasing Coral" explores the danger the world's coral reefs face amid global warming. A local team of filmmakers (with many University of Colorado graduates, Rhodes said in an interview last month) from Boulder's Exposure Labs created the documentary.

Kathy Beeck said festival-goers can also see "Chasing Coral, the Virtual Reality Experience" premiere at Galvanize.

Other highlights:

"Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back," (4:30 p.m. March 3) produced by Boulderite Maura Axelrod, about contemporary pop artist Maurizio Cattelan, which Kathy Beeck said is "a fabulous movie, really well done."

"Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World" (7 p.m. March 3), is a film about the role of Native Americans and indigenous influence in popular music history. "It goes back into history in the film, and it's so stunning to realize that Jimi Hendrix and Robbie Robertson (The Band) have Native American heritage," Beeck said. "Tony Bennett is in the film talking about his early influences."

Cinechef 2017 (5-7 p.m. March 3) at Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery and Event Center, 1301 Spruce St., is in its third year as a part of BIFF and will feature eight of the best chefs in town, Kathy Beeck said. "It's a foodie event that highlights the spectacular food scene in Boulder while we highlight Boulder filmmakers," she said. "I'm loving this event."

The festival runs March 2 through 5 and tickets are on sale at biff1.com.

Christy Fantz: 303-473-1107, fantz@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/fantzypants

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Boulder International Film Festival diving into virtual reality with 2017 slate - Boulder Daily Camera

Wichita Eagle

Wichita-created virtual reality can re-create crime scenes Wichita Eagle They introduced him to what they say is the biggest virtual reality cave in the world. It is 39 feet long, big enough to hold the interior of a virtual business jet. Klamm's mind started racing about how he could use the cave with crime scene scans ... and more »

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Wichita-created virtual reality can re-create crime scenes - Wichita Eagle

Sun-News Reports , . 10:29 p.m. MT Feb. 10, 2017

Dona Ana Community College virtual reality faculty and students unpack virtual reality equipment from VR First(Photo: Stephen Osborne)

LAS CRUCES This spring DACC students will take a space flight and learn aerospace fundamentals in a Virtual Reality environment.

Doa Ana Community College and Aerospace innovators Virgin Galactic have announced an exciting collaborative education and outreach research project. The core idea will be to work and learn together, exploring the newest technologies and possible uses of VR in research, education, business, and career technical education.

Our students and instructors are pleased and honored to work with Virgin Galactic on this exciting initiative, said Matt Byrnes, DACC Creative Media Technology Director. Thanks to Dr. Kevin Boberg, Vice President of Economic Development for the New Mexico State University Arrowhead Business and Research Park and Wayne Savage of Arrowhead Center for helping this collaboration take place.

The program will start with a VR simulation that explains core concepts of aerospace fundamentals and gives students, particularly at the Las Cruces Public Schools Challenger Center, an immersive virtual spaceflight experience.

Many people are familiar with the term virtual reality but are unsure about the uses of this technology, Byrnes said. Gaming is an obvious virtual reality application, but there are many different uses, some you might expect and others not so much.

Irrespective of the use, virtual reality produces a set of data which could then be used to develop new models, training methods, communication and interaction, said Mark Butler of Virgin Galactic. In many ways the possibilities are endless.

In September, 2016 DACC became one of only 24 VR First partner institutions worldwide, sponsored by the German game engine development firm Crytek and was awarded several thousand dollars of the newest hardware and software giving DACC students access to the latest VR development tools.

According to Byrnes, This kind of collaboration between the private and public sectors and between technology companies and the creative media arts is central to efforts to develop the larger Creative Campus efforts at Arrowhead Park and build a larger toolset to positively impact not only Aerospace but Healthcare, Agricultural Technology and other industries growing in our community.

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DACC & Virgin Galactic team up to explore virtual reality - Las Cruces Sun-News

Virtual reality is slowly making its way into consumer homes all over the world. Whether it is through gaming or on the smartphone, it is virtually impossible to picture the future in which virtual reality will not play a significant role in moving forward. Using a smartphone, virtually everyone can experience VR wherever they go. Considering the number of mobile apps continues to grow, so will the number of users playing around with virtual reality.

One often heard complaint about virtual reality is how users suffer from motion sickness after a while. Those who do not suffer from this problem may want to check out Hang Gliding on Android. Users will be gliding through the Alpine landscape from the point of view of a hang glider. A rather intriguing app for mobile users, although your mileage may vary. It may take a while to get used to the controls within the app, though.

As one would come to expect, Googles app for the VR industry is firing on all cylinders. Google Cardboard is available for both Android and IOSand allows users to explore Google Earth in virtual reality. In fact, the app even has its own mini app store where now VR-based features and tools are introduced nearly every week. It is well worth checking out, even by people who do not have a Google Cardboard headset.

One of the primary ways consumers will explore virtual reality on a mobile device is to consume new types of content in a different manner. VRSE also found under the Within name is a free application for both Android and iOS which allows users to watch music videos, short movies, and documentaries in virtual reality. Although it is unclear how successful such an app will be in the long run, it is worth keeping an eye on for sure.

Jaunt is very similar to VRSE / Within, albeit its available content is slightly different compared to the other app. There is a mix of entertainment videos, short films, and live music performances. One can even see an ABC news report in virtual reality, although it remains to be seen how appealing this offering is. It is a free app, though, which means it is always worth checking out.

One of the more intriguing apps to hit the Google Play Store is called Go Show. Although this app is only a facilitator to improve the way we consume content, it allows users to view 2D and 3D movies in a true theatrical setting. Simply kick back, relax, and watch the content play out on the big screen. Keep in mind your video will need to be in mp4 format, as that is the only file extension Go Show can handle right now.

Virtual reality seems to be designed to creep people out as they play a video game. Sisters fits this category quite well, as the first-person ghost story lets players explore a haunted mansion. Interacting with various objects will trigger different events, all of which build up the suspense as one immerses himself in virtual reality. It may not be the scariest game to play, but it is a great example of what VR is capable of.

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Top 6 Virtual Reality Apps for Your Smartphone - The Merkle

Hospital inpatients could soon be given a different type of prescription to manage their acute and chronic pain a healthy dose of virtual reality (VR).

Speaking at the Pacific Design and Manufacturing show, Dr. Vartan Tashjian, an internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Josh Sackman, president and co-founder of AppliedVR, a Los Angeles-based VR company, talked about their research into the patient care benefits of VR. Their recent work points to the potential of using VR as a viable alternative to drug-based treatments.

A hospital room is not for comfort. They're for suffering, and patients are trapped there, Tashjian told the audience. We thought what a wonderful thing it would be to bring VR to the bedside to take our patients to fantastic destinations.

Tashjian provided some anecdotal evidence in the form of a video of a sickle cell anemia patient, hospitalized for over 100 days, seeming to forget all about his condition when exposed to a VR experience (roaming a photorealistic nature environment). I've been practicing medicine for a couple of years and there's not much that I can do that provides relief to patient that rapidly and that profoundly, Tashjian said of the video.

But Cedars-Sinai and AppliedVRhave also done research to back up these claims. In a study outlined by Tashjian, a group of patients exposed to VR showed a larger reduction in pain, and were more likely to experience a reduction in pain than a control group that was exposed to television for the same amount of time.

The researchers asked patients to report their pain on a scale of one to 10 (10 being the highest). They were then asked to put on a Samsung Gear VR headset and explore a 360-degree animated nature environment for six minutes. The control group watched a natural channel on TV for six minutes.

At the end of the study 40% of the TV group reported a reduction in pain after the experience. By contrast 65% of the VR group reported pain reduction. People watching TV had a reduction in pain, but when you compare that to VR there's no competition, Tashjian said. VR has a very unique style of decreasing someone's pain.

The VR treatment also scored a low number-needed-to-treat (or NNT) of four. The NNT measures the of the impact of a drug or therapy by estimating the number of patients that need to be treated in order for one person to be impacted. For drugs like morphine the NNT is more like 50, Tashjian said.

He added that the experience doesn't have to be limited to computer-generated environments either. Thanks to devices like the Samsung Gear 360 camera, patients can also have real environments streamed to them in VR and even speak remotely with people.

He also cautioned that VR is not a one-size-fits-all solution. VR is not for everyone. Why? Because a lot of people come into the hospital that have headaches, nasea, vomiting, seizures, trauma

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Virtual Reality Could Be Your Next Prescription - DesignNews

Gabe Newell welcomes the crowd at The International in 2016. (GeekWire)

Valve has been teasing virtual reality games since last year, but on Friday the Bellevue-based company finally gave details about whats in store.

Dont get your hopes up: the details are still vague (theres no timeline on when to expect them), but founder Gabe Newell did confirm to Eurogamer that Valve is building three VR games. The company isnt just putting its toes in the VR pool, either; its diving right in.

When I say were building three games, were building threefull games, not experiments, Newell said at a media roundtable.

At Valves Dota 2 tournament in August, Newell said he was spending most of his time working on VR technology. Newell encouraged fans to demo some of Valves VR games at the tournament, asking them to email him with feedback.

Valves current work, however, doesnt look like its repackaging the companies existing games into VR. Speaking to the press, Newell said there was absolutely nothing compelling about running old games on a new system.

VR is not going to be a success at all if people are just taking existing content and putting it into a VR space,he said.

The three new games will be built on both Source 2 and Unity, and Newell said the company is designing the hardware at the same time that its designing software. By working on them simultaneously, Newell hopes Valve will be able to build better games. He compared the strategy to that of famous Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamotos Nintendo reshaped the world of gaming, and Newell believes VR will have the same influence.

It feels like weve been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a really long time and that the opportunities to build much more interesting kinds of experiences for gamers were there, we just need to sort of expand what we can do, Valves CEO said. But its not about being in hardware, its about building better games. Its about taking bigger leaps forward with the kinds of games that we can do.

Founded in 1996 by former Microsofties Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve has grown into an absolute powerhouse in the gaming industry, powered in part by it Steam gaming platform. Based in Bellevue, Valve is said to be valued at upwards of $4 billion.

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Valve is working on three new virtual reality games, 'not just experiments' - GeekWire

Sarah Shahi will star in NBCs drama pilot Reverie,Variety has learned.

Reverie is a grounded, dramatic thriller about a former detective specializing in human behavior who is brought in when the launch of an advanced virtual reality program has dangerous and unintended consequences.

Shahi will play Mara, a very intelligentcollege professor who is trained with the FBI in counter terrorism. Though shes a natural leader, her own psyche is still deeply pained and troubled by an incident in her past, leaving her to privately self medicate away her sleepless nights. Mara is intrigued when her old boss, Charlie Ventanaana (yet to be cast), brings her onto a strange project called Reverie, a fully immersive, customizable virtual reality program thats so effective that several of its users have refused to come back to reality, entering instead life-threatening comas. As Mara takes on the challenge of entering another persons consciousness to negotiate their journey back to their own reality, she discovers that she may also have found a way to her own redemption.

Reverie hails from writer Mickey Fisher, the creator of Halle Berrys former CBS series Extant. Fisher will serve as executive producer with Justin Falvey and Daryl Frank of Amblin TV, and Brooklyn Weaver. Universal Television is the studio.

Shahi has been in demand the past couple of pilot seasons and has courted a few offers this cycle. Last season, she was cast in the title role of the Nancy Drew pilotat CBS, which was intended to be a more diverse spin on the classic detective character the pilot ultimately did not go to series, causing quite a stir when it was rumored to be too female to land the greenlit atthe network.

Prior, Shahi starred on Person of Interest at CBS, USAs Fairly Legal, Showtimes The L Word and recurred on NBCs Chicago Fire. She is repped by CAA, McKeon-Myones and attorney Neil Meyer.

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Sarah Shahi to Star in NBC Virtual Reality Thriller 'Reverie' - Variety