New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Los Angeles startup ARwall and immersive entertainment studio Clever Fox invite Park City audiences to help create What We Leave Behind, an augmented reality collaborative storytelling experience at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival. The experience places participants in breathtaking environments while concealing their identities with facial replacement technology. Participants can then record personal, anonymous, stories of anxiety and hope in the digital age. These stories will be archived online at https://www.whatweleavebehind.life for a larger audience to connect with.
What We Leave Behind: We curate our digital life and hide behind it like a mask; a wall that separate us from each other. As we balance on the edge of a tipping point between a brave new world and social, economic and environmental disaster we invite you to enter an alternate reality where you're free to share your hopes and fears for the future. We give you a new face and the freedom to say the things you can't. What We Leave Behind is a collaborative storytelling experience using AR technology. Your story is collected online to inspire others. Presented with immersive visuals by Dekker Dreyer and a score from Cyr3n, What We Leave Behind is powered by ARwall and Clever Fox.
The technology for What We Leave Behind comes from both ARwall and Clever Fox. ARwall has created an AR display that requires no headset, no goggles, no smart device. Their first product is an alternative to green screen workflow used in VFX for film & TV. Their second product, AR3D, allows users to interact with VR and AR experiences on any screen. They envision a future that bridges the worlds of AR and VFX, where you can peer through a "window illusion" and interact seamlessly with the virtual world. Clever Fox developed an in-house facial replacement system that works in real-time via a DSLR camera system for the project
"ARwall is thrilled to participate in this groundbreaking project at Slamdance. We are always looking for new collaborations that blur the lines between filmmaking, VFX, and augmented reality. What We Leave Behind will show festival goers firsthand how AR can be used by filmmakers to create visually stunning content in ways that have never before been attempted. We truly believe AR will play a strong part in the future of filmmaking and we're immensely proud that Slamdance attendees will be among the first group of people to see our pioneering new technology," says ARwall CMO, Eric Navarrette
The experience and visuals were conceived by artist Dekker Dreyer who MovieMaker Magazine recently called a VR Pioneer. His directing work in immersive media includes the first two 360 degree documentaries from Participant Media (producers of Spotlight, The Help, and An Inconvenient Truth) in 2015 and extends to more recent experiences like Warp Chase, which was licensed exclusively to
Digital Domain and the retro horror augmented reality event The Summoning which debuted to a weekend crowd of over fifteen thousand at the LA Convention center this past August. As a producer his work includes the VR experience for Disturbed's smash hit The Sound of Silence. The score is composed by his long-time collaborator Cyr3n (Julia Howe).
"This is such an important project to me. We feel so isolated sometimes. We're afraid to express ourselves because of what the comments will say or what we imagine our colleagues or friends will think of us. Creating this alternate reality / identity where we can tell our stories in a visually powerful environment is liberating. I'm humbled to be able to help bring this experience to the Slamdance Film Festival. It's the first time I've ever heard of a project being created during a festival with the participation of both audiences and filmmakers. Slamdance is an incredible creative community and I can't wait to see how they bring this project to life," says Dreyer.
What We Leave Behind will be featured daily at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival from January 19th - 21st in the Treasure Mountain Inn.
ABOUT ARWALL
ARwall is working on the next evolution of digital filmmaking. Its team of filmmakers, VFX artists, and AR developers bridge the worlds of VFX and VR/AR. They're looking to connect with filmmakers, cinematographers, production designers, and CG technical artists in Los Angeles.
ABOUT CLEVER FOX
Clever Fox is an immersive entertainment studio that works for major studios and brands to develop compelling content that combines technology and storytelling. https://www.cleverfox.media
ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.
Over 100 Slamdance alums are responsible for the programming and organization of the festival. With a variety of backgrounds, interests, and talents, but with no individual filmmaker's vote meaning more than any others, Slamdance's programming and organizing committees have been able to stay close to the heart of low budget and do-it-yourself filmmaking. In this way, Slamdance continues to grow and exemplify its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers.
The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 19-25 in Park City, Utah.
Earlier this Fall, critically acclaimed directors and Slamdance alumni Anthony and Joe Russo, The Russo Brothers, announced the presentation of the inaugural Russo Brothers Fellowship to be presented to a Slamdance filmmaker at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival. Anthony and Joe will select one filmmaker, who will receive a $25,000 prize consisting of filmmaker support, an office at their new Los Angeles based studio, mentoring from Anthony and Joe, and a cash stipend for one year. The Russos launched their career when their first film, Pieces, premiered at the 1997 Slamdance Festival. Steven Soderbergh, who was attending the festival, saw their film and offered to produce their next movie, Welcome To Collinwood, starring
George Clooney,
William H. Macy, and Sam Rockwell. The Brothers made their Marvel Studios directorial debut with the critically lauded blockbuster
Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Their follow-up,Captain America: Civil War, not only enjoyed the 5th-highest weekend gross in domestic box office history, but also had the highest worldwide gross of 2016, as well as widespread praise from both critics and fans.
Other notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice at the festival include:
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk, Interstellar), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Rian Johnson (Star Wars), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), Seth
Gordon (Horrible Bosses), Lynn Shelton (Outside, Humpday), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), and Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $13.3 billion at the Box Office to date.
In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing audience with several year-round activities. These include the popular Slamdance Screenplay Competition, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club - a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Chicago, with two screenings and filmmaker Q&A's each month:https://www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-slamdance-cinema-club
Slamdance Presents is a distribution arm established to access broader distribution opportunities for independent films.The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. Steve Yu's The Resurrection of Jake the Snake was the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015. In August 2016, Slamdance Presents launched the week long release of Claire Carré's sci-fi film, Embers, at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. In 2017, Slamdance Presents acquired four award winning and critically acclaimed films now available on VOD:
Driftwood by Paul Taylor, Dead Hands Dig Deep by Jai Love, Without by Mark Jackson, and The Ground we Won by
Christopher Pryor, coming to iTunes this December.
In November 2015, Slamdance announced DIG (Digital,
Interactive & Gaming), a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. In December 2017 DIG presented its new showcase at Big
Pictures Los Angeles, part of which be shown at the 2018 Film Festival.
The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival is presented by DGA. Slamdance Film Festival
Sponsors include founding sponsors Blackmagic Design, Distribber as well as CreativeFuture, Pierce Law Group LLP, Beehive Distilling, Red Brewing Company, The Treasure Mountain Inn, and GTechnology. Media partners include Salt Lake City's SLUG Magazine, Salt Lake City Weekly, and Variety. Slamdance is proud to partner with sponsors who support emerging artists and filmmakers.
Additional information about Slamdance is available at https://www.slamdance.com
