Day 5 of IFFI Goa 2017 was off to a great start with a master class on Virtual Reality (VR) conducted by the visionary Anand Gandhi, who heads the avant-garde Memesys Culture Lab featuring filmmakers, writers, philosophers and other creators of world class VR.
In February this year, Anand Gandhi and his team released their most-touted project: ElseVR, a collection of original, provocative VR documentaries and videos made entirely by Memesys. The videos are short—two to ten minutes long—but they’re followed by stories, interviews, and essays that provide context. He has produced around 8 Virtual Reality documentaries that have now played at various international film festivals.
Anand says, “We are rapidly moving into the science fiction age. From painting to photography to video to now VR, technology has evolved over the years. Similarly, cinema has also progressed with generations and with new generation filmmakers coming in at regular intervals and starting afresh. Life has been a constant optimization of what can be stored and what can be let go off.”
“The idea is to bring stories and images to Virtual Reality (VR), granting the audience an entry into the story. Virtual Reality has changed the way we see reality, making the experience as real as possible for users. Each story is a Virtual Reality Experience accompanied with a piece of long form journalism and images to create a deep and well-rounded understanding of the subject for the audience. VR is a tool to preserve records and memories for posterity. It explores the storytelling techniques and enriches the experiences of life. It helps compress space and time.”
The 48th Edition of IFFI is being held from the 20th to 28th of November, 2017 in the beach state of Goa.