Fox Innovation Lab Launches 'The Martian VR Experience'

The Fox Innovation Lab, in partnership with RSA Films and The Virtual Reality Company, today announced the availability of its first commercial virtual reality endeavor, “The Martian VR Experience.”

“The Martian” VR Experience will be available Nov. 15 for PlayStation VR (PSVR) and HTC Vive on Steam.

Executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Robert Stromberg, “The Martian VR Experience” is an interactive, immersive adventure with viewers participating from astronaut Mark Watney’s perspective, performing tasks that will facilitate his chances for survival.

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Users can fly onto the surface of Mars, steer at zero gravity through space, drive a rover and experience other key scenes from the hit film in a 360-degree virtual reality environment.

“I’ve always tried to approach filmmaking from the standpoint of creating an immersive experience. Now with the tools that are available to us in virtual reality, we can raise the bar even higher. The audience can experience storytelling in ways we previously could only imagine,” said Scott.

“Mars has never been closer to being within our grasp and I’m so thrilled that we can invite people into The Martian VR Experience,” he added.

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“Virtual reality is transforming what we think of as movie entertainment — people can be the viewer behind the screen, and now they can participate in the story,” said Stromberg, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Virtual Reality Company.

“With ‘The Martian VR Experience,’ we were able to take Ridley’s cinematic vision and create an immersive VR experience that gives people the ability to be Mark Watney, to face his struggles, experience his successes, as if they were part of the film,” added Stromberg.

“The Martian VR Experience” is available for PSVR and HTC Vive for $19.99.

These Virtual-Reality Films at Tribeca Hint How Far VR Can Go (Photos)

Short film "Sens" is the first project to adapt a graphic novel into a virtual reality.
Joan E. Solsman
"Sens" leads viewers on a black-and-white journey, in which the point of view alternates between exploring a strange landscape through the main character's eyes and floating above the character, watching him do things like grip an edge of a cliff.
Sens
"Deep VR" combines a underwater fantasy world with a specialized belt the viewer wears around the waist, which monitors deep breathing. You control your movement in the experience by breathing in and out deeply, causing an initial rush of oxygen to the brain followed by a Zen-like meditative calm as you continue to play.
Joan E. Solsman
"Deep VR" is set in an underwater seascape, and is meant to explore the ways in which VR can change our relationship with both body and mind.
Joan E. Solsman
"The Turning Forrest" is a virtual-reality tale that takes viewers on a journey with a fantasy beast. At the Tribeca Film Fest's main hub, the creators bring viewers into hut before immersing them in the experience.
Joan E. Solsman
"The Turning Forrest" is a fully computer-generated movie, but the creators combined the viewing of it with a rumble pack that viewers wear to feel percussions that match the action.
BBC R&D / VRTOV
"Notes on Blindness" is a VR film that images the internal visions of John Hull, who -- after losing his sight in 1983 -- began recording an audio-diary documenting his discovery of “a world beyond sight.” His original recordings form the basis of this interactive experience, which uses real time 3D, virtual reality, and binaural sound to explore the interior world of blindness.
"Notes on Blindness"
"6X9: An Immersive Experience of Solitary Confinement" attempts to explain the effects solitary confinement of prisons, people who spend 22-24 hours a day in their cells, with little to no human contact.
Joan E. Solsman
"6x9" put virtual-reality viewers inside a cell, to hint at how the sensory deprivation prisoners live with can cause psychological damage.
Guardian