Exclusive: Seed&Spark, WEVR Greenlight First ‘Diversity in Virtual Reality’ Project
Shipra Harbola Gupta
READ MORE: Exclusive: Seed&Spark and Wemo.io Teaming Up For Virtual Reality Grants
Seed&Spark and the virtual reality platform WEVR — which previously went by the name Wemo.io — made a joint announcement about the grant program at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
The “Diversity in Virtual Reality” grant program was designed for the explicit purpose of providing a select group of diverse filmmakers with access to virtual reality technology for the creation of short, immersive storytelling experiences.
Bravo’s newly greenlit project, which tells the story of a man who gets assaulted by two plainclothes cops, addresses a major sociopolitical and cultural preoccupation about police brutality that has swept the country over the past year.
“Janicza Bravo’s pitch for ‘Hard World’ exemplifies the type of immersive storytelling our grant program was created to support. Meaningful stories intended to Illicit strong emotional reactions from audiences around the world,” said WEVR Director of Content Ben Miller in an official statement provided by Seed&Spark. “Immersive storytelling, as a medium, arguably has the greatest potential to engender feelings of empathy because of the unprecedented intimacy the technology creates between viewer and subject. ‘Hard World’ is a multi-layered narrative built around empathy, and situated in the real world. And while we couldn’t be more excited to see the final product, we are equally excited to see her inspire fellow-storytellers from around the world to craft empathy-driven immersive stories of their own.”
“With VR,” added Seed&Spark Founder and CEO, Emily Best, “we have a chance to explore a new fusion of theater and film, something that transcends mere entertainment.”
“Hard World for Little Things” will go into production this May and will be released online sometime in summer 2015.
READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: Seed&Spark Can Help You Reach Millions on Cable VOD
