Hi everyone,
The summer is super hot, and no, I will not make a comment about the Chinese hoax… Ok, I just did it. :P
Last two months were again full of travels - this time Europe and Poland. I was invited to present The Choice at Women’s Rights Conference in Łódź. This Conference is probably the biggest women-centred event in Poland, with dozens of speakers, from politicians, activists, organizations, media - literally everyone who is involved or interested in women’s (and human in general) rights. From some names that can “ring a bell” even if you are not Polish - well, let me say “Agnieszka Holland” (invited not as a filmmaker per se, but as a very strong, a role-model woman) and I guess I can already stop here ;) For our Polish subscribers: Magdalena Środa, Barbara Nowacka - just to begin with. And yes - me among them. Yay! And The Choice presented to this public!
It was very interesting to speak to people for whom I believe The Choice is the most interesting from practical point of view - politicians and activists. Assuming they know almost nothing about VR. There were some VR filmmakers there as well, but except from them - not a single person had VR headset on their head. And now: try to explain, why The Choice - why VR, what’s 6dof, what’s volumetric, what’s game engine… I think I did it - everybody stayed after the presentation and every single person watched the whole demo. I accidentally putted 2 presentations there, making it about 7 minutes per person… So yes, the waiting time was long, but nobody left without watching - and then talking to me. It was really great!
What’s more, one of the most important weekly magazines in Poland, Wysokie Obcasy published interview with me about The Choice: Załóż okulary VR i zobacz jak to jest być w niechcianej ciąży. It is in Polish, sorry! I also wrote an article myself - published by Magazine Liberte! The Choice - machina empatii wobec ciąży i aborcji. Again in Polish though. We are planning to translate some of those articles to put them on our website, but not sure when due to lack of time. If some English-and-Polish-speaking person is reading it and would like to help - it would be awesome!
Ok, moving on - equipment and shopping time. We updated our cameras system, as the footage we did for the proof of concept wasn’t sharp enough. Now we are using a pair of Sony mirrorless cameras and high speed lenses to shoot the left and right videos instead of little action cameras (gopros). This way the colors will be richer and the image much, much clearer.
We also purchased a 3D printer. As you know, we are designing capture technology on our own (Tom mostly ;)), and we used printers in Toronto library, sometimes we would order a print from some company. It was not only challenging and costly, the crucial issue was simply time. So thanks to your help - we now have a 3D printer and we are working on designing our camera rig these days.
3D printing is fun, but we are also learning how to do it properly and adjust our designs to the printer’s flaws. It’s not a big issue if 3D-printed iphone stand will be slightly bended, but it will be a huge problem if the camera rig will loose its shape. We are learning this as we speak.
Disclaimer (I had huge problem with it myself - trying to avoid plastic as much as possible): our plastic is made from corn and sugar apparently, and it takes up to 12 months to desintegrate in recycling facility. Gives my some relief, as yes - we are going back to this Chinese hoax, that does not exist… ;))
Ok, I will wrap up now, and get back to work. Have a great summer and stay tuned for more info!
Thanks,
Joanne-Aśka & Tom
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