Riga IFF goes XR

Extended reality is a fascinating and rapidly growing audio-visual set of mediums that expands the possibilities and boundaries of cinematic language. Content is indeed king and it is no less than a film festival’s mission to foster and advance new approaches towards XR storytelling.

(based on the Open Mic session at the ECFA AGM 2020)

To fulfil this mission, the Riga Int’l Film festival is teaming up with interactive production house Story Hub in order to host RIGA IFF GOES XR – a regionally unique space for dialogue and co-operation among XR and film professionals as well as other creative industries with different fields of expertise; for virtual reality is not just a technology but also a new way of film, art form, information transmitter and a valuable education tool.

 

RIGA IFF GOES XR, launched in 2018, consists of a set of lectures and networking events and a hackathon. It is the ideal platform for representatives of the tech and creative industries to meet with filmmakers and professionals from educational and cultural organisations to collectively work on the integration of XR into educational and cultural initiatives. All with the ultimate goal of creating valuable content for children and young people. The RIGA IFF GOES XR audience largely consists of filmmakers, students, tech workers, animators, graphic designers, as well as education and culture workers.

 

Organiser Kristine Simsone: “We are teaming up with schools, cultural institutions and NGOs to raise awareness about the endless possibilities of XR and its uses in education. These institutions define product content suggestions for the hackathon. This way the prototypes created in hackathons are based on real needs. This substantially increases the chances of the prototype being turned into a real XR product.

 

Join the Riga IFF in their XR exploration efforts and take part in RIGA IFF GOES XR this October! More info on www.rigaiff.lv.