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Watch The First Feature Film Released For Virtual Reality

Blair Erickson's 'Banshee Chapter' is the first feature length, live action film to be adapted for Oculus Rift. And it's free.

Immersive storytelling is the holy grail of modern entertainment: Who wouldn't want to enter their favorite stories, and watch them unfold as if they were actually there? Innovators like Nonny de la Peña are already revolutionizing journalism with non-fiction stories that let viewers experience important events. Now, director Blair Erickson believes he's found the corresponding key for the world of cinema in creating the first feature-length film for the ever-developing realm of Oculus Rift entertainment.

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The movie in question is Banshee Chapter, Erickson's 3D found-footage horror flick following the story of a journalist investigating disappearences related to a military grade pyschedelic developed by the CIA in the '70s. In coordination with digital creation studio Jamwix, which Erickson helped found, the director has converted his film for use with Oculus Rift VR goggles, allowing viewers to look around inside the frame and, ideally, creating the sensation that they are actually there, in the scene. Jamwix is so confident in their VR conversion engine, appropriately named Chimera, that they have released Banshee Chapter: Oculus Edition for free on their website.

Jamwix is composed of alumni from Carnegie Melon's innovative Building Virtual Worlds program, which has been making strides in the industry since the 90s, and Erickson spent years as the creative director of Omnicom's high-tech interactive agency "Millions of Us." Their new process also converts existing 3D films, increasingly the standard for big budget productions, into a viable virtual reality experience, so the hardest part (actually creating good art) has already been done for them.

We've seen plenty of clever and bite-sized Oculus Rift experiences such as the bird flight simulator and the Oculus Rift roller coaster. But, Banshee Chapter: Oculus Edition may form the bridge, between these innovators and the larger film industry, that brings Oculus Rift art into the mainstream.

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We hope nobody finds a way to make Enter The Void for Oculus Rift -- that would be some serious scare power. Catch a glimpse of the frightening Banshee Chapter: Oculus Edition in the video below:

Visit Jamwix's website to take a look at more of their innovative projects, or click here to download the full version of Banshee Chapter: Oculus Edition.

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