This week sees the world premiere of the Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies and for those who have bagginsed themselves a ticket, there is a VR treat in store.
JauntVR, the virtual reality company who is part funded by Sky, has revealed that it is bringing virtual reality to Middle Earth, thanks to an exclusive 360-degree video that was shot on-set in New Zealand.
According to JauntVR's blog, the video has been created to showcase the power of VR and why Jaunt is at the centre of all things VR-related at the moment.
“Jaunt have already shot an amazing concert with icon Sir Paul McCartney at the Candlestick Stadium in San Francisco, as well as Sky Sports boxing footage and Sky 1's Got To Dance, amongst a whole catalogue of shows. We've also jointly done test shoots on the ridiculous comedy Trollied and the much-anticipated Sky Atlantic epic drama Fortitude,” says Stuart Murphy, Director, Entertainment Channels.
“The latest cinematic VR production takes thing up a notch or two. Using the strength of our relationships with studio partners, we were able to put a call into our great friends at Warner Brothers to get Jaunt exclusive access to The Hobbit set in New Zealand.
“As a result, we've collectively been able to work together to create a 90second clip of Middle-earth from the film, all in jaw dropping cinematic VR.”
Although this VR foray into Middle Earth isn't available for everyone to view, JauntVR is currently creating and produsing a lot of content that will be used by Oculus Rift and the like - so when VR finally comes of age there will be content for it.
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JauntVR has invented a camera to film virtual reality, created software to make all the images smooth and to edit the footage, and a player to watch it on. Now we just have to play the waiting game and hope the hardware comes to stores as soon as possible.