USC film school gets immersive storytelling studio
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Virtual reality and augmented reality are getting some recognition as a new medium with the opening of a new studio at the University of Southern California.
The Ganek Immersive Studio was made possible with a gift from David and Danielle Ganek, through the Ganek Family Foundation. It is a first-of-its-kind immersive studio aimed at fostering the next generation of storytellers using cutting-edge technology.
Based at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, it will have high-end content creation tools and an incubator. The creative hub will be led by USC School of Cinematic Arts professor Candace Reckinger, an award-winning filmmaker and animation artist. The aim is to expand the boundaries of immersive storytelling and world building.
“The thing about the lab — and this is where immersive is at — is it is something that forms the web over the whole school as it is drawing in from all the divisions, and it also draws in from beyond the actual cinema school. It draws from the arts, business, health, and sciences,” said Reckinger, in an interview with GamesBeat. “It’s the same way that cinema drew things together. Immersive knits things together.”
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So the immersive studio is like a hub. But just what is different about immersive storytelling?
“When you are in VR, as with games, you are creating an illusion, like a magic show,” Rekinger said. “When you’re in a VR headset, everything is in the present, in the
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