LUDWIGSBURG – With its world premiere, MindPalace will be the first virtual reality short film of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to be shown in a competition of the Venice International Film Festival.
The film created by Animationsinstitut students Carl Krause, Dominik Stockhausen, Nikolai Maderthoner and Malte Stehr, will be presented in the selection of the Venice Virtual Reality competition of the 75th edition of the Biennale Cinema.
“The MindPalace project is a completely new VR experience,” explained Professor Andreas Hykade, Director of Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. “The filmmakers take us into a relationship drama of the most intense kind. This is pioneering work at the interface between art and technology.”
The 3D animated virtual reality short MindPalace, created with the help of motion capture shots, depicts scenes of a relationship on the brink of failure. A man is locked against his will in his partner’s head, in a last desperate attempt to communicate. The aim of this project is to explore the narrative potential of VR applications, a technology whose relevance as a narrative medium is increasing.
The team behind MindPalace consists of the directing duo Carl Krause and Dominik Stockhausen as well as the technical lead Nikolai Maderthoner and the producer Malte Stehr. They have highlighted their happiness to present their project at the Venice Film Festival.
“The Biennale is a great honour for us and also a huge opportunity,” said Carl Krause. “Getting such a platform for the presentation of your own project is something special.”
Dominik Stockhausen added: “After such a long production time we are now looking forward to finally handing MindPalace over to the audience, and we are curious how it will develop in the public perception”.
Further information about MindPalace is available on: http://mindpalace-vr.com/
The 75th Venice International Film Festival will take place from August 29 to September 8, 2018, as part of the Venice Biennale. The Venice Virtual Reality competition was launched in 2017 as the first competition for virtual reality films worldwide. Filmakademie and Animationsinstitut have expressed their pride towards the team of students participating in the second edition of the competition.
To make it easier for developers of virtual and augmented reality projects to turn their ideas into prototypes, Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has launched the project-related talent initiative VR NOW. Alumni from Baden-Württemberg schools and faculties can apply with their project ideas until December 1, 2018, for the new call for proposals 2018/2019.
VR NOW accompanies the teams through the development of VR/AR prototypes and invites them to use numerous possibilities at Animationsinstitut – such as attending courses, workshops and regular consulting services as well as the use of resources. Innovative content in all conceivable varieties of VR/AR should be expressed at the highest artistic and technical level in a market-oriented manner.
The initiative is funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg and supported by MFG Medien und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg.
