Los Angeles-based immersive content studio, Virtuality, has released a VR ‘remix’ of the music video for ‘DOA (Dead on Arrival)’—a song by Michigan metalcore band, I Prevail, taken from their successful debut album, ‘Trauma.’ The track incorporates a feature verse from rapper, Joyner Lucas, whose bonafide lyricism consistently ensures any music he releases swiftly trends online.
Virtuality’s recent work includes globally-distributed VR dance experiences from America’s Got Talent mainstays, Light Balance, along with an acclaimed live hologram DJ showcase featuring EDM chart-topper, Meduza.
The traditional music video for ‘DOA’ debuted last month, and quickly rocketed past the million-views benchmark. Directed by rising music video talent, Ben Proulx, it touches on an array of socio-political themes, such as racial injustice, gun violence, homelessness, healthcare reform, even the blight of social media’s grip on our society. It’s a gritty, forthright portrayal of some all-too-familiar circumstances facing our world right now. Indeed, it comes stamped with a ‘Trigger Warning’ in the opening frames.
Proulx engaged Virtuality to capture 360-degree components of the concept on the same day they shot the traditional 2D footage. While not uncommon as relates to VR capture, the unusual part was the plan to use the totality of footage to create two distinctly different pieces of media from the same story, for two distinctly different distribution platforms (a practice known as transmedia).
The resulting virtual reality experience features an up-close, ultra-high-resolution performance from the artists, while simultaneously incorporating 2D elements from the traditional video into various ‘floating windows.’ This innovation—trouble-shot and integrated by VR camera/FX guru, Hugh Hou, and VR editorial wiz, Steve Yoon—is palpable when viewed in a VR headset, and its aggressive visual impact is nothing short of breathtaking.
“We’re calling it a ‘Virtual Remix’,” explains Virtuality Founder, Mark Rickard. “The massive resolution afforded by new VR cameras and the proliferation of game-engine technology has the whole entertainment business evolving to appreciate VR as a standalone creative tool. Fortunately, this was a collaboration with a director and artists who already understand that.”
The ‘DOA Virtual Remix’ is out now on YouTube (which can be viewed on almost any headset via the YouTubeVR app), with a rollout specific to the Oculus ecosystem scheduled later this month. [watch here: https://youtu.be/FxG_4oc75IU]
VIRTUALITY – An immersive content creation & distribution studio specializing in cinematic VR and volumetric video. Focused on the creation and/or adaptation of high-concept source material, primarily featuring live-action 3D subjects inside photorealistic and FX-enhanced environments, along with several location-based entertainment (LBE) and dome-displayed content initiatives. The Virtuality project portfolio includes a growing list of noteworthy talent and major brands, as well as partnerships with luminary directors and some of the largest tech companies in the extended reality field. (www.virtuality.la)