In addition to working on Vardo this year I am also planning to use my Motion Capture paper to support the final product. Instead of creating (just) another motion captured short film I am going to research how I can use Virtual Reality to really bring Vardo to life for people. At this stage, that will either be a 3D model of the caravan that people can explore inside virtual space, or be in the narrative themselves. Although I will need to work out how to accomplish this I have a strong belief it will work well.

I will be drawing from the New Zealand company Conical who created The Green Fairy as a source of inspiration for my own creation.

Vardo will be a short animated film that tells the story of a Romany Caravan who is forced to give up travelling and live the life of a stationary house dweller. Although animated, I want this story to appeal to a range of age groups so I believe having a multimedia approach to telling this story will add to the richness of the project.

There are several programs I am going to have to learn how to use, including but not limited to Unity, Unreal, VR interaction equipment. Along with how to set up an environment so that the viewer can feel fully invested in the world.

To fully be able to achieve this I will have to actually experience other VR simulations as I believe this will help me wrap my head around how to achieve this. Thankfully there are some amazing films from the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, The Verge Website has written a post on some of the best ones. Two that I have on my list to experience first is Dear Angelica by Oculus, and Life of Us although at this point I am not sure how possible this will be.

Idea Rocket Animation has also compiled a list of Virtual Reality Animated Videos that align more with the style I am aiming for, such as Invasion (2016) by Baobab Studios, Allumette (2016) by Penrose Studios, and Henry (2015) by Oculus Story Studio.