Digital Domain Holdings, the parent of VFX house Digital Domain 3.0, has entered into a joint venture with British Columbia-headquartered Immersive Media.
Dubbed IM360, the joint venture is aimed at creating immersive entertainment for all platforms, meaning virtual reality systems, as well as for playback on displays including tablets, mobile phones and televisions.
“It’s about getting immersive content onto any screen,” said Immersive Media’s president and CEO Myles McGovern in a statement. The exec added that the partnership is also working on live streaming of such content, shot with 360-degree camera technology that his company developed. This could put the social component into these experiences, allowing, for instance, viewers to watch the Super Bowl together on a TV set. It’s already been tested with the NHL.
Digital Domain Holdings, chairman and CEO Daniel Seah said in a statement: “To drive the content revolution, it’s crucial for us and our partners to be ahead of the curve. Immersive Media shares our vision of innovation, and this joint venture allows us to combine our unique complementary strengths.”
Immersive Media creates immersive entertainment and also develops technology to produce, distribute and playback this content. It recently created the Taylor Swift “Blank Space” interactive music experience as well as CONAN360 for Conan O’Brien.
Digital Domain, which recently completed work on Furious 7, brings its VFX expertise including ability to develop fully-CG environments. It’s recent work includes the 3D CG virtual reality film Evolution of Verse, which debuted at Sundance and is available for download.
IM360 is planning to produce some live content during the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival.