For the sixth episode of ▶▶FAST FORWARD, we are joined by Liz Rosenthal, a pioneer of immersive and interactive storytelling, specialising in audiovisual innovation.

Liz Rosenthal specialises in boosting the digital potential of creators, institutions and media business. She is the founder & CEO of Power the Pixel and programmer of immersive content for Venice International Film Festival's Venice VR, the official competition section and Venice Production Bridge Finance Market.

As executive producer of CreativeXR she helps creative talents unlock the potential of immersive content.

The presentation was followed by a Q&A moderated by AC Coppens, CEO/Founder of THE CATALYSTS.

▶▶ More about Liz

Throughout her career, Liz has helped international media businesses and creatives to innovate and adapt to changing audiences.

As a consultant for leading international festivals, international media organisations, national and regional funds, Liz shares her expertise in innovation strategy to help creators and businesses to ideate, finance and distribute immersive and interactive projects.

Liz is a board director of The Space (BBC and Arts Council England commissioning fund for digital arts projects), an advisory board member of Immerse UK whose content subgroup she runs.

She is also a board director at Mediamorfosis.

She is a member of BAFTA, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the RSA. She has served as a jury member for numerous festivals and project funding programmes.

Liz is invited regularly to speak and mentor at leading events including the Cannes International Film Festivals, Berlinale, Screen International Conferences, TEDx Transmedia, EAVE, BAFTA, National Film & TV School and many more around the world.

References, links and resources from Liz’s talk

▶▶ AR case studies mentioned by Liz included East of the Rockies, a story about Canada’s Japanese internment camps during WWII and Wonderscope, an iOS app for kids that uses Augmented Reality to transform ordinary spaces into extraordinary stories

▶▶Liz is Executive Producer at CreativeXR, an acceleration programme designed to allow the best creative teams to develop concepts and prototypes of immersive content using virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies

▶▶ New mixed reality products are being constantly developed, including Nreal. These ready-to-wear mixed reality glasses are both lightweight and comfortable. Niantic, creators of Pokemon Go, are also moving into the headset space.

▶▶VR case studies mentioned by Liz included The Daughers of Chibok, The Line , We Live in an Ocean of Air. Some of these cases were also discussed by Alsyha Naples in her webcast episode.

▶▶ CCS Insight's industry reports about virtual and augmented reality device are tracking and analysing the industry developments: new products, key players, adoption, user attitudes and market forecasts

▶▶ Bravemind, developed at USC is a virtual reality exposure therapy aimed at providing relief from post-traumatic stress

▶▶ Read more about the convergence of 5G and VR here.

▶▶ Given the trends in VR sales in 2019, what are the prognostics for the second half of 2020?

▶▶ Company examples mentioned by Liz include Iconic Engine, a Holometric™ 4d cinema, as well as LucidVR, a white-label service.

▶▶ Gloomy Eyes and Overview a widely acclaimed VR experiences showing the power of immersive storytelling.

▶▶ Interesting long read on Vice on the topic of social VR

▶▶ Museum of Other Realities and Wave bring people together online by creating remote presencing experiences.

▶▶ Loveseat, presented at Venice Cinema Bienale in 2019, combines a real world performance with an immersive experience