Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Immersive Hollywood: VR – AR – MR - XR

Session II Haas Conference Center - Room 172 & 173, Live Webcast

Exploring the Language and Artistry of VR-MR-AR in the Cinematic Experience

Ryan Pullliam, CMO, Speaker and Co-Founder, Specular Theory

Johannes Saam, Senior Creative Developer, Framestore

Christina Heller, Co-founder, VR Playhouse

Mike Conelly, President, Blackthorn Media

Pete Blumel, Co-Founder, CEO and Creative Director, The Rogue Initiative

Lily Baldwin, VR Project, “THROUGH YOU” – Premiered at Sundance

Moderator - Anna Marie Piersimoni, Instructor, Department of Cinema and Television Arts, California State University, Northridge

Johannes Saam, Senior Creative Developer, Framestore: Senior Creative Developer Johannes Saam took an early interest in 3D, teaching himself key skills at a young age. He got his start self-taught then studied at ScanlineVFX in Munich, and after earning a Masters in Computer Animation from Bournemouth University, worked in Visual Effects for 12 years. He has worked on feature films including Legend of the Guardians, Mad Max 4, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and Prometheus. Since joining Framestore, Johannes has worked on a wide variety of projects in emerging technology for high profile partners including Time Inc, BMW, CarFax, Facebook, and Dreamscape. Among his many

achievements and honors, Johannes holds a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his development, prototyping, and promotion of technologies and workflows for deep compositing; six SIGGRAPH showcases; and three Animago Awards. Beyond his numerous awards, Johannes has spoken at a variety of events, most recently SXSW, Digital Hollywood, and GDC.

Ryan Pulliam is the co-founder and CMO of Specular Theory, an award-winning immersive media and entertainment company based in Venice Beach, CA that creates premium virtual reality content and experiences using innovative storytelling and proprietary technology. Ryan brings extensive agency and client-side experience in digital marketing and brand strategy. As a next-generation thought leader on digital media strategy and a gatekeeper to large networks in the entertainment, technology and new media sectors, Pulliam is consistently creating opportunities for long-term growth and value from customers, markets and relationships. Pulliam is a published expert in the Seven Pearls of Financial Wisdom, which was named Top Business Book in 2012 by The Library Journal. She is a frequent guest speaker on a number of industry panels including Further Future, TEDx, Singularity University and CES. She is also a member of The Women’s CLUB of Silicon Valley, MaiTai Global and Summit Series. Specular Theory has won numerous awards for its virtual reality and 360 work, including the 2016 Streamy Award Winner for Best VR and 360 Experience for MatPat’s Game Lab in 360 series. The studio has also created the most talked about pieces at the 2015 and 2016 Sundance Film Festivals for their “Perspective VR” original series that ignited a global conversation around empathy and using VR for Good.

Christina Heller is the Co-Founder of VR Playhouse, a creative studio and full service virtual reality production company.  VRP's interactive 360/CGI narrative, "The Surrogate," was nominated for the Innovation Award at SXSW 2016, and was one of 15 projects produced by the company in 2015. She is on the board of Directors for SH//FT, a VR non-profit devoted to promoting diversity in virtual reality. Christina started at 88.9FM Boston, producing and hosting a weekly politics show which won Associated Press Awards for the two years under her leadership. She moved to television by producing, shooting, and hosting "My Voice"​, another politics program broadcast into 9 million homes. She covered the 2008 presidential election for both MyTV New England and Al Gore's Current TV, and was featured on Good Morning America as a commentator on the Millennial impact on politics. She directed and produced two feature documentaries, Libertopia and Reversing the Mississippi. Libertopia was featured on FOX Business, Huffington Post, and NHPR. Reversing The Mississippi premiered PBS's "America Reframed" in April 2016. VR Playhouse was founded in July 2014.

Lily Baldwin is a multi-faceted creative working in New York City and Los Angeles who combines her penchant for film and dance to craft intricate narratives. As a filmmaker, her films are featured on The Criterion Collection on FilmStruck, Filmmaker Magazine, NOWNESS, Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week and Fandor. Lily's recent VR project, THROUGH YOU, co-directed with Saschka Unseld, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was a recipient of the 2016 Sundance Institute New Frontier / Jaunt VR Residency. She directed MISTY COPELAND, a documentary for Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall and her horror film, SWALLOWED (Palm Springs ShortFest, Women of Cinefamily, LAFF), is one of five films comprising the omnibus feature COLLECTIVE: UNCONSCIOUS (SXSW premiere, BAMcinemaFest). Prior to filmmaking, Lily worked extensively as a professional dancer, performing with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and with David Byrne on his EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN World Tour and in its documentary RIDE RISE ROAR (SXSW premiere). She recently starred in Frank Mosley’s PARTHENON alongside Tallie Medel. Upcoming is an episodic hybrid documentary series, STORIES OF THE STALKED and VANGUARD a series starring real NYC teenagers. Additionally she is in development for her next MR installation, GLASS: INVINCIBLE YOU, which was selected to participate in the DevLab initiative with Oculus and Kaleidoscope VR, in addition to her new project with Saschka Unseld, TERRAIN. Lily was named by ShortsHD as one of "The Top 10 Emerging Directors to Watch,” by Independent Magazine as one of the "10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017,” and was a juror for the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Competition. Lily is the founder of the nonprofit Stop Stalking Us.

Pete Blumel, co-founder, CEO, and Creative Director, The Rogue Initiative: Producer, creator and designer of real-time, story-driven immersive entertainment with 21 years of experience in feature film, animation and blockbuster AAA interactive production. Prior, he served in a key producer role for 8 years at Activision’s Infinity Ward game development studio where he became intimately involved as co-creator of the CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE series and GHOSTS video games utilizing his filmmaking background to bring more high-end cinematic production values and immersive real-time story telling to the CALL OF DUTY franchise which has since come to characterize the long running series earning a combined total near $4 BILLION in worldwide grosses and winning countless awards including three BAFTAs. Before joining the CALL OF DUTY founders, Blumel spent over 10 years at DREAMWORKS SKG first at Dreamworks Feature Animation Technology and later at Amblin Entertainment.

Michael Conelly is the President & Creative Director of Blackthorn Media: A former Digital FX Supervisor, his characters have grossed over two billion dollars at the world-wide box office. Michael’s last film was nominated for a VFX Oscar. A prolific author, designer, and inventor and the creator of the VR sensation The Abbot’s Book. The future of The Abbot’s Book is now very exciting for Award-winning VFX artist Michael Connelly and his team at Blackthorn Media.  The Abbot's Book was selected as a participant at the New Frontier program at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The original VR offering hints at a massive gothic fantasy to come, with episodes planned from 2016-2019. The serial tells the tale of four generations of an Italian noble family, cursed by the corrupting power of an ancient book unearthed from the catacombs beneath their estate. Rich with traditional gothic-inspired mythology, the story follows a scion of this cursed family attempting to shield his heirs from inevitable darkness. British stage actor and multi-talented Hollywood thespian, JB Blanc voices multiple roles As VR will be finding its legs as a mass market medium is confident that they are on the ground floor of the next phenomena in Film. Fantastic image quality will be possible in fully head-mounted displays, with no wires running everywhere.  The image quality will improve dramatically - we'll see light field technology which brings organic depth of field to the VR experience - we'll see a melding of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality - we'll see some wonderful examples of VR as a sustained entertainment experience, adopted by the mass market. We hope to be leading that charge with The Abbot’s Book. Michael Connelly wrote the original story of the Abbot's Book back in 1989 and have been working on it here and there ever since.  He's designed the world, and expanded the concepts into an episodic format and written the treatment for that expansion, and he’s overseeing every aspect of the project's development.  He ordered the original development kit from Oculus when it first shipped back in 2013 and he has working with the technology ever since. When he founded Blackthorn back in 2013 it was immediately clear that VR was going to play a huge role in the company's future.  Connelly is also largely responsible for the look of the finished product, lighting the environments, and making sure the game engine runs smoothly while displaying the highest quality imagery that the filmmakers can put into it. Prior to founding Blackthorn, Connelly was the Digital Effects Supervisor for the movie Snow White and the Huntsman, where his work garnered an Oscar nomination.

Anna Marie Piersimoni specializes in the creation and marketing of media content across a broad range of digital platforms. She is currently instructor of the course, New Directions in Electronic (Digital) Media at California State University, Northridge. Previously, as Director of Internet Communications for the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles, she managed institutional web sites and blogs, as well as e-news and online marketing campaigns. At AFI, she was a founding Director of AFI’s Digital Content Lab, an acclaimed R&D program for the production of interactive digital media and also managed development of the Institute’s K-12 Screen Education program. A former producer with Los Angeles public television station, KCET, she supervised web content development and social media for a companion website to the Emmy award-winning KCETLink program, “Your Turn to Care” and for a PBS series on America's food rebels, "Food Forward," winner of a James Beard media award. A regular speaker at industry events, such as Digital Hollywood, she began her career as a film and video artist and later, as a writer/producer of video content and on-air promotions, working for ABC Entertainment, E! Entertainment, and KCET Television, among others. She holds a BFA from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford in Connecticut and is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Media Psychology through Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA.