Oculus VR has today announced a new programme aimed at high school students, dubbed ‘VR for Good’. This new initiative is a six week programme in which students will learn new technology and production skills while they explore careers and higher education opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Consisting of two application areas, the VR for Good initiative will begin with the ‘360 Filmmakers Challenge’. Nine San Francisco Bay Area high schools will be partnered with professional filmmakers to create 3-three-to-five minute 360 degree films about their communities. Students will receive everything they need to create 360 videos for virtual reality (VR), including a Samsung Gear VR, a Galaxy S6 smartphone handset, Ricoh Theta S 360 cameras, access to editing software and VR film mentors. The VR community will be offered the chance to view the final products of this area of the programme once they have been completed.
The second programme, ‘360 Bootcamp for Nonprofits’, will launch this summer. This stage of VR for Good teams up 10 filmmakers with 10 nonprofit organisations to bring a ‘social missions’ to life through 360 degree videos. Teams will start their filmmaking journey at a two-day bootcamp at Facebook HQ, 26th-27th July 2016. Oculus VR are offering the film teams everything they need to create professional 360 videos, including Nokia OZO cameras, post production support, travel budget, and one-on-one mentorship with industry veterans. The final products from 360 Bootcamp for Nonprofits will be unveiled at Sundance 2017.
360 Bootcamp for Nonprofits will accept nominations their organisations and filmmakers from 30th May 2016. More details on the VR for Good campaign can be found at the official website, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest initiatives from Oculus VR.
