Samsung to open a VR film studio in NYC

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Samsung has announced it will open a dedicated VR studio in New York City. The announcement was made by Marc Mathieu, chief marketing officer of Samsung USA. If this sounds slightly familiar, it’s probably because Oculus announced the same thing at last year’s Sundance.

But before you start thinking you’ll be watching feature-length Gear VR blockbusters by next summer, this won’t be a hangar-sized film production studio but something a little more demure. Mathieu was quick to note that the “studio” will be built in an existing New York office, currently inhabited by a marketing team.

Further details on the VR studio were a little scarce, but Samsung also announced a year-long partnership with Sundance to help foster creative directing and storytelling. The initiative isn’t explicitly tied in to virtual reality, but if you’re a budding director with some technical know-how and a story that can’t be contained in traditional 2D or 3D filmmaking, perhaps you should drop Samsung a line.

Have you tried VR yet? Do you think VR is the future of filmmaking?