Whistling Woods, RJio to set up a virtual reality lab
12 May 2018
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Mumbai-baded film, communication and media arts institute Whistling Woods International (WWI) and Reliance Jio Infocomm have agreed to set up a development lab dedicated to meeting the needs of the virtual reality and augmented reality segment of the entertainment industry.
The lab, ‘Whistling Woods Jio VR Lab’, will be set up at the Whistling Woods International campus at Filmcity, Mumbai. The Lab will commence operations by mid-May 2018.
“We strongly believe VR will be the fourth content platform after film, TV and digital, and this lab will create VR filmmakers who will kick-start India’s VR content ecosystem. RJio, through its leadership in the digital and content ecosystem, will support VR content creation and distribution and make cutting-edge experience available for its customers,” ssaid Jyotindra Thacker, president, RJio.
The lab will build a technology pipeline for VR and AR workflows participate in the global VR community through its membership of the global VR Industry Forum and participation in global conclaves.
In India, the lab will work with the Indian film and media industry by conducting monthly seminars and workshops for them as well as introducing new tech-workflows to the industry. It will undertake these activities to create a curriculum for cinematic VR, which will be taught to all students of WWI.
“Today, WWI alumni are film-ready, TV ready and Digital ready. Our goal is to make them VR ready as well. We see this as a first-step towards a larger engagement with Jio for future labs and content partnerships,” Meghna Ghai Puri, president, Whistling Woods International, said.
Founded by filmmaker Subhash Ghai, WWI offers courses accredited to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The course are in acting, animation, cinematography, direction, editing, music, producing, screenwriting, sound, visual effects, media management, fashion design and visual communication design.
