Kaleidoscope was initially involved with the exhibition of virtual reality (VR) content, attempting to introduce works produced for VR to audiences who may have never experienced VR before. With VR increasingly going mainstream, Kaleidoscope have turned their attention elsewhere to the creation of a funding platform for VR content creators.
Kaleidoscope CEO René Pinnell spoke to Filmmaker Magazine about the difficulties faced by VR creators, particularly those who are new to the industry. While there is plenty of funding for VR projects available, it if often hard to locate, spread as it is between various companies and venture capitalists. Kaleidoscope’s ambition is to make the process of gaining access to funding easier.
“To date, most of the funding for original VR projects has come from the major HMD manufacturers — Oculus, Vive, Samsung, and Sony,” Said Pinnell, “However, Kaleidoscope has identified more than 100 other companies and organizations who are actively funding VR content and, while individually their budgets are relatively small, when we bring them all together it can have a major impact on the funding landscape. And that’s what we aim to do. Kaleidoscope’s role is to get all of these industry players on one platform to better coordinate their support for the most talented VR creators and studios.”
Up to 100 funders will be aable to subscribe to the Kaleidoscope service for a price of $199 (USD) a month. This will give funders a first-look at upcoming projects that have been curated from places such as festivals, now creators, independent studios and established creators such as Baobab. From there, funders can create a dialogue with the creators to invest in current or future work. A library of VR titles awaiting licensing and distribution will also be available.
Pinnel believes this is a step towards turning VR content into something as commonplace and mainstream as TV or Film: “In four years virtual reality will be a mainstream technology with an audience of over 50 million in the U.S. The cost of a high-end VR system will drop to below $600, making it accessible to a much larger audience, and the visual fidelity and comfort of the device will dramatically increase.”
VRFocus will bring you further news on Kaleidoscope’s VR projects as it becomes available.
via Mint VR