Congrats to Jonathan Winbush, Mark Christopher Lawrence and Hugh Hou on this VR Win. Such a fun project, when technology and comedy meet...
San Diego, CA (For Release) - The creative team behind actor and producer Mark Christopher Lawrence’s virtual reality (VR) comedy special, “Live at the Mad House Comedy Club,” has been honored with the Best Director Award at the 2020 DreamlandXR Festival. The Festival took place in Las Vegas January 6-10, 2020, in connection with the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In addition to Lawrence, the team included award-winning motion graphics artist Jonathan Winbush and immersive technology guru Hugh Hou.
The DreamlandXR Festival brought together the best and newest in virtual reality and augmented reality entertainment, music and E-sports. The organization is dedicated to being a driving force in the immersive technology industry. “Live at the Mad House Comedy Club” took honors alongside such industry giants as the Cartoon Network, The Lion King Movie, CNN, and Lego Batman. The judging panel included experts from HTC, Paramount, Dell, Google, Lenovo, and HP. A full list of DreamlandXR winners can be found at dreamlandxr.com/voting.
The project began more than a year before, when the VR360 technology it featured was still new. Merging the 360 and 180 formats used required a number of platforms and some creative mixing of the 8K footage. Because it was filmed in an actual comedy club, lighting presented an additional challenge. Adding to all this was the fact that, as a stand-up comedy show with a live audience, the team had only one chance to get it right.
“Filming VR in the dark usually is very costly,” explained Hou, who is a Co-Founder and Creative Director for production studio CreatorUp. “We had to be very creative on camera placement and remote monitoring to make the camera angles feel like an audience so viewers can feel like they are really there.”
“This is a big win because we did create something that's the first of its kind, being a standup comedy special in VR,” said Winbush, who has been rated as one of the top 25 artists in Hollywood by Inferno Development. “Since releasing the project we've been invited by Chinese VR company VeeR to do a virtual Q&A about the project, we've had the project featured by software company Mettle, and it was FireFox's VR pick of the week for December.”
“Working with Jonathan and Hugh on this project was just amazing,” said Lawrence of the collaboration. “These two guys simply worked magic. It was an honor and a pleasure to put this show together.”
Mark Christopher Lawrence is available for media interviews on his current projects. For more information about Mark Christopher Lawrence, visit markchristopherlawrence.com. Learn more about projects by Jonathan Winbush at winbushimmersive.com and by Hugh Hou at creatorup.com. Media and PR inquiries please contact KamatoyMediaGroup.com by clicking here.
