Integrated Studio Reel FX grants an exclusive all-access pass into some of GE’s most forward-thinking innovations in the new live action virtual reality series “GE 360,” produced direct-to-client. The series of VR videos, directed by Reel FX’s Kevin Althans, gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the technology and testing of the company’s latest eco-advancements and features GE’s Creator in Residence, Sally Le Page, detailing the impressive specs of the technologies the viewers are exploring. The videos showcase the GE Evolution Series Tier 4 Locomotive, which is the industry’s first locomotive to meet the U.S. EPA Tier 4 emissions standard in North America, and GE’s 9HA gas turbine, which is touted as the world’s largest high efficiency turbo engine.

The videos will be available on Milk VR, Oculus Share, and YouTube 360.

The Reel FX team carefully researched the GE facilities to approach the shoot with a 360 mindset that would allow them to capture the most immersive footage at the remote locations where the technologies are being tested. Althans leveraged the layout of both the expansive gas turbine assembly facility and the vast test track to truly capture the scope of the settings that is amplified in the virtual reality experience.

Notes Althans, “This was a wonderful opportunity to be in a visually rich environment that is perfectly suited for VR.” The team also utilized their new real-time stitching process, which allowed them to vastly accelerate the raw footage to editorial.

“Visualizing the human brain in intricate detail in virtual reality is no easy feat. Neither is making someone feel as though they traveled to far corners of the country where the world’s most technologically advanced machines are being made. It takes an incredible amount of creativity and computational horsepower to create these virtual worlds and ensure viewers are completely comfortable when interacting within them,” says Katrina Craigwell, Director of Global Content & Programming, GE. “We’re thrilled to have incredible VR partners to help us ensure our virtual worlds feel every bit as responsive and natural as the real world so we can continue to share the innovative work done at GE.”

Other recent VR projects out of Reel FX include the Insurgent: Shatter Reality VR experience, which was the first VR experience to be distributed on Samsung Gear VR and Cardboard via Apple iTunes and Google Play at the same time and a VR experience that drops viewers into the cockpit of an F-35 for the U.S. Air Forces, out of GSD&M.

ABOUT REEL FX

Reel FX develops and produces animated films, VR and short form content. The company’s feature slate, released under its Reel FX Animation Studios banner, includes The Book of Life with Twentieth Century Fox, which was released in theaters October 17, 2014. The Book of Life was met with critical acclaim and has received four Best Animated Feature nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, Producers’ Guild Awards, and Annie Awards. The title is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. Reel FX’s first full-length animated feature, Free Birds, was released by Relativity Media on November 1st, 2013, grossing over $110 MM worldwide.

Based out of Dallas, Texas, and Santa Monica, California, Reel FX launched its feature length development and production slate in 2010 after almost 20 years of experience as an award-winning one-stop studio for the creation of animated content including films, virtual reality content, live venue projects, commercials, and interactive projects for companies like Fox, Warner Bros., DreamWorks Animation and Universal Studios. The studio maintains a short form division focused on commercials and a newly launched division, Reel FX VR, focused on virtual reality content.

ABOUT GENERAL ELECTRIC 

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, build things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, guild and cure the world. www.ge.com