Beyond Productions and Ensemble join forces in new VR long-form content partnership
John Luscombe
Beyond Productions, the company behind the smash hit, Mythbusters, has struck a deal with experiential agency Ensemble to move into virtual reality productions.
The partnership, Beyond Ensemble 360, will allow Ensemble, which has previously produced a number of VR and 360 degree content pieces for other clients, to move into longer form content.
John Luscombe, executive vice president and general manager at Beyond Productions, said the relationship will bring new techniques to the business as VR becomes readily available to consumers later this year with the launch of the Oculus Rift from Facebook and the Sony Morpheus headset.
Beyond Ensemble 360 brings Ensemble’s brand storytelling experience in long-form content together with Beyond’s global production capabilities and VR experience,” said Luscombe.
Tim Hodgson, managing director at Ensemble, said that by teaming with Beyond the company will be able to leverage its heritage of long-form content in a new sphere.
“What Beyond has is the ability to take the depth of engagement further through 360 technology,” said Hodgson.
“It’s the reason clients come to us – to find that greater depth of engagement. 360 is not going to be the answer to everything, but if you take Tourism Australia as an example they say it will be ‘the future of tourism advertising’.”
The new partnership is already working on a joint production – a content piece for a major insurer – and Hodgson says five to six more VR productions should be completed by June.
Last year Ensemble complete a project for the National Maritime Museum which created a virtual, 360-degree tour of the submarine HMAS Onslow.
Simon Canning
Sounds interesting and hopefully an agency combination that will eradicate some of the weak (and often pointless) executions currently out in the market (none worse than the Optus cricket attempt a few months ago)
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