Designed to take full-dome content “to the next level,” the organizers of  “Dome Fest West” have announced the Corporate Sponsors for their Second Annual/2022 event, which will begin on Thursday, October 6, 6-9pm/PT at the Orange Coast College Community Planetarium in Costa Mesa, CA - “the City of the Arts.”  Dome Fest West 2022 will continue on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, from 9am to 8pm, and on October 9, from 9am to 6pm. On Oct 9 at 7pm, a final award ceremony will take place. Tickets for Dome Fest West are available here: https://domefestwest2022.eventbrite.com

Dome Fest West (DFW) is an annual, 360-degree film festival and conference that brings together the filmmaking community, Hollywood filmmakers and up-and-coming immersive content creators from around the world. This year’s festival will screen numerous, fully-immersive, full-dome, 360-degree media shows, chosen as the best productions of 2021-22. The festival will also include new technology presentations, industry panels, interactive workshops, industry gatherings and parties. Event organizers expect up to 300 immersive filmmakers from around the globe to attend this year’s festival in-person as well as virtually.

The Corporate Sponsors for DFW’s 2022 event are:

Cosm: “Creators are the lifeblood of our industry and full-dome filmmakers are the early pioneers of immersive storytelling. Cosm is proud to support Dome Fest West and this incredibly vibrant and creative community,” Neil Carty, VP, Head of Cosm Studios & Labs at Cosm.

Cosm is a global technology company that brings experiences to life in immersive environments. The company helps its partners create spaces and content that blur the lines of real and virtual across three primary markets:

Sports & Entertainment; Science & Education; Parks & Attractions.

Cosm is currently in production on an enormous, multi-million-dollar new Sphere Venue which is being constructed in Hollywood Park, near SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles:  https://www.cosm.com/los-angeles-venue-announcement/

https://www.cosm.com/

Orange Coast College Planetarium: All students of Orange Coast College, the site of the Planetarium which will play host to this year’s DFW, can get into any DFW screening free by showing their student ID.

https://prod.orangecoastcollege.edu/community/planetarium/index.html

New Audio Technology:  New Audio Technology was founded in 2012 by Grammy-nominated immersive audio producer Tom Ammermann. With more than two decades of experience in immersive audio production, Tom leads his team to develop audio and music production and reproduction tools for Next Generation Audio (NGA) applications. This means immersive and interactive audio for mobile enjoyment, theaters, installations, games, music recordings, broadcast, streaming, live performances and full-dome/planetarium environments. https://www.newaudiotechnology.com/

LightSailVR: A boutique creative studio pushing the boundaries of immersive storytelling, LightSailVR specializes in creating immersive content with compelling characters and stunning visuals for both brands and original programming.

https://lightsailvr.com/index.php

Bridge Arts Media: DFW Co-founder Kate McCallum’s company Bridge Arts Media is a 360-degree transmedia arts, entertainment and media production company that develops and produces innovative properties designed for transmedia and cross-venue platforms.

https://bridgeartsmedia.com/

Vortex Immersion: DFW Co-founder Ed Lantz’s company lives on the edge of LIVE immersive experience development, specializing in the creation of dome venues and 360º distribution.

https://vortexdomes.com/

Experience 360°: DFW Founder Ryan Moore’s company Experience 360°, a Virtual Experience Design Studio that currently focuses on producing fully spherical, ultra-high definition 360° media for current VR devices, is donating funds and time, as well as processing of all the video presentations.

https://www.wemake360.com/

Festoon Software: Festoon Software, which eliminated the need for a physical dome or planetarium so content creators can develop and test their shows remotely from anywhere in the world, has donated its software for us by DFW’s judges. In addition, the company is also giving away a software subscription to all award winners.

https://www.festoonsoftware.com/

Nest Immersion: Nest Immersion is a software company that specializes in 360° content creation, software development, and immersive audio-visual installations. Nest will be giving away licenses to all award winners. 

https://nestimmersion.ca/

Mesmerica: Mesmerica 360 is a fully immersive music and art cinematic projection show for planetariums and giant screen theaters by visionary musician James Hood, currently selling out in theatres across the United States.  The show features 360 projections and stunning 7.1 surround sound. Mesmerica will be screening at OCC in November 2022. 

https://www.jameshood.com/mesmerica360

Interesting Side Note:
During July 8-22, 2022, Dome Fest West presented the World’s Very First-Ever Dome Film Festival in the Metaverse. The two-week event was hosted in Domelandia, a metaverse world created by Vortex Immersion Media’s community circle on the AltspaceVR platform. The festival screened 17 films in 3 categories and received over 8,000 visits from participants across the globe.

The festival’s Executive Director Ryan Moore said, “The metaverse allows us to reach a much larger audience than our place-based festival. We love showcasing the work of these pioneering artists who are shaping what promises to become next-gen entertainment.”

Adds Worldbuilder and producer Ed Lantz, CEO of Vortex, “Immersive dome theaters offer powerful experiences that transcend ordinary TV, cinema and mobile media. That’s why Madison Square Garden Entertainment is sinking $1.7billion into the largest dome in Vegas. However, many people do not have access to dome theaters, which are largely confined to planetariums and science centers which prefer educational programming. Entering a metaverse dome with a $300 Meta Quest headset is the closest you can come to the real thing.”

About DOME FEST WEST FOUNDERS:

Ryan Moore
Dome Fest West Executive Director/Founder Ryan Moore is also the founder of Experience 360°, a Burbank-based Virtual Experience Design Studio that has been creating branded and narrative immersive content since 2015. Moore’s diverse career within the film production arena includes experimental branded content (for clients Disney, Toyota and GoPro;) TV commercials (for clients Pepsi and Jack In The Box;) music festival coverage (for client Fuse Media;) and Reality TV projects (including the series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Ed Lantz
DFW Co-Founder Ed Lantz is an immersive media entrepreneur, engineer, producer and experience designer. Lantz left aerospace engineering in 1990 to transform traditional planetariums into immersive visualization environments, designing over a dozen dome theaters worldwide including Egypt’s Library of Alexandria Planetarium, Domodigital at Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City, and the National Space Centre in Leicester, UK.  He sees modern digital domes as “digital temples of transformation” for their ability to combine art and science to create compelling immersive journeys, performances and experiences with positive impact. His company Vortex Immersion Media develops immersive media venues and experiences for clients and audiences worldwide.

Kate McCallum
DFW Co-Founder Kate McCallum is an award-winning multi-media producer/writer, with 20 years background at NBCUniversal and Paramount Studios. She is also the founder of c3: Center for Conscious Creativity, a 501c3 whose mission is to “Create a better future through the power of arts, media and storytelling,” and Bridge Arts Media, a media development and production company. McCallum produces full-dome and immersive content, served six years on the Producers Guild of America New Media Council, is a member of the TV Academy, and recently co-authored Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media.

About DOME FEST WEST
Launched in Fall 2021, Dome Fest West is an immersive Dome film festival and conference designed to introduce the global immersive Dome filmmaking community to Hollywood’s new, up-and-coming content creators.

Presenting “The World’s Best Dome Media that Exists Today,” Dome Fest West annually showcases full-dome film screenings, new technology presentations, industry panels, interactive workshops and exclusive parties. Immersive filmmakers from around the globe attend the festival each year – an event which has been designed to take immersive Dome content “to the next level.”

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