Adelaide tech company Monkeystack has teamed up with adventurer Tim Jarvis to take you to Antarctica — virtually

An Adelaide virtual reality film is set to take South Australians to Antarctica and it’ll warn about the dangers of climate change at the same time — WATCH THE FIRST VIDEO DEMO.

• Adelaide explorer Tim Jarvis is climbing mountains on the equator
• Lunch with epic Antarctic adventurer Tim Jarvis

For someone not familiar with the hi-tech universe of virtual reality — or to be honest, even home video games — the sudden immersion into a completely new world when the goggles go on is a little disconcerting.

There is even a small moment when my balance seems out of whack as I suddenly find myself perched high in the sky looking at the mountains and ice of South Georgia, a small island on the edge of Antarctica in the South Atlantic.

But the sensation soon passes.

The trick, as I was warned it would be, is to find a spot to focus on then look around by moving your head rather than just your eyes.

And when you become used to your surrounds it really is quite remarkable. Aside from the fact it’s not intensely cold, it feels as close as I can imagine to setting foot in this wild spot.

But this is just a taste of what is possible with Thin Ice, a fledgling VR film with two missions. First it puts you in one of the greatest true adventure stories of all time, right in the footsteps of British explorer Ernest Shackleton during his legendary 1916 survival journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

But second is a serious message, and the point of the film’s title — the world is under threat from climate change.

Tim Jarvis during his 2018 trek to South Georgia. Picture: Miles Rowland.

Thin Ice has been created by Adelaide animator Monkeystack, but so far there’s only a two-minute promo which the company wants to develop into a 30-minute documentary.

But it needs more money and is trying to raise as much as $1 million to complete the film.

Another man to complete Shackleton’s journey is Adelaide-based adventurer Tim Jarvis.

He has returned to South Georgia to help film the island for Monkeystack with National Geographic photographer Doug Gimesy.

Jarvis is an Antarctic veteran and says he was taken aback by just how realistic the VR experience is.

One scene in particular moves him.

The sight of Shackleton’s ship Endurance trapped in the pack ice of Elephant Island, with the sailors making camp in the shadow of the stricken ship gave even Jarvis a fresh view.

“That pack ice was there (when Jarvis travelled to Elephant Island), obviously the Endurance wasn’t. Now, it’s there with all the voices and (people) moving around the place. Considering how often I have told the story of Shackleton, I am really almost seeing it in a new light myself. You look at the footage and you realise what precarious looks like.’’

What Monkeystack director Justin Wight says what the company is doing as a “world-first”. “With the appropriate funding, we could create a deeper level of immersion for the user and an opportunity for them to move around a location, even picking up objects and to have Tim Jarvis and Ernest Shackleton talk to them,’’ Wight says.

The splendour of South Georgia. Picture: Miles Rowland.

The images are captured in a variety of ways.

A 360 degree camera was used as well as a process called photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is a software process that takes multiple photographs as an input and produces a 3D model of a real-world scene.

Volumetric capture is also used which films people, objects and movement in a three dimensional space.

“Rather than invent the technology, we will amend it and adapt it,’’ he says.

“We have captured and now the task for the next 12 months or so is to tell that story with you on the ground with someone next to you.’’

That someone would be an actor playing Shackleton, or Tim Jarvis, guiding you from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

Some of the spectacular scenary on South Georgia. Picture: Miles Rowland.

The story though is more than just a tale of adventure and derring-do. What Jarvis wants to impart is knowledge about the effects climate change is having on the planet. Educating people about climate change has been a driving force for Jarvis in recent years.

His 25Zero campaign highlighted 25 mountains on the equator which will lose their glaciers over the next quarter of a century due to the warming of the planet. But he feels the use of technology will help make his message much more real.

“I am in the business of making often intangible things real to people,’’ Jarvis says.

“You can’t see CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. If we can make it real to people and AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are really the closest we can get without actually going there, then you can get people to buy into it. Or be better educated.

“My hope is we can really communicate both to kids and the public the real urgency around the issue of climate change by showing this stuff in an immersive way.’’

Tim Jarvis. Picture: Miles Rowland.

Jarvis cites as an example a documentary called Waves of Grace which was a collaboration between a technology company called Vrse and the United Nations to make a VR film which brought home the horrors of the deadly ebola disease in Liberia.

“Tough, uncompromising, seen-it-all-before policy people put on a headset and there were tears,” he says. “Funding flowed towards that issue as a result because people really saw it.’’

Wight says Thin Ice is aimed at “tech savvy young adults and teenagers’’.

The plan is to sell the finished films into schools, universities, museums and art and science galleries.

But they are also aiming wider. Talks are being held with the ABC about an Australian distribution deal.

Partners signed up for the project so far include Torrens University Australia, Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation, One Ocean and Kathmandu.

There is hope it could be included in next year’s Adelaide Film Festival. An app will be built as well. It could be sold on gaming platforms such as PlayStation or the Microsoft store.

Over time Wight believes the VR goggles will improve. They will be cheaper and less clunky. It will all become very normal.

“You can share it with other people in your loungeroom, turn your carpet into a glacier and have Shackleton sit next to you. While you are drinking a beer.’’