Virtual reality bites: How Perth tech gave one movie producer ‘the most engrossing cinematic experience in years’

I must admit that it was with some trepidation that I approached the latest virtual reality offering at the WA Museum Boola Bardip, The Great Kimberley Wilderness.

I wasn’t impressed with a VR documentary I saw several years ago, and as a consequence have not kept up with the developments in the field. I was further put off by a knowledgeable fellow journalist who quipped on the way into the media screening that he didn’t think the technology was worth bothering with.

Luke Hemsworth filming for The Great Kimberley Wilderness.Credit: White Spark Pictures

Thirty-five minutes later the media pack stepped out of the screening — or stumbled, as though we’d been flying alongside a helicopter as it zoomed over the red Kimberley landscape and through the breathtaking otherworldly gorges — completely overwhelmed by a full-immersion cinematic adventure that is as close being there as imaginable.

Sitting in the swivel chairs in the purpose-built museum theatre, we quickly found ourselves rubber-necking like crazy so as not to miss a thing in this eye-popping 360 degree environment, an experience so immersive you forget you’re in a room in Northbridge and not on an actual Kimberley adventure.

The filmmakers have also recruited some very entertaining guides, with actor Luke Hemsworth as the overall host and a group of specialists and traditional owners completing the picture with scientific and cultural insights delivered so naturally it ceases to feel like a lecture and more like a travelling companion pointing out all the really cool stuff.

My suspicion that this technology was taking us somewhere we hadn’t been before — quite literally in this instance — was confirmed when WA producer James Grandison contacted me out of the blue and assailed me with an impassioned appreciation of The Great Kimberley Wilderness and its director and co-producer Briege Whitehead.

“It was completely blown away,” said Grandison, whose producing credits include Blueback and the upcoming Nicolas Cage action-comedy The Surfer.

“I was expecting an informative documentary about a beautiful part of our state. What we got was completely unexpected.

“It was the most engrossing cinematic experience I’ve had in years. I found myself thinking about it for days afterwards.”

Interestingly, we get a glimpse of Whitehead and her crew hovering in the background of the documentary as they watch one of the presenters speaking to the audience in such an intimate fashion it feels as if they’re speaking to you personally. It makes you feel less like a viewer, more like you were there at the moment of filming.

“The technology is astounding, but that’s not what makes The Great Kimberley Wilderness so great,” argues Grandison.

“It is simply a wonderful piece of cinema that utilises technology. It’s informative, it’s emotional, it’s inspiring. It reminded me of when the Lumiere brothers first showed a train hurtling toward the audience and everyone was ducking and diving and leaving the cinema. It is that remarkable.”

What has elevated this VR experience, which runs at the WA Museum Boola Bardip and until next April, is the patented technology developed by Whitehead’s Perth-based company White Spark Pictures called Surround Sync.

The early iterations of VR in theatres was extremely alienating, with the audience members trapped in their own world wearing goggles and headphones. Surround Sync means the entire audience is enveloped by the same surround sound, creating the kind of communal experience we’re used to at the multiplexes.

“It is just like when you sit in a cinema, and you hear the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of the audience or talking to each other or yelling, ‘Look behind you!’,” Whitehead tells me.

The Great Kimberley Wilderness director and co-producer Briege Whitehead.Credit: Mark Naglazas

“This is something VR hasn’t been able to deliver before. And we can link it to hundreds, if not thousands of headsets to make a truly mass experience.

“VR is a familiar technology, but nobody but us is doing it as a shared theatrical experience. We developed the technology here in Perth. Apple is doing a 180-degree experience, which has its place. But there is nothing to match the 360-degree experience we’re offering.”

Whitehead is confident that the technology she is playing a key role in developing will soon be used in populist mainstream filmmaking.

In other words, one day we won’t simply be watching Robert Oppenheimer develop the atomic bomb but standing beside him during the first test, or sitting on the Wicked Witch of the North’s broomstick as she flies over Munchkinland.

“We call it storyliving, not storytelling,” Whitehead says.

“Marvel has already moved into this space with their series What If … ? for Apple Vision Pro. And we have our own narrative series in development. I think it offers filmmakers an incredible new way of engaging with their audience.”

Whitehead says The Great Kimberley Wilderness took time to complete because of the consulting process. However, the relationships White Spark formed meant they were able to access parts of the Kimberley that would be difficult for the average traveller – or are simply out of bounds.

“We wanted it to be collaborative from the get-go,” she says.

“We consulted with traditional owners, community groups and shires. The collaboration allowed us to go to some amazing places, such as landing a helicopter on top of King George Falls, which travellers are not allowed to do.”

Cherylene Noketta on location at Purnululu National Park. Credit: White Spark Pictures

For all the talk of technology, Whitehead is quick to bring the discussion back to content, which she believes is the key to the mass acceptance of VR.

She will follow up her Kimberley documentary with pieces on humpback whales and the Kermadec Islands for the WA Museum Boola Bardip, the National Museum and the Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Museum, who have all invested in the trilogy of projects.

“I believe what we have achieved with The Great Kimberley Wilderness is bringing together authentic informative storytelling with an engaging, entertaining visual and aural experience,” she says.

“And at the moment it can only be seen here in Perth.”

The Great Kimberley Wilderness is on at the WA Museum Boola Bardip until April 28.

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