LOROS Hospice has announced one of the world’s first ‘VR for good’ film competitions with a significant cash prize.
LOROS Hospice, which cares for over 2,500 terminally ill patients across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland each year, has been developing its use of virtual reality with its patients and their families.
Through the use of virtual reality (VR) glasses, patients are transported to a whole new environment, one where they can move around freely and chat and reminisce with friends and families.
The I Experience VR competition, which has a ‘Best of the Best’ top prize of £6,000, aims to attract a wide variety of immersive films, all designed to provide LOROS Hospice patients with a short therapeutic respite from their current reality. The prize money has been kindly provided by a generous private donor.
The LOROS VR project has been developed in partnership with CATS are not PEAS, a critically acclaimed VR production company.
The I Experience VR competition is free to enter and will be judged in a number of different categories including indoor, outdoor, historical and musical. The hospice hopes to attract the best and the brightest VR filmmaking talent to apply.
LOROS CEO John Knight: “This is a really exciting project for us, and I believe we are the first Hospice in the country to develop our own VR project, I Experience VR, with the help of CATS are not PEAS.
“It has huge potential for patients, carers and families, to bring an interesting escape, a welcome distraction, a therapeutic experience or simply a bit of entertainment.”
Alex Rühl, director of CATS are not PEAS, said: “We’re really delighted to be involved with this competition – we think it’s a world first for a VR for Good film competition and it’s an opportunity to really harness the true power of virtual reality for those who need it most. “We’re looking for some mesmerizing 360 experiences. Beautiful landscapes, creative storytelling and never before seen access. We want these films to be therapeutic and easy to experience so we’re looking for technical excellence with terminally ill users in mind.
“I’d like to invite all filmmakers to get involved and be in with a chance to win a huge cash prize, as well as using their skills for good.”
The competition will run from Monday 24th September to midnight on Friday 23rd November 2018. In addition to the five top prizes, all entries judged to be taken forwards for inclusion in the I Experience VR library will all receive a Laurel in recognition of the high quality of their film and its potential to benefit Hospice patients.
For full details on the competition categories, rules, guidelines and entry information, please visit loros.co.uk/vrcomp
