From 16 to 18 March 2017, the French Institute of Lebanon, Berytech, and Beirut Creative Cluster co-organized the first Virtual Reality hack-a-thon of its kind in Lebanon.
Four teams were invited and given 48 hours to script, shoot, edit and complete a short film using a 360º VR Camera and the Wonda VR editing tools, under the supervision of the two talented French experts: Arnault Labaronne and Florian Pannetier.
For the next two days they worked intensely, to develop a concept, write a script, shoot the scenes, stitch the images, edit their videos, and finalize their virtual reality movies. After 2 almost-sleepless nights, the teams managed to deliver in time.
“We had the knowledge about VR and 360 degree shooting but it was always at the theoretical stage,” said one participant Robin Eid.
At the annual Journée internationale de la Francophonie, which this year had a focus on art and technology, the winning team Evadez-vous (‘break free’ in English), received $1,000 in cash prize.
The VR experiences produced during Beirut’s hackathon will benefit from a great exposure since they will be published in Wonda VR Lab, an application gathering all the movies shot during the Wonda VR 48h Film Jam World Tour.
