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Listeners of the podcast already know a great range of the kinds of businesses XR has applications for. But one business we don’t talk about a lot is the business of making movies. Filmmaker Kevin Kunze pops in to help fill that void, and talk about some of his adventures in XR filmmaking.

Alan: Hey, everyone, this is Alan from the XR for Business Podcast. Today’s guest is Kevin Kunze, an award-winning interactive filmmaker based out of Berkeley, California. We’ll be talking about making an AR video with Will.i.am, creating art with Intel, and delivering on the promise of VR and AR with the San Francisco 49ers, San Jose Sharks, YouTube, and more. All that coming up on the XR for Business Podcast.

Kevin, welcome to the show, my friend.

Kevin: Thank you very much for having me.

Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure. I’ve been so excited about this. You are making some of the coolest VR experiences. You’re an award-winning interactive filmmaker. I want to just give you the platform to tell us all the cool stuff that you’re working on.

Kevin: Sure. So, over the past couple years, we’ve done a lot of different VR work, ranging from filming the 49ers — Colin Kaepernick’s last season with them — to the San Jose Sharks. Getting guys just like crunched against the glass in VR, seeing those front row seats. It’s something that’s many sports fans’ wildest dreams. We’re also currently working on projects that are more in the restorative justice side of things. I’m working on a VR series about an African-American filmmaker, Kevin Epps. He’s kind of like the Spike Lee of San Francisco, is what a lot of people say, but he works mainly in documentary. And three years ago he got involved in an incident that SFPD at the time said was self-defense shooting. And now three years later, he’s been re-arrested and they’re saying it’s murder. And he was recently got out of bail. I actually picked him up from the jail and drove him home. And so I’ve been documenting his experience and his family’s experience in VR, because it is the empathy platform and it’s the medium that many people will see things different.

And basically, this is a series that can also be shown in standard video format. We plan to go online with it on Amazon or Netflix and present it like that, and then have it be an additional thing that maybe Netflix or Amazon has on their platform in the Oculus or HTC. And then you can see it in 3D and in full peripheral, and maybe giving people access to additional footage as well. For instance, I had the idea of making an interactive feature, where you are doing interviews with some of these high profile people. For instance, we have this great rapper, Mistah F.A.B., who we interviewed, and he’s known Kevin since he’s about like 18, 19 years old. And he is so eloquent with all of his language. He’s like one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever interviewed. And so giving the access of this footage that normally you would not use in the final product, this five-part series. And normally editors would put this on DVD deleted scenes or they just put in the trash, they put it on a hard drive. And it would never see the light of day. And instead, my idea would be that you take this footage and make an interactive app, where you’re in the headset and you actually have cue cards around you and can ask these questions. In a way you become the investigator; the interviewer.

Alan: Cool. So how is it interactive? Is it just like a pop-up gaze control or…?

Kevin: Yeah, I mean, maybe it could be gaze controlled if we want to go through like Yo