B-Reel Creates Online Experience for 'Gravity'

On October 4, Warner Bros. will release the much-anticipated space thriller Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a pair of astronauts stranded in space. Award-winning integrated production company B-Reel has created a unique online experience for the film that viscerally conveys both the awesome beauty and the terrifying vastness of the final frontier.

By adapting the actual 3D models that were used in the film, the B-Reel team created the mesmerizing “Spacewalk,” a WebGL 3D experience that enables visitors to take a solitary first-person voyage through space and visit the main locations shown in the film.

“More than anything else, Gravity is about being lost in the immensity of space,” says Emily Fife, Digital Producer at B-Reel. “With that in mind, we decided the best way to complement the film was not to ‘gamify’ the web experience, but rather to recreate the feeling of being utterly alone in the infinite. For that reason, we made Spacewalk more about simple navigation between the locations, using sound design and camera moves to highlight moments of panic and awe.”

The Gravity website includes a “Helmet Cam” tool that allows visitors to snap pictures from their own perspective at any point while they travel through the space environment, resulting in unique pieces of content that they can share on social platforms. For an even more personal experience, a soon-to-be-launched “Space Selfie” feature allows the user to place themselves inside a spacesuit from the film with dynamic reflections of the WebGL space environment on their helmet, creating a shareable self-portrait from space.

Credits

Client: Warner Bros.

Production Company: B-Reel