VR Community Kaleidoscope Joins 1stAveMachine

Production company 1stAveMachine is amplifying its revered storytelling prowess by joining forces with renowned VR community and platform Kaleidoscope to form a new partnership focused on branded VR content.

With this newly formed alliance, 1stAveMachine’s venerable roster of 30+, linear directors will be teamed up with Kaleidoscope’s wide array of 150 artists and directors. Together they will craft VR-centric films, art, games and other engaging experiences for agencies seeking to provide brands with an immersive, innovative style of promotion. “For many brands, VR is a new field, and we are providing a place where that experimentation can happen confidently within a proven pipeline,” 1stAve EP/Partner Sam Penfield explains.

Kaleidoscope artists are known for crafting some of the most award-winning, buzzed-about VR experiences in recent years including Notes on Blindness, Butts, Chocolate and Drawing Room. Kaleidoscope, originally built as a VR arts community, now aims to expand their capabilities and reach by partnering with 1stAveMachine to pioneer VR experiences for brands. “Kaleidoscope’s mission is to give VR creators the resources and support they need to do their best work,” says CEO/Co-Founder René Pinnell. “By partnering with 1stAveMachine, we hope to provide our artists opportunities for great creative projects, and provide agencies with the exciting opportunity to create amazing virtual reality experiences that embody the emotional core of a brand.”

Led by Pinnell along with 1stAveMachine’s Geller and EP/Partner Sam Penfield, the newly formed partnership is already at work on a retail experience for a leading VR headset brand, with many more opportunities opening up in the process. “We are now set up for full interactive gaming and experiential production, live action and animation narrative projects as well as mobile 360 production,” 1stAve EP/Head of Content Andrew Geller states. “We are not focused on any genre in particular, but just want to make killer, award-winning branded VR work.”