Nokia Technologies continues to connect Hollywood studios with its Ozo 360-degree camera. The tech company signed Sony Pictures to a multi-year worldwide agreement that allows it to use Ozo hardware and software tools to create filmed and livestreamed content for the growing number of virtual reality platforms, including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Google Daydream and PlayStation VR.

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Ghostbusters Is Hiring mobile VR game

Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a variety of VR experiences, including the Ghostbusters Dimension at Madame Tussauds live-action experience and the Ghostbusters Is Hiring virtual reality game. Sony also created live-action 360 experiences based on theatrical releases Goosebumps and The Walk.

Nokia will collaborate with Sony Pictures and provide equipment and VR technology to support the creation of special VR content. Sony Pictures will also leverage Ozo Live to transport fans to special events that they can’t otherwise attend. Ozo Live allows content creators to produce fully immersive live experiences through 3D 360-degree video and audio playback technologies.

“Partnerships with cutting-edge technology companies like Nokia are critical as we develop the market for VR experiences and build scale in our production and distribution efforts,” said Pete Wood, SVP of digital sales at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Scot Barbour, vice president, production technology at Sony Pictures said, “Nokia’s Ozo camera and its suite of professional tools are an excellent solution for content creators because they seamlessly integrate into established production processes and workflows, and enable the real-time capture and broadcast of VR content.”

Moving forward, Sony Pictures could use Ozo to market directly to consumers by livestreaming events or capturing 360-degree footage on-set and create behind-the-scenes featurettes.

“The 360 possibilities are endless,” Paul Melin, vice president of digital media at Nokia Technologies, told [a]listdaily. “From the obvious promotion of the movie in 2D to a fully-immersive interactive experience inside the movie. How about things like—after the movie theater experience, what if we can see best scenes of the movie from the eyes of your favorite character? What if we can walk around in the same environment of the movie while it is playing? These are the types of creative possibilities that make VR so exciting.”

Melin said creating VR short films based on the story and characters of a movie introduces a myriad of new opportunities for a franchise. “VR can also deliver a different ending or an element of the story that wasn’t unfolded in the movie originally,” Melin said. “It can bring people into the story in from the point of view of one of the characters, allowing viewers to be fully immersed in the movie—an experience that can never be achieved in a frame.”

VR also brings fans closer to the Hollywood experience, as Nokia has done with Disney Pictures.

“We’ve livestreamed from the red carpet at movie premieres like Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass as well as the Pink concert on YouTube,” Melin said. “We are currently deploying and testing this with the over-the-top broadcasters as well as the larger broadcast community and hope to share more on these efforts in the near future.”

Sony Pictures will also integrate the Ozo Player SDK into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Privilege Plus app, available through Google Play. Privilege Plus is an Android application that allows customers to redeem and watch content included with the purchase of selected Sony Mobile devices and accessories like bundled movies or VR experiences.

Melin said the company is collaborating very closely with Hollywood studios to exploit the full potential of its VR technologies.

“Together, we are pushing the limits of VR—both from a creative/storytelling perspective and from a technology perspective and we incorporate their feedback in our product roadmap,” Melin said.

Nokia Technologies has partnerships with Disney and Sony, and works with many of the leading VR studios like Here be Dragons, Magnopus, MPC and Reel FX.

“We recently won the Proto award for best live-action with Argos, which we produced with Magnopus,” Melin said. “We also created one of the best VR experiences to date with Universal Music Group and OneRepublic: a music video for the new hit ‘Kids.’”

Melin said Ozo not only supports 360, but it also enables the delivery of 3D immersive experience for multiple platforms and hardware including Oculus, HTC, PlayStation VR as well as newer and emerging ones such as Lenovo, Microsoft and others.

“This emerging audience is growing exponentially as more and more users are buying devices, including Daydream,” Melin added.

Melin said Nokia is learning through its partnerships with the Hollywood studios that storytelling doesn’t have to be limited to one take and fixed camera positions.

“New shooting techniques are being created and used as a result of Ozo’s form factor and on-board recording capability,” Melin said. “A great example is OneRepublic’s ‘Kids video. The story unfolded as the camera was moved on a cable cam from the boy’s room to the girl’s room and then to the street—allowing the director to guide the viewer in 360 by moving them to different locations, yet still able to have the freedom to look wherever they like.”

Other techniques include using Ozo in very remote areas that require battery-operated solutions, as well compositing special effects like Oscar-winner Magnopus employed with the Argos video. In the Argos video, the viewer becomes the murder victim and relives his memory in point-of-view. Ozo also operates as stand-alone, fully-contained device that can be flown on a drone.

“The full potential of VR will be best realized by providing the most creative minds, storytellers and production teams the professional tools to explore the medium,” Melin said. “Others are providing production-for-hire platforms that enable content creation but are not necessarily giving the creative community the opportunity to fully explore what VR can bring to their content.”

In addition, Melin said Ozo provides a real-time VR preview that enables live use with multiple cameras like at Austin City Limits, where up to 10 cameras streaming live at the same time enabled the viewer to instantly go to all those locations.