Tim Haines’ Loud Minds & White Spark in Oz partner for immersive experiences

Surround Sync (Source: White Spark)

Tim Haines’ London-based prodco Loud Minds has struck a partnership with Australia’s White Spark Pictures to respond to increased demand for VR and immersive experiences.

The agreement will see Loud Minds and White Spark working together on shows, building on the UK’s firm’s interest in adding to its cross-platform capabilities with ancillary immersive screen experiences and live events for its IP.

The company is currently in production on Surviving Earth, an eight-part series for Universal Television Alternative Studio that visits eight dramatic mass extinction moments throughout Earth’s history.

LR: Mark Popkiewicz, Tim Haines, Briege Whitehead

Perth-based White Spark, founded by filmmaker Briege Whitehead, built its own 360-degree cameras and post-production pipelines to create immersive experiences and has completed two VR films – The Antarctica Experience and Beyond The Milky Way.

The Antarctica Experience is Australia’s most commercially successful VR film and ranks within the top five theatrically released documentaries in Australia (by ticket receipts) of all time.

Haines said: “So much of my earlier work, and that currently in development at Loud Minds, is the sort of high concept content with great storytelling that lends itself to a companion VR or themed immersive experience. Demand is increasing all the time, and as technology continues to develop, White Spark Pictures will help us extend our TV brands across a variety of new platforms.”

Whitehead added: “Our passion for VR filmmaking comes from a desire to take audiences to places they would otherwise find difficult to visit. Now, working with the impressive creative minds of Tim and his talented team, we will be able to explore whole new worlds – developed with CGI, animation, and other cutting-edge techniques – to place audiences front and centre in some incredible new stories about our planet.”

Mark Popkiewicz, director of Loud Minds, added that the agreement “allows us to generate a great deal more value around the IP we create and could ultimately prove a game-changer for this nascent sector of the content industry.”

White Spark last year launched technology business Surrond Sync, which aims to allow hundreds of viewers to experience virtual reality experiences at the same time.