Toronto getting taste of Nunavut
New virtual reality film showing at international film festival
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Monday, September 5, 2016
IQALUIT
A new film is going to bring Nunavut to Toronto - sort of. Part video game, part film, Glori is a 360-degree plunge into virtual reality that will take viewers at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to Iqaluit with the help of a virtual reality (VR) headset and technology normally reserved for Candy Crush and photographs of food.
Nyla Innuksuk tries out an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. - photo courtesy of Nyla Innuksuk |
"Virtual reality is basically if you take film and video games and mash them together. It actually feels as if you're in that space," said producer Nyla Innuksuk. "So people, when they first try virtual reality, a lot of them actually will reach out in front of them because it feels so immersive."
Born in Iglulik, Innuksuk lived in Iqaluit as a child, where her family is still located. She runs Pinnguaq Productions, which worked with the Government of Nunavut to create the project.
Glori, a series of panoramic landscapes shot around Iqaluit, will be mixed with trailers from some of the films that have been shot in the Arctic and presented at a special Nunavut party on Sept. 11 at TIFF.
"It's kind of like a moving panoramic," said Innuksuk.
Virtual reality can be watched on a smartphone or tablet.
"Literally just pick up your phone and move your phone and explore the space that way," she said. You can also watch virtual reality on a desktop, although Innuksuk says it's less immersive.
Or, viewers can use a variety of headsets, from the Oculus Rift, which Innuksuk describes as the most immersion possible, to the Google Cardboard, a foldable headset you stick your phone inside.
"There's only a handful of people doing VR in Canada, and so it's really exciting ... I've got friends that I'm working with here in Toronto that were literally welding cameras together to just test them out. It's so funny how we're having to like build our own cameras, build our own microphones, and just doing a lot of research and development," she said.
The crew shooting the video was small - just two people in Iqaluit, Ann Tipper and Innuksuk's brother, Shawn Innuksuk - which was helpful when they had to hide from the cameras.
"Because we shoot in 360, you can see everything around you, the sky, the ground. We shoot with seven cameras all at the same time, basically the camera operator has to like hide somewhere. It's really funny actually!" she said.
That also means shooting in natural light, to avoid having lights get in a shot. That is one more reason Innuksuk says she's glad they shot in Iqaluit this summer.
"It's kind of perfect in the Arctic at this time! I know our crew were out there for like 15 hours day," she said.
She says the summertime shots contrast with what many southern viewers expect from an Arctic film.
"That's a part of Nunavut that people don't really see or they don't really think of when they think of Nunavut," she said.
The 360-degree footage was shot around Iqaluit, on the tundra, by the river, in the community and towards the Hudson Bay buildings in Apex to showcase the landscape. The film trailers included some shots from across the territory as well, including Pangintung and Iglulik.
On that list is the film she produced, Kajutaijuaq: The Spirit that Comes, which Innuksuk says may be the first Inuit horror film ever.
Innuksuk won't be alone at TIFF: her mother, Ellen Hamilton, will be there with the film she produced, Two Lovers and a Bear. And her brother, Shawn Innuksuk, has been involved in many of the films made in Nunavut.
"He works in the camera department on pretty much every film that shoots up there," she said.
Innuksuk will also be pitching a feature to be shot in Pangnirtung. "It's really cool. It's like a coming of age movie that's super scary, so it's a group of girls that chase down monsters and kill them," she said. "It's kind kind of like a Goonies-style movie."
Whether through her projects or Glori, she says the point is to remind the film industry about Nunavut. "Just to show them the beauty of the place, and also to showcase the talented filmmakers that we have in the Arctic and encourage other filmmakers and producers to consider the Arctic as a location that has a sustainable film community."
The Nunavut Party takes place in Toronto on Sept. 11 and Innuksuk says Glori will be available online and on Facebook.
