Educator, artist, and innovator in the field of immersive media, Benjamin Seide brings to the River Film Festival his unique experience at the intersection of art, technology, and cinematic memory. From virtual reality to full-dome installations, and visual effects for Hollywood pro-ductions, his masterclass will be a journey through future visions and reimaginings of the past.

We interviewed Mr. Seide on his new project on Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage:

The Visual Effects for Hugo have been recognised by the highest authorities in motion picture art: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscar), USA, 2012 Won Best Achievement in Visual Effects, Visual Effects Society (VES), USA, 2012 Won Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture, Phoenix Film Critics Society, USA, 2011 Won Best Special Visual Effects.

The Visual Effects had an enormous impact on Game of Thrones’s success. Dragons, ghosts and mythical mediaeval environments had to be created entirely as effects and integrated in a realistic and believable way. The Visual Effects work has been recognised by the highest authorities in television art: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy), USA, 2012 Winner of the award for Best Visual Effects Visual Effects Society (VES), USA, 2012 Winner for Best Visual Effects in a Television Programme Best Visual Effects Visual Effects Society (VES), USA, 2012 Winner for Best Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Film Phoenix Film Critics Society, USA, 2011 Winner for Best Visual Effects. The work on visual effects has been recognised by the highest authorities in the television industry: Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences (Emmy), USA, 2012 Winner of the award for Best Visual Effects Visual Effects Society (VES), USA, 2012 Winner for Best Visual Effects in a Television Programme.

Benjamin Seide, educator, researcher, vfx expert and media artist, lives in Singapore and researches in the field of animation and immersive media. In the 1990s, Seide shot his first interactive 360˚ film with a selfdeveloped camera and explored representations in virtual space in his work „Paramatrix“. His work as a visual effects artist from the 2000s contributed to Art House and Hollywood films, including Wim Wender’s “Don’t Come Knocking”, Roman Polanski’s “Oliver Twist” and Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”. For his work on the HBO series Game of Thrones, he received „Honors for Contributions to the Emmy Award Winning Achievement“ from the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences. From 2009 to 2013 Seide lived and worked in Shanghai and created the award-winning immersive experience of the General Motors World Expo pavilion. Currently his projects investigate artistic interpretation of cultural and film heritage in immersive media.

HB