Round Table: XR Filmmaking: Charlotte Mikkelborg and Rory Mitchell

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      "name": "Rory Mitchell",
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      "details": "Los Angeles born and bred, Rory Mitchell is an XR Director with a background in theater and documentary.  His work explores contemporary social, cultural and community-based issues with awe at the complexities of interdependence and joy at the intersection of Humanism and Technology. His work has screened at SXSW, New Images Festival in Paris, Cannes Film Festival, The Nieuwe Instituut in the Netherlands, BIFAN, Slamdance and elsewhere.\r\r\r\rHis most recent project THE TENT, an Augmented Reality tabletop narrative, premiered at SXSW ‘24 before going on to tour the world, 15 cities across 3 continents, was translated into Korean, French and German and won a Silver Medal for “Best Narrative/Story of 2024” from XR Must magazine.  \r\r\r\rAfter beginning his career directing live theater, he worked in television at NBCUniversal before becoming involved with the Echo Park Historical society and becoming fascinated with researching the built environment of Los Angeles.  This led to a series of articles and discoveries about the cities understanding of the History of Sunset Boulevard, which led to a well received series of short documentaries about the same.  \r\r\r\rHe then began producing short documentaries for non-profits in Los Angeles, which led to him being the Los Angeles Producer for the PBS Series “One Day in the American City” in which he produced shoots for 150 short documentaries on a single day across the city.  He has produced traditional framed documentary and video work for the Los Angeles City Council, CicLAVia, the L.A. Bioscience Hub, and various other art and cultural institutions in Los Angeles.  \r\r\t   \r\rIn 2015 Mitchell founded his first VR Company, Beard & Glasses VR, to bring his theater and documentary practices into the exciting new field of Virtual Reality, which he had become fascinated by during its first coming in the 90’s.  His first cinematic 360° narrative, “The Visigoths” (written by Martha Marion) was an intimate romantic drama putting the viewer feet away from a young couple falling in, and out, of love. \r\r\r\rHe went on to direct and produce 360°VR documentaries for a variety of Los Angeles organizations, including CicLAVia, Institute for Contemporary Art L.A., and a series of documentaries for the Department of Cultural Affairs about the artists of the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial. \r\r\r\rIn 2019, he wrote and directed a 360°VR Documentary called “Diverse & Subversive: The Anti-Gentrification of Boyle Heights” in which he embedded with radical activists protesting gentrification using black bloc style tactics.  It uses the power of XR to tackle complex, interdependent, community based issues, by placing the viewers at the various nexus points of gentrification, from the front lines of the protest, to the bedrooms of activists and inside the white-walled art galleries so they could see for themselves the human complications of gentrification. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, has been taught in colleges and has been watched around the world, inspiring activism from Hong Kong to New York City.\r\r\r\rIn 2020 he founded The Mercantile Agency, a creative agency and production company producing branded documentaries and marketing videos as well as 360° videos, AR and VR for Fortune 500 companies, tech startups and other businesses and brands that want to change the world.  \r\r\r\rHis commercial VR work includes 360° documentaries about the history of the Los Angeles River, a tour of the Ketel One Distillery, a 360° commercial of Cascadian Farms for General Mills, Star Wars Galaxies Edge at Disneyland for Disney’s internal advertising Agency, Yellow Shoes, and many others. \r\r\r\rHe is currently in production on a VR Documentary about the Los Angeles Fires, OUT OF THE ASHES, which he is co-Directing and EPing along with Nonny de la Peña. \r\r\r\rMitchell lives in Los Angeles with his wife and young daughter.",
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      "name": "Charlotte Mikkelborg",
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      "details": "A relentless innovator, Mikkelborg has been directing critically-acclaimed film and immersive entertainment since 2015. Mikkelborg recently Series Directed live action series ADVENTURE (Apple TV Originals for Apple Vision Pro, 2024-2025) and is currently directing a major music project.\r\r\r\rPrevious work includes developing the TV series 'Changing Fortunes of the Mediterranean' (Ace Pictures Entertainment for Disney+) and her interactive/immersive work ranges from interactive live action (ESCAPE TO SHANGHAI, Official Selection SXSW 2024), to immersive dome experiences (THE JOURNEY, Cine Golden Eagle Award), to the world's first multi-sensory augmented reality narrative game TIME DETECTIVES (SXSW Innovation Award 2023) to real time rendered location based experience FLY created with Neil Corbould's Oscar winning special effects team (Gladiator, Gravity) and starring Joanna Froggatt (Downton Abbey). FLY had a sell out run in London's Saatchi Gallery and was WINNER of the Lumieres Award Best VR Entertainment, WINNER Best Documentary Experience 2020 at Raindance Film Festival and WINNER Best Immersive experience 2020 as voted by the UK Government. \r\r\r\rLauded by Vice as one of the “female creators revolutionising how we see the world”. Mikkelborg first gained recognition as a BBC foreign correspondent but has more recently become known for her work directing and producing critically acclaimed film and immersive experiences. Charlotte has worked on projects for leading entertainment, music, commercial and social impact clients including Apple, Disney, British Airways and the United Nations.\r\r\r\rCharlotte is chair of Oxford University Media Committee, a film mentor at SXSW, University College London's Immersive Media MA and previously the Youtube Creator's Lab.\r\r\r\rSelective filmography\r\r2023-2025 Series Director Adventure\r\r2023 Director 'Escape to Shanghai' (official selection SXSW 2024)\r\r2022 Writer/Director/EP Narrative AR experience Time Detectives (WINNER SXSW Innovation Award 2023)\r\r2020-2022 Producer VR series (Hi)Story of a Painting (WINNER Best Immersive Storytelling SXSW 2022)\r\r2019 Writer/Director/Producer interactive, multisensory narrative Fly (starting Joanna Froggatt - Downton Abbey). (WINNER of the Lumieres Award for Best VR Entertainment, WINNER Best Documentary Experience 2020 at Raindance Film Festival, WINNER Best Immersive Experience 2020 UK).\r\r2018 Director/Producer 360 experience The Journey. (WINNER of the 61st Cine Golden Eagle Award, Best VR Short)\r\r2017 Director/Producer 360 film Born into Exile (FINALIST 60th Cine Golden Eagle Award)",
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  "description": "An extension of our popular Mentor Sessions, our Round Table Sessions not only allow attendees to learn from the industry experts that sit at each of the three tables in this session but they also allow attendees to learn from the questions and experiences of their peers as well. This Round Table Session will bring together industry experts and SXSW attendees for an enlightening discussion on XR Filmmaking.",
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