Hulu Launches Virtual Reality Application

 

Ben Smith, Head of Experience, Hulu

Today, we are excited to make the Hulu virtual reality app available and viewable on Samsung’s Gear VR powered by

Oculus. With this initial launch, we will be bringing the Hulu app that you already know and love to VR and augmenting the experience with some of the very best 360-degree video content available. We also will be launching some exciting exclusive original content. In addition,Hulu subscribers can now watch the entire Hulu 2D library in immersive 360-degree environments.

At Hulu, we are inspired by great storytelling and are passionate about evolving the art and experience of storytelling in TV and movies. 360-degree content puts you in the middle of the action and gives content creators the ability to create much deeper visual, auditory and emotional immersion. VR lets the content creators transport you into their world – to help you feel what it is like to be present, to be in the moment.

We are thrilled with the current range of VR films available to stream in the Hulu app, and will be looking to continually add more content over time. Today we have more than 25 pieces of exclusive and premium content from Baobab Studios, Discovery Communications, Las Vegas, The National Geographic Channel, RYOT, Showtime Networks, SilVR Thread, Spoke, Studio Transcendent, The Uprising Creative and Viacom available in the Hulu VR app. All 3D virtual films are available for every VR app user to experience, with or without a Hulu subscription.

The new VR app also includes Hulu’s first originally produced VR short film, “The Big One.” For the short, Hulu partnered with Lionsgate to bring Freddie Wong and his RocketJump brand into the virtual reality space. “The Big One” invites users to witness a meteor shower that soon turns into an apocalyptic nightmare.

In addition to deep immersion in content, Hulu subscribers can use the VR app to stream Hulu’s entire library of 2D content – including current season broadcast programming, libraries of classic content, hit movies and Hulu Originals – in 360-degree, fully-immersive viewing environments. Just like with VR content, the 360 degree environments in the Hulu app transport viewers into immersive settings to watch their favorite show: sitting in a comfortable living room, watching a movie in a big screen theatre, or kicking back on a scenic beach. Viewers can interact with each 360-degree environment and change the ambience which includes outside scenes, lighting and look and feel to their preference.

The Hulu VR app is currently supported on Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus, which works with the Galaxy S7/S7 edge, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge phones. Additional supported devices and platforms are coming soon.

We are at the very beginning of VR and like everyone involved in VR technology and content, we at Hulu, have a lot of learn about what makes for a great VR experience in the eyes of the viewer. We are super excited about our first steps into VR. Try it out and let us know what you think!

 

 

VR 360 Films:

The Big One

Credits: Hulu,Lionsgate,RocketJump, Legend, WEVR

It’s not every day you see a meteor shower in the daytime, but today isn’t an ordinary day. In fact, it just might be humanity’s last day on Earth…

 

Invasion!

Credits: Baobab Studios

Description: From the director of the popular “Madgascar” film series, Invasion! is an immersive VR animation short. Menacing aliens come to take over the Earth and destroy anyone that tries to stop them. However, despite the Aliens’ superior technology and firepower, the citizens of Earth are able to rise up and defeat the invaders. But these citizens of Earth aren’t humans. Instead, they are two of the cutest, sweetest, cuddliest and meekest creatures of our planet — two adorable little white bunnies.

 

MythBusters: Shark Shipwreck

Credit: Discovery VR/Discovery Communications

Description: Explore the wreck of the Ray of Hope, sunk deliberately to form an artificial reef, as Discovery Channel’s MythBusters test the theory that sharks are repelled by orca noises.

MythBusters: Sharks Everywhere

Credit: Discovery VR/Discovery Communications

Description: Adam Savage from Discovery Channel’ s MythBusters brings you as close to a shiver of sharks as you can get, without actually being there.

 

Puppy Bowl XII Highlights

Credit: Discovery VR/Discovery Communications

Description: Experience 360 degrees of cute in this Ruf f vs. Fluff puppy free-for-all from Animal Planet.

Gold Rush: Welcome to McKinnon Creek

Credit: Discovery VR/Discovery Communications

Description: Join Todd Hoffman and Freddy Dodge from Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush for a new mining season at the McKinnon Creek claim.

Survivorman: Guzzling Water

Credit: Discovery VR/Discovery Communications

Description: Survivorman’s Les Stroud invites you into the wild and explains the importance of water in survival situations.

 

Sunset Helicopter Tour of the Las Vegas Strip

Credit: Las Vegas

Hop in and buckle up for a stunning sunset tour of the iconic Las Vegas Strip, provided by Maverick Helicopters.

 

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Credit: Las Vegas

Take a cruise through the stunning Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, one of the Mojave Desert’s jewels of natural beauty. Located west of Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon features a scenic loop drive, hiking trails, climbing, horseback riding and more.

 

Gondola Ride at The Venetian Las Vegas

Credit: Las Vegas

Relive the magic of a gondola ride through The Venetian Las Vegas with this immersive 360 video!

 

3D Jaguar  – Close Encounter

Credits:  The National Geographic Channel

Description: National Geographic VR takes you into the jungles of Mexico in immersive 3D for a extremely close encounter with an elusive jaguar.

 

Encounter w Monarch Butterflies

Credits: The National Geographic Channel

Description: In eye-popping 3D, National Geographic VR plunges you into the middle of a swarm of a billion monarch butterflies. One of the most spectacular migrations on Earth, these fragile creatures have flown thousands of miles from Canada to breed in this remote forest grove in the mountains of Mexico.

 

Joshua Tree Timelapse

Credits: The National Geographic Channel

National Geographic takes you out to see the spectacular rock formations of Joshua T ree National Park as you’ve never seen them before: in spectacular 360° time-lapse. Look around you as the sun, moon and stars spin and swirl across this stunning desert landscape.

 

Yellowstone Park

Credits: The National Geographic Channel

Nat Geo WILD takes you on a virtual tour of Y ellowstone National Park’s most iconic locations.

 

A Grizzly’s Sense of Smell

Credit: The National Geographic Channel

National Geographic VR brings you up close Grizzly bears to explore their spectacular senses in immersive 3D. See how grizzlies use their noses the way we use our eyes.

 

The Crossing

Credits: RYOT & The Huffington Post

RYOT and The Huffington Post present “The Crossing,” a virtual reality film and immersive reporting series hosted by Susan Sarandon chronicling the refugee crisis as it unfolds in Greece. The shores of the Mediterranean see thousands of refugees every day who arrive on small boats, evidence for which is seen everywhere in massive piles of discarded life vests. Most of the arrivals are fleeing from Syria and Afghanistan in search of safety, economic stability, and a better life.

 

Growing Up Girl

Credits: RYOT

In this short VR film made in partnership between Bono’s ONE Campaign and RYOT, experience a day in the life of a young girl who lives on the border of Tanzania and Kenya. Narrated by the ten year old girl, the film is a visceral and sensory experience that takes the viewer with her – as she treks to collect water, as she walk miles to school, and as she embarks on her nightly pilgrimage to the nearest light source to study. The film uses a personal narrative as a window into the global issue of poverty’s effect on women and girls.

 

Act in Paris

Credits: RYOT & The Sierra Club

Narrated by Jared Leto, The Sierra Club and RYOT partnered to film the first climate change PSA in 360 virtual reality. Just two months shy of the international climate negotiations in Paris, this transports you to the front lines of climate change and urges world leaders to take meaningful action on climate.

 

For My Son

Credits: RYOT

In immersive VR, RYOT and the award-winning filmmakers behind Salam Neighbor have joined forces with UN OCHA to tell the story of a young Syrian restarting his life in Amman, Jordan. Through a heartfelt letter from father to son, challenge the misconception that refugees are a burden and experience the refugee journey from the bombed out buildings of Aleppo to the historical sites of Jordan.

 

Seeking Home

Credits: RYOT

A collaboration between RYOT and the AP, Seeking Home sheds light on one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our lifetime. The VR experience takes the audience to a sprawling encampment in Calais, France known as ‘The Jungle’ where thousands of migrants live in slum-like conditions, hoping to cross the English channel in search of a new life in Britain.

 

Jacobs vs. Quillin | 360 Virtual Reality |

SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING

Credit: Showtime Sports

Daniel “The Miracle Man” Jacobs comes out firing and stuns the Barclays Center crowd with a TKO victory over Peter Quillin 1:25 minutes into the 1st round of their WBA Middleweight World Championship on December 5, 2015.

 

Wilder vs. Szpilka Knockout | 360 Virtual Reality | SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP

BOXING

Credits: Showtime Sports

Experience Deontay Wilder defending his WBC Heavyweight Title in 360 Virtual Reality. Wilder spectacularly knocked out Artur Szpilka in the ninth round of their SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING matchup at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on January 16, 2016. In addition to a ringside view of the knockout, watch Wilder warmup in his locker room and experience the fighters’ ring walks from a first-person point of view

 

Adrenaline Rush: Learn to Freestyle

Credits: SilVR Thread

Jump into the boots of a professional freestyle skier and see through their eyes as you jump, grind, and jib through an intense terrain park in full stereoscopic 3D VR with positional sound and SilVR Thread’ s true body awareness.

 

New Wave

Credits: Spoke, Vrse.works

A young couple’s perfect day at the beach is disrupted when their true feelings are revealed. An ode to New Wave Cinema made possible by virtual reality technology. A film by Samir Mallal and Aron Hjartarson.

 

Rapid Fire:  A Brief History of Flight

Credits: Studio

Transcendent

Rapid Fire is a gorgeous cinematic journey through the history of aviation – an airshow that you could never see in real life. Witness the Wright Flyer’s first leap, dodge bullets from a WWI fighter, get buzzed by the leading-edge F22 Raptor fighter jet, and be nearly engulfed by the world’s largest plane.

 

Lip Sync Battle – Kevin Hart performs “Slam” by Onyx

Credits:

Viacom/Spike

Comedy megastar Kevin Hart whips the crowd into a frenzy and gets everyone in on the act with a performance of Onyx’s “Slam”.

 

Lip Sync Battle – Joseph Gordon-Levitt performs “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson

Credits: V iacom/Spike

Joseph Gordon-Levitt executes a perfect recreation of Janet’s iconic 1989 music video for “Rhythm Nation,” right down to the ponytail.

 

Lip Sync Battle – Josh Gad as Donald T rump performs “I Touch Myself” by The Divinyls

Credits: Viacom/Spike

Nobody loves Donald Trump more than Donald Trump, except for maybe Josh Gad and special guest Johnny Galecki (“The Big Bang Theory”) AS Donald Trump.

 

Fort Minor – “Welcome”

Credits: The Uprising Creative

The official music video for “Welcome” by Fort Minor, a project by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. Shinoda and director Jeff Nicholas join forces to create an experience that would embody the spirit of “Welcome” – a song meant to offer a sense of connection and community to the outcasts and underdogs. Filmed in Venice, CA, the video immerses viewers into the famous boardwalk environment alongside Shinoda as he performs, mingles with locals, and paints an 80-foot-long canvas mural.