The inaugural Dome Fest West took place in Costa Mesa, California in October 2021. This new fulldome film festival and conference for the industry was founded by its Executive Director, Ryan Moore, an immersive producer at Experience 360°, a Virtual Experience Design Studio that currently focuses on producing fully spherical, ultra-high definition 360° media for current VR devices.
Brett Leonard (STUDIO LIGHTSHIP), director of the influential IMAX 3D films “T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous” (1998) and “Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box” (1999) presented as keynote speaker. Other presenters included: Michael Daut, Jeb Terry (Cosm), Carolyn Collins Petersen (Loch Ness Productions), Will Nix (Lohas Advisors and Capital), Eric Hanson (Blueplanet VR), Michael McConville (E&S and Spitz), Dayna Thompson (Ball State University), Ben Gondrez (Denver Museum of Nature and Science), multimedia artist Diana Reichenbach, Hugh Hou (CreatorUp), Mike Small (Adler Planetarium), audio-visual artist Michael Strauss, Mani Srinivasan (XR Wellness), Tobias Chen (Volumetric Camera Systems), wellbeing expert Jahna Perricone, documentarian Michael Mansouri, visual effects expert Edward Dawson-Taylor, creative producer Jenni Ogden, and Hilary McVicker (The Elumenati).
Dome Fest West sponsors included Cosm, AV Galaxy, MSG Sphere, festoon, Alternity, Experience 360°, and IMERSA.
Dome Fest West showcased 360 degree media and the relationship between fulldome theaters and VR/AR programming. Thirteen films were awarded, with a total of 32 films screened, including “Atlas of a Changing Earth” from Spitz Creative Media.
Part of the event was dedicated to the Best of Earth group of streaming festivals, founded with the understanding that COVID is keeping the global community apart, but through livestream, the festival’s 19 films could be enjoyed in dome theaters in the UK, The Netherlands, and Australia, along with Dome Fest West.
SLIDESHOW
InPark Magazine has extensively covered the fulldome industry since the 1990s. Here are some recent highlights from the pages of InPark:
Christie: From film dome to fulldome
Spitz fulldome release: Birth of Planet Earth
Legacies of IMAX filmmaker George Casey and Laserium founder Ivan Dryer
Spontaneous Fantasia at the Fujitsu Planetarium
