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Speaker 1: Reinventing the movie night with virtual reality. What's going on?

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Speaker 1: I'm rich Demiro. This is rich On Tech. A company

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Speaker 1: named Dreamscape wants to reinvent the movie night with the

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Speaker 1: magic of virtual reality. Yes, I know you've heard about

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Speaker 1: virtual reality before, but this is one of the better

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Speaker 1: applications of it, perhaps maybe the best. Dreamscape just opened

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Speaker 1: their first permanent location at Westfield Century City. This is

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Speaker 1: a beautiful outdoor mall that was just remodeled in West

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. But back to Dreamscape Immersive. This is a

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Speaker 1: new company backed by Hollywood studios including twenty first Century Fox, WarnerMedia, Viacom,

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Speaker 1: and there's also legendary creators on board like Steven Spielberg

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Speaker 1: and Hans Zimmer.

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Speaker 2: Our backgrounds come from Disney imagineering and motion pictures, and

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Speaker 2: I think that at our heart, it's trying to blend

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Speaker 2: the visceral excitement of a great Disney theme park ride

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Speaker 2: with the emotional satisfaction of a Hollywood movie, all being

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Speaker 2: presented through this extraordinary new technology.

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Speaker 1: That's Walter Parks, one of the co founders and a

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Speaker 1: big time Hollywood producer himself. He's done a lot of stuff,

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Speaker 1: including co writing the movie war games. He also produced

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Speaker 1: the Men in Black series and lots of other Hollywood hits.

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Speaker 2: It's both daunting and maybe the most exciting thing I've

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Speaker 2: ever been involved in, because you're right, it's a new form,

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Speaker 2: it's a new technology, it's a new business model. It's

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Speaker 2: everything about this is new. Plus it's not just that

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Speaker 2: we're making these things. We're sort of creating the technology

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Speaker 2: and we're creating these these centers. So I guess at

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, it all comes down to

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Speaker 2: that wonderful line from a Field of Dreams. If you

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Speaker 2: build it, they will come. I think that we believe

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Speaker 2: that if we create these extraordinary, you know, welcoming, very

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Speaker 2: non tech sorts of environments and create emotionally satisfying and

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Speaker 2: exciting adventures for people to do, they will come.

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Speaker 1: So what is dreamscape? Well, think movie, but you are

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Speaker 1: part of the action. The setup when you walk in

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Speaker 1: is reminiscent of an old timey movie theater. It invokes

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Speaker 1: a sense of mystery and wonder. You purchase tickets for

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Speaker 1: a show from an iPad, or you can do it

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Speaker 1: ahead of time online. Currently there are three an alien

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Speaker 1: themed zoo called Alien Zoo, an underwater adventure and another

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Speaker 1: where you step into the action of an Indiana Jones

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Speaker 1: style movie. So I've done the Alien Zoo and the

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Speaker 1: Magic Projector one, which is the Indiana Jones style one,

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Speaker 1: and they are both seriously cool.

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Speaker 2: Technically, I guess you'd say that we are a new

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Speaker 2: VR platform that offers a really extraordinary technology that actually,

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Speaker 2: unlike most VR, renders you as a character inside a

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Speaker 2: CG universe, so you literally enter the movie. It's something

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Speaker 2: you do with your friends. We do it six people

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Speaker 2: at the time. You're in complete touch with all of

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Speaker 2: your senses, without any leg or latency, and it's really

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Speaker 2: an extent of yourself into an imagined world.

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Speaker 1: Parks believes this is the future of entertainment, what we

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Speaker 1: would do on a Friday night movie style entertainment. But

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Speaker 1: there's really no spectators. Everyone that attends is actually part

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Speaker 1: of the action. And it's way better than VR in

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Speaker 1: your living room because they've built a special place where

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Speaker 1: you experience this. So the floors rumble, there's wind, they

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Speaker 1: have sense that they pipe into this room, all these

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Speaker 1: different physical effects that add to the immersion and put

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Speaker 1: you inside the experience. But before you do that, you

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Speaker 1: have to put on a bunch of VR equipment, including

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Speaker 1: motion trackers on your hands and feet, a VR headset,

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Speaker 1: plus a backpack to power at all.

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Speaker 3: Unlike other VR experiences where which are much more vrcade,

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Speaker 3: we are evoking the sense of traveling. So this almost

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Speaker 3: feels a bit like a train station.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 3: We know people are in a mall, They're gonna have packages.

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Speaker 3: We have places to put things, you know, and feel comfortable.

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Speaker 3: We also went from a standing up model that we

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Speaker 3: used to do to sitting down. In fact that you

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Speaker 3: can take a seat right now if you want. This

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Speaker 3: allows people to be much more comfortable. It also levels

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Speaker 3: out where the backpack is and I think really evokes

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Speaker 3: a sense of a premium experience. And again it's sort

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Speaker 3: of cozy, and I think it's giving this people a

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Speaker 3: sense of reassurance and a sense of going on the journey.

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Speaker 1: Bruce Vaughan is CEO of Dreamscape Immersive. His background is

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Speaker 1: Disney Imagineering. See where this is all going. I'm with

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Speaker 1: him in the room where you suit up before your adventure.

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Speaker 1: This is the part where things kind of get real.

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Speaker 1: It's a little bit intimidating. Actually, if you've never done

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Speaker 1: VR before, you start to wonder, am I going to

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Speaker 1: get sick? Is this going to be fun? Is this

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Speaker 1: going to be scary? Think of that part of the

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Speaker 1: theme park ride where you wait in line, but here

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Speaker 1: you're getting prepped for real.

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Speaker 3: Putting on the equipment. You could look at it as

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Speaker 3: something that would be disconcerting, maybe a bit of a

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Speaker 3: time consumption thing. Operationally, we've actually embraced it, like going

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Speaker 3: on any adventure, whether it be ziplining or diving, you

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Speaker 3: put on scooby gear, you put on a harness, and

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Speaker 3: there's a bit of a sense of commitment to the

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Speaker 3: overall looks experience and a sense of adventure that gets

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Speaker 3: heightened by that. So we're not playing it right now,

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Speaker 3: but we have background music in here that was actually

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Speaker 3: created by Hans Zimmer's group, you know, all for this

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Speaker 3: kind of experience. We do lighting changes throughout the experience.

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Speaker 3: So we really are looking at this as the final

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Speaker 3: ritual in the physical world before you step into the

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Speaker 3: virtual world.

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Speaker 1: And of course, since I'm a germophobe, I had to

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Speaker 1: ask the obvious question about the ickiness factor. After all,

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Speaker 1: lots of random people are wearing the same VR equipment

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Speaker 1: you are all day long.

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Speaker 3: After every show, or before every show, or however you

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Speaker 3: want to look at it, we have a one of

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Speaker 3: our cast members comes in and cleans all everything that

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Speaker 3: touches you. All of the materials have been chosen to

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Speaker 3: be you know, hyperilergenic, cleanable, all that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 3: We're very serious about that.

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Speaker 1: Next to you head into that specially outfitted VR room

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Speaker 1: and the best part is when they sort of turn

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Speaker 1: on the experience, when it all starts. Suddenly you see

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Speaker 1: an avatar like virtual version of yourself and the other

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Speaker 1: people in your group around you. It's really tough to

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Speaker 1: explain this moment, but the first time it ever happened

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Speaker 1: to me, it was so seriously cool. Now, the experience

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Speaker 1: starts out like a typical movie, but then you're on

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Speaker 1: your way picking up tools and physically walking through the adventure.

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Speaker 1: At one point you might be touching a creature that

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Speaker 1: you can actually feel, and it might even have a

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Speaker 1: wet nose. You're carrying a flashlight perhaps, or walking through

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Speaker 1: a maze. Now you're not moving very much. It's all

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Speaker 1: around this small room, but because of VR, it feels

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Speaker 1: very epic. The best way I can describe it is

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Speaker 1: sort of a ride slash adventure taking place in a

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Speaker 1: make believe world. The experience inside the room probably lasts

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Speaker 1: less than twenty minutes, but the entire experience you could

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Speaker 1: probably spend maybe an hour there by the time you

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Speaker 1: buy your tickets, wait and get suited up, and then

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Speaker 1: talk about it afterwards.

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Speaker 2: If you have expectations about VR based on what you've done,

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Speaker 2: put them aside, because this is a very different experience

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Speaker 2: and come and be, as we say in one of

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Speaker 2: our experiences, can be the hero of your own story.

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Speaker 2: This is all about something we've learned as we're learning.

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Speaker 2: This is creating experiences in which you're not seeing other

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Speaker 2: characters reveal a story, but it is your own part

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Speaker 2: in the story which is essential, and so far people

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Speaker 2: have found it very satisfying.

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Speaker 1: The movie chain AMC is an investor in Dreamscape makes Sense.

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Speaker 1: The company is working with them to open new locations

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Speaker 1: at malls across America. The next locations are all in malls.

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Speaker 1: They're going to be in Dallas, Paramus, New Jersey, Garden State, Yes,

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Speaker 1: my home state, Long Island, and Columbus, Ohio. Tickets for

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Speaker 1: the experience, at least at Century City are twenty dollars

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Speaker 1: if you haven't tried VR, this is the one to

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Speaker 1: make your first, all right. If you want more information

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Speaker 1: on Dreamscape, you can go to my website, rich on

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Speaker 1: tech dot Tv. There you can watch the TV segment

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Speaker 1: I did on it for KTLA, or you can check

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Speaker 1: the show notes for a link. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: listening to the show, and thanks to everyone who has

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Speaker 1: purchased my book one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips

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Speaker 1: for the iPhone. I would love it if you'd leave

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Speaker 1: a review on Amazon. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to

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Speaker 1: you real soon.