The Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) has announced that it has partnered with location-based virtual reality (VR) ‘edutainment’ company, Immotion, to create an ‘educational and immersive’ VR experience entitled Flight of the Mantas.
Utilising motion seats, haptic feedback, and 360-degree sound, Flight of the Mantas follows MMF co-founder Dr Andrea Marshall on her quest to study and protect the manta ray population of Mozambique. The footage has been created make users feel as if they are swimming alongside the mantas, and will be distributed to aquariums across the globe to make the conservation project as widely accessible as possible.
MMF hopes Flight of the Mantas will ‘foster a connection between millions of people worldwide and these majestic animals’ in order to help raise awareness of the threats faced by mantas and help drive conservation efforts around the globe.
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Fostering connection and empathy through virtual reality
‘Conservation requires empathy, and it’s a really important experience to swim alongside a large animal, to see the challenges it faces,’ said Dr Marshall about the collaboration with Immotion. ‘We’ve become disconnected from the natural world, and people don’t get to experience wildlife anymore. But Immotion’s Flight of the Mantas transports them, takes them underwater where they’re right there, swimming next to a manta ray.’
‘[Immotion] is really a leader in the industry, and it’s great to work with people who have the same goal in mind,’ added Dr Marshall. ‘We’re all trying to figure out how to connect people with wildlife and share conservation stories.’
Filming the elusive mantas
For the production of Flight of the Mantas Immotion’s creative team partnered with South African film production company, Habitat XR, for logistical support and production services, while MMF’s own underwater videographer, Janneman Conradie captured Dr Marshall’s interactions with the manta rays.
Together, they employed Habitat XR’s state-of-the-art VR cameras to capture the highly mobile and notoriously difficult-to-film mantas to create the 3D, 360-degree VR experience.
‘It was amazing to dive into the water with these huge VR cameras, knowing that what I was about to film will be shared with millions of people in virtual reality,’ said MMF cameraman Janneman Conradie, of his experience filming the project. ‘The drag from the equipment made it tough to keep up but we managed to get some amazing footage.
‘It helped that I’ve been in these waters with Andrea filming mantas for years, so I almost have a sixth sense about what Andrea’s going to do next, and have learned mantas’ behaviour pretty well too! I’m very happy to have played a role in this collaboration.’
Immotion’s VR theatres are currently installed in over 35 locations worldwide, with the number set to grow. Other VR experiences from Immotion include Gorilla Trek, Shark Dive and Swimming with Humpbacks.
Flight of the mantas trailer
For more about Marine Megafauna Foundation and its conservation work, visit the website at www.marinemegafauna.org or follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
