Byron Bay continues to attract creative businesses with an award-winning Australian producer announcing a new virtual reality production company, New Canvas, will be headquartered in Byron Bay.
Nathan Anderson started in the entertainment industry working on films including The Matrix and in recent times has attracted global attention as co-founder of Start Beyond, a VR studio which produced groundbreaking titles including Awake Episode One, Wentworth VR, Atlas Obscura VR and VR Noir in partnership with industry leaders including Animal Logic (producers of Happy Feet, The Lego Movie), Microsoft and Fremantle (producers of Wentworth, Australia’s Got Talent, Grand Designs).
New Canvas has acquired these high-profile entertainment projects developed at Start Beyond www.startbeyond.co (previously Start VR) and has a full slate of upcoming projects. While at Start Beyond, Nathan headed up the inaugural VR Residency program with support from Screen Australia’s Enterprise Ideas program. Two ground-breaking new productions are currently in development from these residencies. The first is Lustration, a collaboration with Ryan Griffen, the creator of Cleverman (ABC / Sundance), which is being co-produced by Gestalt Publishing with support from Screenwest; second is a stage opera to VR adaptation working with highly regarded theatre and tv director, Leticia Cáceres plus a range of other co-productions with Australian and international media practitioners.
Screenworks CEO, Ken Crouch says the establishment of New Canvas in the Northern Rivers is a win for the region. “It’s really exciting to have this cutting edge VR entertainment company based in Byron Bay, headed by an industry leader whose work over the last decade has been recognised internationally as best in class across VR, transmedia and multiplatform production”, said Ken.
New Canvas CEO & Executive Producer Nathan Anderson said the establishment of a dedicated immersive media studio will fast-track the evolution of Australian VR content for an entertainment audience.
“Byron Bay is a fertile space for creative thinking and has a lot of great talent in all disciplines of media and technology. Over and above just an attractive filming location, this area has the potential to really contribute on a global scale. New Canvas aims to build on the work already underway to make this area a sustainable, vibrant and important media industry hub,” Nathan said
“New Canvas is intended to be an incubator for truly innovative and creative work, where we can be highly experimental with content choices and technology, to develop the next wave of visual storytelling and filmmaking in a high tech virtual reality environment.”
For more info on New Canvas projects visit www.newcanvas.co or follow on https://www.linkedin.com/company/newcanvas or https://www.facebook.com/NewCanvasXR/
