Based in Los Angeles, Rory Mitchell is an XR Director with a background in theater and documentary. His work explores contemporary social, cultural and community-based issues with awe at the complexities of interdependence and the joy at the intersections of Humanism and Technology.
His work has screened at SXSW, Cannes Film Festival, New Images, SIGGRAPH, Shanghai International and others and he’s created branded work for Fortune 500 companies including Disney, Ketel One, General Mills, Cascadian Farms, Target, Honda, Skybound Entertainment, Institute for Contemporary Art Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs.
Rory Mitchell
Spatial Experience Designer & XR Director
When a woman wakes up one morning to find that a mysterious tent has appeared in her front yard, she’s not sure what to do about it…
“The Tent” is an Augmented Reality tabletop narrative and a glimpse of the future of spatial entertainment.
A modern fairy tale set in Los Angeles, "The Tent" looks at the fraught relationship between the housed and the unhoused and the interpersonal social dynamics of activism with humor and heart.
Built for iPadPro using volumetric video and photogrammetry, it allows the audience to explore a miniature world from any perspective, creating a movie that you can walk around in.
It’s a drama, a satire, a petite bourgeoise fever dream and a fable for society.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
Premiering at SXSW in 2024, it has delighted and provoked audiences around the world, screening in Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, Milan, Amsterdam, Toronto, Denver, Prague and Geneva. It will see its Los Angeles Premiere at Slamdance February 21st to 24th, its Turkish Premiere in Istanbul in June of 2025 and will tour the United Kingdom library system in the fall of 2025.
It was awarded a silver medal for “Best Narrative/Story of 2024” by the European XR Magazine, XR Must, and has been celebrated around the world.
The video series “INTRODUCING THE TENT” show some of our journey over the last three years. Part 1 introduces the medium of Spatial Entertainment and shows the incredible audience response we received around the world. Part 2 is about the Story of The Tent and the unhoused crisis in Los Angeles, and includes more in-depth interviews with our audience about their experience in The Tent.
PRESS & PUBLICATIONS FOR “THE TENT”
THE RING OF FIRE
A prototype for an immersive VR documentary about the effects of the Palisades and Eaton Fires built as part of MIT Reality Hackathon L.A. Fires Emergency Respones at Arizona State University January 2025.
Conceived and built in 72 hours, we created photogrammetry of burn sites, interviewed subjects using Depthkit Volumetric technology, and incorporated memories of the subjects in the form of their personal videos and photos as part of the initial prototype.
IKONA VR/ KIDNEY HEALTH
Imagine that your kidneys have failed and you’ve ended up in a Dialysis center. You learn that you’ll be on dialysis for the rest of your life, until you get a kidney transplant or die. You are alone and afraid.
But then they put you in a VR Headset and you’re sitting across from another dialysis patient who’s been where you are now. They speak to what you’re going through, sharing their story, giving you hope for the future and assuring you that there is life after dialysis.
We’ve designed, written, directed, and produced a series of modules around home dialysis modalities. Using 360° Video and animation together with our partners at IKONA VR, we are inspiring hope to and producing better outcomes for viewers.
STAR WARS GALAXIES EDGE
In May of 2019, we were selected by top VR Director of Photography, Sébastien Hameline, to accompany him to the hotly anticipated opening of the new Star Wars attraction at Disneyland, the Galaxy’s Edge, on behalf of Director Niles Roth at Greenpoint Pictures, and Disney Yellow Shoes Agency.
We contributed to the creative on the day and produced the 360° portion of a complicated shoot with four separate shooting units both traditional and digital, along with various stakeholders from the production company, the creative agency, and the Disneyland employees that ensure that Disney’s high standards are met across the board. Subsequently, we handled post-production for Disney’s Yellow Shoes Agency to stitch and assemble the 360° films that were shot that week.
Disney/Yellow Shoes/Greenpoint Pictures
2019
DIVERSE & SUBVERSIVE:
the anti-gentrification of boyle heights
The result of filming for three years with the radical anti-gentrification protesters “Defend Boyle Heights” as they protested Art Galleries and Coffeeshops that they saw as the tip of the spear of the gentrification movement threatening their neighborhood.
This 15 minute long 360°VR documentary puts you on the frontlines of the protests and inside the homes of the activists and the white-walled galleries and intense battle for the soul of a neighborhood.
World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
KETEL ONE
VR Producer, On-set Supervisor and Post-production supervisor for a 360° tour of the Ketel One Distillery in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
