Interview with Danfung Dennis, Condition ONE

Interview with Danfung Dennis, Condition ONE

Condition ONE is an immersive video player for tablets. Founder and CEO Danfung Dennis, a former war photographer, wanted to create an platform that would place viewers “inside the story.”

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/35494764[/vimeo]

I was frustrated by the passive nature of [the film medium]. I couldn’t get people close enough to feel like what it was like to be there…. That’s how the idea for Condition ONE came about. I wanted to use new technology to try to take the power of the image and the narrative film, and combine it with virtual reality.

Condition ONE uses a camera system that captures the entire human field of view. Then, the app and video player decode the footage and cue the it to the movement of a tablet, giving viewers the illusion of exploring a videotaped space. Check out a demo here:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31608796[/vimeo]

Although the Condition ONE video player is currently available through the iPad app store, or on a business to business basis, Dennis suggested that the video player may one day soon be widely available on to both professionals and consumers.

Anyone could shoot this immersive footage… that technology would be more this user-generated platform, where anyone could be shooting anything, in their own backyards.

To me, Condition ONE seems to open up a host of possibilities for mobile storytelling. It’s a visual and aesthetic experience that couldn’t happen on any other platform. Condition ONE harnesses something distinctive about the tablet– mobility– and uses it to create a unique narrative experience. According to Dennis,

There’s been a need to push what’s possible on these new devices. We haven’t seen that much innovation in terms of video. We’re seeing web video, broadcast [content], repackaged for these devices.

Condition ONE creates a medium-specific experience. It’s a video player that takes full advantage of the tablet’s mobility.

Katie Edgerton/MIT