The Collective @ LAIR has tapped VR pioneer Pierre Friquet to join the content studio’s multi-disciplined team of directors.
“With Pierre on our team, we hope to demystify VR for our clients and expand our reputation as a content studio armed with any storytelling technique you can name,” said LAIR Founder and Chief Creative Director Thor Raxlen, in a statement. “We want to help brands recognize that whether it’s 360 video content on their social platforms or something as basic as Google Cardboard at an event, VR is far more affordable and accessible than they originally anticipated and can tell meaningful and compelling stories.”
Friquet’s experience includes directing more than a dozen VR narratives, documentaries, music videos, and interactive experiences for clients such as ABC, Fox, MTV, UNICEF, and TEDx. He is also known for his VR experiences “Patterns” and “Jetlag.
Additionally, he is fluent in mobile, web, and location-based VR activations, and having lived and worked in four continents, he also understands the cultural variations of these enterprising technologies.
“It’s as Marshall McLuhan famously said: “the medium is the message,” Friquet explained. “Storytelling is embedded in the technology, so in the design these hyperreal experiences, you must always remember that the content is experienced rather than consumed.”
“VR is a new frontier not just because it is new technology, but also because the technology opens up a new dimension of immersion, one both primed to capture people’s imaginations and to be a strategic tool for brands, either on its own or as complementary content for existent IP,” he added.
