Wikipedia
Vrse.works is a virtual reality production company co-founded by Patrick Milling Smith, Chris Milk and Brian Carmody. In December 2014, Chris Milk and Spike Jonze captured the Million Man March in NY which protested police brutality for Vice News. Vrse.works premiered its first VR experiences on the Vrse app platform at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival including Evolution of Verse, a photo-realistic CGI-rendered 3-D virtual reality film, and Clouds Over Sidra, a virtual reality short documentary made in partnership with the United Nations which follows a 12-year-old girl's life in a Syrian refugee camp. After the Sundance launch, Vrse.works captured Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary special in VR and created '‘Catatonic'’, an immersive journey through an insane asylum in which the audience, bound to a wheelchair, undergoes a sensory shocking horror thrill ride.
In April 2015, Vrse.works produced Walking New York, a VR experience made in partnership with the New York Times which follows JR (artist) and his making of a 150-foot-tall portrait of a recent immigrant to NYC that was wheat pasted across the Flatiron Building Pedestrian Plaza for less than 24 hours. Recent projects include Nike's The Neymar Jr Effect, which takes viewers into Neymar's POV as he plays soccer and an experiential film for Toms Shoes that gives users the chance to participate in a Toms Giving Trip to Peru. Vrse.works also most recently partnered again with the United Nations to create the VR experience Waves of Grace. The film transports viewers to West Point, the most populous slum in the capital of Liberia, and follows the experience of Decontee Davis, an Ebola survivor who uses her immunity to help others affected by the disease.
In March 2015, Chris Milk gave a TED Talk in Vancouver about how virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine.
In 2015, Vice News VR and Clouds Over Sidra were nominated for Individual Documentary Episode and Mobile App Music respectively at the Webby Awards. The Vrse app was also nominated in the Experimental Mobile category. Evolution of Verse and Clouds Over Sidra were shortlisted for Original Branded Content at the 2015 Cannes International Advertising Festival. Apple Insider named Vrse as the best VR app/player for iPhones in August 2015.