''The Wayback" is an immersive virtual reality experience devised by Dan Cole, Andy Garnett and Howard Green at Grey, each of whose families have been affected by dementia and Alzheimer’s. Freelance producer Emma Fasson also worked on the project.
This pilot film will be the first in a proposed series of freely available VR films aiming to recreate historical moments in the hopes to help trigger happy memories for dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers, as well as those close to them.
Garnett, a creative director, said: "During the research phase of this project, we just thought that using VR would be a really powerful way to tell the story.
"It's much more of a deep connection when you actually experience VR done well – it puts you right in the place of the action and also it feels like, afterwards, you seem to have a deeper memory of it, as if you were actually there."
120 extras volunteered to be shot for the film, each in homemade 50s costumes, while Cole, Garnett and Green secured the involvement of award-winning director Kevin Thomas of Thomas Thomas Films, visual effects company MPC London, sound studio 750mph and The Quarry Editors.
Cole, also a creative director, added: "I think the big starting point was raising the money on Kickstarter. We were quite ambitious – we set a target of 35,000 and gave ourselves a month to raise it and we got there with 260 backers."
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