Donnie Ocean
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
- Writer
Donnie Ocean is an American film writer, director, and producer, known for his unusual approaches to storytelling in virtual reality and experiential visual arts. He has directed and produced a wide range of virtual reality documentary experiences addressing human crises and strengthening the protection of human rights - experiences aimed at celebrating resilience and empowering people with resources to get involved.
"Haiti" was Donnie's first of this kind, shedding light on the water crisis affecting more than half the country of Haiti. This virtual reality experience was part of a campaign that brought Pure Water for the World over $300,000 USD in the first month. "Black Snake in Sacred Waters" is another VR experience, tied to a relief effort, capturing the violence and madness dropped on the Native American Lakota tribe by the corporate oil, the organization DAPL, a fight for the safety and protection of the people's water source at Standing Rock.
A later project, "Spare Change," hit audiences as a visceral VR experience of living on the streets as a homeless person in Los Angeles. It won the 2018 Audience Choice Award from the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival and the experience was exhibited at the Museum of Social Justice in Downtown LA.
Donnie has helmed a large variety of other VR experiences, interactive music videos, and experimental virtual horror thrillers. He served as producer on several large-scale 360-video broadcasts, such as the 2016 Academy Awards for the Associated Press (the first multi-continental virtual reality broadcast in the world). Donnie's work as the VR Artist for Specular Theory won the YouTube Streamy Award for "Best VR/360 Experience" in Game Lab.
Donnie Ocean's project, The Creative Accelerator of Nonprofits is a 501(c)(3), dedicated to using innovative multimedia platforms to educate society about important problems, and more importantly, provide concrete suggestions for how to get involved. The group's focus is in alleviating crises, strengthening human rights, and assisting in the healthy development in children.
Donnie co-founded and was appointed as director of Mean Cat Entertainment, a live visual effects technology company providing both services and real-time virtual production systems for indie filmmakers. His team's invention of the MC FX Studio and MC FX Camera Tracker bacome a groundbreaking development in the modern world of visual storytelling, now being utilized by USC's Virtual Production Program and advanced film studios around the world.
"Haiti" was Donnie's first of this kind, shedding light on the water crisis affecting more than half the country of Haiti. This virtual reality experience was part of a campaign that brought Pure Water for the World over $300,000 USD in the first month. "Black Snake in Sacred Waters" is another VR experience, tied to a relief effort, capturing the violence and madness dropped on the Native American Lakota tribe by the corporate oil, the organization DAPL, a fight for the safety and protection of the people's water source at Standing Rock.
A later project, "Spare Change," hit audiences as a visceral VR experience of living on the streets as a homeless person in Los Angeles. It won the 2018 Audience Choice Award from the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival and the experience was exhibited at the Museum of Social Justice in Downtown LA.
Donnie has helmed a large variety of other VR experiences, interactive music videos, and experimental virtual horror thrillers. He served as producer on several large-scale 360-video broadcasts, such as the 2016 Academy Awards for the Associated Press (the first multi-continental virtual reality broadcast in the world). Donnie's work as the VR Artist for Specular Theory won the YouTube Streamy Award for "Best VR/360 Experience" in Game Lab.
Donnie Ocean's project, The Creative Accelerator of Nonprofits is a 501(c)(3), dedicated to using innovative multimedia platforms to educate society about important problems, and more importantly, provide concrete suggestions for how to get involved. The group's focus is in alleviating crises, strengthening human rights, and assisting in the healthy development in children.
Donnie co-founded and was appointed as director of Mean Cat Entertainment, a live visual effects technology company providing both services and real-time virtual production systems for indie filmmakers. His team's invention of the MC FX Studio and MC FX Camera Tracker bacome a groundbreaking development in the modern world of visual storytelling, now being utilized by USC's Virtual Production Program and advanced film studios around the world.
