VR doc on fires aims to connect

Tech used in 'Out of the Ashes' is intended to help process the loss communally.

- TODD MARTENS

MUSICIAN David Low and his family in the work-in-progress VR film "Out of the Ashes," about the fires.

Mercantile Agency

A snapshot of fire-ravaged Altadena is laid out before me, hovering like a diorama. My eyes zero in on a red door, its frame one of the few surviving remnants of a home. I pull it closer to me, and in moments I see a fraction of the house as it once was now I'm in a cozy kitchen with blurred but welcoming pictures in the background and a grandfather celebrating a birthday. A voice-over tells me that it was Alexander, a grandfather, who painted the door red.

It's as if a memory has sprung to life and exists solely in the ether in front of me. But in seconds it's gone, and I see only rubble - scattered bricks and tiles, tree branches and wooden boards.

I shed a tear, but it's obscured by the virtual reality headset I'm wearing. I am experiencing a work-inprogress segment of the multimedia documentary "Out of the Ashes," which was previewed Friday evening at a Music Center event demonstrating how emerging technologies can help people process collective experiences such as the L.A. fires.

Filming is continuing on the project, which began just days after the flames ignited. Filmmaker, academic and virtual reality pioneer Nonny de la Peña secured media access to the burn zones for her and a small team via her role as the program director of narrative and emerging media at Arizona State University, which she operates out of offices in downtown Los Angeles. "I knew that this was going to be a transitory type of situation, that it was going to change quickly," says De la Peña, co-director on the film with Rory Mitchell. "I've covered enough disaster stories to know how huge this was."