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Ollie Rankin

CEO / Creative Director at Pansensory Interactive Incorporated

Los Angeles, United States

Ollie Rankin is a NZ-born virtual reality pioneer who spent two decades working at the forefront of the global visual effects industry, from the Lord of the Rings to Alice Through the Looking Glass. He combines this history of creative achievement with a background in computer programming and AI to develop new narrative conventions for immersive, interactive media. He is the founder and CEO of Vancouver-based immersive content production company, Pansensory Interactive as well as an activist for diversity, fairness and sustainability. In his spare time Ollie is a musician, comedian and adventurer.

Available For: Authoring, Consulting, Influencing, Speaking
Travels From: Los Angeles, USA
Speaking Topics: Virtual Reality, Diversity, Sustainability

Ollie Rankin Points
Academic 0
Author 17
Influencer 52
Speaker 119
Entrepreneur 30
Total 218

Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.

Thought Leader Profile

Portfolio Mix

Company Information

Company Type: Company
Theatre: Global
Minimum Project Size: Undisclosed
Average Hourly Rate: Undisclosed
Number of Employees: Undisclosed
Company Founded Date: Undisclosed
Media Experience: 10 years
Last Media Interview: 09/22/2020

Areas of Expertise

AI 30.05
AR/VR 65.88
Blockchain 30.05
Climate Change 31.84
COVID19 30.54
Culture 30.97
Digital Disruption 30.14
Diversity and Inclusion 38.65
Emerging Technology 33.51
Entrepreneurship 30.19
Future of Work 30.16
Health and Safety 35.26
Health and Wellness 30.88
HealthTech 30.28
HR 30.44
Innovation 31.31
Leadership 30.45
Social 30.44
Startups 30.38
Sustainability 35.29

Industry Experience

High Tech & Electronics
Higher Education & Research
Media
Other

Publications

1 Advisory Board Membership
Mixed Reality (MR) Care-delivery Guidance System to Support Medical Event Management on Long Duration Exploration Missions
STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation
September 11, 2020
Funded by NASA through the Translational Research Program of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH). As a partner to NASA’s Human Research Program, TRISH helps solve the health challenges to human deep-space exploration.

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Tags: AR/VR, Health and Safety, HealthTech

8 Article/Blogs
Cryptocurrency’s Other Sustainability Problem
Medium
May 07, 2021
Many people who are vocal about their more sustainable dietary choices, are still betting big on crypto, despite its unsustainability

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Tags: Blockchain, Emerging Technology, Sustainability

Here’s Why I’m Sure That Apple Will Dominate the Consumer VR Market
Disrupt Magazine
July 17, 2020
Ollie Rankin shares why he believes that Apple Inc will dominate the consumer VR market, even before they've acknowledged that they're working on any products

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

Storytelling, Visual Effects, & World of AR/VR - The RAS Project 067 w/ Ollie Rankin
The RAS Project
June 26, 2020
RAS Project host, Ivan Temelkov interviews Ollie Rankin about VR (virtual reality), vfx (visual effects), viruses, inclusivity, Lost Horizon Festival and... porn

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Tags: AI, AR/VR, Sustainability

What is #Optimalism Anyway?
Medium
April 03, 2020
Optimalism is a theoretical form of government where decisions are made using a scientific approach, optimized to offer the maximum benefit to the greatest number of people, while doing the least possible harm. This article explains what Optimalism actually is and introduces a set of 3 powerful principles that could form the basis of a brand new type of government.

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Tags: Climate Change, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

COVID-19 in a Parallel Universe
Medium
March 18, 2020
The current novel coronavirus pandemic isn’t an existential crisis—unlike global warming—but it is a unique opportunity to reevaluate our most basic assumptions about modern civilization. If we operated under a more fair and sustainable system, governed by scientific rather than ideological decision-making, we would expect much better outcomes

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Tags: COVID19, Culture, Health and Wellness

Transcending the Screen: Why Virtual Reality Depends on Volumetric Video
LinkedIn
April 02, 2018
An in-depth look at the latest approaches to representing humans in virtual reality

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

Why Powerful Men Prey
Medium
December 07, 2017
There’s an obvious explanation for the pervasive culture of predatory sexual behavior brought to light by #metoo, but we’re too busy medicating the symptoms of the sickness to address its cause

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Tags: Culture, Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership

VR and the Future of Storytelling
LinkedIn
January 04, 2016
An essay outlining the promise of VR as a storytelling medium

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

11 Keynotes
Prototyping Utopia: Modeling a Better Future in VR
New Zealand Game Developers Conference
August 05, 2021
Not only is XR an amazing medium to tell authentic, intimate and transformative stories, but XR, as a young industry, is also uniquely positioned to avoid the legacy of inequality and exploitation that burdens more established industries. We can and should demonstrate diversity, fairness and sustainability in the teams we assemble, the companies we build and the products and content we create.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

If Not Now, Then When?
VR/AR Global Summit
June 02, 2021
Systemic bias and industrial misinformation have allowed a legacy of compounding racial and social inequity to collide with a pandemic and unfolding ecological crises to bring humanity to the brink of unimaginable disaster. But we already have all the tools we need to solve these problems, if only enough of us can put aside our individualistic ambition and work together for the benefit of all.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

Prototyping Utopia: Modeling a Better Future in VR
Future Summit
November 16, 2020
The XR industry—and other relatively new fields—is ideally positioned to apply the principles of inclusivity, fairness and sustainability to the way we build our companies and products and in everything we do. In this talk, Ollie Rankin discusses the importance of leading the way for all other businesses to follow in the context of three very different case studies.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

Prototyping Utopia: Modeling a Better Future in VR
VR/AR Global Summit
September 30, 2020
Ollie Rankin implores the XR industry to model a more diverse, fair and sustainable future.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

The Future is for eVRyone!
VR / AR Global Summit Online
June 03, 2020
In this time of criss-crossing crises, COVID-19 and climate change, humanity needs to be offered a different future to strive towards. One that is more inclusive, fair and sustainable. Let's take it upon ourselves as an industry to model that future. In our own lives, in our companies and in the products and content we create.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership

Overwhelm
Vulcan Productions
January 10, 2020
Creative Director and Producer, Ollie Rankin, presents the multi-platform immersive environmental activism portal, Overwhelm.

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Tags: AR/VR, Climate Change, Sustainability

The Future is for eVRyone!
FSO (Film Spring Open, Krakow, Poland)
October 23, 2019
VR is the convergence of film, theatre and video games. Expertise from all three disciplines is informing the invention of a new language of storytelling.

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Culture

The Future is for eVRyone!
GIC (Game Industry Conference, Poznan, Poland)
October 18, 2019
VR is the convergence of film, theatre and video games. Expertise from all three disciplines is informing the invention of a new language of storytelling.

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Tags: AR/VR, Culture, Emerging Technology

Why Straight White Men Must Champion Diversity
Spark Animation Festival
February 10, 2019
Ollie Rankin shares his thoughts on the power of luck, the value of diversity and why the lucky need to elevate the diverse.

"If we agree that diversity is a good thing, then those of us who've made it into positions of leadership through a combination of luck and hard work, owe it to those less lucky than ourselves, to give them the opportunity to make it, too"

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Tags: Culture, HR, Diversity and Inclusion

Scientists & Storytellers Battling Bias with VR
Interface Health Summit
October 11, 2018
VR Storyteller and activist Ollie Rankin talks about the ways in which virtual reality can be used as a form of mental health therapy to improve emotional intelligence

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Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, Emerging Technology, Health and Wellness

The Couch Potato Awakes
BIL Conference
February 21, 2016
A talk about interactive storytelling in virtual reality

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

16 Media Interviews
With Lost Horizon Festival, Ollie Rankin Offers Us A Portal Into The Future of Live Events
The Glimpse
July 15, 2020
VR Pioneer Ollie Rankin worked with his team from VRJAM, along with the crew that have organized the anti-establishment Shangri-La portion of Glastonbury for the last decade and the team at Sansar Studios to create the world’s 1st multi-day, multi-stage, entirely virtual music and art festival

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Tags: AR/VR, Digital Disruption, Social

This VR Storyteller Was Writing VR Films Even Before The Technology Existed, Here Is How He Got To Premiere At The Venice Biennale 2019
Yolo Daily
June 28, 2020
Ollie Rankin saw the potential of virtual reality as a transformational storytelling medium decades before the existence of consumer VR technology. That didn't stop him from writing VR films or from imagining how to go about creating them. This long-held belief paid off in 2019 when his interactive film Downloaded was chosen to premiere in competition at Venice VR as part of the famous Venice Biennale

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Culture

How Ollie Rankin’s Passion For New Technologies And Social Justice Has Established Him As A Thought Leader In The Virtual Reality Industry
True Hollywood Talk
June 26, 2020
Writer Ulyses Osuna delves into Ollie Rankin's extensive career in visual effects and vitual reality. Touching also on Rankin's advocacy of diversity, fairness and sustainability, the article tells the story of an innovator and change-maker at the top of his game

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Tags: AR/VR, Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion

How Ollie Rankin Went From Fighting Virtual Battles in The Lord of the Rings to Fighting Real Injustice in Virtual Reality
Disrupt Magazine
June 26, 2020
Ollie Rankin is best known for his work in VR and the feature film vfx industry, but his true passion and mission in life is to make the world more diverse, fair and sustainable. This piece tracks his path from working with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in his native New Zealand, to using virtual reality as a tool for breaking down bias and countering tribalism.

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Tags: AI, AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion

The Impact Reality Summit Was A Watershed Moment For Social Impact XR
Forbes
February 13, 2020
The Seattle event, produced by Vulcan Productions and Kaleidoscope, united a community of XR artists and fundraising sources for a summit dedicated to supporting social impact-focused XR projects.

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Tags: AR/VR, Climate Change, Sustainability

FROM VFX TO VR: OLLIE RANKIN’S DOWNLOADED
VFX Voice
October 22, 2019
Ollie Rankin is interviewed by Ian Failes about his interactive VR film, Downloaded, and the use of visual effects techniques to create this unique hybrid of live action and real time CGI

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

DNEG’s Hannah Cook to share insight on workplace inclusivity at SPARK FX 2019
DNEG
April 02, 2019
Inclusivity thought leaders from across VFX, animation, gaming and tech will gather at SPARK FX 2019 to tackle one of the biggest challenges common to all their industries: How do we grow a culture of Inclusion & Diversity and achieve a better balance of men and women in the workplace?

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Tags: Leadership, Culture, Diversity and Inclusion

Downloaded showcases Vancouver's burgeoning VR film potential
Vancouver Sun
August 26, 2018
A report outlining the ground-breaking interactive narrative work of Ollie Rankin, VR creator

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

Growing hunger for virtual reality boosts Vancouver's bid to put the VR in YVR
Vancouver Courier
August 15, 2018
Ollie Rankin's "Downloaded", is an example of an interactive, immersive and narrative-driven VR film that's making Vancouver a global tastemaker

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

BCB Roundup: wine, cannabis, movie magic and no vacancy in Vancouver
BC Business
July 09, 2018
Ollie Rankin's virtual reality film Downloaded takes the audience directly into the plot, where the viewer and Lisa (Riverdale’s Tiera Skovbye) have built a machine known as the Atomizerator, but something has gone horribly wrong with the science experiment.

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Tags: AR/VR, Culture, Emerging Technology

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
DNEG
September 30, 2016
Double Negative were lead vendor on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, nominated for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature for the VES Awards.

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Tags: Culture, Emerging Technology, Innovation

Uncorporeal Systems Launches Two Room-Scale Narrative VR Shorts On Steam
CISION
July 21, 2016
Uncorporeal Systems developed one of the first commercial volumetric capture pipelines. In this article the company leadership talk about two VR shorts created to showcase their tech

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Startups

Double Negative VFX Supervisor Shifts Focus to VR
Animation Xpress
July 12, 2016
Short article about Ollie Rankin joining VR tech startup, Uncorporeal Systems as head of virtual reality production

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Tags: AR/VR, Startups, Entrepreneurship

‘ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS’ VFX SUPERVISOR OLLIE RANKIN TO JOIN UNCORPOREAL SYSTEMS
Medium
June 11, 2016
Ollie Rankin, Visual Effects Supervisor of ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass,’ formerly with Double Negative Visual Effects, has signed on to join Uncorporeal Systems as Head of VFX and VR Production.

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

White House Down: Method Studios Wreaks CG Havoc
Creative Cow
February 19, 2014
Ollie Rankin is interviewed by Debra Kaufman about his work on Roland Emmerich's White House Down that was nominated for a Visual Effects Society Award

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Tags: Innovation, Leadership

G.I. JOE – RETALIATION: OLLIE RANKIN – VFX SUPERVISOR
Art of VFX
April 12, 2013
Ollie Rankin is interviewed by Vincent Frei about his work on Jon M. Chu's G.I. Joe: Retaliation

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Tags: Innovation, Leadership

9 Panels
XR and Sustainable Development
VRE (Virtual Reality Experience)
October 17, 2020
Ollie Rankin and Kristine Severson discuss XR as an opportunity for a more fair, inclusive and supportive future, towards the goals set by the 2030 Agenda.

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Tags: AR/VR, Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion

Pandemic Innovation: LBE in a New World
VR/AR Global Summit
October 02, 2020
A Panel featuring Burning Man, Lost Horizons Festival, Meow Wolf and Altspace VR

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Social

Virtual Events: Concerts, Comedy Shows & Conventions
Dreamland XR
August 19, 2020
Alex Meland hosts a panel about the past, present and future of virtual events, with industry pioneers Finn Staber, Celeste Lear, Ollie Rankin, Kyle Render and Tricia Costello

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

How Emerging Technologies are Shaping the Future of Content Creation
The Creators Society
July 14, 2020
Our panel will focus on how digital tools / technology are shaping the future of content and its production, particularly in an ever changing landscape due to Covid 19

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Tags: AR/VR, COVID19, Innovation

On the Intersection Of Performing Arts and Immersive Technology
VR Days
November 14, 2019
Discussing the crossover between virtual reality storytelling and theatre with specific reference to the recent creative works of the members of the panel

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Culture

Creating Empathy Between Genders
VR Days
November 14, 2019
Exploring the use of the female voice in immersive experiences in order to bridge the gender divide

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Culture

Philosopher's Salon
VR Days
November 14, 2019
Should things that are illegal in the real world be illegal in VR? Ollie Rankin leads a discussion about the ethics of allowing people to indulge virtually in illegal vices

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Tags: Culture, Emerging Technology

BC Showcase
VIFF Immersed
September 28, 2019
XR Content created and coming out of British Columbia and onto the world stage is making an impact and contributing to the province’s reputation for award-winning XR. We’ll talk with BC creators whose content is on exhibition at VIFF Immersed.

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology, Innovation

Diversity & Inclusion Panel
Spark FX
February 10, 2019
Speakers from film, games and tech will talk openly about their experiences working in traditionally male-dominated fields.

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Tags: Culture, HR, Diversity and Inclusion

2 Podcasts
Talking Creativity, Positivity and Inclusivity w/ Ollie Rankin
Terrell Sumpter
September 28, 2020
"A lot of times people are afraid to take on opportunity or take a risk. I think we need to see every opportunity as a potential door opening to a brand new life".

On today's episode I had the privilege I got to connect with some who is truly humble about his success. The ultimate creator behind your favorite films: Ollie Rankin.

Ollie Rankin is an renowned virtual reality and visual effects pioneer.

Ollie is on a mission to make society more inclusive, fair and sustainable.

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Tags: AR/VR, Diversity and Inclusion, Innovation

Getting Downloaded with Ollie Rankin
VRside Chats
August 21, 2019
Daniel K. Hatton interviews Ollie Rankin about his career and the interactive virtual reality (VR) film Downloaded that he wrote and directed.

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Tags: AR/VR, Culture, Emerging Technology

1 Quote
Interactive Narratives and Transmedia Storytelling
Routledge
March 08, 2018
For his book about interactive narrative techniques, researcher Kelly McErlean interviewed VR pioneer Ollie Rankin—and included a number of quotes.

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Tags: AR/VR, Emerging Technology

1 Steering Committee Membership
Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee
YMCA / YWCA
June 12, 2019
A steering committee assembled to improve opportunities and outcomes for women, minorities, LGBT2Q, disabled, neuro-diverse and other under-represented groups in the creative and technology industries in British Columbia

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Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work, Leadership

1 Video
From the Trees to the Stars - Fermi's Paradox
From the Trees to the Stars
September 06, 2018
Ollie Rankin presents the first episode of a new web series, looking at the state of the world and what we need to do to fix it

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Tags: Climate Change, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability

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