Working together, REWIND and HBO created a bespoke piece of 360º content, designed to immerse users in the show environment as they watch a trailer for Westworld’s second season.

The Product and Engineering team at HBO created a high-end virtual Sweetwater, an Old West town just outside of the Westworld park. REWIND created some additional elements for the environment and then repurposed all assets for deployment on Samsung Gear VR, running on Samsung S7 and S8 devices.

In the final Gear VR experience, a 2D trailer promoting the park plays on a screen situated in Sweetwater, inviting users to visit Westworld as if it were a real location. Then, everything starts to break down. Glitch effects move across the screen, the location starts to disassemble itself before the user’s eyes, then the experience seemingly ‘crashes’ to a white screen featuring the Westworld logo. The unexpected twist in the virtual experience is reminiscent of the ways in which the show itself plays with viewer’s expectations.

REWIND was asked to mirror the glitch effects that feature in the 2D trailer in the 3D 360º content. The team developed an in-house technique for stereo glitching, which comfortably distorted the scene geometry and texture information in post-production, whilst remaining true to the show’s aesthetic.

REWIND worked with HBO and Westworld to deliver the project.