UTA has signed digital content studio Secret Location, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
Last month, the Los Angeles- and Toronto-based company became the first to win an Emmy for a virtual reality project, when the Sleepy Hollow Virtual Reality Experience, an installation experienced by several thousand attendees at Comic-Con this summer, earned an interactive media Emmy for user experience and visual design.
In addition to its unique virtual and augmented reality work, Secret Location also has built websites, apps and created linear digital content (i.e. webseries) for film and TV clients including Insidious 3, NBC’s The Blacklist, IFC’s The Spoils of Babylon and BET’s The Book of Negroes, as well as for brands including Samsung, Toyota and Red Bull. It currently is working with Syfy on a virtual reality series called Halcyon and with GE on a story about China’s largest wind farm.
This summer, Secret Location brought a spherical camera inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall to capture an L.A. Philharmonic performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous fifth symphony in 360-degree, stereoscopic 3D. The ensuing virtual reality experience, VANBeethoven, took place in a van that toured around Los Angeles Sept. 11-Oct. 18.
UTA will work with Secret Location, which has twice won best of show at the Banff World Media Festival, to expand its business in both non-traditional and traditional media. In addition, the agency – which has one of Hollywood’s longest-running and strongest digital departments – will advise on its social and digital media strategy. The studio also has been nominated for Cannes Lions and is a five-time Webby and three-time SXSW interactive award nominee.
Oct. 20 1:33 p.m. Edited to clarify that Secret Location works in all areas of digital content.
