- [Director] Ready, and
action!
- Hey, give me my shit!
(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, I'm
gonna jump right into it.
This is gonna be a quick,
down and dirty vlog.
No b-role, maybe a little bit.
I'm on the set of the Oculus,
Invisible People VR Movie.
Rose the director, is gonna
talk to the actors and extras,
many of them formerly
homeless or even homeless.
- My name's Rose,
and I am so thankful and
grateful that you are all here,
participating in this piece.
This piece is a piece that's being made
for an initiative called VR For Good.
It is an Oculus initiative.
The piece will be in 360 degrees, right,
and it's an interactive piece.
In the center of the piece,
we are left in Rockey's tent.
What we're gonna be doing first up today
is we're gonna be doing the sweep.
So the bobcat will be out, the
sanitation workers are out,
the police officers will be
directing them what to do.
But this has been a real
learning experience for me.
I've learned to give people choices.
I've learned to just engage and talk more.
And not just feel burdened.
I've also learned a lot about what happens
with the homeless community
here in the Los Angeles area.
I know you guys have HHH now.
I also know there's a
bottleneck into housing.
I'm so happy that all of
you have gotten housed.
Those of you who have been housed.
I know how hard that is
and the bureaucracy around it.
So but what happened when we
started doing this project
is like, there was no really
answer to homelessness, right.
It's like, some people
are like, tough love.
Some people are like, house them.
Some people are, you know what I mean,
there's all sorts of answers.
So this piece is really fundamentally
about a sense of ones self.
About seeing this person
who it Rocky right here.
Rockey is the center
character of this piece.
(upbeat music)
- There really are no words to express
how grateful I am to Oculus and to Rose.
We're creating a VR
experience on homelessness
about a homeless woman's story
who is currently homeless,
and the actor that's accompanying
her is also homeless.
And then the extras are formerly homeless.
I, there, this is so stinkin' cool.
I can't tell you everything
about the movie itself,
you're just gonna have to
see it when it comes out.
What I can tell you is it's really
gonna be awesome and you have to see it.
(upbeat music)
- You're gonna be kind
of in an Omar situation,
'cause he's getting close
to the bobcat, right?
And just like, I don't want
you to take on the bobcat.
But let's see once we get
that thing out here how scary it is.
- [Camera Man] O-key do-key.
- Alright.
- I love seeing Rose in her element,
she is really talented
and an amazing director.
She is also really good with people
and she has a heart for
our homeless friends.
- There are so many different contraptions
on this beautiful Insta360 camera.
On top we have a Go Pro
with an eye lens on it
that's gonna get our top plate.
Also we have a, what is
this, a Garmin camera
that's actually gonna get
all of our video village
so that everybody can see
and view what's happening
as we hide out 'cause it's a 360 camera
so you can't be in shot.
What else?
This is our audio right here.
Batteries, transmitters,
another transmitter.
That's the basics of it all.
- [Mark] Can you talk to
the space station from this?
- Hopefully, it might
blast off and come meet
the space station soon
is what it looks like.
- Maybe what we'll do
with the shopping cart
is just put it like right
over here, to start.
What would be better?
We can put it over here if you want.
- [Man With Cart] Where
do you want it to go?
- Oh you know, it's gonna
be blocking him too much
if we put it here, let's
park it like right here.
- [Mark] Tell me what you're doin' here.
- Trying to get this tent to stay together
since we cut all the netting out of it.
- [Mark] Yeah but what is this?
Set me up.
- This is Rockey's home,
I guess in this story.
So she's created quite an
amazing home for herself
where she's really specific about
the stuff she keeps and how she keeps it,
so we've just been trying
to honor that for her.
- That's the way I had my house, too.
Look at that table, this is fantastic.
- [Rose] Keep it on an angle.
- Wow, that's great.
- I got ya.
- [Mark] How close is this to your tent?
- It's, the table, the branches, yeah,
it's very close, it's perfect.
(upbeat music)
- I'm here with Rocky and
Rocky is the star of the show.
And she was just telling
me she doesn't think,
your life is that interesting.
- My life is not interesting.
- Right.
- Life is interesting.
I've had a zest for life and then
when this all happened, just.
- [Mark] Overwhelming?
- Overwhelming.
- [Mark] In a good way.
- Yeah.
This here is,
becoming homeless was
overwhelming in a bad way.
This is overwhelming in a good way.
- [Mark] What do you feel about all this?
- It's crazy, I didn't think my life
was that interesting to begin with.
I got married young, I worked.
- [Mark] You're sleeping in a tent.
And part of this film is about your tent.
- Yeah, yeah.
What it takes to be homeless.
You know we work harder than
anybody in an eight hour job.
It's hard.
- [Mark] How long have you been outside?
- Three years.
- Three years.
And you're gonna be in housing soon?
And you're gonna be the star
of a virtual reality film.
- It's crazy.
- Awesome.
- As long as I know that
the story is getting to,
people hear blue collar
man, you know worker,
as long as it's gettin'
to them, then it's okay.
It's crazy, but yeah.
- [Mark] I have to thank Eric
and LA Family Housing for introducing us.
- Yeah, yeah.
Thank you Eric. (laughs)
- [Rose] I was like, do I
need to give you a hand?
- My god, Paul says, you
know you got a trailer.
And I'm like.
- Aww.
- Look at my face, my cheeks.
- [Makeup Artist] Do you love this beauty?
- My cheeks are not red.
- I know,
but you know what?
She can't be too perfect.
- No no no it's not.
- [Makeup Artist] I know, she just asked
if she could not be red.
- [Mark] I think she's pretty perfect.
- I know she's pretty perfect right now.
- [Makeup Artist] I
thought she was perfect
when she walked in, but she asked--
- [Rose] She's just a
little make-upy right now.
- Right?
- [Rockey] Is it?
- [Rose] You're a little make-upy.
- [Makeup Artist] You think?
- Well you know what, that
will go away because I'm light.
- Down just a--
- Sure, we can.
- Down just a little Rock, just a little.
You look beautiful though babe.
- Here, let me spray you with a doo spray
and then it just won't look powdery.
- [Rose] Okay.
Oh yeah, do spray that, that's great.
Okay Rocky, how you feelin' babe?
Ready for your close up?
- Yes I am.
- Okay, we're starting with the part
that was like the end bit, right?
Remember when you go back to the tent?
- And then--
- Look into the,
look into the camera.
There's gonna be like, hopefully everyone
will get on board and there
will be chaos all around.
Now you have to try to
channel your old self
to be in the piece, Rock.
- [Mark] It's because of
the film and having purpose.
- I mean she literally
looks better and better
and better when I come to pick her up.
So I'm just like, more and more beautiful,
I'm like Rock,
- I have, you know what?
- Listen, I want that face.
- I have one for tomorrow.
- Hey but you know what?
- I got the teeth, you got the teeth in.
- I know, I got my bike, I got my teeth.
- [Rose] Yeah she got her leg out of that.
- Oh, I love it.
I was gonna say listen,
I will happily make you look
like you used to with effects.
I'd rather you look like this
and I have to fake the old way.
- Okay, we can do that.
- [Mark] I love that.
- No touches in between.
- [Mark] What are we doin' here?
- I'm goin' to New York with you.
- Oh, she's comin--
- For that dance thing.
- Yeah, my dance party.
Wow, I don't know, it's
love at first sight.
- I brought some branches that I want,
I talked to props guys.
- Oh, to Phil.
- To put on the outside.
- Oh, cute!
- I brought four stems I'm gonna--
- We should head up there, Rock,
and you take a look at that.
And then we'll shoosh it for you, okay.
- [Mark] So you're going to
outreach with LA Family Housing?
- Yes, yes, with Eric and Stacey.
We went out like several times.
We went to several different areas,
got to learn about HHH,
got to learn about the housing bubble,
got to learn about the bottleneck
that's happening right now.
But it's great that more
people are getting vouchers.
- But then there's not--
- Yes.
- There's a lot of
people with vouchers now
but they're still
experiencing homelessness.
- Yeah yeah.
- [Mark] But no housing.
- Yeah, there's no housing.
We need more people to do Section 8.
- [Mark] So tell me about the
first time you met Rockey.
- They give them a tax break.
- The first time I met Rockey,
was that we kept on
trying to go and find her.
We'd be like, knock knock.
And Rockey had been
talked up so much by Eric.
Eric's like I got the
perfect person for you.
And I'm like, she was so hyped up,
so I'm like, she had to
live up to that expectation.
She really did, she really has.
So it was like, but I am
forever thankful to Eric.
'Cause Eric was like, I know who I want.
I know who I'm gonna introduce you to.
- Yeah, told me that he had
got housing for and, just yeah.
- So this is like, this,
you already won't be inside there
because we're doing the
second half of the day.
- Oh, okay.
- So we're doing, when
we come and do the sweep,
we're doing the bobcat situation.
This is when you come
walking back, so Paul,
let's get some of this stuff.
- [Mark] You didn't dance for me.
- Oh I didn't?
- [Mark] Geez!
(laughs)
- Go on!
(upbeat music)
- This is Paul, Rockey's friend,
who is also acting in this movie.
Hey Paul.
- Hi, how you doin'?
- [Mark] Tell me what's going on.
- Just here filming today.
Enjoying the beautiful day
and the nice people here.
- [Mark] How do you feel about,
I mean you're currently homeless.
- I feel that it's a really good,
something to put out there
for the general public to see,
a person like me maybe being
able to get more personalized
with a homeless person and the struggles
that they go through.
- [Mark] How long have
you been sleeping outside?
- Four years.
- [Mark] Wow, that's way too long.
- Yeah, a little bit.
- [Mark] Yeah.
Something like this
doesn't happen every day.
- No, you know there's a lot of awareness
for homeless people these days.
There's more of a social
conscious about it.
This will hopefully
elevate that even more.
It's, homelessness has been growing
by leaps and bounds it seems to me.
I see more homeless people
now than I ever have.
It's unfortunate.
Our economy is supposedly doing well,
I just think it's for the
1% or the one percenters.
- [Mark] Yeah.
But this is a film about homelessness
with real homeless people.
- Great, couldn't ask for anything more.
I mean, we're represented
by homeless people,
you know, that's great.
- [Mark] It's the Invisible People way.
Honor to meet you, glad you're here.
- Thanks for having me.
- Rose is doing one of
the final rehearsals
leading up to the actual shoot.
I'm gonna show ya a little bit of it.
Not all of it, just a little bit.
You're gonna have to wait
for the movie itself.
It's gonna be awesome.
- Take that out, take it to the,
that's good, you committed, come back now.
Yeah take it back out
and you'll go to the--
- I'm not getting any of
the shit, stuff right?
- No, no, you did an awesome job.
I loved everything about it.
Everything about it.
That sass, Ron, was all about it.
- Yeah that's good, it helps me a lot too.
- I like the sass alright.
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] This is Amy.
And this is Avery.
- Hello.
- [Mark] And tell me about yourself
and what we're doing here.
- I work on the VR For Good
creators lab program with Oculus.
And we are shooting a project
with Invisible People and Rose
Troche about homelessness.
- [Mark] Tell me about the
VR creator, good, thing.
(laughs)
- VR For Good creators lab.
So we are a program that pairs filmmakers
and nonprofits together
to create social good VR.
So, as Amy said, for this project
we're working with Invisible
People and Mark and Rose
to do a piece about homelessness.
- [Mark] So why homelessness?
- Well, Mark, 'cause you
applied, first of all.
- [Mark] (laughs) Blame it on me.
- It's all your fault.
But, I don't know, the story about
what Invisible People is
doing really spoke to us.
We thought it's an important story
to make people think about boundaries
and opening themselves up to people,
making sure that you don't
walk by another human people
and not think what their reality is
and what they've gone through.
Instead, stop and engage
and make sure that everybody's okay.
- [Mark] And what have you learned?
- I think I've kind of
just shed a little bit
of my admitted fear of homeless people.
We went out with you and
walked around skid row
and I really learned not
to just walk by somebody
but to stop and to say hi
and to really engage in them
and ask them how they're doing
and hand them a pair of
socks or a bottle of water.
And it's really just
made me stop and realize
that I should take more time
to interact with the people
who are living on the streets,
especially in Los Angeles,
'cause it's a big problem.
- [Mark] What have you learned?
- I've learned that there's
not that much difference
or no difference between me
and somebody who's on the street.
It's luck and it's circumstance
and once you talk to somebody,
you realize that we're all the same.
And it's been really moving to me to see
and talk to a lot of these people
and they're trying to figure out
how to take care of me when it's hot out
or when there are
different things going on.
They've got so many more things
to worry about than I do.
- [Mark] I gotta ask you,
Oculus is a big deal.
It's a big company.
You're investing in a VR production
of a homeless person's
story, that's great.
What makes this unique is
the person is still homeless.
And what I love is many
of the actors and extra
are formerly homeless or homeless.
Not everybody does that.
- Yeah well Rose and you Mark,
were really convincing
and helped us understand,
again, the best people to tell this story
are the people who've lived it.
Talking to Rockey and
hearing her talk about
how excited she is that all these people
are interested in her life
and her story for once.
I don't know, it's really lovely.
It helps hammer home to us
that it was the right decision.
(upbeat music)
- Being on a set all day reminds me
back in the day when I
first moved to Los Angeles.
I worked apprentice special
effects on B horror movies,
I cut a little film, did
an assistant editor gig.
I even played an undercover
cop in a B movie.
I had one line, freeze, police.
Hey Karen.
- How you doin'?
- [Mark] What do you think
about what's goin' on here?
- I think it's great, you know.
Show what it's really like, you know.
'Cause you know they come in, they take,
they do what they want to do.
You don't even have time
to think or anything else.
- [Mark] Yeah, when the police come.
- Yeah, when they come.
- [Mark] How long were you homeless?
- 13 years, 13 years.
- [Mark] And you're now in housing?
- Yup, thank God.
- [Mark] Oh my gosh, that is--
- It was a shock, it was a
shock to have four walls.
I didn't know what to do with myself,
I'm like, uh!
You know and a bathroom
should not be a luxury.
That was the best part,
was having a bathroom!
- [Mark] Yeah, oh my gosh.
- I stay in there and
take a bath for six hours
and I'm not kidding.
That's what I would do.
- [Mark] Oh my god.
- So I'm very happy, you know.
And like I said, sometimes
I still get like,
oh my god, I'm inside.
- [Mark] So what do you
think about all this?
- Just really good.
It's, you know, I like the
fact that the word is out,
it's gotta be put out
there what we've gotta do
and how we have to live
just being homeless.
And what LAPD does to make
us still stay homeless.
They rip our tents up and
then say you have to get out.
Well where, to a sidewalk?
With no tent?
Now I gotta go to church and
get another voucher for a tent.
You know, they take it
away and they come back
and they just, I don't get it.
You know, where's your humanity.
- [Mark] Well thank you for
sharing your life with us.
- You're welcome.
- Rockey and I were
talking about this area
and she naturally started picking
where she would have placed her tent.
- Yeah, yeah.
- See, I would have placed it over there.
I would have hidden behind.
- Wanted to go into the tree, and yeah.
- [Mark] I would have
hidden behind so that
the people going by would see me.
- Wouldn't see you.
And plus you have another structure there,
that all you need to do
is put three walls up
because you have that there.
- Oh yeah, yeah, I
didn't think about that.
- And anything with hanging
tree over, with branch over,
you can hang your water
up in for your shower.
- [Mark] Yeah. Smart.
- More blankets and more branches.
- But I think what's
been really phenomenal
has been watching Rose immerse herself
in working with people and nonprofits
in the homelessness
community in Los Angeles.
I mean even talking to her
eight months ago to today,
the project has shifted
because she's gained
this greater understanding and has found
phenomenal people like you,
Mark, with Invisible People,
who she was initially hooked up with,
and then Stacey and Eric from LA Housing
have been phenomenal.
They helped us find Rockey.
So this has been so much
of a learning process.
Not just a project.
It's been phenomenal for me to watch Rose
dive in and her worldview shift.
- [Mark] So Rose is great.
- Oh, me.
- Rose is great.
- Oh no, now I have to talk about me.
- Emily, I saw you loving on Rockey today,
I saw you loving on Paul.
They're homeless people.
- No Rockey's just Rockey to me.
I,
sitting down with Rockey
and getting to know her
as a person and her stories,
she's a person and you know the truth is
I have just walked down
the street and not thought
about who someone's first love was.
I haven't asked myself
when I walk downtown
or I live near Echo Park,
when I've walked in Echo Park,
I wonder what this person's story is?
What was their first love?
Not the story of why this,
but the story of who they are.
And that is really, I'm embarrassed to say
that this has impacted me in a way
that I didn't realize I could be impacted
because I didn't think
I was the type of person
that would just walk by.
And when you take a second to
really get to know someone.
- [Mark] It's changed you.
- It's changed me.
- I've seen Rose just connect
with homeless people right from the start.
Right from the first time
we went out on the streets,
and I saw you do the same
thing today, and yesterday.
Not everybody does that.
- I just think if everyone
just saw people as people,
and was able to realize that
they have the same experiences
and back stories that you have it would,
it would really shift the
way we view the world.
As generic as it sounds, it's really true.
- I'm DJ Turner, I'm with VR Playhouse.
We are in charge of making sure
that this day goes smoothly
and we get everything that we need
in order to create a good VR experience.
Right now we're doing
one of our main shots,
it's one of the opening shots
where we are first meeting Rockey.
- [Rose] I need someone to give,
I need someone to give Paul his queue.
- Okay.
- [Mark] And you're busy.
- And I'm real busy right now. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] How do you feel about today?
- I feel good.
I feel like there's so much
that I feel invested in
with it and wanting it to be,
and for you and for everyone
wanting it to be really something that,
you know I just feel like,
I feel sort of a little bit of
extra, extra responsibility.
- [Mark] You've always felt that.
- [Emily] She's talked about that a lot.
- [Mark] Yeah her passion, your
passion is just overflowing
and it always has been
since we first connected.
- It's not good enough for it to be good
for Rose right now, it has to be changing.
- [Rose] I really want it to be like.
- Life changing for people.
- Yeah, it really just, i really want it.
And I really want people to
like, know Rockey's story.
- It's like when I first met her,
she's like, got this idea and it's just,
you know and I'm like, yes, absolutely.
Use me, whatever you need to do,
'cause it's her passion and
it's mine to get out there
on what the homeless have to go through.
From all kinds of different, you know,
just everything they have to go through.
She's there to put it,
'cause she's got the talent,
to put it on camera.
Just use me, whatever you need.
- [Rose] I didn't use your up to 19 takes.
- [Mark] Hey hey hey hey.
- [Emily] Yeah, number 20 Rock.
- [Mark] And Paul, what'd you think?
Come on in here.
- Enjoyed it.
It was a real neat experience
and I thank God that
we have people like you
that want to put a face to homelessness.
Thanks.
- [Mark] Well it's an honor to meet you.
- It's an honor to meet you too.
So who all was helpin' you here today.
Besides super Emily.
- Oh, no no no.
- [Rose] Emily's amazing.
- [Mark] Super Emily the producer.
- That was really, it really,
I don't know what I would actually,
I don't know what I would
have done without Emily.
So I'm really happy that
the timing worked out
that you could do it.
And like, you know, we're finally buds.
- [Emily] You choose your projects
because you want to work with each person
and I wanted to work with you two on this.
- Yeah, yeah.
So it really worked out well.
It's an amazing team.
- [Mark] But you, this is
a story about homelessness,
and you had homeless people
and formerly homeless people.
- Yeah.
- [Mark] What was the
decision behind that?
- Well you?
In all honesty it was you.
(Mark laughs)
You should turn the camera,
you should turn the camera like this,
it was you!
- It was me!
Was Invisible People stuff.
(upbeat music)
A truly amazing day,
history in the making.
A VR film about homelessness featuring
homeless people and
formerly homeless people.
It's never been done
before, it's a miracle.
Thank you Oculus for believing
in Invisible People
and making this happen.
Thank you Rose for having such a heart
and a passion for our homeless
friends and neighbors.
Thank you Eric and Chris
from LA Family Housing
for helping to make this happen.
Thanks to everybody involved,
and thanks to people like you
that help support Invisible People.
If you would like to
learn about homelessness,
go to invisiblepeople.tv and
click on the learn more tab.
If you would like to take
action to end homelessness,
connect with your local
homeless service providers
that are working to end
homelessness and get involved.
We're never gonna end homelessness
without policy change.
If you're in the United States,
click on the get involved tab.
We've made it easy for you to contact
your state and federal legislators.
You can tweet to them, you can call them,
you could email them,
let them know that it
is important to you that
we end homelessness.
(upbeat music)
