Collected Data
"We don't really know where this technology or where the art of VR is going"
It's simply a matter of time, however, before the technology will catch up to whatever storytelling needs filmmakers have or can imagine, according to Robert Stromberg, an Oscar-winning American special effects artist, art director, designer and filmmaker whose credits include Maleficent, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland.
VR is not simply a film, or a videogame, said Stromberg, who also directed a VR experience that accompanied Ridley Scott's The Martian."It's this new thing and a form of entertainment at the level of Hollywood's biggest films," he said. "It's a new way for people to experience anything they want to experience and also a new way to tell stories. It's this sort of frontier, this brand-new world on its own."
Virtual reality: Future of filmmaking or cinema's latest gimmick?
Why does VR have to be a storytelling medium?
"No one has even come close to mastering the medium, but it’s clear that holding on to the traditional rules of storytelling is a surefire way to make disappointing VR."
The best VR at the event were the pieces where the filmmaker created a world, and you experience the story from within it. The emotion evoked from the landscape and the characters in the world is the story. It’s not about watching a series of events; it’s about viscerally responding to the energy, the vibe, the spirit of a space.
Yes, everyone recognizes that this sounds like some trippy shit.
How Traditional Storytelling Is Ruining Virtual Reality Film
"While the goal is creating "genuine, deeply convincing" interactions, Facebook is a long way from getting there, Sheikh said. Still, the company is working hard to solve that problem."
Now, though, Facebook is making multi-user VR much more social. During his keynote, Schroepfer showed how he and Mike Booth, a Facebook engineer located at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters more than 30 miles away, were able to jump together into a series of 360-degree photographs, with each person represented by an animated avatar, and each able to see all around them as they interacted.
They even pulled out a VR selfie stick and took an instant selfie, which they then uploaded directly to Facebook. This was totally social—no game mechanics at all. That’s because, Social VR product manager Mike Beltzner explained to Fast Company at F8, Facebook found through its research that playing games, even with other people, took away from the social experience. "The more game-like it is," Beltzner said, "the less you interact."
How Facebook's Social VR Could Be The Killer App For Virtual Reality
I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again; Social is the future of VR. Facebook did not buy into VR to make games and tell stories.
"If you’re going to kneecap a creator’s ability to tell a story, you’re going to reduce the quality of the story along with it."
Where the camera is positioned, how it moves within the scene, what type of lens is being used, the way your eyes are being guided around the frame or used to form bridges across cuts, composition, lighting… These are the foundations of movie making. The basic elements of the language of cinema itself. What I don’t understand is why creators would want to abandon huge pieces of this language and thus greatly diminish their storytelling capability. What is there to gain in this scenario? It’s like asking someone to convey a complex topic using only the vocabulary they had in the third grade.
Why I don’t believe in “cinematic” VR
"A big challenge here, and I don't think anyone has solved it, is how do you give the audience a 360-degree choice, all the time."
""We don’t want this to be 3-D TV all over again"
But there's no guarantee that Hollywood is the solution to the Valley's content problem. Traditional movie and TV types never took the video game world by storm. Maybe they're not the visionaries who will prove the future of VR, either. Plus, with no rules or standards in place, how can companies explain this new field to a layperson who just wants to watch a new kind of movie?
How Hollywood Is Learning To Tell Stories In Virtual Reality
The future of VR is not storytelling.
"There’s only one catch: No one’s sure what virtual reality goggles are good for just yet."
“That is definitely the million-dollar question,” said Levi Miller, an engineer at Valve, a game developer and distributor, when I asked him what experiences would work best in virtual reality. Mark Zuckerberg might say it’s more like a $2 billion question.
“The truth is, we still don’t know what the best applications are going to be,” John Carmack, the chief technology officer of Oculus, said during a speech at the conference.
Virtual Reality’s Potential Displayed at Game Developers Conference
Uh huh. Video games and interactive entertainment are a just avenues to refine the technology, but they are not the future of VR. Console ‘hard core’ gaming is a niche. Interactive fiction is a niche. VR is unlikely to replace television or movie theatres.
I can understand that Mr Carmack is probably not in a position to discuss why Facebook bought Oculus, but the very fact that Facebook bought a VR company should tell everyone what they need to know; VR is the ultimate social networking technology.
That’s the ‘killer app’.
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