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Film Theory takes a look at Immersive Experiences

saviornt
Protege
Figured I would share, as I haven't seen it posted yet:


Current WIPs using Unreal Engine 4: Agrona - Tales of an Era: Medieval Fantasy MORPG
8 REPLIES 8

grodenglaive
Honored Guest
I actually remember Dragon's Lair - a game entirely of trial and error. Boring and frustrating. We had an instruction sheet that circulated around school that showed all the directions you had to follow to complete the game (right, left, jump, duck). We would try to memorize as much as possible in order to get the most out of our quarter. The worst, dumbest video game ever made. After a month no one played it anymore.

Well I'm going to sound like a stubborn old person and say that interactive movies would be a short lived fad at best. Most people see a movie to relax*, who wants to make decisions along the way as to the outcome of each scene? We must also consider the added expense of making a movie with all these extra optional scenes. It will either suck or be hugely expensive to make.

Now imagine a 360 degree movie. Think of all the effort that goes into making something look decent from a single angle - how could you make it work in 360 degrees? Some cool experiences sure, but a whole movie with a story? And what are you going to see if you are looking away from the direction of the actors? Certainly not their facial expressions or the action or plot. I can see why James Cameron thinks VR movies are a dumb idea and I tend to agree with him. I don't think video games are the future of movies.


*pure conjecture I'm not basing on any scientific data 🙂
GA-Z97X-gaming gt; i5-4670k; Nvidia780Ti; 16GB PC3-17066; win7-64 bit; DK2

cybereality
Grand Champion
I actually used to love Dragon's Lair. Played Space Ace too back when CD-ROMs first came out on PC. Good times.
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VizionVR
Rising Star
I'm sorry, I could only get through about half of that vid before getting completely annoyed at the short attention span graphics flashing across my aged and slowing brain.

Was Oculus Studio mentioned? Oculus Studio seems the perfect way to have a 360 immersive film experience with the ability to make decisions and/or interact with the surroundings, characters.

"grodenglaive" wrote:
Now imagine a 360 degree movie. Think of all the effort that goes into making something look decent from a single angle - how could you make it work in 360 degrees? Some cool experiences sure, but a whole movie with a story? And what are you going to see if you are looking away from the direction of the actors? Certainly not their facial expressions or the action or plot. I can see why James Cameron thinks VR movies are a dumb idea and I tend to agree with him. I don't think video games are the future of movies.


There are a few (very few) genres where 360 interactive film will work. Oculus Studio is experimenting with CGI shorts so they can dip their toe in the film making waters. So far what they've done has had remarkably positive reviews. CGI may be the ONLY way to do 360 film as it clears many hurdles that are otherwise in the way of traditional film. No behind the scenes gear to hide, always perfect lighting, perfect visual and audio direction cues, and best of all, interaction and decision making can be part of the process.

I'm not saying this is where the future of all film is headed, but VR presents a new way of expression and storytelling that's never been done before. Imagine the day when CGI will be rendered in lifelike quality (in real time). Actors will voice their motion captured on-screen avatars. Now imagine deceased actors brought back to life with the use of lifelike CGI and voice impersonators. Imagine being able to interact in a scene with John Wayne, Vincent Price, or literally any actor you choose. Imagine a murder mystery that's comprised entirely of actors (living and dead) of your choice and you are the detective. It's not a game and it's not a movie. This new type of VR deserves a new term.

I was a HUGE Don Bluth fan back in the day, but Dragon's Lair/SpaceAce was so tough it annoyed the hell out of me. It could have been the next big thing if it wasn't such a quarter hog.
Not a Rift fanboi. Not a Vive fanboi. I'm a VR fanboi. Get it straight.

shadowfrogger
Heroic Explorer
Documentaries would be a perfect fit for 360 video. Especially with depth sensing camera so you can have a bit of translation movement. You could turn the close environment around you into voxels and erase some of the camera crew. Cgi is definitely a better fit for interactive story Movies/games. VR doesn't fit with traditional movie making and never will, so 2d Movies will forever be around and probably be dominate.

I definitely see a place for non interactive/non Cgi vr film. We don't know how it works or the attention span of users, so many techniques to discover. I don't agree with James Cameron, yes there is no framing and it's harder to portray a story because we don't have any trusted techniques. Traditional film can't be delivered in the same way as VR film. But if anyone has been moved by watching a play at the theatre, there is something there that traditional film can't get, Vr film might be able to capture it. Nobody knows until somebody does it very well. Maybe they will bring back the intermission for long Vr films

Birdman type film could be a example where a VR film could be awesome
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Have to agree with the video. I'm 50/50 when it comes to watching and doing things.

I rather watch a movie happen before me without much control when I wanna just relax, but being able to do a little more with the movie might be cool in that you could change the out come making a whole new movie in the process. The Until Dawn game that was just release took the same idea in a way and make it into a video game for others to make choices. My problem is I can't watch something happen 2x in a row before I get board of watching it normally, so even though it could make a totally different movie in witch you choose the out come ~ I would be board re watching the whole darn thing 😛

Meh, what ever comes out of this new area, I know it'll allow people to experience new things that has never been seen before and in some ways ~ will create a new level arguements in "how real should we stop" before we cross over a point of no return.

VizionVR
Rising Star
"shadowfrogger" wrote:
Documentaries would be a perfect fit for 360 video.


This is true. Did you watch Zero Point? It's a 15 minute VR documentary about VR. The buffalo scene is outright amazing (aside from the early tech stitching issues). In the future I can see National Geographic producing some pretty spectacular HD 360 documentaries.
Not a Rift fanboi. Not a Vive fanboi. I'm a VR fanboi. Get it straight.

shadowfrogger
Heroic Explorer
"vizionvr" wrote:
"shadowfrogger" wrote:
Documentaries would be a perfect fit for 360 video.


This is true. Did you watch Zero Point? It's a 15 minute VR documentary about VR. The buffalo scene is outright amazing (aside from the early tech stitching issues). In the future I can see National Geographic producing some pretty spectacular HD 360 documentaries.


I haven't yet, I don't have a dk2 but will watch it as soon as I have a cv1. I do see some amazing documentaries in the future but I think fox brought out national geographic recently which is such a pity 😞
Visit my amateur homegrown indie game company website! http://www.gaming-disorder.com/

grodenglaive
Honored Guest
"vizionvr" wrote:

I'm not saying this is where the future of all film is headed, but VR presents a new way of expression and storytelling that's never been done before. Imagine the day when CGI will be rendered in lifelike quality (in real time). Actors will voice their motion captured on-screen avatars.

That's a good point. Who knows, in the more distant future (>20 years) standard movies could disappear and be replaced by something like that. It's easy to render a 360 dgree VR scene with a game engine and you could build an entire movies that way. Movie cameras would become obsolete. Heck you wouldn't even need to hire actors at all, even the dialog could be simulated.
Actually, judging by what's coming out of Hollywood these days, change wouldn't be such a bad thing (I just read they are remaking Charlies Angels again).
GA-Z97X-gaming gt; i5-4670k; Nvidia780Ti; 16GB PC3-17066; win7-64 bit; DK2