Changing What Film Looks Like
For the most part, the films made for VR so far are essentially 360-degree 3D movies. So far, they lack an ability to take advantage of positional tracking so you can examine people or objects from different angles like you can in pre-rendered videogames. The experiences are more immersive, but virtual reality has the potential to change everything about what we call films, and how we make them. When viewers can look anywhere at any time, directors still have to determine how to direct viewers attention to specific areas within that sphere of vision. Quick cuts are too disorienting as well; in fact, the entire visual grammar of film may may need to be completely overhauled, just as it was in the late 19th centure when the moving camera was invented.
But figuring out this new format is exactly what these filmmakers want to do. Its like literally starting my entire career over again. We dont know how to do anything, we dont know how to figure everything out, says May, whos spent some 20 years doing VFX for movies like Spider-Man 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In computer graphics, everythings kind of been figured out. But now with this, nobody knows how to do this.
Thats why Milks VRSE ventures and Oculus Story Studio are so exciting. While VRSE is working with some of the best storytelling minds out there to tackle the issue (e.g., Turn Down for What director duo Daniels, interactive play Sleep No Mores Felix Barrett), Milk is also looking to make the tools needed to create VR films and the studio system to produce and release them.
Oculus, in turn, is working on multiple internal projects in hopes of solving the storytelling and technical hurdles necessary to make VR a viable format for filmmakers who dont know the first thing about videogame engines. Its an initiative thats been in the works since before Facebook bought the company last March, when investor Marc Andreessen pointed out that film could be a big part of VRs place in the media spectrum (he would eventually introduce the Oculus folks to his friends in Hollywood).
