An express train to VR

Slightly over a year ago I walked into a room and pulled a headset over my eyes. Ten minutes later I removed the headset and stepped out of the room.

I had just watched Lost and it was the first time I had experienced virtual reality since 1995. My mind was racing.

What does this do to the structure of narrative? If compelling cinema is created through careful control of exactly what the audience is seeing and where they are looking then how do the rules of film making apply to what could be considered cinema in the round?

As I asked myself this, I realized two things:

First, this is exactly where we found ourselves when creating Toy Story. We had narratives to tell, and tools existed to animate on the computer, but no one had yet created a complete story told with that medium. We had to discover how art and technology would influence each other, and we had to share what we learned.

Second, it was clear that the sense of presence, of scale and of being within the story is changing the way we experience narrative. Rather than being the passive observer of a film I was an active participant in an experience.

How far can we go with making a story interactive? Can we change the narrative structure of piece based upon where the audience is looking? Should we? What can we do with use of peripheral vision to engage our audience and guide them into a new part of the story. How can we leverage the entire space of an environment and not just the sliver of a set that we choose to point the camera at?

And that is just a small quantity of the questions that intrigue me.

I had to be a part of this. Since that moment, I have immersed myself in VR. Studying what is being produced. Talking to creators about why this medium excites them and creating my own live action and CG experiences. The coming years will be exciting for our medium and I am looking forward to how it will expand the boundaries of our imagination.

Let’s all create something.