The Shape of VR to Come: 5 predictions about VR filmmaking in 2016
As one of the co-founders of Metta, the virtual reality video platform dedicated to user-generated content (now taking waiting list signups for our beta here), I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to see hundreds of experiments in VR video every week.
As a result, I spend a good deal of time thinking about what kind of stories and experiences will flourish in VR. What will it mean for the way we tell stories? How will “shots” be framed in a visual language with no boundaries?
The list below is a sketch of some of the trends and motifs I think will dominate the next few months of VR video production as affordable cameras like the Ricoh Theta S, and now the Samsung Gear 360 and LG 360 Cam, give millions of consumers the ability to create their own 360 videos …
The Accident
We’re used to composing shots: aligning objects and subjects just so. But with VR, everything is in the frame — which means there’s nearly always something you’ve missed and that will surprise you when you replay your footage. I think that some of the most intriguing work that will emerge during the next few months will explore what it means to lose control of the frame.
Compared with the rigorously composed, filtered, and unedited shots that make up most peoples’ Instagram feeds, VR will be a delightful departure that makes room for the unexpected and the accidental. No doubt we’ll see a fair amount of clickbait (‘You won’t believe what happens when you turn around ….’), but I think we’ll be in for a treat once VR makers begin capturing moments that take even them by surprise.
Group interactions
If the selfie represented the triumph of the front-facing mobile phone camera, 360 videography privileges the group interaction. Before experimenting with VR filmmaking, I don’t think I realized how many social occasions involve groups of people sitting in a circle around some central activity — drinks, boardgames, good food.
Having brought my Ricoh Theta S everywhere with me over the holiday season I was delighted to watch back footage of happy drunk people gorging turkey (& tofurkey) in 360 degrees. Whilst the occasion of a Christmas dinner is not the type of experience most people associate with VR, group dynamics make for wonderful viewing when you have the opportunity to see everybody’s responses to the same event. I’m predicting that a lot of UGC will experiment and explore with groups, and that we’ll see some early professional filmmakers use VR to chronicle complex family and group situations where the onus is on the viewer to decipher what’s going on under the surface … Think “Festen” in VR.
Multiple storylines
Saschka Unseld, Creative Director of Oculus Story Studio, has talked extensively about the lessons he has learned while experimenting with VR filmmaker with the Facebook-backed VR film studio. While Saschka is famously reticent about making bold claims about VR filmmaking, he has hinted at the power that narratives driven by multiple storylines can yield when viewed in VR. With so many places to look, one story sometimes isn’t enough.
In my experience, some of the most fascinating results of VR filmmaking emerge when there is more than one narrative emerging at once and the viewer is left to her own devices to focus on different storylines. I am frequently reminded of my experiences at Punchdrunk Theatre’s immersive theatrical performances — during which viewers are given free reign to follow different characters throughout a 3 hour immersive performance.
The advent of a cinematic mode in which multiple storylines shape the narrative experience could have significant consequences for how we interpret the world around us. It may sound overly idealistic, but I sometimes find myself thinking about how VR filmmaking that allows the viewer to see the same story from multiple angles, and multiple storytellers, could help herald a shift to less partisan and more nuanced ways of understanding the world around us.
The Presenter
Some of the earliest writing on VR filmmaking contained advice on how to ensure that the director and production crew was ‘out of the frame’ — since 360 cameras don’t leave anywhere to hide.
And yet, I personally believe that VR filmmaking can be at its most compelling when the person calling the shots is in the frame, holding the camera. With handheld devices like the Ricoh Theta S and Giroptic looking set to lead the market over the next few months, I think that we’ll see that the first popular VR vloggers are those who learn to embrace the fact that they are always in the shot. I think we’re still waiting for the first VR stars to emerge, but when they do they’ll almost certainly be charismatic people who can think of clever ways of interacting with their audience whilst holding a camera.
Experimentation.
While mobile photography democratized the kind of HD photography already available to professionals with SLRs and Photoshop, VR is something new for everyone. For the first time in a while, professional filmmakers and enthusiasts will be on a level playing field and everything will be up for grabs. I’m hoping to see a couple of new directors emerge out of obscurity, and for experimentation to be the name of the game as creators attempt to develop a new visual language for a medium without conventions.
While professional VR rigs that involve gazillions of GoPros strapped together are clunky and hard to experiment with, the handheld Ricoh Theta S was designed for filmmakers who want to play. Sure, the quality of handheld cameras is not as good, but their tiny size makes them perfect for experimentation. I’ve seen filmmakers put their Ricohs in fridges, handbags, washing machines, on their plates, in their mouths, strapped to helmets, skis, airplanes, dogs, under tables, in manholes, pipes. Who knows what kind of VR video content will prove most popular in 2016, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see filmmakers having more fun and taking more risks than we’ve seen in a while. Here’s hoping.
Metta
At Metta we’re building a platform for discovering incredible VR content via mobile devices like the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. In order to grow our community, we’re obsessively focused on creators and we want to hear from anyone with a VR camera or anyone who has an idea of something they want to make — we’re already providing a couple of talented makers with the cameras they need, so feel free to reach out to us via founders@mettavr.com
