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Title    Sundance's VR Films Fail by Passing the Workload Buck to Their Viewers
Date    Friday February 12 2016, @11:46AM
Author    cmn32480
Topic   
from the what-not-to-do dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/02/12/0327206

Phoenix666 writes:

Did you hear? Virtual reality is legitimate now, because filmmakers have found it.

Forget those childish toys that you call video games, and think beyond those little 360-degree videos captured at concerts. VR is now a place for capital-F Films, complete with New York Times celebrations and dedicated exhibits at Sundance. Recent VR films have some impressive sounding premises, too: immersion in the wilderness alongside bison and cheetahs; trippy, sense-filling music videos; stark, racially charged drives through poor neighborhoods; and much more.

VR filmmakers have taken some pretty diverse approaches, but most of them have one unfortunate thing in common: an overreaction to the form. In their rush to put viewers inside their concepts, these burgeoning creators forgot about the importance of directing and cinematography—a fact that I, a devout believer in VR's future, can no longer stomach.
...
  [VR film's] worst moments hint to where the format will improve as filmmakers adopt the best practices that 3D game makers have practiced for decades. Good 3D storytelling is as much about giving viewers power as it is about taking it away—about blacking out and obstructing freedom in ways that both focus our attention and convey an important truth (where you're not allowed to go, and what that means, for example).

VR may soon force viewers to confront interesting and even harrowing new concepts in the arts world. Until then, the people who make those VR films need to confront a few truths of their own. Otherwise, we're going to nod our heads 'no' to the expectation of painfully nodding our heads all over virtual worlds.

The article reviews 3 VR films at the Sundance film festival.


Original Submission

Links

  1. "Phoenix666" - https://soylentnews.org/~Phoenix666/
  2. "Virtual reality is legitimate now, because filmmakers have found it" - http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/02/sundances-vr-films-fail-by-passing-the-workload-buck-to-their-viewers/
  3. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=12078

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