Ever since I saw Clouds Over Sidra, Mary Matheson's Mamie's Dream, a VR film about female genital mutilation, the New York Times Magazine's Walking New York (on Within app) and The Guardian's 6x9, I've been scratching my head trying to think of ideas for 'immersive storytelling' using virtual or augmented reality (AR).
As a complete newcomer to this aspect of storytelling, I don't want to jump on the VR or AR bandwagon just because it is the latest, coolest thing. My interest stems more from the fact that I recognised early on the power of good immersive storytelling. I was bowled over by the emotional connection I had with some of the first VR films I watched and how that stayed with me, so I want to try and create something as powerful.
But as much as making your first film may seem daunting, it's got nothing on VR. The headsets and cameras for immersive content are evolving so rapidly, it is easy to be confused in terms of the best place to start and how potential audiences are going to access/view your content.
Particularly as a freelancer contemplating immersive content for the first time, it can seem like you need expensive bits of kit, an unlimited budget and a cast of thousands to pull it off successfully.
Increasingl,y film festivals like Raindance and Sheffield DocFest are embracing VR content. Raindance UK will have a VR Marketplace this September that will enable content creators to pitch their projects and benefit from VR market surgeries.
All of that is great, but I'm even wondering if the idea I have would really work in VR. I went along to a VR masterclass in Creative Storytelling and Interactive Narratives that Raindance put on recently at the Century Club in Soho. The class was led by Resh Sidhu of Framestore, who talked about how they created the "wizarding world" on a Fantastic Beasts virtual reality experience for Google's Daydream platform.
Resh's enthusiasm and passion for immersive storytelling is infectious. One thing that really came out of her talk is that in VR or AR you have to really think hard about the en- user experience. What are they going to be doing or what do you want them to do? Where do you want to guide them and how can you use sound to encourage them to move around a virtual environment? What is happening behind them, can be just as interesting as what is happening in front of them.
“Map out what the user is doing, or what you want them to do. Guide them, don’t push the story on them. Anything that breaks immersion, take it out.”
This may sound obvious, but when you're so used to thinking on a two dimensional plane, you suddenly have to get your head around thinking of content in a 'wrap-around' environment. That shouldn't be too hard as that is how it is in real life—things go on in front of us and behind us all the time, but I guess the trick is not to overdo it. Note to self: Keep it simple and don't have too many things going on at the same time.
Keep in mind that the end user is not necessarily a gamer. I have to admit being a newcomer to VR, there is an initial hurdle to overcome as a viewer of how do you watch or even access content.
There has to be a reason to do VR. Don't jump on the VR bandwagon. Should your story even be in VR? I have to admit that this where I come unstuck. I've watched a few VR films that could have just been made as documentaries without the immersive element, so it's not as if those stories couldn't have been told any other way. So does that mean they shouldn't have been done in VR?
I guess it's more a question of what is the VR or immersive storytelling aspect bringing to that piece of content and how you want people to feel?
Are there any good sounding boards out there for novices like myself that feel they have an idea that could potentially work in VR or AR, but don't want to fall into the trap of jumping on the bandwagon? Where do you find potential co-collaborators?