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PEOPLE & ARTSMonday 14 March 2016
Hollywood learns a new storytelling language for VR
RYAN NAKASHIMA LET THE VIEWER DISCOVER come out of those things
Associated Press and say, ‘I completely
LOS ANGELES (AP) — What WHO THEY ARE figured it out’,” says Felix
happens to a film’s story Lajeunesse, the studio’s
when blades of grass are At Montreal-based Felix creative director.
more interesting than the SUDDEN MOVEMENT =
plot? When you can lean & Paul Studios, filmmakers NAUSEA
in so close to an actor you Vrse, a Los Angeles-based
ought to feel their breath? have exploded the virtual reality studio that
When a few simple steps has worked with The
around a room can make traditional separation New York Times, Vice
you dizzy? News and others, has a
Virtual reality filmmakers between film and filmgoer signature documentary
are grappling with these style involving a voice-over
challenges as they explore by making “Who am I?” and stationary VR camera
a medium that hasn’t had a placement right in the
century to develop the way a central question — middle of the action.
movies have. Much the way But it unhooked the
early cinematographers sometimes even a mystery camera in “Millions March
had to discover cuts, wide NYC ,” an 8-minute VR
shots and perspective, VR — for VR participants. documentary on racial-
filmmakers find themselves profiling protests that
making things up as they In the short film “Strangers Vrse produced with Vice
go along, often mashing News. Creative director
up traditional movies and with Patrick Watson,” for Chris Milk acknowledged
video-game techniques the hand-held camera
along the way. example, a man riffs on and bouncing, shaky
Consider for a second how movements make the
we’ve all internalized the a piano and sings. From viewer “a little queasy.”
visual language of film. Many virtual reality
Quick cuts skip over time In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, the “Henry” movie a seat in the player’s filmmakers avoid motion
and space to get to a story’s team conducts a daily at the Oculus Story Studio, a hub for digital because it induces nausea,
point. Wide shots give us a animators and experimental filmmakers in San Francisco’s cluttered apartment, you but Milk says injecting a
godlike perspective. Zooms trendy South of Market district. Standing at right is, Ramiro Lopez touch of acceleration is
and tight focus naturally Dau, director and animation supervisor. In “Henry,” an Oculus can look at his wall art, a new way for directors
draw our attention to short, you find yourself standing inside a lonely hedgehog’s to provoke an emotional
specific points. Audiences computer-generated house. You’re free to look around at peruse his collectibles and response. “You couldn’t
have been trained to stitch anything, but it’s not until you look at the kitchen door that Henry do this in a traditional,
it all together into a fluid shows up. even watch his dog. rectangular film,” he says.
narrative. WHAT IS NARRATIVE,
Now picture yourself in Associated Press In Felix & Paul’s “Jurassic ANYWAY?
the middle of the action. Can a story be an
With a headset strapped World: Apatosaurus,” you exploration of a space?
over your eyes and ears, Can it be just a moment
sometimes with a controller start off in a forest next to in time and a way to
in your hand, you are understand a situation’s
completely immersed in a jeep; a coffee mug and context?
the virtual world. Things can Creator Mac Cauley
happen behind you. There that more consumers will let viewers get oriented, two-way radio lay within wrestled with these
are characters and places see when the long awaited and then just let go. questions in “The Night
to explore from different Oculus Rift VR headset “Once you have the arm’s reach. Turns out Cafe,” a scene painted
angles. ships later in March. It’s audience interested, they in the impressionist style of
It’s all a work in progress, one crucial for VR filmmakers will look wherever the story you’re a park ranger visiting Vincent Van Gogh. q
to get storytelling right, or happens,” Unseld says.
the whole virtual reality “But losing that control of a sleeping diplodocid.
boom could turn out to be focus of the audience is
just another sandbox for something that took a while That helps explain why the
hardcore video gamers . to get over.”
JUST LET GO SUBTLE CUES DRIVE THE dinosaur just sniffs you in a
This was one of the ACTION
first lessons for Oculus In “Henry,” another Oculus familiar way and goes back
Story Studio, a hub for short, you find yourself
digital animators and standing inside a lonely to its daily routine chewing
experimental filmmakers hedgehog’s computer-
in San Francisco’s trendy generated house. You’re leaves.
South of Market district. free to look around at
In an early version of anything, but it’s not until A short based on the movie
the Oculus short “Lost,” you set eyes on the kitchen
audiences got distracted door that Henry shows up. “Wild” takes things to a
by looking at foliage or “That’s a triggered moment
the moon and didn’t that makes you feel like you surreal new level. As her
pay attention to a giant, discovered Henry in a very
disembodied hand that’s natural way,” says director omniscient voice narrates,
the subject of the piece, Ramiro Lopez Dau. Some
says creative director viewers try to hug Henry, actress Reese Witherspoon
Saschka Unseld. So creators Dau says — but he doesn’t
added a full 40 seconds to hug back. hikes up and sits on a
rock beside you. Then she
looks right through you,
and suddenly Laura Dern,
playing Witherspoon’s
deceased mother, makes
you turn to the right. Dern
then talks through you to
her daughter as if you’re
the ghost. Later, a curious
fox comes up to sniff you, a
reminder that you that you
do, in fact, exist — virtually,
at least.
“We don’t ask people to
