Adrian Pennington - The Write Stuff: August 2014

Shots

http://www.shots.net/features/article/84880/shots-tech%253A-an-immersive-experience

Many have dreams of getting into the movies but now that’s an option that could be available to all as advances in virtual reality cinema and interactive 360° video will enable the viewer to literally get stuck into a horror flick, football match or video game. Adrian Pennington looks at the latest sci-fi-turned-sci-fact gear that is making advertisers, entertainment producers and consumers rather giddy.

What was once consigned to research labs at MIT and the science-fiction novels of Cyberpunk guru William Gibson is now the hottest emerging form of entertainment. Brand agencies, TV and film production companies are all exploring the potential of virtual reality to turn storytelling on its head.

If Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a plan for his latest toy it could be to create live ‘virtual’ social interactions for Facebook’s 1.28 billion active users. Perhaps the virtual facetime could be simulated by a personal avatar. This new social media format would require mass take-up of VR headgear but eye-popping research from experiential agency Drive Worldwide suggests that 20 per cent of households in the western world will own a VR headset by 2017. Oculus Rift may be the best known display but there are around twenty rivals in development, including Sony’s VR headset for the PlayStation 4 called Project Morpheus – a name referencing the character fromThe Matrix.

The hyperbole surrounding VR went into overdrive with Facebook’s $2bn purchase of Oculus VRin March. The startup company had created a head-mounted display, Oculus Rift, for video game developers and now the social media network’s financial clout will permit the gear to sell to a mass market in 2015 for around £300 – cheaper than many smartphones.

In order to sell the hardware, these vendors need software for consumers to use on them and while gaming remains the obvious market, Sony and Facebook have opened up their developer kits to production companies in order to generate animated and live-action narrative video.

Immerse yourself in a brand

Many people’s introduction to VR will be through experiential marketing, such as the campaign that ran this June at London’s Waterloo Station promoting Center Parcs’ latest UK holiday village. Bracketing VR with other nascent immersive tech – such as augmented reality and wearables like Google Glass – Ben Fender, CEO and founder of Drive Worldwide asserts, “the market is on fire in relation to brands wanting to explore how these emerging technologies can be used as a marketing tool.” US producer Immersive Media claims to have pioneered 360° interactive video since founding two decades ago and has produced recent work for brands including Red Bull, Mercedes and Bacardi. Director Henry-Alex Rubin equipped a new Volvo truck with one of its 360° cameras to see if it could outrun eight angry bulls through the streets of Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain, winning a gold Lion at Cannes this year for Forsman & Bodenfors’ The Chase 360.

“There’s a lot of creative application, such as product placement,” says Adrian Vasquez de Velasco, co-founder of New York-based VR specialist production company TotalCinema360. “It takes on a whole new dimension when you can place the product anywhere within the sphere. It allows for more subtle integration that is less likely to detract from the main entertainment.”

Drive Worldwide is on a mission to become the first ‘virtual reality agency’. In June it acquired VR gear developer Figure Digital and also took a substantial stake in London-Istanbul post houseCherryCherry VFX. “This puts us at the forefront of creating content and experiences for this emerging technology and for the future of experience,” said Fender. “Our plan is to move from an agency purely creating live marketing experiences to a company producing cinematic productions for the consumer.” Drive, he reveals, has three longform projects in progress with US partners. “We want to create a much more photo-real immersive experience and the only way to achieve that is with 360° camera and post. VR is going to create new ways of experiencing cinema.” Having acquired Figure Digital, Drive will now have access to the Panopticon camera it needs to produce cinematic quality 360° video. Currently in development, this device comprises 36 HD video cameras contained within a 3D-printed spherical casing and will boast real-time, image-stitching algorithms to aid the editing of VR.

There are obvious first-person movie scenarios (think Blair Witch Project) or immersive 3D worlds (think Gravity from the POV of a stranded astronaut) and there is also the idea of entering a VR cinema – complete with the traditional seats and fellow spectators but then being given the power to interact with scenes from, say, an action or horror movie.

Live-action VR production is of course in its infancy. The rule book has not been written. “You’ve got to think of the project from the ground up because everything – your location or studio, the cameraman, equipment and crew – will be in shot,” says Andy Millns, co-founder of London-based 3D tech company Inition. Much of this background can be replaced in post with use of a green screen, but for straight live-action shoots a new set of visual grammar is being explored.

“You don’t need to be as frenetic in camera movements, you can slow the pace down and not refresh the angle as much [as with 2D],” Millns explains. The vertiginous effect of swooping camera movements will induce sickness in the viewer especially if they don’t expect it. “If the camera is not gyroscopically level to the horizon you instantly feel it in your stomach. Very predictable movements are okay. Flying, swooping moves can be all right if they are what your brain is expecting but tacking a footballer running round a field and changing direction would not work yet.”

Surroundsound supreme

VR opens up space within a film, for the viewer’s imagination and awareness to complement the experience and narrative.

A remarkably simple piece by visual artists Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael is regarded as one of the best examples to date for the Oculus Rift. TitledStrangers – A Moment with Patrick Watson the 360° camera is static but places the viewer in the pianist’s studio as he plays and is flawless in its stitching and composition. Sound becomes a very powerful navigational and storytelling tool in VR. With the user’s head always in a fixed position spatial sound can be accurately rendered.

Hollywood studio Fox has upcoming VR projects based on three feature films The Maze Runner,Wild and another of its Night at the Museum franchise. While TotalCinema360 are editing a romcom which they claim to be the first fictional narrative told in 360 for VR. Framestore has opened their VR and Immersive Content Studio on the back of a simulation it created for HBO’sGame Of Thrones and MPC has VR projects in the works, including one for a museum. And for the small screen, 3D TV producer Atlantic Productions is creating three ten-minute VR films, one featuring Sir David Attenborough.

Another possibility is live streaming into a VR world, although image quality and real-time image stitching needs development. This was explored by Inition in February when it worked with retailer Topshop to launch a new menswear collection. Live video of a catwalk at the Tate Turbine hall was filmed using wide-angle 4K broadcast cameras in 180° and streamed to the headgear of five competition winners watching in a Topshop store several miles away. To round out the 360° installation, Inition included 360° time-lapse stills of the ordered chaos backstage, and floating CG leaves superimposed with real-time Tweets.

Auntie goes 360

The opportunities for streaming live events in VR has also caught the eye of broadcasters. BSkyB is an investor in US startup Jaunt, possibly with an eye to employing its VR technology to immersive sports broadcasts.

Even the BBC has dabbled. It recorded a news bulletin in 360° video which also enabled viewers to look around the entire BBC News studio and production gallery.

“VR is not a fad,” declares Drive’s Fender. “It is more and more of an important media form. The Grail is trying to create experiences where you can be part of something completely real. Unlike a TV or cinema screen which is a rectangle on a wall, VR encompasses all of your senses and manipulates your reality.

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