October 07, 2024
Nowadays there are more and more filmmakers that are making VR films, I’m not sure if we are going to see any shift in the television industry any time soon to VR or 360 types of content but for sure we are going to be able to see more VR movies in the near future. My company had the chance to interview 3 different VR Film directors and it is really interesting, check it out!
Lonely Planet describes Palau as “a world underwater”, “a warm island welcome”, “a palm-fringed paradise” and a “natural wonder”. The scenically magical Palau packs its extraordinary array of natural wonders into such a tiny island. However, what it didn’t mention is that Palau faces critical environmental issues. Like other small countries, Palau is powerless to curb global carbon dioxide emissions. Although scientists say global warming has magnified the impact of disasters, some legislators deny the impact of climate change or oppose restrictions on carbon emissions. What would be a more effective way to increase their awareness of climate change?
If a 2D picture or traditional documentary can’t raise enough awareness about the urgency of climate change, could a more immersive media – Virtual Reality, provide some more insights? Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University is researching to find the answer.
In mid-2016, VHI Lab designed and produced the educational experience – The Stanford Ocean Acidification experience in Ischia Italy. In this experience, they made it possible for people to watch the impact of ocean acidification visually, which produced educational effects on the audience by giving them a first-hand experience.
After the success of Ocean Acidification Experience, Tobin Asher, Director of Coral Compass: Fighting to Climate Change in Palau, along with Elise Ogle and Jeremy Bailenson traveled to Palau, a small island nation in Micronesia, home to coral reefs. When Asher and his colleagues were there, they realized that the environmental issues in Palau were different from that in Ischia Italy. They decided to produce a documentary on how Palau is adapting to climate change to combat its effects on their reefs and economy.
With the help of Rob Dunbar, a marine scientist at Stanford, and Bob Richmond, a marine scientist at the University of Hawaii, Asher captured different reefs underwater to demonstrate the global warming effects in Palau.
Filming underwater could never be a simple task. Especially in 360/VR, you are forced to encounter much more uncertainties than what it is in 2D. Asher said, “I spent a lot of time learning how to master the 360/VR camera in the water .” Over the two-week shooting, the team encountered severe difficulties, such as distracting backgrounds, insufficient power charging, and challenging temporary memory. “You don’t know what you are filming when the camera is on. You have to go with your instinct….Every Time, I have to swim far away from the camera to get myself out of the shot, back and forth.”
Asher and his team probably weren’t the first ones to reveal the issues of climate change, but they were one of the few VR filmmakers to show the human adaptation to fight against climate change. It showed both the practical way of making changes by local government and left positive messages about human adaptation to the public.
“When people directly experience something, they see it in a different light”
Dr. Jan Lubchenco, 2013
Asher shared, “We showed the final work to the Palau national congress, it [Coral Compass] was very convincing to them since they would be able to see what happens to the reefs directly via VR.” Asher recorded a scene when snorkelers kicked on the sides of reefs in south Palau Arch, which shocked Congress since they never seen it before. After that, they worked with scientists to change the local policy to protect the environmental ecosystem. Coral Compass: Fight The Climate Change in Palau also gained recognition and debuted at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Power of VR In Empathy Stimulation
Though some people might consider VR documentary is redundant and unnecessary, VR gives the audience a direct experience of the harsh reality and allows them to better empathize with the misfortuned human, unfortunate disasters, and social cases on this planet. For example, Coral Compass elaborates on the scenes of spectacular nature, evoking sentimental feelings by immersing the audiences in the underwater scenes. Clouds Over Sidra, created by Gabo Arora and Chris Milk, brings the audience to a twelve-year-old girl’s life in Jordan throughout the day and allows them to experience the dreadful consequences of the ongoing Syrian conflict, which successfully provokes empathy.
VHI Lab has been dedicated to researching empathy in VR. They created one project called “Becoming Homeless” to study how VR affects people in empathy. According to their research, people who watched this in VR developed longer-lasting compassion toward the homeless compared to those who watched this in other media format, like text.
“Virtual reality simulations allow learners to experience the life of someone else by ‘walking a mile in his or her shoes. Through the capabilities of the technology, learners can see their appearance and behaviors reflected in a virtual mirror as someone who is different, and perceptually experience a scenario from the perspective of any party in social interaction,” VHI Lab found.
VR is known for bringing immersive experience, and this is why the audience might consider horror, Sports, and other types of content with certain sensory stimuli to fit into this new medium better. In fact, there is a quiet amount of 360/VR content that impresses the audience by eliciting a deeper layer of understanding. Therefore, VR filmmakers never stop exploring the best way to express themselves in VR. But there are questions that need to be answered at first: how can the filmmakers better leverage the advantages of VR to reflect human nature and social phenomena? What are other potential film genres that can be applied in VR to demonstrate more in-depth insights？
The Tribeca VR Film Extravaganza, directed by Ethan Shaftel, tries to find the answers. It integrates 3D animation and live-action footage into a satirical comedy, and critiques that a new medium can produce old forms of bigotry. The cast stars Paul Scheer (30 Rock, The League, Fresh Off the Boat), Will Greenberg (Wrecked, Workaholics), John Gemberling (Broad City, Marry Me), and Annie Tedesco (Granite Flats, NCIS)。
Extravaganza traps the audiences in an extraordinarily crude puppet show that slowly becomes an offensive parody in response to the clueless executive, played by Paul Scheer. Unlike other puppet shows, Extravaganza discloses prejudices and arrogance more aggressively by depicting balloon-breasted women and racially stereotypical black men, who are slaughtered by a monocled 19th-century explorer. Do you feel discomfort when you are performing in the puppet show? If not, you may already lose the ability to perceive the wrongness.
However, Extravaganza discusses more than stereotypes and racism from the social level. It finds two deeper reasons from the individual level that cause these social problems – lack of agency and empathy creation.
Lack of agency
Shaftel said, “Extravaganza is all about the issues of control and point of view. The idea of being a puppet is a very active experience but also explains the complete lack of agency and control that a viewer has. It’s not a game engine experience, it’s a 360°/VR video, meaning your arms and hands are going to do things that you don’t control and don’t intend. That’s the definition of a puppet. And thinking about VR in general, the experience is very similar.”
Back to reality, individuals are like the puppets in the show who always lack control in this world when confronting the all-powerful machine. Just like Morpheus said to Neo in The Matrix, “You are here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain.” You know you are trapped in the puppet show, but what and why traps you in the show?
When you are performing in the puppet show, you may ask yourself: Do you want to be submissive to the executive or go with the alternative – stop entertaining him? But wait, do you really have the choice?
After watching the numerous doomsday scenarios turned into Hollywood blockbusters, you may already be exhausted organizing an ever-growing pile of survival guides. However, disaster films are still playing a significant role in emphasizing humanity’s fragility and generating in-depth discussions among its audience. And 02:09 is one of them.
Directed by Svante Fjaestad, 02:09 starts with the end. With moody colors, it paints a world that soon will perish. The rich (and their pets) have left Earth; those who couldn’t afford private shuttles are stranded. A couple watches the last human refugees leave the planet before it is too late. In just four minutes, the director asks the audience questions such as: Can you afford to stay alive? What would you do if you are the last human being in the world? What will it feel like, watching others take off to safety? What will life be like in the new world?
The film points at a widely discussed social problem, wealth inequality. Even though governments are making efforts to decrease inequality, the wealth gap is steadily growing every year. Another point is that we are still weak when confronting natural disasters, despite millions of years of evolution leading to the top of the food chain and clever inventions. Although technology offers an option to escape, it’s limited to people who can afford it. This is an ironic phenomenon in 02:09 since technology claims to eliminate the inequality between different classes.
The outcome for the poor is a gloomy wait for the end. A couple on a rooftop, reminiscing about unachieved dreams and lamenting about the human future. After all, the only thing they can do is to wish their wealthy friends good luck and humanity eternal life.
Highlights of 02:09:
Unlike many other science fiction films, 02:09 is set in China. And instead of using multiple storylines and intricate camera techniques, this short Chinese-language VR narrative uses a fixed camera to capture the dialogue between the couple at an arm’s length. Besides some really well-done visual effects, the audio/visual experience is quite remarkable. How will the world end? Watch 02:09 and experience it yourself.
Xie: I thought we would have more time
Chen: Soon we will have all the time in the world.
Xie: it’s beautiful.
Director‘s note:
“The rain in the film was the beginning of the great flood of summer 2017 in Hunan. Many lives were lost shortly after filming. Perhaps the film will add a small part to the collective memory of this event. Natural disasters are very scary. I experienced the tsunami of 2004 at close range. Sometimes the threats come from underground, sometimes from above and sometimes from within ourselves. Let’s take care of each other.”
San Jose, California, January 26, 2019 – VeeR VR, the global VR content platform is bringing ‘Carriberrie’, the Aussie VR documentary celebrating Indigenous Australian song and dance, online to the world on January 26, 2019, Australia Day. ‘Carriberrie’ will be available to stream via VeeR VR app on Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, MiVR outside of Australia.
CARRIBERRIE:
Carriberrie (derived from the word ‘corroboree’ as spoken by the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land upon which the city of Sydney now stands) is an award-winning multiplatform VR film that features 9 culture groups, 35 performances, and more than 156 dancers. Carriberrie showcases a stunning range of Australian locations and performances from iconic ceremonial traditional practice in Uluru, through to food gathering dances in the rainforest, agricultural songs on the most northern tip of Australia, and funeral dances in the Arnhem wetlands before culminating with a highly charged hunting track in the central desert.
Directed by award-winning Australian director and producer Dominic Allen, Carriberrie deeply immerses audiences, positioning them at the center of a series of remote and extraordinary dance rituals from within the very environment they traditionally emerged.
Free access on Jan 26, Australia Day
To celebrate Australia Day on Jan 26, limited free access will be available to all Oculus Go and Oculus Rift. Simply download VeeR VR to start the experience.
About VeeR VR
VeeR VR is the global VR content platform bearing the mission to empower the next generation of media. VeeR VR is the go-to destination for the ultimate VR experiences in a wide variety of genres. It is available on major headsets, including Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, MiVR and more
