Just wondering what the forums thoughts are on this.

Having recently delved into the world of VR, I've been blown away by how immersive films are in that medium.

Horror, in particular, seems to have found its natural home in that medium and the dissociative and immersive experience it brings seems already on a level way beyond that of traditional filmmaking.


It's not without its problems: Already there are cliches....the monster coming right into your face, the sign or voice telling you to turn around to be be predictably confronted with the monster standing right behind you.

It's also not without limitations: It's harder to maintain narrative flow, there's a tendency to have to keep you locked in one place, transitions between scenes are clumsy and disorienting.

Still, it takes horror and fantasy in particular, into previously impossible realms.

Walking through space stations, prehistoric realms, or being stuck in a nightmare world are experiences beyond what is capable on the 2d screen.

Are we all going to have to change the way we write to fit into a new world?  

I think so.

I don't think it will replace traditional filmmaking and writing. Will it?

I looked up some VR scripts a while back. As with anything new it looked awkward, difficult and a bit hard to fathom all in one. Adopting a different format and style would be difficult. I suppose I'd catch on if there was no choice but to change.

What examples have you been looking at, Rick?
Can you post a link to something?

P.S. I agree VR is probably more geared to horror and fantasy, but I'd need convincing it's necessary within a conventional drama narrative.

I started off on the Samsung Gear Vr. Then I checked out the Oculus rift, and the Sony PS VR.

There are a lot of short, experimental horrors on there. Some are purely non-interactive films. Some are games. I think the difference between the two is becoming thinner.

Some better than others, obviously.


They are all quite gob smackingly good for first gen tech. Obviously the Rift is the better of them, but even the basic Samsung thing packs a punch.

There's a few links below. Obviously you don't get the effect you get when you're immersed completely in the experience.

I think there are going to be a lot of potential mental problems tbh. Your brain can not tell the difference between the VR and reality and it causes a strange sense of dissonance. Even your body reacts at times to things your eyes are seeing, but aren't really there...feelings of heat when a laser beam goes over you, a breeze when you are forced outside...things your brain is trained to expect but aren't really there.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/virtual-reality/scariest-virtual-reality-experiences/


https://www.buzzfeed.com/ainsleysutherland/13-vr-horror-films-you-can-watch-on-your-phone-right-now?utm_term=.liOvKxkZn#.cib6V1dEB

There are a lot more.

The main gag at present is to have someone strapped down, or tied to a chair to explain why you can't move freely around. It's like an extreme version of why someone is always holding a camera in found footage.

The alternative is doing it like traditional filmmaking and just jumping from cut to cut: But this feels like you are teleporting through time and space and pulls you out of the experience.

Still, the actual moments of horror...damn.

Probably my personal favourite so far was Face your Fears: Stranger Things


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1159m7YuXk


Like I say, these little vids don't do the experience of actually being there justice, but well...

Not in my lifetime.

Oh - that's because I'm already old.

I do think there will be a day where movies are watched in a VR environment.

Just watched Campfire Creepers by Alexandre Aja.

"The alternative is doing it like traditional filmmaking and just jumping from cut to cut: But this feels like you are teleporting through time and space and pulls you out of the experience".

This bit isn't true: It was just bad directing in the other films I saw.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Some are purely non-interactive films. Some are games. I think the difference between the two is becoming thinner.

I would expect that a non-interactive VR experience can be shoehorned into standard screenplay format. Some new notation might evolve about locations relative to the observer, but that's a pretty minor change.

Writing for an interactive game is a different beast. You end up writing a Choose Your Own Adventure book to handle every decision branch open to the player/viewer. Presumably the decisions need to be explained in the script, though they may not be obvious to the player/viewer. For example, what is behind a door could depend on the path taken to the door (Did the badguy see you coming?).

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films "The alternative is doing it like traditional filmmaking and just jumping from cut to cut: But this feels like you are teleporting through time and space and pulls you out of the experience". This bit isn't true: It was just bad directing in the other films I saw.

A norm might evolve such as a faint but building sound effect as the jump approaches, or pre-lapping the environmental sounds of the new location, or something.

I’ve tried the Samsung VR, a horror video.  I was amazed.  I’ve never felt my heart beat so hard and fast before.

I watched a short mental asylum horror. You’re in a wheelchair being gently pushed through the corridor.  You see the horrors in each room.  But when the wheelchair was erratically pushed faster to the edge of the stairs.  My heart went faster than when I used a treadmill.

When I stopped I felt disoriented.  Later in the day I kept thinking how much I wanted to try it again.  

I really think in order to keep the audience attention.  The story has to be one continuous idea.

I've been asked a few times, although not lately, to write horror for vr, but I had to decline since I wouldn't even know where to start. Is the technology now good enough or does it still have a ways to go? I sure would want to get set up if it was decent.  :)

Yeah, it's something else. Trad films seem positively mundane already.

I think it's almost as big a change as silent to sound.

I also think it's going to fundamentally change society. Get some kind of tactile response system, especially sexual... And a lot of people are only going to come out to eat!

Quoted from Grandma Bear I've been asked a few times, although not lately, to write horror for vr, but I had to decline since I wouldn't even know where to start. Is the technology now good enough or does it still have a ways to go? I sure would want to get set up if it was decent.  :)

The tech is between basic but surprisingly good and pretty damn good already.

It's the fact the cheap end stuff is so good that has blown me away more than the high end stuff tbh.

The fact I'm running fully immersive environments off a cell phone with a cheap, plastic headset is outrageous Imo.

There are some exceptionally clever people out there.

If this is the level of first gen stuff, 3rd and fourth are going to be unreal.

I hope VR doesn't take over. I've only had a couple of experiences with it, but every time I've tried it I get physically sick. It is cool, though.

Zack

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films If this is the level of first gen stuff, 3rd and fourth are going to be unreal.

This is most definitely not the first generation of VR, which had already gotten to head-mounted displays and hand-held controllers in the 1990s. The difference now is that you don't need to own an arcade or amusement park to be able to afford one (and, of course, computing power available today was unfathomable back then).

True.

First gen of this wide, commercial release is what I meant.

Quoted from Zack I hope VR doesn't take over. I've only had a couple of experiences with it, but every time I've tried it I get physically sick. It is cool, though. Zack

In 3D movies, they need to make some assumptions like how far apart your eyes are, and a non-trivial fraction of the population are far enough outside the norm that they'll always get headaches. There's also the issue that your brain needs to focus attention on virtual objects at different distances while your eyes remain focused on a physical screen at a fixed distance. More people who will get headaches (my wife is in this category).

Eventually, VR systems should be tune-able to your head geometry (adjusting the images as the headset it adjusted) and even track the distance at which your eyes are focusing to make sure you can still see what was intended.

So, it may not happen next week or even next year, but VR does not face the same fundamental obstacles to universal adoption that 3D did.

Final Draft just put out a whitepaper with their take on a standard format for VR scripts. You can find it here

https://info.finaldraft.com/how-to-write-for-vr

where it requires giving your email address but at least it's a PDF so you don't need Final Draft to read it. You can download the described template from within Final Draft, though it wasn't the most intuitive process (you get a .zip with every example template FD ever published).

It does not seem to address any standard way to write branching decisions into the script... it just suggests that such a thing is possible.

My suggestion would be to turn on scene numbers and have an Interactivity block refer to those scene numbers in something akin to a montage format.

//The audience can move around the space, and can open any of the windows or doors to see the space beyond. The rug can be moved to reveal the trapdoor, but only if no audience member is standing on it.

- Door at 12 o'clock to scene #7
- Door at 4 o'clock to scene #11
- Window at 8 o'clock to scene #20
- Trapdoor in floor to scene #22

The torches in sconces are firmly attached, they cannot be taken, but touching one causes an "OUCH" SFX.//

The purple is actually part of the element definition.

In any case, it remains to be seen if this template has any legs anyway.