OTT & Transmedia : Virtual Reality Production People by Greg Passmore

Me, too! Looking for people who are involved in VR content production.

I'm involved in VR production. We are based in Toronto and have completed a narrative short film in VR. Our company is called Cinehackers. Here is an article on our work http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cinehackers-how-2-toronto-filmmakers-m...

Would love to learn your direction with respect to genre and if you're focused purely on the VR platform.

We thought about VR while designing the story, so it was 100% built for VR. When you say, did you utilize anything else for VR, can I ask for what specifically do you mean?

Recently conducted a course on VR post-production online, and also presented some ideas at the SMPTE annual technical conference this year. Feel free to reach out to me to connect, if you'd like.

Hi Lyse, Sorry for the delay. So my question is did you do anything like if you looked one way instead of another, you might get a different insight into the char or story? No, we didn't do this. What we did was put the viewer inside the character, so it felt like they were looking through their eyes. If the viewer does not follow the gaze, the experience goes dark. Or perhaps subtly directing the viewer where to look, maybe down? Yes, we controlled how the screen moves and this was done by the way he shot the film. Then they get a different experience of the story again? Maybe this is over complicating things? Also what do you mean by giving the perspective of the char? Did you have the camera be the char? So the main char was in escence the viewer? Yes, the viewer was inside the main character similar to Being John Malkovich. We have just ported it over to Gear VR and submitted it to the Oculus Store. Will update this thread once it goes live. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks, Elli

I had a great time this weekend shooting documentary footage at HackDFW, the largest collegiate hackathon in the US. Literally had a discussion with another entrepreneur about the potential in VR for first person storytelling... creating a 360 degree environment for the participant and ways in which to move the story along, despite the "free will" aspect of the viewer's engagement in the experience. Kudos on what you've been able to accomplish, Eli! I'd love to talk about some of the ideas we had of ways the story could move forward without "darking out" if the participant wants to take a look around and take in the experience. Moving into a 360 degree experience that still moves the plot along is going to be a must in order for the platform to be a revolutionary storytelling media. I LOVE that we're moving that direction! At the event this weekend, there were some young men working with the Oculus. Their hack was to create a VR interface with Windows programming so they could manipulate the programs in VR rather than mouse and keyboard. They got their demo to the point where they could manifest and maipulate cubes in the VR, but didn't quite get to the full version of what they wanted. It was pretty incredible to watch them work. They're one of four teams we're featuring in the project. They were all high school students. So much innovation is on our storytelling horizon...

James.. great update and very exciting. It's also clear that hardware development is moving in the direction of VR to the point where these clunky headsets may be replaced with a sort of Google glass device which will make it more accessible. As to your last statement, it's my opinion that innovation is the KEY which requires stepping away from what's familiar and relying on the 'what if'...Thanks for the update and would love to hear more.

are there anyother VR people in the LA area? Im into VR and want to collab with like minded people

Thought you folks might find the "Storyteller's Guide to VR" of interest: https://goo.gl/CmrAXW

check out a 360° comedy short i made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTe0Ej6_ubM

Thanks for the comments! It was a really fun experience. As for your clarifying question, Lyse... As I understand it, they were trying to create an interface that allowed them to interact with the programming IN the VR rather than using the Oculus as a go-between. They had used the Unity plugin to recognize the hands in space, and they were trying to get the hands to be able to interact with the programs themselves, much like the sci-fi shots we see of people manipulating holographic content in space. The challenge they were trying to solve for was how the measurement between the finger and thumb tips translated into the virtual space and how to get object in that space to recognize them and submit to their action (I don't know how else to say that, lol). We are planning on following up with these young men, capturing more of their stories for the documentary, so I can certainly get into that more specifically with them the next time we're shooting together. I'm always interested in the discussion of VR and its potential in storytelling!

Hi, thought you might be interested in this White paper we published last week. http://bit.ly/VRWritersRoomWhitePaper Also attaching the infographic to this comment as well. Enjoy.

Oooooo... @Tanya! I like this! Thank you so much for sharing! I think the more we can reify the concepts and necessary components of the immersive storytelling experience, the more ground we take on making reality out of what seems, at the moment, to be science fiction fantasy. Once we have investment funds in place (we're closing on a deal right now), I'd love to reach out to you (I'm already exploring collaborative possibilities with Conducttr) and see what horizons we might break through together!

Dear Colleagues! I found this: Lost runs roughly five minutes in length, but in what Unseld touts as one of the project’s innovations, it changes the pace of its storytelling based on the action taken by the viewer. "It could be three-and-a-half minutes and it could be 10," he says. "It all depends on you." http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/26/7896179/oculus-vr-story-studio-origina... Could someone explain, if I understand correctly, that a person immersed in the 3D VR (360) can be provided a freedom of choice? A rough example, the viewer can choose the way to heaven or hell? I liked the idea to avoid the dictates of the director, in front of the audience chooses their own destiny. It sets new rules for the cinematograph 2.0!!!!!

yes Murad, the nature of viewing 360 film or true VR films means that the viewer has the agency (freedom) to look anywhere they want, you, as the director no longer have the use of a "frame" to direct their attention. In other words, if they don't want to watch the drama unfolding in front of them but instead want to turn around and look behind them at a painting on the wall, they can. This is beyond merely an alpha versus beta decision matrix, instead offering the user the opportunity to "free roam" an environment much like immersive theatre or a game. Our job is not to "direct" the narrative but instead to construct the narrative in a way which facilitates the viewer to gain as rich an experience as possible. Hope that answers your question.

Hello Tanya! Thank you for your comments. May we discuss via PM some opportunities?

Hello All! What the estimated budget could be for the 15-minute 360 documentary produce incl. CGI/VFX 50% (the level like Avatar, Lost (Story Studio), Planet of the Apes, 2012, etc, and 50% normal 360 shootings? Or maybe better to wait the Film Engine release to reduce costs?

Hi Murad, unfortunately I don't do private consultation on Stage32 but I will be speaking at London Comic Con on May 28th at 10am if you want to try and pop along to ask some questions in person since the panel will be discussing VR filmmaking. Samsung, Visr VR, Charles Cecil of Revolution (Broken Sword) and Imre Jele of Bossa Studios will be on the panel with me.

Thank you Tanya! Will try to visit this event. Does anyone knows the Internet areas of virtual reality are discussed in more active threads? Share please )))

There some good accounts to follow on Twitter. In the search, just use "virtual reality" and some accounts with very meaty links will show up. You can also check their feeds first before you follow them. I've put mine in a Virtual Reality list so I can access them easier.

Hi Friends! Have you heard anything about the music usage in a virtual reality filming? My feeling is it no longer plays a key role in VR format, in compare the conventional cinema.

total lies. Audio and music plays as important a role as it ever has, if not more so since it is now a directors tool within the medium

The phrase "total lie" more for those who are trying to mislead than to discuss here. Anyway, thanks for the a bright response, Tanya. ))) Under what degree should be the source of a music play, so as not to distract the viewer but to enhance the experience?

i so need help here anyone plsss

I'm still working out the kinks in my virtual film, the problem is I don't have a set of glasses to test them on. I have discovered that to make this thing work, it will need to work in a game engine environment. That means I'll need a programmer.

VR production is a very challenging area. We have begun to dabble in it with experimental shorts. We are looking to learn at an accelerated rate because opportunities have begun to appear that could be profitable. So yes we would like to see a robust discussion of how others are solving the challenges of VR Films and will participate and share what we discover along the way.

I'm working on it. I hope we'll all be able to put our heads together and make this work.

Rick use your smartphone, go online and get a head mount for it. It works quite well.

Friends, how do you assess the prospects of 360 camera movement during the shooting? It is believed that it can cause nausea. On the other hand, the static camera it will limit dynamics. What the views would be?

Gentle camera movement and no shaky cam. It also helps to have something stationary in the frame (as if looking through a car window). However, we have found that calm camera motions are fine. Even fast camera motions if the newest objects are far work (think of a helicopter shot).

Thanks Greg! Do you have some own example? I saw the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-XZhKqQAHU&index=2&list=FLdk3unrgNeZwO1... Is there full CGI on green, or real time shooting too?