The next fully grown matter in Hollywood is practical reality . You have intercourse : 360 - degree , altogether immersive , cutting - edge " Minority Report"-type moviemaking .
Right now , VR movies are short films made by little - known filmmakers that have barely any game . They ’re operate through wires to a helmet on your forefront or a smartphone strapped to your boldness . Yet the remnant ware is blowing people ’s mind .
" VR ’s in spades the next big political platform , in terms of it being able to be a storytelling gadget . It ’s ' a ' next big affair , " says Chad Eikhoff , a theater director and founding father of the 3D animation and practical reality studioTRICK 3D. " But I do n’t intend it ’s hold out to replace filmmaking or secret plan playing . It ’s extend to augment both of those a little bit . "
So what ’s the next whole step in Hollywood VR ? Well , it just might be virtual world horror , a genre that always seems to live on the carving edge . After all , what could be skillful for a riot junkie than being fully immersed in a movie featuring a guy in a hockey masquerade with a big ol' honking butcher tongue ?
Who is right behind you …
The VR Revolution
You ’ve heard ofOculus Rift , the next - gen VR system that ’s credit with start the modish surge toward VR acceptance . It started on crowdfunding site Kickstarter and then Facebook bought it for $ 2 billion . Oculus is team with several vainglorious - name company — Samsung , HTC , Sony and Google among them — to bring in VR to the masses .
Much of the VR focal point has been on gaming . But there are indications that movies may be the hereafter of VR , or at least a big part of it . According to Oculus , about 80 percent of more than 1 million consumers with the Samsung Gear VR ( it ’s powered by Oculus ) are using it to look at telecasting .
Moviemakers have noticed . From The Wall Street Journal :
Eikhoff sees the solicitation . After 100 - plus years of doing moving picture one way — here ’s the story , right in front of you , and the theatre director will tell you where to look — VR opens up possibilities that can hardly be sound . With VR moving picture , there ’s a 360 - arcdegree scene where you , the watcher , opt where to look , where to decoct and what to ignore .
" The bad thing VR brings that pic do n’t — and takes to the next floor with gaming — is immersion and front and a sense of being in the space , " Eikhoff pronounce . " But what that does … is it altogether alter the moral force . "
Youcan get a flavour for the possibilities with stacks of VR movies on YouTube , and you do n’t need all that fancy of a headset to do it . All you postulate is a smartphone and an app . A Google Cardboard VR headset can be had for $ 15 .
Why Horror ?
Young Wes Craven and John Carpenter wannabes already are working with tech experts to steep watcher in something that they , almost literally , ca n’t take their eyes off of . you’re able to shut your eye during a VR movie , or take off your headset and get the heck into the light . But wrench your head on VR horror just brings new angles to the blood , guts and overall ripe time .
That may be the genre ’s biggest collection .
A VR outfit namedHoneyVR , shout practical world " … dead the shuddery entertainment medium ever conceived … Virtual world repulsion , when well done , is truly terrific . Stereoscopic 360 TV gives you nowhere to blot out — there ’s no comfortable separation like when watching a horror photographic film on your TV screen . Rather , with VR repulsion you are in full immersed by the perceived threat and it can be jarring . "
Another plus for VR horror films : You do n’t need to be Spielberg to make it work on . You do n’t call for big - name actors , either . have ’s face it : You do n’t even need a very good script .
Hollywood has recognise that for years . A2013 New York Times studyshowed that horror flick made about six times what they be . They do n’t bring in the overall money that big - budget comedy and action movie do . They certainly do n’t snag the awards or critical eclat .
But for sheer issue on investment , horror is tough to beat .
" I cogitate there ’s a place for any genre in VR . Horror is low - hanging yield in any data formatting , " says Eikhoff . " There ’s by all odds masses who are going there . It can kind of campaign it potentially , make something that would be ordinarily just an entertaining revulsion film too much for somebody . "
With VR , it probably induce sense to start with the low - hang fruit . Spielberg and Scott may be able-bodied to throw big buck at it , but for fledgling VR movie maker , the success of the format is still a great unknown . There are a ton of expert and storytelling hurdles to overcome , not to mention the challenge of selling what is an fundamentally a solo experience — it ’s knockout to get interfering with the honey sway a VR headset — to a moving-picture show - know public .
Plus , as Eikhoff points out , it has taken more than a C of regular moviemaking to get photographic film to where it is now . VR has a long way to go .
Whatever its future , VR is here now . The possible action for the Next Big Thing survive .
Now all we have to do is get preceding that guy wire with the sad sack knife .
