AR/VR in
TV / MOVIEs
Written by | Julia Ahmad
AR and VR technology has absolutely impacted filmmaking and production, along with the entertainment industry as a whole, making changes in the way stories are being told and films are being made. Each are affecting the industry in various ways.
The use of these immersive technologies only renders the quality of storytelling more expressive. Overall, leveraging these technologies only shortens the gap between an audience “seeing” and “experiencing” a film, and when this happens, it causes a massive impact on the future of film-making.
ImpactS of VR in FILM
What's powerful about VR is that it makes everything personal and has the ability to create a powerful relationship between a fictional character and the audience. On one hand, the use of this technology in movies and film opens doors to fictional characters to communicate with the viewer in a very personal manner, which shifts from the traditional film viewing that is more of a "social" rather than "personal" experience. The more active the viewing experience is, the more it can result in a heightened emotional journey and a particular relationship with on-screen characters and objects.
Overall, this technology lets us feel very immersed in a movie, magnifies the sense of reality, makes us experience proximity and offers a different viewing experience, one where the audience is given more freedom in what they are watching.
Image source by Eric Chevalier
Image source by Teresa Umali
IMPACTS OF
AR IN FILM
The increased availability and functionality of AR tools and software can not only fully exploit the designers’ talent to create reality-resembling VFX, but also let directors and actors see pre-rendered versions of what they’re supposed to be interacting with and act accordingly.
AR also makes the set design more efficient. Using AR we can use scanned 3D models of the prop-house offerings so designers can audition objects on location before ever pulling things from storehouses or off the truck. Sets, loaded with furniture, props, wall color, and wardrobe on virtual stand-ins can be shared as digital files by leveraging AR. This will be helpful to set designers as they will be able to pick up their device and experiment around the space, make changes, choices, and suggestions before using the real one.
PROS
AND CONS
But, both VR and AR have their set of problems, most of them being related to the quality and skill of these tools. The whole idea of using AR in films is to create a world, otherwise too hard to create in real life and make it believable. So if an object doesn’t look like a real one or a part of the scene, on the screen, it defeats the whole purpose.
With all these impacts of incorporating AR and VR in the filmmaking process, the control in terms of camera movements, timelines, and even storytelling will shift from filmmakers to viewers due to VR, and the creative designers and set production will have a more flexible canvas due to AR.
These changes will define the trajectory of storytelling and filmmaking as we know it today.
Examples of ar/vr in film
A VR movie theater using Samsung Gear VR headsets was opened in Paris, France, by Pickup, a France-based entertainment company. PickupVRcinema aims to make VR a truly collective experience by bringing together more than 30 people at a time who simultaneously immerse themselves in the world of virtual reality.
2016 Cannes Film Festival became the first festival to screen VR short films and presentations in an area exclusively dedicated to VR.
Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) celebrates the evolution of storytelling with XR Experience, a free event showcasing the latest in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).