In a regular film, the director decides exactly what you see and when you see it. You can’t do this in VR film because you can look wherever you want. Instead, you need to play on viewers’ sensation of exploring to move the story forward. With this in mind, producers must have a plan to take the story from point A to point B, but need to optimize the story for the joy and thrill of exploring. That said, a VR film is really a linear VR experience. Much like riding a roller coaster, viewers can look anywhere during the experience, but the story has tracks to a definite destination. Sweden has a small film industry that has produced a collection of really good movies i.e. this year’s Cannes winner, The Square. However, Sweden has a much larger game industry with a skilled workforce that’s on the edge of developing VR experiences — whether it be films, advertisements, etc. Sweden’s game industry holds a lot of potential as the film industry embraces VR productions. We’re getting very close to VR becoming a mainstream form of entertainment. Despite VR headsets and Playstation VR selling out everywhere, I think the reason that VR hasn’t fully taken off is due to a lack of good VR games and experiences. I believe we will see VR experiences become mainstream among hardcore gamers by this Christmas. Read more about virtual reality at TechCo
