An immersive lineup that’s gone from gimmicky demos to futuristic filmmaking.
In 2016, Tribeca Film Festival’s Immersive Hub was full of wonky, experimental, five-minute demos of what VR films could be capable of. By 2017, the Manhattan-based festival was teeming with Hollywood directors and actors all injecting their talent into exciting, but truncated, VR demos.
You could see the beginnings of exciting new VR cinematography and techniques, but inside of frustratingly short films cut down by budget and skill limitations. It was unclear if the VR medium could ever evolve past being too experimental and expensive to live up to regular films.
In my third year at TFF, I have seen virtual reality come into its own: with over 40 VR and AR films and experiences available, most running between 10 and 30 minutes, even two straight days inside of VR headsets wasn’t enough to try everything.
What I did manage to see showed off why Tribeca is one of the premier VR festivals in the world. From holograms on Hololens to an AI controlling a VR film’s story, powerful 360-degree camera tech to virtual activism, Tribeca Immersive 2018 showed off how the VR/AR industry could grow in the next couple of years.
Voice-commanding the scene
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VR films tend to feel more passive and less immersive than VR games. Even though you’re supposedly in the middle of a film scene, you usually can’t interact with your environment, communicate with the people around you, or affect the outcome.
But Terminal 3, an AR experience by Asad Malik, uses voice commands to create an interactive narrative and make the user feel in control. As a customs agent, you speak to 3D, volumetric holograms of immigrants looking to visit the United States, dictating whether the conversation is friendly or interrogative and, ultimately, whether or not they will be allowed to enter.
Malik, a Pakistani immigrant, created Terminal 3 as a response to being shouted at by customs agents following the events of 9/11. He chose AR because he wanted viewers to “feel [the immigrants’] presence in real space… forcing them to share presence with ideologies and humans that they otherwise wouldn’t cross paths with”.
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Last year we spoke with several VR experts who said that VR is a “memorable and persuasive tool” for improving empathy in viewers for the marginalized and oppressed. These sorts of activist films disguised as tourism videos could have a powerful impact, convincing viewers to take a greater interest in the struggles of people halfway across the world – though VR is a while away from being a perfectempathy machine.
The best of the bunch
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I waited a full year to see the conclusion to Penrose Studios’ Arden’s Wake: Tide’s Fall, after last year’s demo ended on a painful cliffhanger. Without any spoilers, it was worth the wait. The story of Meena, now voiced by Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, as she quests to save her father and confront her tragic childhood is a standout of this year’s festival.
It was one of the most affecting “real world” VR experiences I’ve encountered
Another excellent experience in the lineup is Hero, in which you’re a tourist in a war zone, putting you in Syria after a bomb goes off. The experience at Tribeca used a wireless VR rig and a fully-built prop set matching the virtual world, so I could walk around and touch my surroundings. And project creator Navid Khonsari, who previously worked on motion capture at Rockstar and Resident Evil 7 VR, told me that he hired Syrian actors for the voices to preserve realism. Overall, it was one of the most affecting “real world” VR experiences I’ve encountered.
By complete contrast, LAMBCHILD SUPERSTAR: Making Music in the Menagerie of the Holy Cow, eschews any realism for a hilariously entertaining co-op music game, where you partner up to compose music. With or without any musical talent, with a few friends this could be a really great party.
But these “best of the festival” choices are pretty subjective. What’s truly exciting is that nearly all of Tribeca’s VR films achieved a level of skillful professionalism and technical proficiency that had been lacking before. Indie filmmakers made these experiences, but they felt anything but amateur.
Source: Wareable