‘Dear Angelica’, a film on the Oculus Rift painted by hand
Virtual reality is having a creative moment. This week saw an Oscar nomination for a 360-degree animation, while several VR experiences are also winning plaudits at the Sundance Film Festival this week.
That might surprise the many people who think of VR as synonymous with video games. The best-selling system so far is Sony’s PlayStation VR, paired with its PS4 games console. Rivals such as HTC’s Vive and Facebook’s Oculus Rift have also focused on gamers as the first adopters of their pricey headsets.
Commercially, this makes sense. PC gamers already have the expensive computers and graphics cards required to run Vive or Rift, and are accustomed to spending up to $60 on a piece of software.
However, putting such a focus on games risks overlooking some of the most satisfying experiences one can have with VR. The limitless canvas presented by this technology is launching new kinds of cinema, as we have seen for a couple of years on the film festival circuit, and more open-ended artistic creativity.
Pearl
The Oscar nod is for Pearl, an animated short released by Google as part of its Spotlight series last year. Pearl sits the viewer in the passenger seat of a family car, watching a daughter grow from toddler to twenty-something alongside her guitar-strumming father. The five-minute film is also available in a more traditional 2D version — which is the one that was shown to members of the Academy — but it nonetheless marks a moment of recognition for “look anywhere” filmmaking.
Available for free on YouTube, Pearl is best enjoyed through a Google Cardboard viewer, where you can choose to focus on dad, daughter or the road — or each in turn if you choose to watch it more than once. VR’s intimacy works well with the sweet coming-of-age tale and in the confined environment of the car.
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Source: FT