Virtual reality seems to be the next big step in the audiovisual world, including Oculus passes for a very important name in the field. But if Oculus Rift seemed hitherto confined to video games and simple experiments, the Story Studio should show that many other things are possible with him.
Story Studio was created by Oculus itself. The company wanted to prove that the film world was going very well with virtual reality and for this, the first film was created.
“Lost” is the first short film animation studios out Oculus. It has just been presented at independent Sundance Film Festival. Interactive, it was designed to last prototype virtual reality helmet.
Oculus VR, property of Facebook, has no intention of simply developing virtual reality helmets that excite the planet. The company is downright started producing films by creating a branch of “virtual reality theater” called Oculus Story Studio, which includes a dozen people. This entity is responsible for developing dramas for its latest generation of helmets Crescent Bay.
First work out of this studio: Lost, a five-minute short film directed by Saschka Unseld, formerly of Pixar. But the length changes according to user actions. In the end, the film can last up to 10 minutes. “It depends on you,” said Unseld Saschka to the site The Verge.
Lost is also for the latest prototype of the Oculus Rift, which means he should be able to use the 3D audio technology that changes the sound perceived by the user depending on its position in space, much like the Google Street View experience which had been spoken right here.
A short but above variable length: unlike a conventional film, the viewer by the hand on the plan and he wishes, according to his choice, the short film Lost able to go three and a half minutes to nearly ten minutes.
The specifications of the project? Create rich content on the narrative level, without giving in on the visual quality. But virtual reality changes the game compared to the classic cinema. No director may impose to the supremacy of his point of view: it is the user who chooses to look at what he wants.
To propose a variable length, Lost is a computer-generated movie, which seems somehow a prerequisite for such a film. Indeed, we necessarily imagine videos on 360 degrees for this type of product, and an image 360 degrees of a classic film would show us the film crew. Farewell immersion.
Oculus hopes to arouse desire and attract artists showing this week’s first film at Sundance. This initiative also demonstrates that the draft Facebook opposite of virtual reality far exceeds the scope of gaming. For startups, this stunt really is the very beginning of a new adventure.