CBS Interactive Debuts a Virtual Reality Comedy Short at Cannes Lions
[Phil Lelyveld comment; People have stated that comedy wouldn’t work in VR because comedy depends on timing and you can’t count on a VR end-user looking in the right place at the right time. As with so many other things in VR, once people actually try to do it - versus talking about it - the language for VR comedy will emerge.]
Thompson discusses virtual reality and explains how it works, snapping his fingers to make characters appear and disappear at will. Turn around, however, and there's Thompson playing the film's pretentious and increasingly frustrated director, along with his camera crew.
Looking up, down or anywhere around makes viewers feel like they're quite literally in the center of the action. It can be disconcerting but also quite amusing.
All of CBS Interactive's 25 brands, including TV.com and Last.fm, "are ripe for virtual reality experiences," said Christy Tanner, svp and gm of CBS Interactive Media Group, suggesting cooking demos on Chowhound and set visits on TVGuide.com as possibilities.
To that end, Studio 61, CBS Interactive's branded content studio launched earlier this year, partnered with the Uprising Creative production company, which suggested a comedy short.
"This short is trying to be a showcase for how to do comedy in VR. The Uprising Creative really felt that comedy was an underserved area, if it's served at all, and this was an opportunity for us to pioneer what's funny in VR," she said. "We know what's scary in VR, what's cool, what takes you to the scene of a news event, but I don't think it has been widely explored what's funny in it."
The virtual reality presentation will be followed by a panel including Thompson, Uprising Creative's Jeff Nicholas and Jonathan Craven, Kendell Ostrow of UTA (which packaged the short), and Anthony Batt from virtual-reality firm WEVR (which handled the film's technology and editing).
See the full story here: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/cbs-interactive-debuts-virtual-reality-comedy-short-cannes-lions-165504