How Virtual Reality Filmmakers Used Brands to Develop a New Skill Set
Now that it’s here, VR filmmakers like Annie Lukowski and BJ Schwartz of VR production company Vanishing Point Media, who have developed experiences for commercial clients like Banana Republic, Teen Vogue and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” have taken those lessons to the narrative space they’ve always wanted to target.
“It just so happened that there’s not that many headsets out there,” Lukowski said. “To justify a whole budget for a narrative piece when you know there’s not going to be that many eyeballs is tough. Mostly when people come to us and ask us to do stuff, it’s commercials.”
Taylor Freeman, a co-founder of Upload, a virtual reality-focused incubator and media company, credits brands for providing a platform for early-stage VR filmmakers to start to figure things out.
“I think we’re seeing a lot of innovation coming from this experiential marketing,” Freeman told TheWrap. “Brands pouring this money into the space has really enabled the content creators to take time to learn.”
Freeman said he’s noticed VR filmmaking turning a corner from novelty branded experiences to something that resembles narrative content viewers would want to pay for.
“We’ve seen a shift from the early experimental phase,” he said. “That stuff has sort of faded away and now people are much more focused on creating high-value content.”
See the full story here: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/How-Virtual-Reality-Filmmakers-Used-Brands-to-10898417.php