philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

How an Actress and Accordion Player Became a Comedy Virtual Reality Pioneer

Door No. 1 is a virtual reality short about a high school reunion, available via Hulu’s VR app, in which the viewer plays the starring role. Interactions with other characters determine how the plot unfolds. Will you encounter Snoop Dogg, who has a cameo in Door No. 1? Will your character even survive the night?

That led to her first project in the medium, Virtually Mike and Nora, with Michael O’Brien. They created awkward situations, like one where viewers were in the middle seat of an airplane while the two stars made out. They would talk to the users as well. “When I saw people talking back and inserting their own dialogue, that’s when I knew that we could go one step further and make it interactive like this,” says Kirkpatrick.

Door No. 1 takes advantage of VR’s response capabilities by relying on eye movements. To move the story forward, users lock their gaze on characters that they want to follow. “I wanted it to feel like real life,” says Kirkpatrick.

Making the VR film had its challenges. Because the story changes based on interactions, Kirkpatrick wrote a “decision tree,” with one unifying scene at the top of each act from which both major and minor changes in the plot would flow based on user responses.

Moreover, scenes had to be filmed in one shot; if an actor messed up, everyone would have to start again from the beginning.

See the full story here; http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/comedy-virtual-reality/