AT SUNDANCE, VIRTUAL REALITY FILMMAKERS ARE EVOLVING BEYOND VR
Five years ago, Sundance's New Frontier program proved to be a launch pad for the VR filmmaking boom that was coming. In 2019, there are still a lot of virtual reality projects, many of them from longtime VR creators like Felix & Paul, but some, like Saatchi, are branching out and incorporating augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and connected devices into their interactive storytelling.
"We're finally going into an experimental phase where people have to hustle and think about how new technologies can merge together," Arora says. "What's happening has kind of, in a Darwinian sense, purged the kind of get-rich-quick folks."
"What's really reflected in the show this year is that the human body is integrated into the frame of the experience," Frilot says. "I was looking at the lineup and realized there was a physical body in every single one of these projects."
That's even true for the latest project from Oculus itself. The Under Presents, which debuted at Sundance, uses Oculus Quest to put users in an interactive theater experience where the characters in the VR space are actually being played by Quest-wearing actors from the New York-based theater collective Piehole. (The project will be made available later this year.)
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/sundance-vr-film-evolution/