philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

12Jan/15Off

Hollywood Tries Its Hand at Virtual Reality Content

virtual-reality-and-entertainment-oculus-rift-2What they lack in content is being provided by apps from third-parties like Jaunt, a VR cameramanufacturer looking to stimulate the market with programming such as a Paul McCartney concert video that will bring you closer to the Beatle than a front-row seat.

These are the tentative first steps to reach a user base that has yet to materialize. But if it can match even a fraction of the passion of the nascent VR industry ready to reach it, there’s reason for high hopes. Research firm KZero Worldwide estimates there were only about 200,000 VR users in 2014, but projects that market will mushroom to 170 million worldwide by 2018.

As Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey put it at the Oculus Connect conference in September: “Without content, nobody would be interested in this whole virtual reality thing.”

“There are no real marching orders, because there’s no defined place where things will end up,” said Ted Schilowitz, who leads the Fox Innovation Lab at 20th Century Fox. “You have to be very nimble at this point.”

Every major studio is already dipping a toe in these waters, with VR extensions to popular franchises including Fox’s “The X-Men,” Warner Bros.’ “Batman” and Paramount’s “Interstellar” and “How to Train Your Dragon” just a few examples of what’s in circulation as installations at events. Gear VR also boasts derivative content from Legendary, Marvel, Imax, Vevo and Cirque du Soleil. There are also plenty of independent projects like “Zero Point,” billed as the first original VR movie by startup Condition One. Even this month’s Sundance Film Festival is catching VR fever, with nine entries employing the technology featured in a program devoted to innovative filmmaking.

We’ve learned you have to create the content for the experience; just converting what you’ve got doesn’t work. You don’t get the immersion you’re looking for,” said Warren Mayoss, head of technology product development at DreamWorks Animation.

DiCarlo said Samsung believes vidgamers represent the most likely consumers of VR, but the company is aiming wider. “If VR is only ever for gaming, it is a good business,” he noted. “Expand it past gaming, it will be a great business.”

“If Magic Leap makes projection-based VR the thing we need to focus on at certain point, then we want to be flexible enough to transition to whatever the right thing is at the right time,” said James Milward, president of Secret Location, which produced a VR experience for the Fox series “Sleepy Hollow.” “VR is an optimal platform that we’ll go hard in, but we won’t be boxed in.”

See the full story here: http://variety.com/2015/digital/features/hollywood-tries-its-hand-at-virtual-reality-content-1201392775/

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