Background

VR and expansion

28 January 2019

Background

VR and expansion

28 January 2019

The January 29 IFFR Pro X VR Days, comprising a Submarine Channel/VPRO case study and four new project pitches as well as a key note address by Guy Daleiden of the Luxembourg Film Fund, will also include a panel discussion about creative expansion within the sector.

The January 29 IFFR Pro X VR Days, comprising a Submarine Channel/VPRO case study and four new project pitches as well as a key note address by Guy Daleiden of the Luxembourg Film Fund, will also include a panel discussion about creative expansion within the sector.

Panellist Barnaby Steel, founder and director of UK-mased Marshmallow Laser Feast, spoke to IFFR Pro online about his company’s highly innovative work and dedication to sector growth.

“VR is in its infancy,” he commented, while underlying its uniqueness as a means of AV expression. “There needs to be lots of experimentation, and I think it’s a mistake to carry too many conventions from film, photography and other forms of story-telling into such a new medium.” There needs to be a sense of openness to creative innovation, he argues, “trying stuff out in order to understand what its possibilities are.”

What is also required is a healthy scepticism of the commercial pressure to replicate content simply because it has worked in the past, he argues, such as horror for its easy shock value. “It is more to do with exploring the full potential [of VR] because this is the beginning of a whole series of technologies that are going to allow us to create immersive experiences that will have a powerful impact [in the future].”

Steel’s work includes the stunning eco-oriented Ocean of Air, described as a multi-sensory immersive installation illuminating the fundamental connection between animal and plant, and Treehugger that allows for total immersion into the biostructure of a giant sequoia.

“As a company we set out with a passion to explore the potential of new technology, to create experiences that were not possible before, lots of experimentation, lots of R&D,” he stresses. “Initially that wasn't really driven by a goal, and I think we got to a point in our lives where we were thinking, ‘we are making all of this pretty stuff about immersive rain forests but what impact does that have on other people and on the planet?’”

“[The development of VR therefore] coincided with questions about consciousness,” he continues. “Thinking about the underlying awareness, whether you are a blade of grass, or a badger or a leaf. There are so many different potential perspectives on reality, but they are all alive. As a studio we have been reading a lot, collaborating with scientists, as I think there is an illusion of a human just as an individual, separate from nature…and a lot of the work we are doing and the intention behind it is to dissolve that [illusion].”

One question that Steel continually grapples with is whether VR is the correct or most appropriate medium for the story that a maker intends to tell. What does VR enable them to do that other mediums can’t? “It is such a simple obvious thing but if you can’t answer it with the project you are making, it probably shouldn’t be a VR piece… VR has qualities that are really unique in the same way that film and photography does, and I think that a lot of attention needs to be paid to that side of things, otherwise you get pieces made in VR that could be better made as a Netflix doc.”

Steel is committed to the format in creative, ideological and emotional terms (and indeed commercially), confident that his investment will bear fruit. “We have been open and sponge-like for a long time and now we have this river of ideas, and it feels like the work can scale [up] and have a big impact. I am putting my money on it - basically that this is the beginning of a long journey, and that these VR experiences can shift mindsets towards a more conservation perspective. That is the hope. That’s all we really want to do.”

IFFR Pro X VR Days 2019 will be introduced by Marit van den Elshout (IFFR Pro) and Benjamin de Wit (VR days Europe).

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