The rise of VR in film, and the breaking of the "fifth wall."

Image of vr audience

More than any other creative art form, Film has been heavily influenced by emerging technologies and new ways of expanding and enhancing the viewer experience.

In its evolution, film has made giant leaps from monochromatic and silent, to colorful and rich with visuals and sound that has already surpassed the human capacity to experience it (our vision is about 8k resolution, and 12k+ video cameras have already hit the market) While these breakthroughs have been significant, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are the first technologies to usher film into an entirely new dimension which will be immersive and interactive.

The emerging presence of VR in film

Sundance
Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier experimental section featured its first virtual reality experience in 2012. With every year since the projects have gotten larger in scale. This year, the program included more than twenty VR and AR entries. They ranged from simple mobile 360-degree video to multi-person performance art installations.

IMAX
IMAX has hopped on board with Virtual Reality by teaming up with Google to build a virtual reality camera. They plan to develop a premium location-based virtual reality experience where they will offer studio quality VR created by some of your favorite Hollywood Filmmakers.
One filmmaker in particular who is intrigued by this is Transformers director, Michael Bay, who is in talks with IMAX about potential projects. He's excited to transport his audiences even further into the worlds he creates.

Cannes
Cannes has even played with the idea of Virtual Reality in Film. They created a panel about the future of filmmaking and featured a VR example movie. They showed Tree Experience created by New Reality Company in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. This film was a perfect example of how technology and art can come together. The panel discussed how VR will be integrated into film. Some of those speakers were from HP, DreamWorks, and Technicolor.

Film and the VR effect. Breaking "the fourth wall"

The first instance of new technology radically changing the viewing experience occurred in 1896, when French filmmakers Auguste and Louis Lumière projected a scene of a train coming towards the camera. Filmmaking mythology reports that half of the audience jumped out of their seats and ran to the back of the theatre, worried that the train was going to break through the screen. This example demonstrates the concept of "walls" of perception that exist in movies.

In theatre and in film, the concept of "the fourth wall" refers to this invisible, imagined wall separating actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the actors act as if they cannot. Unlike the Lumière train, this is more of a psychological wall that allows the viewer to experience a story as a third party.

Jerry Lewis wrote in his 1971 book, The Total Filmmaker, "Some film-makers believe you should never have an actor look directly into the camera. They maintain it makes the audience uneasy, and interrupts the screen story. I think that is nonsense, and usually I have my actors, in a single, look direct into the camera at least once in a film, if a point is to be served." The 'breaking of the fourth wall' has been most commonly used for comedic effect in films like High Fidelity, Fight Club, and Deadpool, offering the audience a moment of being spoken to.

In the virtual film environment, this concept is in some ways both dissolved and inverted.

The fourth wall dissolved.

VR film Clouds Over SidraIn a virtual reality-based film, the fourth wall is no longer a "wall" but the viewer's headset, dissolving the camera itself, and giving the viewer control of their perspective. The viewer, in theory, can choose which part of their environment to focus on. The characters, the sky, the floor. They might be able to step directly in front of the characters in the film, breaking the fourth wall themselves. This poses new challenges and opportunities for virtual reality filmmakers, who will need to create ways to guide the viewers attention. It also allows for more intimate connection to the story. The 2015 VR film "Clouds Over Sidra" places the viewer inside a day in the life of a 12 year old Syrian refugee. In this case, the dissolved fourth wall has tremendous possibility for generating empathy and compassion by shifting the identity of the viewer.

The fourth wall inverted.
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While stepping into another persons shoes may shift a viewer's perspective visually, it has it's limitations. Even after decades of research and development, Virtual Reality filmmakers, game developers, and programmers have not yet cracked the code on the challenge of achieving a concept called "presence."
To understand "presence" you should understand it's pop culture reference "The Swayze Effect."

The Swayze Effect describes the sensation of having no tangible relationship with your surroundings despite feeling present in the world. Much like the experiences and struggles of Patrick Swayze's character Sam Wheat, in Ghost. Basically, it's the feeling of yelling "I'm here! I'm here!" when no one or nothing else around seems to acknowledge it. ~Oculus Labs

With no existence of a fourth wall in virtual reality, a viewer might be able to move freely around a scene and its characters, but would not necessarily be able to change the outcome or interactions within the scene.
Because of this limitation, the next big leap in virtual reality film will be inverting the fourth wall - allowing the viewer to have more control of the story, with characters and environments that react and respond to them.
In this dimension, a viewer may choose to leave one scene and visit another. Imagine a suspense thriller, where the viewer would be able to toggle between the hero and the villain as the story plays out in realtime.

Conclusion. Breaking "The Fifth Wall"
The next, and arguably final frontier beyond this is what I would call "the fifth wall." The fifth wall represents the viewer's psychology within the experience. Once the fifth wall is dissolved…there will be very little discernment between the viewer's mind, the film and "reality."
Sensors, wearables, AI powered by quantum computing (and a large dose of creative brilliance) will eventually merge the viewer with the story itself. Characters and environments will not only play out, but respond to the viewers words, movements, and thoughts in a way that truly bends reality for the mind of the viewer. Once this breakthrough is achieved, narrative film will become a sort of hybrid documentary and real world simulation, where viewers no longer watch a film. They are the film.

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Thank you for reading
In an upcoming article, I'll share how this technology is already being tested, and how we're entering a completely personalized era of filmmaking and entertainment.

Thoughts to take with you
Have you tried VR yet? Most electronics stores have demo booths were you can give it a spin. You can also order a basic headset for under $30, and use your smartphone as the screen.
What was the last film you saw that truly moved you and changed your actual behavior?
What type of films would you want to be immersed in? An action film, a romance, horror?

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