By Holly Lam, University of Victoria
Maybe thinking about 360 in relation to flatties, and producing 360 films that go with flatties, limits the medium. Maybe rethinking the creative process and artistic framework entirely would exploit this new medium more fully. But VR add-ons, let’s call them, have the power to attract viewers with brand recognition, create pre-emptive enthusiasm in the audience, and get a reaction. That’s why we create stories.
Before this year, I’d never watched a 360 film. I was skeptical. I dutifully downloaded the 360 VR app Within, got my Google Cardboard viewer and began searching for films. I tried a few documentaries, and found the viewer frustrating, as the two images wouldn’t line up and I had to close one eye to see properly. After an hour I started to feel ill. On the whole, the experience was far from immersive: I was constantly aware of the viewer strapped tight to my head, the unnaturalness of my one closed eye and the low resolution of the image. I thought: This is ridiculous.
Then I did a software update on my phone, and the image problem was solved. My perception of 360 did a 180, and I found the medium instantly more engaging. The first narrative film I watched was advertised as new on the app: a Mr. Robot 360 experience, written and directed by Sam Esmail, the creator of the USA Network TV show. When Mr. Robot the TV show started, I’d watched the first couple episodes, but hadn’t continued beyond. Still, that it was part of an already existing franchise intrigued me: that previously created characters would be thrown into 360 storytelling.
Like many 360 documentary films, the Mr. Robot experience uses voiceover, the beauty being that the TV show does as well. The protagonist, Elliot, smokes a joint in his apartment before a date, and as his state of mind becomes muddled, the camera rises to create an altered sense of perception. In this way, perspective is used even though the viewer doesn’t actually have a role in the experience. This film creates intimacy through camera placement close to actors’ faces, providing the illusion of sitting between them on a ferris wheel, walking behind them on a boardwalk, and watching them from a bird’s eye view in Elliot’s bedroom.
As appealingly voyeuristic as those shots are, I got bored. The camera sits stationary on the ferris wheel, and again above the bed, for minutes at a time, with the characters just talking. When they run on the boardwalk, it becomes dynamic, as the viewer can look where they’ve gone and follow them around.
There was another problem, too: I wasn’t drawn into the story. Though I appreciated that it was produced as part of an already existing universe, it wasn’t a universe I was invested in.
Then I found the Saturday Night Live: Celebrity Jeopardy 360 experience, a VR version of a sketch that aired as part of last year’s 40th season special. The 360 was filmed live, simultaneously with the regular broadcast version. I’ve been a fan of SNL for years, and was eager to watch this.
The 360 camera reduced the quality of some aspects of the sketch itself. The distance of the viewpoint, with the 360 camera placed on top of the regular main camera, (which captures a straight-on shot of the complete stage), makes it difficult to recognize the actors and read the categories on the Jeopardy board. As we know, 360 doesn’t lend itself to detail.
But like Mr. Robot, the original show has aspects transferable to 360 filmmaking. In 360, actors have to constantly act, with less cuts, less takes and no opportunity to “cut away” in editing if an actor has a moment of weak performance: a big difference between flattie and 360, and a challenge. Taped live every week, with many cast members coming from improv backgrounds, SNL lends itself to that challenge inherently.
Of course the highlight of the SNL 360 film is the fun of being in the studio and seeing more than the regular camera does. Look behind you and the camera operator’s forehead is visible. Watch Wally the cue card guy flip the cue cards. See Norm MacDonald put on a giant hat in preparation for a close-up, or Keenan Thompson set up in front of a green screen on another stage for a cutaway. That is, if you’re looking in the right direction. The SNL 360 video plays with point of view and allows the viewer to participate, and like Mr. Robot, expands an experience that fans of the show are already familiar with.
For me, enjoying VR was a matter of (aside from having functional technology) finding something that excited me. The novelty of VR itself can engage people only to an extent. As with flattie film and TV, viewers ultimately don’t watch things they aren’t interested in. If you’re an intense VR nerd, maybe you’d scroll through menus of VR apps and watch everything, but an average viewer won’t watch VR just because it’s VR. There has to be more to entice us.