{"id":85,"date":"2016-10-07T04:39:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T04:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/2016\/10\/07\/real-memories-360-filmmaking-done-well\/"},"modified":"2016-10-07T04:39:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T04:39:24","slug":"real-memories-360-filmmaking-done-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/2016\/10\/07\/real-memories-360-filmmaking-done-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Memories: 360\u00b0 Filmmaking Done Well"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>
\n

By Natasha D\u2019Amours for WRIT 420<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cinematic VR. VR storytelling. 360\u00b0 films. Whatever you call it, this new form of storytelling \u2013 this new medium \u2013 is innovative and exciting. Still in its early stages, most 360\u00b0 film content is non-fiction. Which makes sense \u2013 it\u2019s easier to forgive technology slip ups, like noticeable seams, awkward cuts and visible equipment and crew, when it comes to non-fiction. The viewer knows they\u2019re in the real world. They don\u2019t need to be convinced of the virtual reality. There\u2019s no suspension of disbelief to maintain.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that there\u2019s only non-fiction when it comes to 360\u00b0 content. More and more, people are using this new technology to tell narrative stories. They\u2019re learning how to use the 360\u00b0 technology to create seamless spherical tales: invisible seams, invisible equipment, and cuts woven into the story so skillfully that they don\u2019t feel disorienting at all \u2013 or better yet, the disorientation is part of the story.<\/p>\n

Real Memories<\/a>\u00a0is a beautiful narrative 360\u00b0 film created by, surprisingly, a car company, MINI. This short film does feature a MINI car, so it serves as a sort of sneaky ad. But if you didn\u2019t know Real Memories was made by a car company, you wouldn\u2019t guess it. It\u2019s a short film first and a commercial second. It uses the 360\u00b0 medium quite effectively, too.<\/p>\n

Firstly, the story in Real Memories is about creating fake memories \u2013 or, one could say, about altering reality. This subject, while not directly about VR, plays with themes that work well with the medium. Because the viewer isn\u2019t addressed but is just an observer (which is somewhat rare in 360\u00b0 films \u2013 often, the viewer is also a participant in the story), it feels as if the viewer is in someone\u2019s head, in their memories. They\u2019re experiencing the alteration of Max\u2019s memories alongside him \u2013 it\u2019s interesting, and it\u2019s effective, and it makes the medium feel earned. The medium gets played with even beyond the use of 360\u00b0, too, with the projection above the fireplace. This is a piece filled with experimentation, but the story is genuinely interesting and compelling \u2013 it would be captivating to watch no matter the medium. It\u2019s difficult to watch a 360\u00b0 film for very long \u2013 it gets annoying, and can even make the viewer sick, so most 360\u00b0 films are well under ten minutes. This one is short, but it packs of a lot of story and emotion into five minutes.<\/p>\n

Real Memories uses jumpcuts, which can feel sudden in 360\u00b0. The cuts never make the story hard to follow, though. In fact, when they become especially quick and disorienting while jumping between the present and Max\u2019s memories, these cuts contribute to the story \u2013 Max is confused and disoriented, and so are the viewers. This short film isn\u2019t quite a horror story (and horror stories are common in 360\u00b0 \u2013 it\u2019s easy to be scared when you\u2019re inside the story), but there are definitely elements of fear and suspense. The cuts contribute to that. The cuts are also often accompanied by a sound \u2013 a slam, a piano playing \u2013 that serve to integrate the cuts more effectively into the story. <\/p>\n

The camera positioning also serves the story well. In every scene, the camera is positioned so that the viewer can look behind them, but they always know which way is forward. The viewer is in the back of the car looking at the front, or in the corner of the living room, or by a wall looking out into the street. The characters move dynamically through the space, and the viewer does need to look around to follow their movement, but there\u2019s no need to be constantly looking backwards and forwards, a motion which is both annoying and uncomfortable. The camera is also very effectively positioned so that the viewer can see most of the apartment without ever having to move the camera around. There are also interesting things to look at when looking down, like the book on the seat of the car. It\u2019s good when a 360\u00b0 film remembers that the piece is happening in a full sphere, not just a cylinder.<\/p>\n

One slight flaw in this film is how many visual details are difficult to make out because of the limitations of 360\u00b0: the cameras are not very high resolution, the films are viewed on very small screens, and because of the wide-angle lenses, almost everything appears very far away. For these reasons, many of the visuals in Real Memories are difficult to make out \u2013 the writing on the book in the car, all the objects in the apartment\u2026 These objects don\u2019t contribute as much to the story as they could in a traditional \u201cflattie\u201d film because we can\u2019t see them clearly. Unlike flatties, 360\u00b0 films have to rely much more heavily on dialogue rather than visuals. Although Real Memories handles these limitations well for the most part, it\u2019s definitely something to keep in mind when creating 360\u00b0 films: it\u2019s hard to see anything clearly.<\/p>\n

Overall, Real Memories is a very interesting and visually lovely 360\u00b0 film. Although it might not be incredibly visually unique for a flattie film, it\u2019s very well-made for a 360\u00b0 film \u2013 there are no visible seams, the cuts are well-done, the camera angles are carefully picked\u2026 The suspension of disbelief is maintained in this film because the 360\u00b0 is so seamless and effective. This is just one example of a 360\u00b0 film, but it\u2019s an example of a 360\u00b0 film done well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Natasha D\u2019Amours for WRIT 420 Cinematic VR. VR storytelling. 360\u00b0 films. Whatever you call it, this new form of storytelling \u2013 this new medium \u2013 is innovative and exciting. Still in its early stages, most 360\u00b0 film content is non-fiction. Which makes sense \u2013 it\u2019s easier to forgive technology slip ups, like noticeable seams, awkward cuts and visible equipment and crew, when it comes to non-fiction. The viewer knows they\u2019re in the real world. They don\u2019t need to be convinced of the virtual reality. There\u2019s no suspension of disbelief to maintain. That\u2019s not to say that there\u2019s only non-fiction when it comes to 360\u00b0 content. More and more, people are using this new technology to tell narrative stories. They\u2019re learning how to use the 360\u00b0 technology to create seamless spherical tales: invisible seams, invisible equipment, and cuts woven into the story so skillfully that they don\u2019t feel disorienting at\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,2,5,3],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-360-film","tag-knot-for-sale","tag-uvic","tag-vr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}