OCULUS RIFT EXPERIENCE ON WITHIN
Software
360 VR Film
Company
WithIN and NYTimes
Timing
9 minutes
Story Arch
The year’s best actors lift off in a series of tributes to the ultimate Hollywood magic trick. A collaboration between Within and The New York Times. Look for Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Lily Tomlin, Melissa McCarthy, Benicio del Toro, Jason Mitchell, and Jacob Tremblay.
Narration
no narration
Subtitles
no subtitles, only the opening credits, which are 2d white text on a highly blurred environment which fades away to the opening cut.
VIP Characters
When you are in space, you are greeted not by ordinary people / unknown beings, but celebrities that you are probably aware of/like/follow. Each is doing something different and unique in the space. This is perhaps where this cinematic experience has the greatest value. Since it isn’t a real footage or story, the use of celebrities helps to bring an additional “value” to the whole.
Cinematography
360 film, not interactive. The quality is low res. It is all “one shot” which is faked as you start in a busy NYC intersection then take off into outerspace and then come back down again.
Framing and Point of View
It is an experience film. You “take off” to an otherworldly place above where celebrities in slow motion revolve around you, as if you enter a Renaissance ceiling fresco in an Italian chapel. Everything revolves around you, you are the protagonist, the characters in space reach out to you and greet you in space.
Color Palette
Real life film footage mixed with CGI NY city (but it is night and a bit blurry, so it is hard to tell if that footage is fake)
Composition
It is one shot, one movement and “one take.” Your ascent and descent.
Looking Around
You are in the environment, and when you reach space, characters move in slow motion towards you. They come from all around, so I was compelled to look everywhere once I arrived in space. There was no 3D sound.
Storytelling
It was a linear story, no opportunity to fast forward, rewind or change your pace/location in the story. This was ok, I was not bothered by the lack of interaction since it seemed like a cinematic experience.
Sound
Sound was important for the atmosphere. There was a nice soundtrack which was the only sound but brought the mystic kind of experience to the forefront.
EEL VR Storytelling Research 