Newbies go to VeniceVR... but will they return next year? (part 2)

(Read part 1 here)

In part 1 we talked about a problem of VR for entertainment highlighted by a friend of mine who tried virtual reality for the first time during Venezia75.

She expressed doubts about VR Theatre and in general about those experiences that do not allow you to interact with the audience around you, but at the same time do not feel real enough to make you forget you are a member of an audience.

She identified a not sufficiently advanced technology as the main responsible for this feeling, but when we started discussing specific experiences, what came out was that other factors play an even more relevant role.

2. From reality to cartoons. Or "if I'm used to believe in it, I will believe in it even when it's in VR"

"It is different with works like Crow: the legend (by Eric Darnell and Baobab Studios)", another friend said. "In that case it wouldn't have mattered if there had been technological gaps or if the characters had looked blurred. They look like cartoons, so they are not real things nor they want to seem one. In cinemas we watch them with a different spirit and in VR it's the same: we don't expect them to replicate reality, and we like them exactly because they don't".

There was a general agreement on this. It seems that what this specific group of people calls "advanced technology" is more important when we are trying to replicate reality, but it looks apparently less relevant (even if, concretely, it isn't so) if we are experiencing a world that is unrealistic in its premises. In other words, the experience can work even with technological glitches if it depicts a situation that does not need to look perfect to be belieavable.

I'm no expert of technological characteristics of VR (even though it seems they are the only thing that courses on virtual reality want to teach you (1) ), but I've realized that I can forgive technical problems if the story, more than its setting, grows on me.

Practical example: when I tried The Roaming, an interactive installation at Venezia75 directed by Mathieu Pradat and produced by La Prairie Productions, DV Group, Satore Studio, Demute Studio and Tamanoir Immersive Studio, there were some difficulties with the rendering of one of the characters. Nevertheless I noticed them, said "Oh well", and two seconds later I went back to live the experience ignoring them. When the ten minutes installation came to an end, I was surprised, because it had felt to me like I had just started. A fascinating experience, that was not that affected by a momentary technological slowdown.

Back to my friends: setting, type of installation and technology were elements that these VR newbies felt the need to emphasize while talking about their first experience with VR (specifically, VR for entertainment). And, as you can probably imagine, all these aspects lead to The Topic, the one everyone always ends up talking about after trying VR.

(from the Venice Film Festival exhibition at Hotel Des Bains, Lido: awarded VR installations and some of the awarded movies of Venezia74)

3. From "I don't understand how you can feel so immersed" to "I screamed so much during Kobold that people left their installations to come checking no one was killing me" (2): a study on emotions

A few months ago I tried a VR experience by an Italian company called Uqido. The experience, to summarize it, was an adventurous exploration of a cave where at some point you had to take a Last Crusade leap of faith (3). While I was completely conscious of the fact that I was in a room with a backpack on my shoulders, a headset on my head and people looking at me walking around, a part of my brain kept telling me: "you must be stupid if you are really thinking of stepping into the void. You're gonna fall and it will be very painful, so please, go do something else" (by the way, they had to help me or I would still be there, trying to decide what to do).

(from the inauguration of the new Uqido headquarters at Padua on February 2018. During the party it was possible to try The Edge - Be Brave... which I kinda wasn't)

When I talk about VR with friends, this is an experience I often share: obviously it is just one of the things you can do with VR but it can exemplify how real VR can feel to you, if you let it be.

So you can imagine my surprise when one of the girls who visited VeniceVR for the first time said that she did not experience anything like and that she cannot comprehend how you can believe something to be real when you know it is not.

This was a topic we spent a lot of time on and we ended up agreeing that you can be "deceived" by VR (and really fall into the world it creates) only if the emotions called to life through the experience are sufficiently strong. You are very scared of something you see in VR (have I already mentioned Kobold, haven't I?), you witness a very touching moment that leaves you in tears (Lucid by Pete Short, anyone?), you are very surprised or very shocked by something or the character is so unbelievably cute that it's impossible *not* to love him.

However, it is a process that may take some time. In movies, you do not feel immersed in what is happening from minute one (well, you do if the movie is very, very good at what it is doing or if the main character is played by Russell Crowe). You need to understand what you are watching, before, get a feel for the characters and their motivations, even understand your own role in the story (do you need to make deductions or just accept what you are watching?, is one of the questions you may have to ask yourself).

With VR, simply, you don't have time to do all that. Installations longer than 20 minutes were rare in Venice. So, somehow, you need to feel the characters and the emotions they convey almost immediately in order to find yourself immersed in the story. Some people may find it easier to do, no matter the story's content, others... not so much. So, to me one of the most complicated things for VR authors is to play the right (psychological) cards to make you cross the line between "I'm watching this" to "I'm feeling this" in the fastest way possible.

All my friends, despite their differences, ended up mentioning what they felt while trying VR ("It was exciting!", "I cried so much", "I did not want to go on, it was so scaring!") or what they were expecting to feel but did not.

To me, this is another confirmation of the fact emotions should always be a priority in these productions. Awe is powerful but can turn to boredom easily. But "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!": well, that is something hard to forget.

So, newbies go to VeniceVR... but will they return next year?

Definitely yes.

Some of these newbies have already decided to buy the special VR accreditation for more than a single day; one of them will applicate for a Cinema accreditation so to be there for the whole festival (and she is already looking for other VR experiences in Italy). And other newbies will join the group after witnessing the enthusiasm with which we talked about Venezia75.

So, there is an audience and it's an audience that gets so excited about VR that they talk about it, analyze it and convince other people to try it. They notice things that work, and others that don't, but still they believe VR is something worth trying... And mind you, these are the same kind of people who made Star Wars a 40 years old saga. Not that bad to continue from here. 

- - -

Notes:

(1) yes, it kinda annoys me

(2) for truth sake, that actually happened

(3) from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Agnese Pietrobon, independent scholar, wannabe storyteller, fangirl and cinema addicted

Curious to know more about what happened at VeniceVR?

• My other insight from the Festival: Venice Virtual Reality, cinema and amusement parks
• The first part of a conversation I had with French director Marc Guidoni: What is going to happen to VR for entertainment? Reflecting on its future with Marc Guidoni (part 1). Second part coming soon!

Happy to read your opinions and hopes for VR in the comments or in a mail you can send to [email protected]

Also, not sure fans can influence culture, art and economy? Come visit fanheart3, the Italian cultural association dedicated to them... you'll be surprised by how fandoms move the world!