TECHNOLOGYHOLLY ANDRES/HELLO ARTISTS–Film night of the future–Enter the reel worldThe virtual reality boom is about more than just gaming –it could revolutionise how we watch films. Jacob Aron jacks inI’M SAT in a deckchair relaxingon the beach, watching the sun godown. I would happily have stayedthere for a good while, but mytime is up and I have to returnto the real world. When I removethe Oculus Rift headset andheadphones, the noisy conferenceroom comes as a huge shock.I had been experiencingPerfect Beach, a virtual reality (VR)experience created by developernDreams in Farnborough, UK.The firm was showing off itscreation at the SouthWest VRconference in Bristol last week,where game developers,film-makers and visual-effectsartists came together to discusshow VR experiences couldimprove films and games.The rise of VR headsets inrecent years has been led bygame developers seeking a wayto immerse players even deeperin virtual worlds. But addingVR to a video game can actuallyhamper play, because the gogglesstop you seeing the controller inyour hands.Yet the ability to put someonein a space and give them limitedbut meaningful interactionprovides a new experience –one that could shake up thefilm industry.“The thing I find reallyengaging about VR is the sense ofpresence,” says Dave Ranyard ofSony Computer EntertainmentEurope, who is developingsoftware for Sony’s upcomingVR headset, Morpheus. “It feelslike a step change in immersion.”One of the big hits at theSundance film festival in Utah in“The brain accepts virtualfilm as a social interaction,rather than somethingthat’s seen on a screen”January was Wild: The Experience,a 3-minute virtual reality versionof the film Wild starring ReeseWitherspoon, in which viewerscan watch from all directions. VRfirm Oculus has also set up a VRfilm division called Story Studioto produce short films for thelatest version of its headset.But VR film-making doesn’thave to be a blow-out Hollywoodextravaganza to work; evensimple films, like my deckchairexperience, can be surprisinglyconvincing. “In any othermedium this would be boring,you wouldn’t sit there for10 minutes,” says Nick Pittomof VR firm Fire Panda. But it’snarrative experiences where VRwill really shine, he says – if astatic VR scene can be powerful,a story will be even more so.As VR film is a new mediumthere are no set rules. Phil Harperof Alchemy VR, a UK firm working20 | <strong>New</strong><strong>Scientist</strong> | 7 March 2015
For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technologyONE PER CENTon immersive natural historyfilms with veteran broadcasterDavid Attenborough, calls hisnature documentaries 360° video,because they are made byarranging a number of camerasin a sphere and stitching theresulting videos together tocreate an all-encompassing film.Watching someone speak to youin VR is more intimate than on aTV screen, he says, because theyappear to be the same size as a realhuman. “The brain begins toaccept this as a social interaction,rather than something that’s seenon a screen,” Harper says.<strong>No</strong>where to hideBut this approach has itschallenges. Because audiencescan see all around them, it isimpossible to hide equipmentthat would normally sit just outof shot. Even directors have toface their audience, or else hide.“Often I’m just stood in thebackground,” says Harper. “Youcan’t hide anything in 360° video.”In some situations that can freeviewers of a framing camera’sdeception. “360° video is a trulyhonest format,” says Harper,who thinks news broadcasts inparticular could benefit. Earlierthis year Vice <strong>New</strong>s gave the firstVR news report from a protest in<strong>New</strong> York.For fictional stories, filmmakersmight want a differentTHE DIRECTOR’S CUTHollywood is embracing virtualreality not just for audiences, butfor directors who want a new viewof the action.An important step when makinga movie is previsualisation, whenfilm-makers create low-cost versionsof the film before spending millionsof dollars on the real thing. Thatused to involve scale models andstoryboards, but now includes3D animations of key sequences.Duncan Burbidge of The ThirdFloor in London, which helpsapproach. One option used byBelgian VFX firm <strong>No</strong>zon is torender high-quality 3D worlds ona computer and then “film” insidethem, without having to worryabout having equipment on show.This 360° CGI is convincing –<strong>No</strong>zon’s Matthieu Labeau showedme a short but incredibly lifelikeclip in which a robot and a beaverhang out in an ornate ballroom.Both 360° CGI and 360° videohave the same problem, though:they can’t react to the audience.Limited interaction, like selectingdifferent scenes based on whereyou look, is possible, but that’sabout it. Viewers also tend to lookstraight ahead, so you have tocue them to look elsewhere withparticular sounds or pointingcharacters. “I don’t think a moviewhere things are happening allaround you makes sense, becauseyou will feel you missed half themovie,” says Labeau.That’s where game engines, thesoftware that powers gaming’s 3Dworlds, can help. Visual qualitytakes a hit because renderinghappens in real time, but thatalso allows for a more interactiveexperience, heighteningimmersion. You can place a sceneto the left of the viewer andencourage them to turn theirhead, but if they don’t take thehint the characters can movedirectly into view, says Pittom.He recently recreated scenesfrom animated Studio Ghiblifilm-makers with previsualisation,says the film is now experimentingwith adding virtual reality to these3D animations, so directors canexplore a location and plan outtheir shots.“These days sets are becomingincreasingly virtual,” says Burbidge,making it harder for directors to lettheir creative juices flow. Virtualreality changes that, he says. “Theireyes light up like a Christmas tree andthey’re suddenly engaging with it in away that they’re used to.”films in a game engine to letpeople explore them in VR, atechnique that is also findingits feet in the film industry (see“The director’s cut”, below left).But Pittom says the language offilm – close-ups, fast cutting andso on – doesn’t translate well toVR. Instead, in some ways theclosest existing medium is theinteractive theatre pioneered byPunchdrunk, in which there is nostage and the audience directlyinteracts with actors and chooseswhich parts of a scene to watch.But VR can create realistic worldsthat are impossible in theatre. “It’sthe difference between watching akitchen-sink drama and the filmAvatar,” Pittom says.But are consumers ready for anew kind of film that requires newhardware, having so recently been“A cardboard headset thatyou slot your phone intomight be all you need toexperience virtual reality”burned by the 3DTV and film fad?Some VR experiences need verypowerful PCs for the full effect,so the outlay could be enormous.“The demand already existsbut the technology doesn’t,”says Harper. Unlike 3DTVs,which were pushed by televisionmanufacturers, the growth inVR tech is being driven byconsumers, particularly throughcrowdfunding – though that hasled to delays in getting productson shelves. But with the ubiquityand increasing power ofsmartphones, a cheap cardboardheadset that you slot your phoneinto might be all you need to takeyour first steps into VR.Whether as films, games orsomething in between, thereis a lot of confidence that VRexperiences are finally here tostay. Ranyard even thinks thatVR could be a defining part of the2010s, as the Walkman was forthe 80s. “I think people wearinga VR headset and experiencingsomething is going to be aniconic image.” ■Hack your gardenRevolution Bio, a biotech start-upin Fort Collins, Colorado, plans tosell petunias that repeatedlychange colour. Their DNA hasbeen reshuffled to link the genesthat control flower colour to a setthat only switch on during the day.The result is a flower that, forexample, blooms pink in themorning and changes to blueby nightfall.37.9The percentage of the worldpopulation who access the internetat least once a year. Facebook’s TheState of Global Connectivity reportadds that the rate at which the totalnumber of users is growing everyyear has declined, from 14.7 per centin 2010 to 6.6 per cent last year.Smart foodWant to make sure your milk isfresh? Two new London start-upsaim to change the way food ispackaged. Zyme Deal coats theinside of drinks packaging witha polymer to extend shelf life.Fresh Sense’s packagingchanges colour when it sensesthat the food inside has beencontaminated. Both groups arepart of the Imperial Create Labat Imperial College London.REVOLUTION BIOENGINEERING7 March 2015 | <strong>New</strong><strong>Scientist</strong> | 21
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