LIVE LimoZine November 2019

Defrost takes place in 2045 and revolves around
the experiences of Joan, who was cryogenically
frozen after suffering from a stroke and woke up
after three decades. Instead of being happy for
her reunion with family, she was weak, confused
and at the mercy of a dubious doctor who cares
more about showcasing her as a successful
medial experiment than her well-being.
Donning VR goggles, the audience assumes the
perspective of Joan, witnessing her encounters
with her relatives and medical personnel firsthand.
Kleiser says each of the five-minute episodes
was done in one take with no cuts. “I got the
actors to rehearse how to move within the five
minutes. It’s like a small play for each episode.
When we rehearse for each episode, we have
an actress in the wheelchair, so the other actors
can interact with her.
“When we are shooting, we put her out and put
in a dummy [with a VR camera in the place of a
head] instead. That’s how we are able to create
the emotions [felt by Joan, which are in turn felt
by the audience].”
In 2015, Kleiser directed his first play The Penis
Chronicles, about the uncertainties of eight New
York men over their sexuality and masculinity.
He says that experience has helped him with
making Defrost.
“If I hadn’t done that play I would not have been
able to do Defrost very well. I learned how to
direct the audience’s attention without having a
camera or lens or [film] editing. [I learn how to]
just do it all in one wide shot.”
In spite of the huge resources tech titans like
Samsung and Facebook poured into developing
VR headsets and the heated hype regarding the
potential of the technology, VR is still a niche
industry with only techies and hard core video
game fans willing to buy the expensive headsets.
Kleiser says for VR to revolutionalise the filmmaking
industry, the technology has to overcome
hurdles regarding definition and user comfort.
“Each episode of Defrost is only five minutes
long because people who use VR only like to
be in it for five minutes at a time. Right now, the
headsets are kind of clunky and uncomfortable.
As the technology of the head mounted displays
get better, lighter and easier, people might probably
want to stay in it longer.
“Right now, we are at [only] 4K [definition].
[However], 16K is [the level of definition] which
is supposed to be close to the way the human
eyes see. So we have a long way to go to make
it look totally real.”
Defrost is not Kleiser’s first brush with cutting-edge
technology. Working in 70mm 3D, he
directed Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which
ran for over 10 years at the Disney Parks in Anaheim,
Orlando, Tokyo and Paris.
Kleiser has also developed a virtual-reality
simulator for the US government to train soldiers
to handle improvised explosive devices in the
Middle East.
“I really enjoyed doing that project,” he says. “I
have met one of the soldiers that went through
the training. He went to Afghanistan and he
was blown up in a Humvee and the training
helped him survive.
It was very exciting to know that I have actually
helped people survive an explosion. The
simulator is still being used. All the people
going to Afghanistan have to go through this
training before they leave.”
In spite of VR’s current shortcomings, Kleiser
is full confidence in its future potential. He
is also ready to make the second season of
Defrost if he can find investors.
“There’s nothing like VR. You feel like you’ve
really been there and experience the movie,
rather than watch it. I like the idea of [the
audience being the first-person immersive
viewer]. There’s no other medium which
does it.”
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