New Frontier presented almost five times as many virtual reality works at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival as it did at the 2014 show according to an interesting article from Indiewire. Viewing expanded to multiple venues, and two formats dominated: 360° video and game environments.
360° video is simply that: a fixed perspective, which the viewer can look around in but cannot move. Gaming VR is different, as the viewer (or player) has the ability to move through virtual environments and interact with objects.
Nathan Saucier, a filmmaker and educator at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, wrote an article for Indiewire about VR at the SFF. He writes that although gaming VR sounds superior on paper, the tethered nature of the VR headsets and game mechanics can spoil immersion; a 360° video does not suffer from these drawbacks.
There were several VR experiences at the SFF that were more abstract, bringing VR into the ‘artistic’ space. For example, ‘In the Eyes of the Animal’ by the amazingly-named Marshmallow Laser Feast, put the viewer at ground level in an English forest setting.
Saucier’s original piece can be found on Indiewire.
