Michael Fassbender: VR Will Change The Whole Medium Of Film

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Michael Fassbender, while talking about the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie, shared his thoughts on virtual reality and the impact it will eventually have on Hollywood.

Fassbender: It's great. It's going to change the whole medium of film. In five years time, it'll be a different experience going to the cinema. It'll be a hybrid between a game and a viewing experience. You will be interactive. It will be more about entering a universe than following a plot line.
 
In five years time eh?

No it won't. If the industry got together right now and said lets do this, you'd be taking game software and movie making, both of which exist on a roughly 3+ year schedule for getting anything done, asking them to collaborate and instantly come up whit some sort of interface and hardware standard so that the theater chains could try and figure out how to pay for the new equipment over the next 7 years. You can't even watch 3d content in every theater in most places still. Heck, the first wave of novelty 3d that was pretty much IMAX only was 2005, beowulf was 2007, and you could catch it in a handful of chain theaters that had invested in the equipment. By 2009 you could see it lots of places. By 2011 maybe you were finally having to actively work at avoiding it if you didn't want 3d for certain titles.

Yeah... five years.
 
Eh, 'VR film' makes about as much sense as 'televised theatre': you can do it, but it's never going to be great. VR will no more 'change the medium of film' than film 'changed the medium of theatre' The two are completely different things that need to be handled differently.

If you want to make a noninteractive experience (i.e. not a directly influenceable interactive game) in VR, then for the time being either you need to render it in real-time to accommodate viewer position change, or start pouring cash onto Lytro and Otoy in order to fund them finishing a complete system of Lightfield capture, compression, storage, distribution, and playback.
 
I for one would not be using a VR headset that has been on who knows how many people's faces. The infection potential for going to a theatre would be magnitudes higher than what it is.

But, it would be really cool to have a movie in "VR", where the view is first person.

Horror movies - you could switch characters.. be the victim, the monster, whatever.

I don't see that happening for a long time though unless you are talking animated stuff unless they decide to put body cams on everybody.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rahh
like this
I for one would not be using a VR headset that has been on who knows how many people's faces. The infection potential for going to a theatre would be magnitudes higher than what it is.

+1 I got freaking ear herpes! It's bring your own or skip the VR experience and just go for 2D.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rahh
like this
I think he's off the mark on this one. The kind of thing he's talking about is basically a railroaded RPG. Which is fine. But there will always be an audience who simply wish to sit back, relax, and be told a good story.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rahh
like this
A gimmick, like 3d. It'd work where it is appropriate, but be shoved into movies where it detracts from them as well. VR is bad for movies because framing of a scene is very important for emotional impact on movies that have a real creative spark. Also editing on good looking movies would get sickening, having your entire surrounding constantly changing.

I guess for 'movies' like Paranormal Activity it could work. Nothing happens the whole time and suddenly the movie gets quiet and you hear a loud sound and can look around to try and find it?
 
10-15 years from now I think there will be some major shifts involving VR and Hollywood and how we consume/experience cinema... But in 5 years? Errrr, nope. VR in gaming will probably hit its stride and be huge by then, but cinema will take a bit longer.
 
I think what he's talking about is a lot farther down the line. The tech needs to mature and we need a few more generations of graphics cards.

I can see limited deployment of special 180/360deg films being made outside of the porn industry. These would be normal motion pictures, but allow you to look around the scene.

I also hope that the arcades (D&B, GameWorks) decide to update their tech and deploy some VR rooms. High powered rigs and rooms designed for VR could make for some great VR experiences.


In five years time eh?

No it won't. If the industry got together right now and said lets do this, you'd be taking game software and movie making, both of which exist on a roughly 3+ year schedule for getting anything done, asking them to collaborate and instantly come up whit some sort of interface and hardware standard so that the theater chains could try and figure out how to pay for the new equipment over the next 7 years. You can't even watch 3d content in every theater in most places still. Heck, the first wave of novelty 3d that was pretty much IMAX only was 2005, beowulf was 2007, and you could catch it in a handful of chain theaters that had invested in the equipment. By 2009 you could see it lots of places. By 2011 maybe you were finally having to actively work at avoiding it if you didn't want 3d for certain titles.

Yeah... five years.

Saw my first IMAX movie a few weeks back. Wasn't impressed. Seemed like a way to cram more seats in than a way to make the film more immersive.
 
To be effective your head would have to be stationary and the chair would need to spin. The movie would 'guide' you through the action rather than allowing you look around freely.

Otherwise there would be nothing stopping you from staring into the sky and missing half the action.
 
I think what he's talking about is a lot farther down the line. The tech needs to mature and we need a few more generations of graphics cards.

I can see limited deployment of special 180/360deg films being made outside of the porn industry. These would be normal motion pictures, but allow you to look around the scene.

I also hope that the arcades (D&B, GameWorks) decide to update their tech and deploy some VR rooms. High powered rigs and rooms designed for VR could make for some great VR experiences.




Saw my first IMAX movie a few weeks back. Wasn't impressed. Seemed like a way to cram more seats in than a way to make the film more immersive.

It depends on the movie. I saw the Jungle Book in 3D IMAX and it was fantastic, but for the vast majority of movies it's just a cash grab.
 
To be effective your head would have to be stationary and the chair would need to spin. The movie would 'guide' you through the action rather than allowing you look around freely.

Otherwise there would be nothing stopping you from staring into the sky and missing half the action.

That is pretty much what we have now. It is just that the camera moves instead of your chair.

VR is simply a poor medium for movies.
Interactive movies, would end up being games. Not that, that is a bad thing, it just would not be a movie. I see a huge potential for story telling games similar to The Walking Dead or Tales From The Borderlands to be made for VR. Actual movies? Prolly not.
 
Nope don't think so personally. It might be a great way to help make movies for directors so that they can get a better preview of what the visual FX will look like rather than just seeing green screens, but as far as the final output of the film for the public go I don't think it works with VR. The reason it works for games is it is placing you in the place of the main character and allowing you to interact with the environment. Without that control ability then it is just a glorified 3D movie. I tried that free VR "movie" that Kyle reviewed and honestly I wasn't impressed by it at all. It would be exactly like watching a youtube playthrough of let's say Assassin's Creed with the exception that instead of just watching the fixed camera POV on the main character you could look 360 degrees around and clearly see the depth of things. I don't know about how other people think about that but that doesn't sound good at all. I am a big VR fan and supporter but I never liked 3D movies and I don't think I'd come around to liking it if I could turn my head in any direction to see other details in the scene.
 
How does VR make a movie 'interactive'? I personally have no desire for interactivity when I watch a movie, I want to see the directors perspective and the special effects (if it's that type of movie). If I want interactive, I'll play a game on my computer.
 
Someday and I don't know when. Someone will make a movie where the villain actually kills heroes instead and continues his reign of death in subsequent films.
 
Back
Top