the future of storytelling

[Elsie N]

the future of vr/ar storytelling siggraph panel

http://info.nvidianews.com/siggraph-vr-panel.html?ncid=pa-fac-vrsgwr-558

Sounds interesting and timely Paul.

While I haven't watched the discussion yet, I'm already thinking they are on to something that we who write have to deal with at some point. It makes complete sense that a story should morph as the viewer's POV changes during the movie.

As I said, I haven't watched the video yet. But my hope is that a viewer's options are determined at the start of the movie. That is, does the viewer choose to see the story from the perspective of character A, character B, or even from the narrator's view (if there is one) and just let the story unfold from the viewer's POV.

This means we will have to write the same story in multiple streams to satisfy those POVs. I suppose a viewer could switch from one POV to another during a movie and pick up the story at that point so the multiple streams will just have to be written in, in their entirety so that can happen.

I think this points to much of what Christopher and I have said about just letting the story unfold, but now from each character's perspective. Maybe the first rule of VR writing is there are no rules. It would get very complicated if we had to follow a set of rules when each character's crisis might come at different times in the story and the resolution as well.

I can imagine someday we will have cameras with sufficient resolution to be wearable but hidden, that will allow us to become a character during a movie

Writing from everyone's perspective may turn out to be too much for one writer to handle. It may require the story be done by teams with one or more individuals writing the story outline from just one of the characters' place in the story.

 

[paulherrin]

i think what we may see is short, compact stories. everything happening in real-time can get boring, so we still need cuts unless there is a lot of action in one area...

 

[Elsie N]

i think what we may see is short, compact stories. everything happening in real-time can get boring, so we still need cuts unless there is a lot of action in one area...

I tend to agree.

Attention spans, including my own, are getting shorter. Plus, it seems there is less need to fill in details as the latest generations are more likely to intuit what is left un-explained. The POV writing being discussed may make it possible to reach a wider audience.

That is, for an older audience, they can watch a movie in the usual way with fleshed out characters and story... while from the same release, the impatient can watch a shorter movie by choosing character POV that skips over a character's dialog that provides story detail.

 

[paulherrin]

the other problem with that is user interface. if you're in a spaceship with a lightspeed booster it can make sense (except that the infinite probability drive would mess up the story needing exponential lines to follow), so there's one thing where you're in a game, but stories really have always meant to lead in one direction towards conclusion, everything else is kinda just a choose your own adventure game. that doesn't always carry the same emotional resonance and catharsis. so i think the control issue is the biggest and for stories it makes more sense to maintain control of the pacing and flow. pretty much this whole cinema thing is adjusting places and perspectives on the fly while the story tells itself.

i was watching a baseball game and you could flip between different viewing angles in the stadium, kind of like broadcast control or multicam editing. switching angles/positions is one thing while something plays out 'on stage', while the endlessness of following particular characters or jumping around is a whole different situation that kinda makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

the show must go on...

 

[Elsie N]

the other problem with that is user interface. if you're in a spaceship with a lightspeed booster it can make sense (except that the infinite probability drive would mess up the story needing exponential lines to follow), so there's one thing where you're in a game, but stories really have always meant to lead in one direction towards conclusion, everything else is kinda just a choose your own adventure game. that doesn't always carry the same emotional resonance and catharsis. so i think the control issue is the biggest and for stories it makes more sense to maintain control of the pacing and flow. pretty much this whole cinema thing is adjusting places and perspectives on the fly while the story tells itself.

i was watching a baseball game and you could flip between different viewing angles in the stadium, kind of like broadcast control or multicam editing. switching angles/positions is one thing while something plays out 'on stage', while the endlessness of following particular characters or jumping around is a whole different situation that kinda makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

the show must go on...

That's why I think there will always be a conventional stream for people like you who want to follow a writer's lead.

But for others (and I just may fall into that category) it could make the story a mind game where you try to get in the head of different characters as written by multiple writers.

Not sure I want to write such a script on my own, but it could be interesting writing reactively to what a writer of another character might come up with. Sort of like Improv that you can edit.

 

[David Peterson]

the future of vr/ar storytelling siggraph panel

http://info.nvidianews.com/siggraph-vr-panel.html?ncid=pa-fac-vrsgwr-558

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Minu Park]

My reaction to whom tries to only tell the story in the cinema.

watch Peter greenaway's lecture.

https://youtu.be/BluXxpF3OP4

in conclusion,

cinema was not created to illustrate the text based form. its a form of motion picture that you can show time.

The question is simple, should we only focus on "story"?

 

[Elsie N]

My reaction to whom tries to only tell the story in the cinema.

watch Peter greenaway's lecture.

https://youtu.be/BluXxpF3OP4



in conclusion,

cinema was not created to illustrate the text based form. its a form of motion picture that you can show time.

The question is simple, should we only focus on "story"?

I gave him 10 minutes of watching of the 2 hour plus lecture and found nothing that I felt would adapt my thinking.

Good lecturer and provocative statements, but for me it is more of an exercise in thinking in general rather than something that changes how I treat content.

I still believe in story... presented well.