3 The role of VR/AR technology in film industry
Meien Li
The merging of VR/AR films to the cinema industry
The central point of film narrative is to trigger the audience’s empathy and bring them closer to the story. The history of cinema began with the use of moving images to tell stories, then added color and sound, and gradually evolved to 3D, IMAX, CGI, and animation technologies that are now on display on the screen. Today, filmmakers are exploring VR/AR cinema and want to use VR/AR technology to dramatically increase immersive viewing. In traditional movies, whether 2D or 3D, the audience is just a spectator, but in VR/AR movies, the audience is a participant, and VR/AR has always been a highly cross-regional and cross-industry medium. If transcending 2D to 3D allows the viewer to have a sense of three-dimensional, then the feeling brought by VR/AR movies can theoretically be said to be disruptive, it not only allows the audience to get rid of the monitor or theater screen but also increases the interactive effect, the audience no longer sees the predetermined picture, their every move will have an interactive effect. In what follows, I discuss the development of VR/AR technology and its role in the film industry. First, I begin by talking about VR technology used in VR film production. Then, I introduce AR technology and its influences. Next, I move to the AR film that I find interesting and can better demonstrate the use of AR technology in filmmaking. After discussing VR/AR in film production, I conclude by discussing the development trend of VR/AR technology in film industry.
The development of VR technology and VR films
Virtual Reality (VR) technology is the use of computer simulation to generate a three-dimensional virtual world, the user through external interactive devices in the virtual world experiences visual, auditory, tactile, and other real feelings so that users produce a feeling of immersion. The VR movie model is a combination of movies, games, theaters, etc., and has been booming. Many games are now starting to use cinematic language when advancing the plot. Combining games and movies to make the audience highly interactive in an immersive drama will be the future direction of VR movies. Existing VR video production technologies and hardware playback devices can already provide a better experience for users which lets them have more interaction with the movies. With the rapid evolution of virtual reality technology, panoramic video services provided by head-mounted displays or smartphones are widely used, providing users with a new viewing experience. As of now, the combination of VR and film is still in the exploration stage. People wear head-mounted devices to enter films and can get a strong sense of immersion as if they were in the real world. In a VR environment, users can observe their surroundings realistically through their own eyes and perform specific actions themselves. When applied to film, VR technology can sim