Berlin based media-network production.net discussed Friday, April 16, 2018, the latest trends in virtual reality and storytelling. The big question was if new technologies do change storytelling or is this just a new field of business for content-creators.
The most intriguing innovation in 360 video and video reality is „volumetric video“ which opens up a new dimension. It’s so fresh that information on the web is still limited. Volumetric video is simplified a new VR-experience which allow the viewer to „enter the scene“, see actors in real three dimensions and is a new way of a 360 video experience. A „walkable short movie“ is currently presented in the 100 years UFA exhibition at the Kinemathek Filmmuseum, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.
The new technology is still in development, but the panel discussion led to some conclusions about the future of VR and such technologies. It appears to be a milestone in filmmaking technically but not something which will change fictional production fundamentally.
It’s absolutely great for edutainment and there are prospect to use this technology in museums and there might be a huge variety of potential applications in the industry. Volumetric video could become an important element in the digital transformation. It is not so much something for fiction and formats like feature film and series.
For a couple of years there had been many discussions about new technologies, technological (digital) progress and storytelling. The discussion proved again that it is very important to define what exactly we mean with „storytelling“ – the screenplay for a fictional series or a movie or scripted shows.
It appears however indeed useful with the emergence of new technologies – not only technologies of the future like volumetric video – but also today’s VFX technology with a lot of 3D elements to have technically trained and informed writers. Technology will not change our way of stories are told or the themes but we should be informed about the „toolbox“. It simply broadens our possibilites to express ourselves and adds to the quality of storytelling.
In the first place it will be also in the future about the question, is it a story worth to be told?
