I'm writing immersive theater for VR. Need a game producer.

[Toby]

The project is to bring immersive theater to virtual reality. If you've heard of Sleep No More, you'll understand the concept, but if you haven't, here's a simple explanation.

Actors inhabit a multi-room space. The audience is free to move around the space however they like, but interaction is minimal. Events take place throughout the space, often simultaneously, necessitating that the audience view the piece multiple times. The audience is usually a fly-on-the-wall, but that's more of a suggestion than a rule.

As soon as I saw my first immersive play, I realized that this was what I wanted virtual reality to be like; a world that I could be a part of, but not have to play games with. The vision is to replicate the experience of being at a cafe and listening in on other people's conversations.

My play is multi-layered. The first layer is a farce. A simple, soap-opera drama happens in 30 minutes. It's meant to be silly and inconsequential, but entertaining.

The second layer is a drama. Two people, a mother and a son, are themselves watching this VR play. The son is depressed and has an addiction to dissociation. He plans to literally use VR to death. He's invited his mother to watch a VR play with him, her first time in virtual reality, to try and make her understand his life. The mother lost her husband and has been painfully lonely for the past 10 or so years. She's going slightly mad and is unfamiliar with virtual reality, so she starts talking with the characters. She starts to find solace in virtual worlds, which suggests that she will eventually turn out like her son.

If you don't believe that I'm a real playwright (as Reddit didn't), here are a few excerpts from my past plays: https://www.box.com/s/a9tk7x04jdi5nho8f686

I'd like to put together a full team (and already have an interested Unity coder), but I think it's smartest to find a producer. Production isn't my strong point and I think it will be a much better project if I have someone with experience in organizing game development.

[JanVR]

Toby, very interesting. I think the idea of immersive theatre (or even movies) is great. If we could be IN the play or movie (albeit passively), rather than just watching it... Good luck with this project, definitely keep us posted! Hope you get some useful responses from this forum.

[FingerFlinger]

Hi Toby, welcome to the forums. There was a thread a while back that is somewhat related to what I think you want to do, about headtracked movies. I think that it is a really cool direction for VR technology.

My suggestion for you and your coder at this early stage is to prototype. What you are talking about is an entirely new medium, and there will be some kinks to work out, best practices to discover and so on. I think that you will be better able to assemble a team if you have some short sketches to show off. I apologize if I am simply misunderstanding the scope of your project, but when you say that you are looking for a producer, my mind immediately jumps to the situation where someone wants to make an MMO for their first game.

[Toby]

What's wrong with building a team? It's a big project and many hands make light of hard work. I need someone who can help me organize our people and resources.

[Okta]

So its a 3d cut scene, with lots going on in different places, with a free view camera instead of scripted? Interesting. I think the movie equivalent is like movies that ran back to front that sort of show you the consequences then you later see the causes/ build up. This would take some seriously appropriate material and screenplay to make it worth while floating around re-watching things things in different locations to make it worthwhile and not clumsy/gimmicky.

Can you give an example of a story or the benefits?

[Toby]

My play is multi-layered. The first layer is a farce. A simple, soap-opera drama happens in 30 minutes. It's meant to be silly and inconsequential, but entertaining.

The second layer is a drama. Two people, a mother and a son, are themselves watching this VR play. The son is depressed and has an addiction to dissociation. He plans to literally use VR to death. He's invited his mother to watch a VR play with him, her first time in virtual reality, to try and make her understand his life. The mother lost her husband and has been painfully lonely for the past 10 or so years. She's going slightly mad and

That's the basic story behind it, but here's a snatch of dialogue from the first draft:

MOTHER
This feels wrong, somehow.
KILGORE
Why?
MOTHER
It’s too natural. I’m not putting any work into it. I
try and move my hand and it just works.
KILGORE
Isn’t that good?
MOTHER
I don’t feel like I’m watching something. I feel like
I’m hallucinating.
KILGORE
Looking around It’s like being brought to a different world, isn’t it.
MOTHER
It’s like a dream.
KILGORE
Except you’re in control.
MOTHER
Am I? I’m scared that this is too close to life. It’s
too easy to dissociate.
KILGORE
People were scared when TV first came out too. It’s
just better TV. Nothing to be worried about.
MOTHER
I’m not sure I like what TV did to our culture either.
KILGORE
Just try to enjoy it, mom. I know you’ll like it.
MOTHER
I know I will too. Let me be a little cautious. I’ve
never played a game before.
KILGORE
It’s a spectacle.
MOTHER
Isn’t it just a complicated game?
KILGORE
Not...really. It’s more like a movie that you can watch
from different angles. There’s nothing that you can
change. You don’t win; you just watch. Here; I’ll
follow the husband and you can follow the maid. At the
end, we can tell each other what happened and put
together the pieces.

[brantlew]

I'm also super interested in the prospect of cinematic or theatrical VR experiences, but it's an art-form with no real predecessor so I think a lot of experimentation will be needed to create a "grammar" for it. The closest approximation would be either a stage play or the interactive play that you describe. But both of those art-forms are extremely limiting compared to what could be done in VR where scene changes and point of view can be manipulated - just as in cinema.

I think one of the tricky things will be coming to a balance of control between the audience and the director. How do you balance the need of the director to guide the story while simultaneously giving the audience the freedom to look or move anywhere? I guess one technique could be over-acting with exaggerated emotions and movement just to command attention from the audience. Another possibility might be partially limiting the audience. So for example, you create a scene in a restaurant and you position the audience at the table or at an adjacent table so the action is right in front of them. They can still choose to ignore it and look around (unlike a movie where the camera is right in the actor's face) but they can't just go walking around and check out the kitchen.

Anyway, thanks for posting. I'm glad that we have more than just video gamers looking into this technology because it has amazing potential in so many areas.

[FingerFlinger]

Nothing at all is wrong with assembling a team! I just think that if it were me, I'd want to do lots of small, cheap and fast experiments before investing any kind of significant resources into a finished product. As brantlew says, to develop a grammar for the medium. And again, I don't know the scope of your intentions; I hope that I didn't come off as discouraging. Keep us updated on your progress!

[brantlew]

One more thing. Have you considered the possibility of "filming" a VR scene. There has been some discussion in these forums about how to do 180+ degree FOV filming, which would be much different than traditional film because the technology would allow the audience to freely look around the scene. You can see an example of this type of thing here.

http://www.redbull.com/en/bike/stories/ ... -360-video

[Toby]

Nothing at all is wrong with assembling a team! I just think that if it were me, I'd want to do lots of small, cheap and fast experiments before investing any kind of significant resources into a finished product. As brantlew says, to develop a grammar for the medium. And again, I don't know the scope of your intentions; I hope that I didn't come off as discouraging. Keep us updated on your progress!

Oh, I definitely believe that hundreds of experiments have to be done before I can make a fully-realized VR play, but I don't believe there would be anything stopping me from finishing the project. Worst case scenario, I make it with wire frames. It wouldn't be a great product, but it would be an important concept for others to follow. I work best with a good team (respecting my artistic direction) and I'm not a game designer, so getting professionals or even semi-professionals is a lot more industrious than me fooling around in Unity.

One more thing. Have you considered the possibility of "filming" a VR scene. There has been some discussion in these forums about how to do 180+ degree FOV filming, which would be much different than traditional film because the technology would allow the audience to freely look around the scene. You can see an example of this type of thing here.

<span><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="ht ... -360-video">http://www.redbull.com/en/bike/stories/ ... -360-video[/url]</a></span>

I have considered 360 degree FOV filming, but alas, that would be a 3D film, not a 3D immersive play. Interesting concept, but inherently different.

I'm also super interested in the prospect of cinematic or theatrical VR experiences, but it's an art-form with no real predecessor so I think a lot of experimentation will be needed to create a "grammar" for it. The closest approximation would be either a stage play or the interactive play that you describe. But both of those art-forms are extremely limiting compared to what could be done in VR where scene changes and point of view can be manipulated - just as in cinema.

I think one of the tricky things will be coming to a balance of control between the audience and the director. How do you balance the need of the director to guide the story while simultaneously giving the audience the freedom to look or move anywhere? I guess one technique could be over-acting with exaggerated emotions and movement just to command attention from the audience. Another possibility might be partially limiting the audience. So for example, you create a scene in a restaurant and you position the audience at the table or at an adjacent table so the action is right in front of them. They can still choose to ignore it and look around (unlike a movie where the camera is right in the actor's face) but they can't just go walking around and check out the kitchen.

Anyway, thanks for posting. I'm glad that we have more than just video gamers looking into this technology because it has amazing potential in so many areas.

As for creating a grammar for this medium, immersive theater has done a good job preparing us. I have a friend who recently made an immersive play and I plan on consulting with him regularly.

[Fredz]

I'm not sure I understand how it would be done. Would it be rendered in realtime like a game, but where you wouldn't be able to interact, only follow the story from any viewpoint you want ? Something like a machinima but with no fixed viewpoint and with a wide FOV and in 3D ?

[Toby]

I'm not sure I understand how it would be done. Would it be rendered in realtime like a game, but where you wouldn't be able to interact, only follow the story from any viewpoint you want ? Something like a machinima but with no fixed viewpoint and with a wide FOV and in 3D ?

Basically, yes.