Pro Moviemaker Winter 2018

MOVIE MATTERS MAKING SENSE OF VR

IMAGES One high-profile project was on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, with VR giving the experience of being a guest.

the track so that the car drives over them, and there were also a few on sticks placed throughout the track. We were looking for some really close call shots that would help to ramp up the excitement of the ride.” Another high profile piece of VR work was carried out for the Jimmy Kimmel late night chat show, with the idea that a viewer would get a feel for the full on experience of being a guest on the show. “In the end, the target audience - Jimmy Kimmel fans - excitedly shared the experience with friends and loved ones and seemed to be fully engaged,” says Annie. “The feedback was phenomenal and most gratifying of all was one fan’s comment: ‘Look! I got to be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel and that’s more than I can say for Matt Damon!’ That kind of stuff really melts our hearts.” As for the future, Annie is realistic about the barriers that still have to be overcome before VR and 360° technology becomes mainstream. “A lot of the issues that exist are down to Return on Investment (ROI),” she says. “In the narrative space it’s tricky because there isn’t a premium or paywall channel and the major streaming services have yet to fully embrace the medium. In the advertising/promotional/branded space many projects were getting funded “There’s still a huge appetite to learn more about VR”

immersive effect. Those that are in at the beginning stand to benefit the most. “We’d love to do more work along the lines of the Toyota campaign, and the potential is limitless,” says Annie. “Just think about how you choose a bottle of wine and now imagine there’s a headset hanging next to a certain bottle in the store. Do you put it on and check out the vineyard? We think you do. “In the meantime, we’re still in a very exciting place. It can be exhausting to be the beta-testers on all this tech and to navigate a marketplace that’s only just emerging. But we get to make and discover the rules for a brand newmode of storytelling. What could be better than that?”

based on press potential. VR projects were getting a lot of ink and brands were excited by that momentum, but this has slowed down as the novelty wears off. “But there’s still a huge appetite out there to learn more about VR and to experience it. We see our job as helping clients find opportunities to turn that appetite into exposure. Lately, we’ve been stressing that small-scale and relatively inexpensive VR installations can go a long way towards helping promote brick-and- mortar sales in the age of Amazon. The very fact that VR hasn’t penetrated the home market but is becoming more and more inexpensive is a huge opportunity.” There is no doubt that VR is still in its relative infancy, but those at the cutting edge, such as Vanishing Point, are doing their best to promote the technology and to educate commercial clients regarding the possibilities that exist for this kind of

More information vanishingpointvr.com

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PRO MOVIEMAKER WINTER 2018

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