Virtual reality: Future of filmmaking or cinema's latest gimmick?

Imagine glidingthrough Avatar's lush, alien world of Pandora or experiencing a moment of history, seen from a completely freshvantage point those are some of the scenarios filmmakers could create as they bring virtual reality technology into the cinema.

But is VR the future of movie-making or a gimmick movie fans will ultimately give the thumbs down?

The still-burgeoning technology is one of the topics being tackled at the Toronto International Film Festival during its final weekend. Organizers, who have dipped into the VR world with differentevents (including public VR-viewing "cubes"), are showcasing a few "compelling, high-calibre" virtual reality projects from Sept. 16-18.

JodySugrue, digital studio director at TIFF, said itmight seem funny torecall"ginormous" phones attached to massive battery packs, "but you were mobile and it felt so cool [at the time]. I think that's where we are at with virtual reality."

There's "an element of wonder and delight of suddenly being someplace you've never been before or being transported in a heartbeat. It's almost like a time-travel machine or a teleporter. There's something really powerful to that."

Eli Glasner on watching Cirque du Soleil via VR

8 years ago

Duration 0:41

CBC's film critic Eli Glasner describes watching an action-packed virtual reality production of Cirque du Soleil's KA at TIFF.

Early stage of development

Hollywood and the wider filmmaking community are dabbling in VR productions, from indie directors showing off projects at festivals like TIFF or Sundance to A-listers like Steven Spielberg, who isadapting Ernest Cline's VR-centred dystopian novel Ready Player One. Cinema giant IMAX, for instance, announced this spring plans to explore and develop "immersive, multi-dimensional" VR experiences, with up to six test sites slated to open in 2016.

But the scene is still in early stages, with fledgling projects yet to inspire an early-adopter fanbase which would need to grow to influence cinema owners and device creators (such asTV or cellphone manufacturers) to add VR capabilities and eventually permit a wider audience to access this content, according to Ran Mo, who co-founded a pop-up VR cinema called Vivid in Toronto this summer.

"We are still a few years away from a feature [film] in virtual reality," said Mo.

"Everyone is trying to discover the way we tell stories in VR and no one has really figured it out not even the major studios at this point so everyone is at a learning stage."

A brand-new world?

It's simply a matter of time, however, before the technology will catch up to whatever storytelling needs filmmakers have or can imagine, according to Robert Stromberg, an Oscar-winning American special effects artist, art director, designer and filmmaker whose credits include Maleficent, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland.

It's a new way for people to experience anything they want to experience and also a new way to tell stories. It's this sort of frontier, this brand-new world on its own. Robert Stromberg, filmmaker

VR is not simply a film, or a videogame, saidStromberg, who also directed a VR experience that accompanied Ridley Scott'sThe Martian.

"It's this new thing and a form of entertainment at the level of Hollywood's biggest films," he said. "It's a new way for people to experience anything they want to experience and also a new way to tell stories. It's this sort of frontier, this brand-new world on its own."

In the meantime, fans of movie-making can check out how filmmakers are testing out this new toy in the cinematic sandbox, "playing around with narrative, trying to figure out how to guide the viewer through a story when [he or she] can look and sometimes move in any direction," said TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey.

"We don't really know where this technology or where the art of VR is going," he added, acknowledging that he's old enough to remember rudimentary VR effortsfrom the 1990s.

"In terms of storytelling, I think it's hard and it may end up hitting something similar to what 3D did but who knows."