Top

Published in:

2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. Cinematic Virtual Reality: Towards an Optics of Eco-Screenwriting

Author : Alex Munt

Published in: Screenwriting for Virtual Reality

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Whilst cinematic virtual reality (CVR) has just a brief history, there are notable shifts in its trajectory. After an early wave of theorisation which centred on CVR as a lens-based medium remediated from traditional filmmaking practices, the conversation has drifted in two directions. The first is in relation to the momentum of software-driven animated VR story worlds fuelled by computer graphics software such as Unity and Unreal Engine. The second, and the focus of this chapter, is the trend in ‘Eco’ screen stories reorientated from a human, or anthropocentric, perspective towards the ecological ‘dramas’ of the Anthropocene. This chapter investigates this new optics of screenwriting by tracing the impact of the photographic lens on cinematic visualisation from screen development to production. The history of the filmic lens and its impact on screen storytelling is revealed to be one of friction annexed to the anthropocentric basis for classical screen narration. This chapter proposes that the optics of screenwriting is an important consideration in the cinematic visualisation and scripting of stories for virtual reality media and that, whilst spatialised fisheye vision may be at odds with anthropocentric storytelling it is ‘fit for purpose’ for eco-stories for the screen.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Shifting Diegetic Boundaries

next chapter The Nature of Narration in Cinematic Virtual Reality

The case studies presented in this chapter are in the context of physical production as opposed to the virtual cameras (and lenses) of animated, software-driven virtual reality media experiences.

See Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat (c.1481).

See Caravaggio’s Martha and Mary Magdalene (c.1598) in which Mary Magdalene holds a Venetian mirror that reflects the spatial distortion of a rectilinear window opposite.

For example, the Penrith All Sky Camera at work, https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/observatorypenrith/penrith_observatory/all_sky_camera

Antenna Film Festival 2022. DocTalk. https://tix.antennafestival.org/Events/DOCTALK.

Anthropocene VR. 2018. Samantha Lang with ERTH Visual, 5 mins. 32 secs.

Assayas, O. 2020. “ State of Cinema 2020: Cinema in the Present Tense.” Sabzian. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://sabzian.be/event/state-of-cinema-2020-olivier-assayas-0.

Botticelli, S. c. 1481. Madonna of the Magnificat, Tempera, 118 cm x 119 cm, Uffizi, Florence.

Brown Lake/Boumiera. 2021. Samantha Lang, 14 mins. 50 secs.

Cagle, C. 2014. “Classical Hollywood 1928–1946.” In Cinematography, edited by P. Keating, New Jersey Rutgers University Press.

Caravaggio, c. 1598. Martha and Mary Magdalene, Oil on canvas, 100 cm x 134.5 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Castree, N. 2014. “The Anthropocene and the Environmental Humantiies: Extending the Conversation.” Environmental Humanities 5 (1): 233–260.CrossRef

Crawford, L. 2022. “At the movies with Joachim Trier.” Sight & Sound 32 (5): 55.

D’Aloia, A. 2018. “Virtually Present, Physically Invisible: Virtual Reality Immersion and Emersion in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s.” Carne y Arena, Senses of Cinema, 87. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2018/feature-articles/virtually-present-physically-invisible-virtual-reality-immersion-and-emersion-in-alejandro-gonzalez-inarritus-carne-y-arena/.

Doane, M. A. 2022. Bigger Than Life: The Close-Up and Scale in the Cinema, Duke University Press.

Dooley, K. 2021. Cinematic Virtual Reality: A Critical Study of 21st Century Approaches and Practices. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRef

Dooley, K. 2017. “Storytelling with Virtual Reality in 360- degrees: A New Screen Grammar.” Studies in Australasian Cinema 11 (3): 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2017.1387357.CrossRef

Epic Games. 2022. “Unreal Engine ‘Metahuman: High Fidelity Digital Humans made Easy.” Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/metahuman.

ERTH Visual, Anthropocene VR. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.erth.com.au/anthropocene-vr.

Gibson, R. 2014. “Narrative Hunger: GIS Mapping, Google Street View and the Colonial Prospectus.” (Cultural Studies Review CSR), 20, 4052, https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v20i2.4052.

Goi, L. 2022. “Cannes Correspondences #8: Heavenly Bodies.” Accessed June 13, 2022. https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/cannes-correspondences-8-heavenly-bodies.

Hall, N. 2018. The Zoom: Drama at the Touch of a Lever, Rutgers University Press.

Hitchcock, A. 1937. “ Alfred Hitchcock: My Own Methods, Sight & Sound, Summer 1937.” Accessed March 21, 2022. https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Sight_and_Sound_(1937)_-_My_Own_Methods.

Hoberman, J. 2013. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s Leviathan, Artforum. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.artforum.com/print/201304/lucien-castaing-taylor-and-verena-paravel-s-leviathan-39888.

Hockney, D., and M. Gayford. 2014. A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen, London. Thames & Hudson.

Humani Corporis Fabrica (The Fabric of the Human Body). 2022. Writers Véréna Paravel and, Directors: Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, France, Switzerland, 115 mins.

Keating, P. 2019. “The Art of Cinematography.” In The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures, edited by N. Carroll, L. Di Summa and S. Loht, Palgrave Macmillan.

Keating, P. 2014. “Introduction.” In Cinematography, edited by P. Keating, New Jersey Rutgers University Press.

Kohn, E. 2022. “ Sundance Film Festival Cancels for New Frontier Program in 2023.” IndieWire. https://www.indiewire.com/2022/10/sundance-cancels-new-frontier-2023-1234773339/

Kubovy, M. 1986. The psychology of perspective and Renaissance art. Cambridge University Press.

Lang, S. 2022. Brown Lake/Boumiera: Posthuman Screen Poetics for the Anthropocene, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, UTS.

Leimbacher, I. 2014. “The World Made Flesh.” Film Comment. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.filmcomment.com/article/the-sensory-ethnography-lab/.

Leviathan. 2012. Writers Véréna Paravel and, Directors: Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, UK, France, United States, 87 mins.

Macdonald, I. W. 2013. Screenwriting Poetics and the Screen Idea, Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Maras, S. 2009. Screenwriting: History. Theory & Practice: Wallflower Press.

Martin, A. 2014. Mise en Scène and Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art. Palgrave Macmillan.

Martin, A. 1992. “Mise en scène is Dead; or The Expressive, The Excessive, The Technical and The Stylish.” In Film—Matters of Style, edited by A. Martin, 87–140. Perth: Continuum.

Mateer, J. 2017. “Directing for Cinematic Virtual Reality: How the Traditional film Director’s Craft Applies to Immersive Environments and Notions of Presence.” Journal of Media Practice 18 (1): 14–25.CrossRef

Millard, K. 2014. Screenwriting in a Digital Era. Springer.CrossRef

Mubi, The Fabric of the Human Body. Accessed June 14, 2022. https://mubi.com/films/the-fabric-of-the-human-body.

Munt, A. 2012. “That was then this is now … The Canyons—with Paul. Bret, James and Lindsay’, Journal of Screenwriting 5 (3): 323–341. https://doi.org/10.1386/josc.5.3.323_1.

Perry, L. 2020, ‘If You Frame it Like That’, The American Scholar. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://theamericanscholar.org/if-you-frame-it-like-that/.

Picard, A. 2023. “The Human Surge 3.” TIFF Film + Events. Accessed Sepetmber 11, 2022. https://tiff.net/events/the-human-surge-3.

Prototype. 2022. “Brown Lake: Samantha Lang.” Accessed December 20, 2022. https://youaretheprototype.art/brown-lake/.

Rear Window. 1954. Writer John Michael Hayes. Director Alfred Hitchcock. USA, 112 minutes.

Requiem for a Dream. 2000. Writer & Director: Darren Aronofsky, USA, 102 minutes.

Rising. 2018. Marina Abramović, Interactive VR.

Ross, M., and A. Munt. 2018. “Cinematic Virtual Reality: Towards the Spatia lized Screenplay.” Journal of Screenwriting 9 (2): 191–209. https://doi.org/10.1386/jocs.9.2.191_1.CrossRef

Sisters 1972. Writers: Brian De Palma & Louise Rose. USA, 93 minutes.

Scott-Stevenson, J. 2019. “Virtual Futures: A Manifesto for Immersive Experiences.” Immerse. Accessed March 1, 2022.https://immerse.news/virtual-futures-a-manifesto-for-immersive-experiences-ffb9d3980f0f

Sundance Institute. 2022. “A Guide to Navigating New Frontier’s Spaceship”. Sundance Institute, https://www.sundance.org/blogs/festival-blog/a-guide-to-navigating-new-frontiers-spaceship/.

Su, Zhuo-Ning. 2017. “‘Tsai Ming-liang on Confronting Death in ‘The Deserted’ and the Future of Virtual Reality”. Accessed June 13, 2022. The Film Stage, https://thefilmstage.com/tsai-ming-liang-on-confronting-death-in-the-deserted-and-the-future-of-virtual-reality.

The Human Surge 3 2023. Writer/Director: Eduardo Williams. Argentina, Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Peru. 121 mins.

The Deserted: VR 2017. Ming-liang Tsai. Taiwan. 55 mins.

The Story of Film: A Next Generation 2021. Writer Mark Cousins. Director Mark Cousins, 160 mins.

The Worst Person in the World 2021. Writers Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt. Director Joachim Trier. Norway, France, Sweden, Denmark. 128 minutes.

Water Bodies. 2019. Adeline Tan, Interactive VR.

Wenders W. 2003. “In Defense of Places”, Directors Guild of America. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0311-Nov-2003/In-Defense-of-Places.aspx.

Wilson, J. 2021. “Can Cinema Exist Without the Story? Bold New Visions Break the Mold.” Accessed June 13, 2022. Sydney Morning Herald, https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/can-cinema-exist-without-the-story-bold-new-visions-break-the-mold-20210419-p57kjo.html.

Wings of Desire. 1987. Writers Wim Wenders, Peter Handke. Director Wim Wenders. Germany, France. 128 minutes.

Wood, R. W. 1906. “Fish-Eye Views, and Vision under Water.” The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 6. XII (LXVIII): 159–161.

Title: Cinematic Virtual Reality: Towards an Optics of Eco-Screenwriting
Author: Alex Munt
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Screenwriting for Virtual Reality
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-54099-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-54100-1

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54100-1_3