Virtual Reality! It’s amazing! It’s terrifying! It’s the future! Nothing will ever be the same!
But what about storytelling …. Can you, and how do you, tell a story in VR?
VR technology allows storytellers to make viewers feel present at the time of an event, or as if they’re experiencing a tale alongside its protagonist.
Immersion in a virtual reality experience is the perception that you, the participant, are physically there…wherever “there” may be. For any virtual reality storyteller, the goal is to create such a high degree of immersion that users aren’t caught up thinking, “Man, this is a cool experience,” because they’re too busy participating in what’s happening around them.
It’s like when you’re reading a book, and you don’t think about turning the pages because you’re so immersed in the story.
For many viewers, these VR stories can add a new level of emotion and inspire deeper responses than their more passive counterparts, making for a more engaging story.
Some of the most compelling case studies in VR storytelling have come from the world of journalism, which now finds it has the power to transport people to real places, eliciting true empathy in the face of danger and teasing out uncomfortable realities in ways traditional media cannot. Instead of regarding world events from a distance, we can experience them in full.
Recently, U.K. newspaper ‘The Guardian’ took viewers on a virtual tour of solitary confinement so they could feel how truly tough, terrible, and trying the experience can be.
In virtual reality, you don’t have to imagine what it feels like because you are actually experiencing it!
When all of your senses are involved, stories become such an incredibly unique experience. And who knows how far those experiences can go?
Take a look at this awesome You Tube video featuring Mike Jones from Screen Australia.
