ISET Trendsetters: VR Moviemakers Jessica Brillhart and Gabo Arora’s Five Tips for Working in a Brave New Medium

Leverage VR’s First-Person POV to Develop That Intertwining.

Traditional film includes a third-person point of view, assigning the viewer the role of “fly on the wall.” In VR, the “viewer” has agency with the filmmaker casting the viewer in a vital role in the story. “Point of view is more powerful in VR than in film,” said Arora. “Use that to your advantage.”

According to Arora, a story told in VR needs 360-degree staging and visual, the distortion of perception, a sense of scale, interactivity, and agency of the visitor. “You have total control over people’s senses in VR,” he said.

Each object in a VR experience invites the “viewer” to act or move. To develop the first-person point of view in your story, think through the emotional considerations of these actions. For example, in The Last Goodbye, what might the user feel, look, and do as he or she enters a room. Why? Use these answers as you create the story and experience.

“Understanding the user and their emotional responses to space is a component for VR creators,” said Brillhart. In Beethoven’s Fifth, you are up close—truly standing inside the orchestra, surrounded by the steely gazes of the performers as they stare at the sheet music, frantically turn the page, and look up, impassioned, at the conductor. As you stand among the ups and downs of the violins’ bows, what makes you turn to look at another section of the orchestra? The sound? The movements of the musicians?

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