The Evolution of Visual Instruments of VR Cinema

Abstract

The author states the achievement by virtual reality technology of a
certain stage of maturity. Virtual reality equipment as a means of film exhibition
not only determines our aesthetic experience but fundamentally changes film
language — the duration of a film and particular takes, their composition, the
specifics of inter-shot and intra-shot editing, etc. The essay explores the visual
system of VR cinema, a phenomenon which is gaining more and more spectator
popularity.
Defining the depth of immersiveness as the fundamental difference between
traditional and VR cinema, the author identifies aspects characteristic of the
latter — aspects determining its creative method. Among them is limited length
(the duration of a typical VR film rarely exceeds 15–20 minutes), a 360-degree
view, the representation of spherical space (for example, the viewer does not
see anything more than shown to him in the film), and interactivity, which
manifests itself in the spectator's freedom of to choose the area of focus and
borrows elements of gaming practices.
The essay analyzes typical mise en scènes and highlights the basic ones. The
most important aim of mise en scène along the first person axis is to give the
viewer an opportunity to feel in a different way, to look at the world with other
people's eyes. In passive mise en scène along the third person radius, where the
axis of movement is absent, the semantic center of is expressed not so clearly. This
type implies the viewer's aspiration to study the surrounding space. The third
type is active mise en scène along the third person radius, which corresponds to
the look of an active full participant in the shown events — instead of the look
of an abstract observer from the inside. The essay describes the mechanism of
synthesis of mise en scènes with the aim of obtaining a new artistic quality.
The author emphasizes such aspects of the artistic uniqueness of VR cinema
as expressive minimalism, minimization of the value of editing, and new
attitudes towards camera work. In conclusion, he describes the current state of
VR cinema and looks at the basic principles of the development of its artistic
uniqueness.